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Matthew B.

Matthew B.

Joined on 02/06/12

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 15
Most Favorable Review

Great Sound.

Razer Tiamat 7.1 Surround Sound Over Ear PC Gaming Headset
Razer Tiamat 7.1 Surround Sound Over Ear PC Gaming Headset

Pros: I am going to start by saying that I have held off on the review of this because I've had a lot of up and down moments with these and while the end result is the main thing that matters, I do want to go over a few things for those who may be looking into getting these. The end result is amazing sound, and great clarity to your surroundings. I play CoD and CS and I find it significantly easier to position myself based off of the sounds heard in game. Far better than some of the Virtual 7.1 headsets i've had in the past. For music, with the help of months of tweaking, i've come to hear true sound quality. Not necessarily saying its the best as I plan to get myself of high-quality beyerdynamics soon. I am able to swap between the speakers I have and the Headset, through the audio knob connected to the cord of the headset. Through this, there are the controllers for all of the separate drivers in each earcup that allows extreme personalization of the sounds you with to hear. They are also comfortable for extended usage. And the Mic is retractable.

Cons: While there may be alot in terms of cons, most of them can be work-arounds. I will agree with most that this headset has a low amount of base. But the work around is just having a good sound card set-up. I personally have the standard on-board realtek 1150 which is great for this headset. It has allowed me to work around this easily. The problem i feel is that most people treat this like a headset software-wise. When I plugged in my set, i've come to set it as a speaker in terms of the realtek drivers that I have so it can treat it like the TRUE 7.1 that is is. In addition to this, ive gone through tons of tweaks with the equalizer, the driver control on the headset, and the speaker boost. I've given up on using the equalizer but I have turn't the sub-woofer control on my realtek driver to a total of +10db. While you may not enjoy this sound, I on the other hand love my base. Also I've used the driver controll on the headset and turn't down all of the earcups except the subwoofer, which is left at max. These settings have given me great clarity in games and in my music. TL;DR I invested ALOT of time into tweaking the sounds to specifically what I sought. The right earcup for me; under extreme base, will distort the sound a little. Sometimes not audible, but it can be annoying at times. But this is possibly due to the fact that ive turnt my base up to the max. The earcups, in my personal opinion, are hard to clean. The mic quality is bad, which is normal for most headsets but somehow I expected more quality given the price tag. Don't let it scare you away though. When my speakers are plugged into the headset drivers and the speaker is on, there are a large ammount of interference sounds that get played out of the speaker when it isn't in use. Work-arround: Turn off the speaker when its not in use. While it sounds great, don't try to use the other modes. The sounds a diminished in 5.1 mode i feel. And its worse if your sound card is set to 5.1 or stereo.

Overall Review: Overall, great headset. Make sure your on-board sound card can handle it or buy a dedicated sound card. And play with the settings, turn on Base Management, Play with the speaker fill. Change some of the equalizer settings, or use room correction. These have also turn't me into a bit of an audiophile. Beware of the daaark side.

Most Critical Review

Pretty Decent Case

Antec Twelve Hundred V3 Black Steel ATX Full Tower Unbeatable Gaming Case
Antec Twelve Hundred V3 Black Steel ATX Full Tower Unbeatable Gaming Case

Pros: The case has an over-bun-dance of fans. It's swell that six fans come pre-installed on the case. Plus the lights are awesome. Case has some of the best air flow I've seen, out of the box. The front USB 3.0 ports are baller.

Cons: The case is very heavy without the components (No I don't even lift bro). The 5.25 inch drive bays are fine but the cage that holds the three 3.5 drive bays is very poorly designed in my opinion. The only 2.5 drive mount is at the bottom of the case which makes it extremely hard to plug power connectors and Serial ATA connectors into. The space that is allowed between the mother board and the drive bays are minimal. Also, cleaning the fan filters are a pain. In order to do this, you must take off both side panels and loosen 8 thumb screws. Which would be fine if the case wasn't so bulky and heavy. Also the top part of the case is entirely plastic, which isn't a problem aside from the fact that if i try to move the case holding on the the wrong thing, the top hatch loosens easily.

Overall Review: Note to purchasers/builders. I know the guides say to slot your drives in the bays first. So I will stress this. Also make sure either your mother board comes with a universal ton of 3/4 pin headers or you buy the appropriate 'Y' cables if you are looking to get all of the fans working.

Everything I needed.

RAZER Vespula Dual-Sided Gaming Mouse Mat
RAZER Vespula Dual-Sided Gaming Mouse Mat

Pros: The foam pad is comfortable and doesn't dent in-wards permanently after extended usage. The surface is smooth and doesn't inhibit mouse movement for the games that I play. It also has two sides, one that has slightly more resistance than the other allowing you to choose how smooth you want the mouse to glide.

Cons: There aren't much cons. However it is suggested that if you use, clean the surface every once in a while. The mouse I use is an old Laser Razer Death Adder and if you attempt to use when it is dirty, the movements of your cursor/clicker will freeze up a little. Nothing that warrants the drop of an egg. It just needs a little TLC.

Overall Review: The way my wrist sits with out this mouse pad is on the edge of my desk; which caused a red mark to appear on my wrist. I've placed the cushion of the pad at the tip so that my wrist is elevated and doesn't give me these marks. If you don't really need the pad, you can remove it easily.

Decent Keyboard, When it works.

Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition Mechanical PC Gaming Keyboard– Cherry MX Blue (RZ03-00810200-R3U1)
Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition Mechanical PC Gaming Keyboard– Cherry MX Blue (RZ03-00810200-R3U1)

Pros: The keyboard is great. Small and slim, because I don't really feel much for the number pad on my keyboards. The keys are very responsive and as my first mechanical keyboard, I have fell in love. On the other hand, the others in my household hate the clicking noise that it makes but for them, its a symbol of my POWER! :).

Cons: While the keyboard may be awsome in action, this is only the case when it is working. Around 1-2 months in, the USB connector for the keyboard has become extremely unreliable. The cord itself i'm fairly confident that it isn't damaged, but any rustling of this cord will automatically disconnect it. Even if its a slight movement, if i'm in a heated battle, I lose control. And getting it back connected takes careful re positioning of the cord which can take anywhere ten seconds to a full five minutes, just to position a cord.

Great Surge Protector

Rosewill RME-SCCYRB01 Premium 4320 Joules Power Surge Protector with RJ11 and Coax Protection
Rosewill RME-SCCYRB01 Premium 4320 Joules Power Surge Protector with RJ11 and Coax Protection

Pros: I love the fact that it has a lot of ports. Needless to say that I wont be using all of them ever but its nice to have them and they look cool, just in case I may need for that one random event. Also love the fact that it comes with a in and output networking and cable plug. This thing is truly a beast.

Cons: None

Great Wireless Card

ASUS PCE-AC68 AC1900 Dual-Band Wireless PCI-E Adapter
ASUS PCE-AC68 AC1900 Dual-Band Wireless PCI-E Adapter

Pros: This card is truly awesome. Comparing this to my old gaming laptop, I get a significantly better signal all the time. And on top of that, regardless of the signal I have, my max download speed has been increased by a full 7 MB according to speedtest.net and I have noticed a full 1 MB download increase from normal downloads. On top of that, it looks pretty awsome in my setup. It has a red heat sync on the top of the card to give it a bright pollished look.

Cons: None