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Matthew B.

Matthew B.

Joined on 06/13/01

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 19
Most Favorable Review

Not for everyone, but if you need a card reader and a ton of ports on the front of your case...

Rosewill Data Hub for 5.25" Drive Bays- 2 USB 3.0 Ports and Main Connector, Four USB 2.0 Ports, eSATA, Internal Six Slot Media Card Reader, Supports Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10 - RDCR-11004
Rosewill Data Hub for 5.25" Drive Bays- 2 USB 3.0 Ports and Main Connector, Four USB 2.0 Ports, eSATA, Internal Six Slot Media Card Reader, Supports Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10 - RDCR-11004

Pros: Brushed metal looks nice. Lots of card reader slots. Plenty of USB 2.0 and a couple of USB 3.0 ports. Especially useful if your motherboard has a header for front panel USB 3.0 but your case does not.

Cons: The Rosewill logo. It's nice looking except for that.

Overall Review: I'm a workstation user and care more about function than form. I've had this for about four years now, and when I built my new Ryzen workstation, I specifically looked for a case with 5.25" front bays just so I could reuse this.

Most Critical Review

Looks nice

hec Black 0.7mm Thickness SECC Steel 7K09BBA30FNRX Micro ATX Media Center 300W Power Supply / HTPC Case
hec Black 0.7mm Thickness SECC Steel 7K09BBA30FNRX Micro ATX Media Center 300W Power Supply / HTPC Case

Pros: Nice looking, inexpensive.

Cons: Tight inside, drive installation can be a chore. First power supply failed and was replaced under warranty. Second power supply also failed. Right now I'm running a scavenged PSU from a HP w/ similar form factor. It's not an exact fit, so It's just sitting inside the case.

Overall Review: Don't trust the PSU. Undervolt the front 80mm fan for a quiet ride. Use some black tape over the lights on the front to avoid distractions while watching TV or movies (or just don't connect them). I probably would not buy this case again based on my experience with the PSUs, but it does look nice next to my receiver, and the power light integrated with the power button is dim enough to be non-intrusive even in a dark room.

It's really big. Literally Ultra wide.

Samsung CRG9 Series LC49RG90SSNXZA 49" Dual Quad HD 5120 x 1440 Resolution 120Hz HDMI, 2x DisplayPort AMD FreeSync 2 Flicker Free HDR1000 QLED Curved Gaming Monitor
Samsung CRG9 Series LC49RG90SSNXZA 49" Dual Quad HD 5120 x 1440 Resolution 120Hz HDMI, 2x DisplayPort AMD FreeSync 2 Flicker Free HDR1000 QLED Curved Gaming Monitor

Overall Review: If I had it to do over again I'm not sure I'd buy a 32:9 display but as far as they go this one is good. Takes a decently beefy GPU to drive it with modern titles and even then you might need to use FSR2 or whatever nvidia calls it. Certain titles just don't work with widescreen (I'm looking at you, Fallout) but some can be rescued with Flawless Widescreen (Elden Ring and G*d of War are both amazing). Now that I'm thinking about some of the gaming experiences I'm talking myself back into buying it again. 2023 titles: Dead Space remake, RE4 remake, Last of Us port were all stunning in ultrawide. RDR2 might be the best game I've ever seen on a screen and it looks amazing on this one. So yeah, go for it. If you have the GPU to drive it, it's a blast. If you want a monitor for productivity you're better off with two displays. But for just gaming, it's kinda rad. No less than 6800XT on the AMD side. I used it with 6900XT and now 7900XT and still have to use FSR2 in some titles. Also Newegg: Really? I can't say the title of a game in a review? G*d of War. Lol

Excellent inexpensive AM4 barebones

ASRock DESKMEET X300  Mini PC Barebone System AMD X300 DisplayPort, HDMI & D-Sub Supports a discrete Dual slot Graphics card up to 20CM(card not included) 8 Liter compact size
ASRock DESKMEET X300 Mini PC Barebone System AMD X300 DisplayPort, HDMI & D-Sub Supports a discrete Dual slot Graphics card up to 20CM(card not included) 8 Liter compact size

Pros: The price is right.

Cons: Installing the included wireless card antennas was a bit fiddly.

Overall Review: I had some spare parts lying around and wanted a second small workstation. I already had a 3700X, 64GB of RAM, 1TB NVME and 2TB SATA storage, and a fanless Geforce 710. Turns out the 710 was a poor performer with a 4k monitor even just on the desktop, so I plunked down another $150 for a GTX 1650. I used this cooler: https://www.newegg.com/silverstone-krypton-series-sst-kr01/p/N82E16835220141?Item=N82E16835220141. There's not a lot of space for more..It's very quiet in normal operation with the 3700X but ramps up pretty quickly when CPU usage gets over about 40%. Everything is stable though. The wireless card this comes with is kind of lackluster but given that no wireless card is listed as part of the product, it's hard to complain. It's a 1x MIMO AC card with bluetooth. It works great, just bandwidth limited by the 1x. Not a huge deal and as I said it wasn't expected as part of the kit so it's just a bonus.

Works great on AM1 platform

NEMIX RAM PC GAMING MEMORY 8GB DDR3 1866 (PC3-14900) for AMD FM2+ / FM2 / AM3+/ AM3
NEMIX RAM PC GAMING MEMORY 8GB DDR3 1866 (PC3-14900) for AMD FM2+ / FM2 / AM3+/ AM3

Pros: AM1 is not specifically mentioned as supported but it does work fine.

Cons: None

Great for my MythTV system.

BIOSTAR A68N-5545 AMD A8-5545 (Quad core 1.7G, turbo 2.7G) Processor AMD A70M Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo
BIOSTAR A68N-5545 AMD A8-5545 (Quad core 1.7G, turbo 2.7G) Processor AMD A70M Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo

Pros: Quad core. 4 SATA Ports. Most boards in this range have only 2. Full PCIe slot. Handles a discrete GPU just fine.

Cons: Heatsink / fan combo could be a bit beefier.

Overall Review: Using this as a MythTV frontend/backend combo. 8GB of RAM, 240GB SSD for the OS (way larger than needed), 2TB WD Green for recordings, and a DVD burner. Using a fanless Geforce 610 card rather than the integrated GPU, mostly because I already had it and it is fantastic with VDPAU. Handles 4 simultaneous recordings + local playback + remote playback on 2 other frontends without breaking a sweat.

11/18/2017