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Ben C.

Ben C.

Joined on 08/15/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 16
Most Favorable Review

Beautiful, spacious, and well organized, with one tiny flaw when using 360mm radiator

Fractal Design Pop XL Air RGB Black TG ATX High-Airflow Clear Tempered Glass Window Full Tower Computer Case
Fractal Design Pop XL Air RGB Black TG ATX High-Airflow Clear Tempered Glass Window Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: - extremely good looking case with nice, quiet RGB fans - fantastic for cable management and organization; 2.5" and 3.5" drives are well hidden, and they even managed to sneak a couple 5.25" bays in for old timers like me who still have a few optical discs laying around - great airflow because of the good organization - can fit a 360mm radiator in front (but see note below)

Cons: - could use a few more zip ties; I only got 4 which was not enough - when mounting fractal's own 360mm radiator in front in push-pull configuration, you can't access all the necessary screws at the same time without awkwardly spacing out the front RGB fans. I bought some 6-32 x 1-1/4" black pan head machine screws and simply through-bolted the front fans through the case and into the radiator, which solved the problem. I suggest that Fractal include 12 such screws with the case and/or radiator for this situation in the future.

Overall Review: Overall, highly recommended. I only spent a few bucks on some extra screws and zip ties and got a top notch build that was easy to cable manage and looks awesome.

Great passive card

MSI GeForce 8400 GS 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile Ready Graphics Card N8400GS-D256H
MSI GeForce 8400 GS 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile Ready Graphics Card N8400GS-D256H

Pros: Small, silent, relatively cool, inexpensive, good performance. A little OC allowed me to play COD:MW2 at 1600x900 at medium settings with zero problems. Perfect for HTPC, or filling in the gaps in a multi-monitor display.

Cons: Of course, it's up to you to either 1) ventilate the thing or 2) don't push it too hard.

Overall Review: Half height adapter is great for HTPC folks. Full-height HTPC cases are ugly! :)

Great case

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: +Looks great, very clean and professional +Bottom mounted PSU (personal preference) +Great ventilation -- I've got five Nexus Real Silent fans going at 7V and internal temperatures are wonderfully low +Nothing rattles! Pet peeve with other cases... +Strong. I wouldn't be afraid to sit on the thing. +Great cable management, especially when using fan extenders

Cons: -Bottom PSU location can be a pain for some connections, though overall I still prefer it -A bit more case length would be nice, but I have no problems fitting everything in

Overall Review: Can't beat Antec for the money, IMHO

Great product

"KAZE MASTER" 5.25" Bay Fan Controller
"KAZE MASTER" 5.25" Bay Fan Controller

Pros: Excellent fan controller. Gives easy, smooth control over fan speeds. Temperature is pretty accurate according to my spot thermometer (within 1-2 deg. C). Looks absolutely great in my black Antec 300 case. It's quite nice having ambient air temp, HDD temp, etc.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Some other good places for temp probes: voltage regs for watercooled systems that don't get enough air there, north/southbridges, passive video cards, PSU

Great purchase

Intel Core i7-930 - Core i7 Bloomfield Quad-Core 2.8 GHz LGA 1366 130W Desktop Processor - BX80601930
Intel Core i7-930 - Core i7 Bloomfield Quad-Core 2.8 GHz LGA 1366 130W Desktop Processor - BX80601930

Pros: +Rock solid overclocker, even on stock cooler +Can't beat it for the money +Love the triple channel memory controller

Cons: -None

Overall Review: Love it!

Solid memory, good deal

G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ

Pros: +Good performance out of box +Overclocks nicely with my Foxconn Flamingblade, i7 930 +Looks great

Cons: -None

Overall Review: Solid RAM. No trouble at all with moderate to high overclocking.