Joined on 08/05/11
Eggcellent Budget CPU
Pros: Very fast, most software is single threaded, so more cores does nothing for you and intel has by far the best single thread performance Intel GPUs are no longer pathetic and run wonderfully on linux, for reference under linux even a old intel gpu like what you get with a ancient Pentium 4 from 2004 can put out 1080p (vs 720p on windows xp), but don't expect youtube to play 1080p on that Has VT support, i thought all modern (2008+) CPUs had this then i got my current laptop with it's intel B970 CPU and it did not
Cons: Not over clockable, but there is a FINALLY unlocked Pentium (model #G3258) but then you need a high end motherboard (~$120) which defeats the purpose of a cheap CPU, though i expect that to OC very will compared to the i5 since it has less cores Took a minute to figure out how the CPU cooler's push pins worked Almost forgot about the case sticker hidden on the back of the manual Scary crunching noise when clamping the CPU down, since it works i assume that was normal
Overall Review: These Pentium class CPUs are nothing like those old Pentium 4 CPUs from back in the day, don't be tricked by the name Essentially a Pentium is a down-clocked i3 without hyper threading, given this build was for a linux OS and not a windows OS loaded with bloat-ware it makes no sense spending more for a i3, to anyone comparing a i3 and a i5 clock speeds i5s have a turbo feature Running xubuntu with this and it flies with a cheap SSD, i know it was going to be fast but i am lucky i was not wearing socks cold boot time was 2.5 seconds after post This is my 1st time building a Intel based desktop, I have built 5 AMD based systems before this system Threads/Cores are the number of process the computer can do at a single instant at the same time Clock Speeds are not everything, there needs to be calculations per cycle rating otherwise it is a pointless number, for example compare these 4 CPUs Athlon II X2 250 (it is a 3GHz dual core processor, from 2009) Pentium G3220 (this CPU, from 2013) Pentium G860 (it is a 3GHz dual core processor, from 2011) Core2 Duo E8400 (it is a 3GHz dual core processor, from 2008) if you look at the clock speed and number of cores they are all the same, but as i said the calculations per cycle are important, due to this these CPUs are anything but the same using the slowest as 100% this is how they compare (+/- 1%) 100% - Athlon II X2 250 124% - Core2 Duo E8400 155% - Pentium G860 173% - Pentium G3220 in general use you can see that this CPU at the same clock speed as the other 2 CPUs is by far faster If that Athlon II X2 250 had a clock speed of 5.2GHz (ignoring the Heat output/Power usage that would be crazy high) it would be very competitive with this Pentium G3220 CPU Look up MHz Myth to learn more Part List for this build: DVD: LITE-ON DVD Burner SATA Model iHAS124-14 RAM: Team Elite Plus 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 SSD: ADATA Premier Pro SP600 ASP600S3-64GM-C 2.5" 64GB CPU: Intel Pentium G3220 Haswell Dual-Core 3.0GHz PSU: SeaSonic SS-300ES Bronze 300W ATX12V MOBO: MSI H81I LGA 1150 Intel H81 Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced OS: Xubuntu 14.04 64bit I could not be happier with how this build turned out, thought that PSU fan could really use a 50Ohm resistor
Not as good as i expected
Pros: Has a flat face plate which is good for cases with doors like the Fractal Define R4 (my other bays have issues with this) Great wiring layout, nice and clean Feels like a very sturdy solid product The power switch is a DPDT switch so you can mod a fan/leds onto these
Cons: Hard to remove disk drives, feels like the door could break trying to get it to release You need to hold the door latch open for it to close, you can't press on the door latch to close it. you can apply some pressure to the back edge of the release lever to get it to work also, the part left of the hinge The part that connects the tray to the sides of the 5.25" bay don't use rubber vibration dampeners like my other trayless bays (those dampeners do make a noticeable difference) The roller that pushes the HDD out gets stuck in the airflow holds on my ICY DOCK 2.5" to 3.5" adapter, this is not a issue on my other bays, though that may just be stacking with the hard to remove a HDD issue. When the HDD does finally come out it comes fast, not gently like my other bays, I highly recommend turn the HDD off at the power switch before removing to prevent the jolt of force from damaging the drive. HDDs are hard to eject (-1 egg) Lack of vibration dampeners (-0.5 eggs) Tricky door latch (-0.5 eggs)
Overall Review: I have 2 other tray-less hot swap bays search newegg for each of these N82E16817997016 - Rosewill RX-C525 N82E16817998020 - StarTech HSB100SATBK (I have a older version without a led) This is this 2.5 to 3.5" adapter i have for hot swap bays N82E16817994083 - ICY DOCK MB882SP-1S-2B I actually prefer these two that I have hidden behind the easily removed faceplates on my Define R4 case because the HDD is easily removed/interested While the electrical design on these ORICO bays is much better the internal physical aspects and mechanical functionality are lacking by comparison. When i say the electrical design is much better i mean it is actually worth using and not disabling/removing If you just want to leave a HDD in this and turn it on for backups you will be very happy with this one, if you swap drives a lot look at the 2 bays i listed above I was kinda hoping i could swap my bays with these since these have a flat faceplate If hot swap does not work you need to set your SATA controller to AHCI mode not IDE mode, I think RAID 1 supports hot swap also I hate to give this 3/5 eggs, but I can't give it 4/5, probably could say 3.25/5 These would be more ideal than my other bays for a NAS environment where the LEDs are would let you know if the drive has failed
Great RAM for Overclocking
Pros: about 1/2 the price of kits with samsung b-die Easly OCs to 3800, though i have having a hard time getting my fclk to 1900, but since 1866 works i did not bother trying to optimize any timings at 3800 I am able to get 3733 cl 16-19-19-38 with near 1.4v (1.39v tested stable, but weirdness seemd to occur more frequently) No rgb junk to mess with Uses Micron rev E, All Crucial kits with AES in the part number should have this
Cons: Not Samsung-B die
Overall Review: Here are the timings that ryzen calc gave me 3200-3800: imgur (dot )com/a/JeRonww You should be able to tighten the times and drop the ram voltage from what is recommends Works fine in my system X470 Gaming Plus (Bios: 7B79vAE and 7B79vAF, don't use older with ryzen 3000) Ryzen 5 3600 w/ Hyper 212 This ram kit Seasonic 520W bronze
Decent compact speakers
Pros: Do not use up an excessive amount space (fits under a monitor [AOC C24G1]) Does NOT sound like low end ~$12 speakers To me it sounds fine, this is compared to me Creative T12 speakers, this has a comparable sound quality, but much lower volume (Creative T12 speakers are larger and use 12v) No static noise in the background The rubber grip on the bottom feels like quality, but they will not stop your snob of a cat from knocking it off the desk
Cons: Power LED (green) is too bright, no big deal I'll just open it up and add a resistor... oh wait the screws are not exposed... I would much rather see a smaller red LED for power (red > green > white > blue) Guess I will be using electrical tape... All Wires are built into the unit (plugs cost money and this cost $20 so i am not taking eggs) Gloss finish on the area around the speaker, i hate gloss anything cause finger prints
Overall Review: This unit is specked at 5v 1A USB 2 is specked at 0.5A while USB 3 is specked at 0.9A However using a amp meter did not see over 0.26A of power draw @ 5V, typically at a reasonable volume I see 0.22A Above I said my creative T12s are can get much louder than these to elaborate on that i mean these are tolerable at 100% at a few feet away (this is too loud) my T12s get too around this loud at near 60-70% on the knob USB and audio cable are 1.2M long (just under 4ft) There is 1m (about 3ft) wire between the speakers and the left speaker has power and audio input cables this may be too short for a triple monitor setup, but if you can afford 3 displays you probably can afford something higher end than this * Creative T12s use a RCA plug to connect the speakers I realize "pebble" rolls of the tung pretty good but is it a really a pebble if it is bigger than your fist? i would not call ~5" a bolder but it would be a good size rock/stone * I have never used a subwoofer, so keep that in mind when i say the sound is good
G. Skill cards are good cards
Pros: $12.99 - Black Friday sale Lifetime warranty from a Company I trust Works in my 3DS (after formatting to Fat32)
Cons: Stock File System is exFat, not widely supported on embedded devices Write speeds could be better, not bad but could be better My cat wants to chew it along with my card reader
Overall Review: I'd say the speed is 80/20 A Read benchmark shows 80MB/s When copying 2 large files ~3.5GB started at 60MB/s and dropped to about 20MB/s (USB3 card reader) * Some Operating Systems do not ship with exFat support and require it to be installed (if the card appears unreadable that is why) I use G. Skill cards in my raspberry pi projects and have never had a issue with them, i have 3 that run 24/7/365.25
Decent budget router
Pros: I now have decent wifi coverage in both ends of my house it works and have a decent looking UI open source firmware you can telnet into the router (* SSH is not installed) only $9.99 after rebate looks slick there is a WOL GUI
Cons: Signal strength is a little low (my main WZR300HP router 2 rooms away gives me a stronger signal than i get in the same room as this one) Only has 28MB of ram, it really should have a little more AP mode is a very minimal load and it sits at 86% ram used (24MB) ** this appears this include cache (almost 9.5MB) id like to see about 35 to 40MB ram on this the latest beta firmware is only using the 2.6.22.19 kernel which is a bit dated (4.7 is current as of writing this, would have expected to see about 3.2) blue LEDs (surprising they are not blinding like most blue LEDs) When i set the wifi channel to 1 or 11 it tells me to use 2 or 10 cause of "local regulations" and it claims this limits wireless coverage the only 3 channels that are optimal for wireless N are 1, 6, and 11 as they don't overlap and since 6 is the default channel on every router out there (auto normally means 6) this forces you to use 1 or 11 unless you live on a farm for best coverage/performance i believe this is a bug and the message is untrue to my understanding wireless n 300 uses 2 channels at onces, you are allowed in the US to use 1 through 11 therefore you can use 1 and 3, or 11 and 9, 6 and 5 , or 6 and 7, in the US you are not allowed to use channels 12 through 14 i know nobody care but ill just rant about this: On the box it labels the DC input as a AC input (only someone who knows the difference will catch this and realize how bad it would be if someone took it seriously) the diagram on box uses a IE logo for the Internet, just use a cloud icon it is more accurate, a low grade browser is not the Internet There comes a point when over simplification becomes teaching people incorrect terms, please don't encourage this
Overall Review: I'm using this in AP mode (no wires connect to the wlan side of the router, think about it like a network switch with wifi) one you upgrade to the beta firmware the login is admin/admin no real need for a wireless N AP to need a gigabit lan as the max you can push through it will be about 80Mbps (300Mbps includes overhead) The power adapter is [email protected] the back end appears to have some ipv6 support (i see ip6tables and ipv6_monitor commands), have not seen anything about it in the front end though nor is there any sign of it in ifconfig From what i can see it looks like they only plan to add a ip4 to 6 tunnel if it it not part of the NON AP configuration in the UI It has a power button on the back (why would i want to turn it off? it is just a part that can fail IMO) Internals: CPU: BCM53572 rev 1 pkg 8 at 300 MHz Broadcom BCM4347 802.11 Wireless Controller 5.110.27.20012 Broadcom BCM47XX 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Controller 5.110.27.20012 (I thought this was a 10/100 lan router) i would test this to see if it is gigabit or not but i have a Cat5 cable on it (this cable can't do gigabit)