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ChungWaiSandbo C.

ChungWaiSandbo C.

Joined on 01/17/16

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 12
Most Favorable Review

Great boards with most workstation features

ASRock X399 Taichi sTR4 AMD X399 ATX AMD Motherboard
ASRock X399 Taichi sTR4 AMD X399 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: -Good quality VRMs -Good build quality in terms of boards thickness and trace management -Huge heatsink and heatpipes for VRMs -Recognize G.Skill TridentZ DDR4 3200 C14 16GB*2 with XMP profile, no problem installing Fedora/Ubuntu, Windows not tested

Cons: -Missing 1 M.2 standoff -Huge VRM heatsink might make the installation of the top water cooler difficult, I have to remove the board to get this done -Too few chassis fans header, and the locations aren't good (only 2, and 1 sitting between CPU and first PCI-E)

Overall Review: Great board overall, I have no problem booting it off the first power cycle. Just a bit disappointing by the fact that it lacks the standoff for one M.2 slot, which after searching the web, is a common thing happening to Asrock. I will let them know and have it mailed back to me.

Most Critical Review

Unbelievably bad quality control

ASUS MG24UQ Black 23.6" IPS 4K UHD Adaptive-Sync (Free Sync) LCD/LED Gaming Monitor, 3840 x 2160, W/ Asus Excusive GamePlus and Flicker Free Technology, Built-in Speakers
ASUS MG24UQ Black 23.6" IPS 4K UHD Adaptive-Sync (Free Sync) LCD/LED Gaming Monitor, 3840 x 2160, W/ Asus Excusive GamePlus and Flicker Free Technology, Built-in Speakers

Pros: -Great color, clarity -Highly adjustable stand -Easy to assemble

Cons: I have tried to get this monitor 3 times, and ending up returning it for 3 times. Here's why so you can judge whether I am crazy. 1st. The monitor is trapping a big piece of dirt right at the center of it. It moves relative to the text displayed when viewed from different angles. It is bigger than at least 5 pixels lumped together (because another one has dead pixel, I know how they look) 2nd. In a dark scene, say a black wallpaper, I can see flickering pixel noise everywhere on it. Google "What is causing flashing pixels on dark background .." and you will understand what I meant. It appears even on just the ASUS logo splash screen when the monitor was turned on for a few seconds, so there is nothing to do with the computer or cables. (Well, the box I received has a cut tape and then an ASUS tape over it, maybe a returned product on its own) 3nd. and Last. It looked great to begin with, until I found a dead pixel by the left of the upper middle section. I was unhappy with that, but honestly with 4K monitor and 23.6 inch, I can't see it clearly unless on a white background and pay some attention to look at it. I was prepared to stick with it despite I am paying quite a premium for a faulty monitor. However, the other day when I was simply looking at "Computer" in Windows, I realized that the color changed significantly as I am dragging the window around the monitor. To be exact, the color turns from slightly bright red to darker blue going from left to right.

Overall Review: What kind of product did ASUS try to sell me? 3 monitors in a row and with different issues over each of them, not just a poor quality control, but I believe these products which I return somehow manage to go back to be on sale - you may pick one up later if you buy it. With all these shuffling, good ones will be sold and bad ones circulate. If ASUS does not care and change their attitude on treating these issues, I can guarantee it will be an infamous brand in no time.

Wonderful little PSU

Seasonic SSP-300SUG Active PFC, 300W Flex/Mini 1U, Intel Haswell ready, Japanese capacitor, Operating temperature 0-50°C, 80+ Gold, Modular wire
Seasonic SSP-300SUG Active PFC, 300W Flex/Mini 1U, Intel Haswell ready, Japanese capacitor, Operating temperature 0-50°C, 80+ Gold, Modular wire

Pros: -Very stable, rock solid performance -Low fan speed for load <100W -Low heat generation

Cons: -Small hiss sound, maybe from the fan -Depending on the orientation, the socket can point down and leave very little room for cables -1 year warranty VS 7-10 years of their other models

Overall Review: Very good PSU for low power application and small form factor build. Typically Seasonic quality that you can trust.

All rounded ITX board

ASRock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming-ITX/ac AM4 AMD Ryzen 3000 Series CPU Ready Mini ITX AMD Motherboard
ASRock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming-ITX/ac AM4 AMD Ryzen 3000 Series CPU Ready Mini ITX AMD Motherboard

Pros: -Comes with HDMI+DisplayPort, allowing at least a dual screen set up -Works out of the box with G.Skill 3200 C14 16GB*2 -Comes with WiFI (Intel 9260) which also included bluetooth -Easy to use BIOS, comes with firmware TPM (which allows you to enable bitlocker with C drive)

Cons: -BIOS is fragile, I broke it once and had to soft reset -M.2 is on the back, making changing the M.2 drive difficult -No RGB LED built-in -Could use more heat-sink -Significantly more expensive than B350 ITX

Overall Review: Probably the most self-contained X470 ITX available, you can build a rather powerful small form factor machine with this board

Wonderful add-on for any serious server/workstation

LSI MegaRAID LSI00295 (9266-8i SGL) PCI-Express 2.0 x8 Low Profile SATA / SAS RAID Controller - Single--Avago Technologies
LSI MegaRAID LSI00295 (9266-8i SGL) PCI-Express 2.0 x8 Low Profile SATA / SAS RAID Controller - Single--Avago Technologies

Pros: -Easy to install like any PCI-E card -Takes only 1 slot effectively -Offload any CPU loads when parity RAID is used, and no more complication on the software side for building RAID

Cons: -Cost as much as a 8 TB drive -Requires you to pay for many software options (if you want to try any), like SSD Cache -Does not come with power loss protection, need to buy the CacheVault card *or* a BBU

Overall Review: -I am using it in a Threadripper system, with 5* 8TB drives (HGST Desktop NAS). They work out of the box without any issue recognizing them. -Installation of drive on ubuntu 16.04 was straight-forward, just get the driver from Broadcom's site and follow the instruction will be fine -Using the MegaRAID manager on ubuntu was a bit tricky, but can be done following some top results from search on Google -Also, I attached a 60mm Noctua fan to the heat sink using just cable ties. On fullload, the temperature as read from MegaRAID manager was 56 C, I think this is ok.

Stunning, amazing.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1st Gen - Ryzen Threadripper 1950X Whitehaven (Zen) 16-Core / 32 Threads 3.4 GHz Socket sTR4 180W YD195XA8AEWOF Desktop Processor
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1st Gen - Ryzen Threadripper 1950X Whitehaven (Zen) 16-Core / 32 Threads 3.4 GHz Socket sTR4 180W YD195XA8AEWOF Desktop Processor

Pros: -Fast, like really fast. There isn't much I have to add after you might have seen all those reviews of this CPU. -Runs really cool With 180W TDP I expected it to get hot, so I used a 240mm AIO water cooler (Corsair H100i V2), it turns out at max load for 30 mins, the temp won't go above 48 C (no offset, direct reading). This is quite amazing considering how many cores and how high a mulitcore frequency it is running. -Easy to install It may look complicated, but it is actually a lot of fun to install. A few hints: When sliding the CPU into the slot, look closely for the alignment, they can misalign quite easily. Use the toque wrench provided, stop applying force once you feel or hear the click sound (it is obvious). Finally when tightening the screws of the cooler, do diagonal, 2 turns each screw until you cannot go further by finger.

Cons: -Expensive? Only if Intel wasn't selling at an even higher price. -Big, kind of heavy to handle (I cannot imagine dropping it...) -The retail package box was kind of a waste of material and unenvironmental friendly, if I am to pick on it.

Overall Review: This reminds me of my first experience of assembling a computer, not in like decades I got this excited about installing a CPU. I am building it into a 24/7 workstation. Had a chance to test a few Python scripts which can do multi-process, and the performance gain over my 6700k is 3-4 times, this really does help speeding up a lot of my (groups') research and simulation.