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Cody C.

Cody C.

Joined on 06/16/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 11
Most Favorable Review

At a loss for words.

Intel Core i5-2500K - Core i5 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Intel HD Graphics 3000 Desktop Processor - BX80623I52500K
Intel Core i5-2500K - Core i5 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Intel HD Graphics 3000 Desktop Processor - BX80623I52500K

Pros: Put this puppy in a brand new i5 rig coming from an i7 920 rig. Paired with an ASRock P67 Extreme4 Gen3 mobo and Mushkin Enhanced Blackline DDR3 2133. I also got a Corsair Force GT series SSD. When all is said and done folks, and I do not exaggerate 1 millispec, my system is in Windows with all startup apps/drivers fully loaded and waiting my command in 8 seconds. 8 seconds. 8.

Cons: Heh.

Overall Review: i7 9xx series owners... Cry.

Most Critical Review

Normally a great card, but mine missed the mark.

PowerColor RED DRAGON Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 CrossFireX Support ATX Graphics Card AXRX 5700 XT 8GBD6-3DHR/OC
PowerColor RED DRAGON Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 CrossFireX Support ATX Graphics Card AXRX 5700 XT 8GBD6-3DHR/OC

Pros: -Beautiful design. -Performance is outstanding.

Cons: This was my first AMD card and first PowerColor card. I was really excited to get it and try it out. It fits perfectly in my Thermaltake Core V1 Mini-ITX build. However... Since I have owned the card, the fan control has been a bit off. It will respond immediately to commands to increase the fan speed, but when turning them back down, the card seems to ramp the fans down in 50RPM increments across a time frame of 3-4 minutes until it returns to idle. I did numerous clean installs of the drivers with DDU (Multiple versions of the drivers as well) and tried both VBIOS switches to no avail. PowerColor tech support was great and responded to me quickly with things to try, which I did, but still no dice. The fans also do not listen to manual commands and will increase the RPM's on their own once a game starts. The Hot Spot reading on my particular card was consistently reaching temperatures of 105-110C when under load - This is regardless of power target or voltage. I re-seated the cooling assembly and checked the thermal pads, but the issue still occured even at 100% fan speeds. Unfortunately I decided to RMA this card and will be buying the Sapphire Pulse variant instead.

Overall Review: This is a great product, but mine missed the mark.

10/31/2019

Looks great and does the job.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition CPU Air Cooler, Silencio FP120 Fan, 4 CDC 2.0 Heatpipes, Anodized Gun-Metal Black, Brushed Nickel Fins for AMD Ryzen/Intel LGA2066/1151 Compatible
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition CPU Air Cooler, Silencio FP120 Fan, 4 CDC 2.0 Heatpipes, Anodized Gun-Metal Black, Brushed Nickel Fins for AMD Ryzen/Intel LGA2066/1151 Compatible

Pros: -Very clean and professional look. -Very easy to assemble and install. -Huge improvement over stock cooler and only half as loud.

Cons: -Not really a con, but the fins on the cooling tower are REALLY easy to bend.

Overall Review: Installation was a breeze and performance is really great and the fan is very quiet, even at max speed.

Nicest board I have ever owned

GIGABYTE AORUS GA-Z270X-Gaming 7 (rev. 1.0) LGA 1151 Intel Z270 HDMI USB 3.1 ATX Motherboards - Intel
GIGABYTE AORUS GA-Z270X-Gaming 7 (rev. 1.0) LGA 1151 Intel Z270 HDMI USB 3.1 ATX Motherboards - Intel

Pros: I upgraded to this board from the ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming, which I thought was a pretty feature-rich board, but man was I surprised with this thing. The RGB functions alone are mind-boggling. It is made with some of the nicest components I have seen on any motherboard I have ever owned. It overclocks like a dream. I am entirely satisfied with this purchase.

Cons: Board had to be RMA'd in less than a week of ownership - BIOS failed.

Overall Review: Update to this review. I am keeping the Eggs at 4, but I had to RMA this board. The Main BIOS completely crashed on me last night and would POST all the way up to debug code "Ad" which apparently is the code that it shows right before it hands off control to the operating system. (I literally did nothing in the BIOS, was just checking my voltage readings, and quit without saving any changes) The Dual BIOS feature did not automatically kick in and re-write the main BIOS as it should, so I manually switched over to the backup BIOS and flashed the main BIOS myself. (At least I think I did, there is very poor documentation on exactly how Dual BIOS works and how it recovers) Also the OS Tool for flashing the BIOS is complete garbage and fails every time, do not bother installing it. There is also very poor documentation on how to select which BIOS you want to flash. The only thing I could find was in the owner's manual, it says that the backup BIOS cannot be manually flashed for redundancy purposes. Even after selecting the main BIOS, removing the CMOS battery and shorting the CLR CMOS pins with a screwdriver (As the manual suggests), the same issue occurred. I am very displeased with having to RMA this board especially since it is brand new, and I have a liquid cooling loop that has to be dis-mantled to replace the board. When it works correctly, it is the nicest board I have ever owned.

All I wanted and more

EVGA ACX Cooler 03G-P4-2784-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card
EVGA ACX Cooler 03G-P4-2784-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 780 Superclocked 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card

Pros: At 1080p it will destroy every game out there on Ultra/Max settings. Upgraded from a stock 680 go this and its a huge difference

Cons: Idk if this is a con but this is the first card Ive ever had that actually has "coil whine". Basically when it is under load it makes a pretty noticeable "whine" or buzzing noise, but apparently it's common and not necessarily a bad thing?

11/27/2013

Blazing fast chip.

Intel Core i7-4770K - Core i7 4th Gen Haswell Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1150 84W Intel HD Graphics Desktop Processor - BX80646I74770K
Intel Core i7-4770K - Core i7 4th Gen Haswell Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1150 84W Intel HD Graphics Desktop Processor - BX80646I74770K

Pros: Upgraded from a Z77/2500k combo to a Z87 board with this chip. The difference is phenomenal as far as speed, snappiness and load times are so fast that it makes me lol. Very future proof, you won't need more than this for a while. It eats Planetside 2 like a fat kid nomming a pop tart on Ultra settings paired with a GTX680.

Cons: The rumors are true, Haswell runs hot. I'm running an X5PC custom loop on which is the same one I had on my 2500k. My 2500k was overclocked to 4.0 constant and never got over 38C under full load and gaming was like 33-35C. The 4770k using the same loop is idling at 32-33C and easily jumps to 45C while gaming and it jumps to 60C while under full load. Make sure you get a good cooler!