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Sarah F.

Sarah F.

Joined on 10/19/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 3
Most Favorable Review

Very fast. Quieter than I expected.

ASUS ROG MATRIX 5870 P/2DIS/2GD5 Radeon HD 5870 Platinum 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
ASUS ROG MATRIX 5870 P/2DIS/2GD5 Radeon HD 5870 Platinum 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Pros: * Supremely fast. * A pair of these is cooler and quieter than my old 4870x2. * Glowing "Matrix" activity lights are kinda neat.

Cons: * Price, I suppose. That's not so much of a "CON" as a fact of life, though. Top performance costs money, period. * Size, I suppose. Again, this is just a fact of life. If you want to keep something like this cool and quiet, you need a large cooling solution.

Overall Review: * The stock memory speed is actually 1200 MHz - not 1225. That's not a serious problem, though; I overclocked mine to 1225 MHz with no issues. So if you just can't live without that extra 25MHz, you may be able to get it by overclocking. Still, the specs and product should match. * You *cannot* install two of these cards side-by-side without blocking airflow into the "top" card. However, the included CrossFire bridge cable is not long enough to do anything else. The package should really include a longer CrossFire bridge cable.

Not perfect, but very good

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-8GBRH
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-8GBRH

Pros: Good price for this speed and capacity. 8GB in two slots... puts a smile on my face just thinking about it

Cons: Had to increase the latency to 8-8-8-26 (just a bit higher than spec) to get stable operation @1600 in my system (Phenom X4 905e). Higher voltage did not help. It may work better with newer CPU's, though. Note: at 1333, these chips were stable at the advertised timings and voltage.

Overall Review: Using with the Phenom X4 905e, and an AMD 890GX chipset mini-atx motherboard built by MSI. Throw in a cable-card tuner from Ceton and you have a sweet HTPC. Going up to 8GB of RAM is icing on the cake. Prior to buying these, I had a set 2x2GB sticks made by a different company - the heat spreaders made them so thick I could not fit them into adjacent memory slots (which is required for dual-channel operation). That's not a problem with these DIMMs - they fit with enough room in-between to allow for good air flow.

I've had good luck with these

Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC24G6400ELK
Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC24G6400ELK

Pros: Works just fine; stable at specified settings.

Cons: None, really. Great memory for the price.

Overall Review: I use two pairs of these in the same computer. The first pair I bought over a year ago from a brick-and-mortar store, and I got the second pair just recently here at NewEgg. The old and new pairs do not use the same chips (different voltage requirements) but they work together just fine anyway. It's nice to get four DIMM's running on a Phenom II system at full speed with max settings. _\m/

10/16/2010