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Oleg P.

Oleg P.

Joined on 04/29/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 9
Most Favorable Review

1080p like there's no tomorrow.

MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 Low Profile Graphics Card GTX 1050 TI 4GT LP
MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 Low Profile Graphics Card GTX 1050 TI 4GT LP

Pros: -tiny, no additional power -Fits SFF cases -Runs on 240W PSU -the card plays FarCry series at 1080 maxed out -doom at 1080, like there's no tomorrow...

Cons: -I can't think of any

Overall Review: I have it paired with i5-3440/8GB, and so far it kicks every games' a$$... I have a tiny HTPC that gets the same FPS as my 1 year old "gaming" rig with geforce960gtx...

Most Critical Review

Surprisingly fast, small and economic

PNY GeForce GT 730 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile Ready Graphics Card VCGGT7301D5LXPB
PNY GeForce GT 730 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile Ready Graphics Card VCGGT7301D5LXPB

Pros: Pretty fast card, very economic (33W), doesn't need extra power supply connections. This is one of the most powerful cards that fit into a half-heigh slot. This is a surprisingly fast card, and great attention should be paid when gettings geforce 730 cards, because some of them have 96 cudas, and some (like this one) has 384 cuda cores. This 730 is pretty much the same as 740 cards performance-wise. It plays source games maxed out like there's no tomorrow. It plays Crysis 2 pretty well, 1080 on low. Borderlands 2 maxed out. You'll obviously have to lower res and settings for new games.

Cons: My HDMI connection socket was messed up, and I couldn't plug anything into it. I probably got a defective card, I couldn't straighten it out (for the fear of ruining the card in the process), so i just ended up returning it. This is unlikely to be a common problem.

Absolutely awesome

BIOSTAR NM70I-1037U Intel Celeron 1037U Dual-Core 1.8GHz Intel NM70 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU / VGA Combo
BIOSTAR NM70I-1037U Intel Celeron 1037U Dual-Core 1.8GHz Intel NM70 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU / VGA Combo

Pros: Absolutely awesome. I have the previous version of this board with 837 CPU, which was great for HTPC. The celeron 1037U is actually good enough for fairly heavy gaming (it's processing equivalent of mobile i3 processors), I paired it with geforce 730 ddr5 (the 384 core version), and it plays at Crysis2 1600x1200 at "low" settings (which still look awesome). And it maxes out original Crysis just fine. It flies in older source games (cs, l4d, portal, hl2) maxed out. It flies in borderlands series almost maxed out, etc. It's a very decent build on the cheap. I bought it for HTPC with light gaming duty, and it works better than expected. As for HTPC duty - It plays 1080 and all that with barely any cpu load. I've become a fan of this CPU x37-series (don't confuse these with Nxxxx celerons, or other atom derived combos).

Cons: Lack of USB 3.0

This case is the bomb

DIYPC HTPC-Cube-BK Black USB3.0 Aluminum/Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer case, can support 120mm Radiator, Standard Size ATX PSU
DIYPC HTPC-Cube-BK Black USB3.0 Aluminum/Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer case, can support 120mm Radiator, Standard Size ATX PSU

Pros: This is a very well made case, and has plenty of room for everything, the area around cpu is maximized and the area around the video card is maximized... I had no problem fitting a ATX (full size) power supply, and a long card. It's tight, but very manageable. Plenty of space for hard drives, you can also stack them vertically. I've read some reviews about how very careful you must be to assemble this in the "right" order - either those people have assembly miniITX computers before, or they're failing to use common sense in assembling the computer inside this case. This case is ROOMY in comparison to 2 other miniITX cases I've built before. It's mostly thanks for great (on the side, and not over the MB) power supply placement, and the fact that they forewent without the 5.25 slot (for Cd-roms and such). The look of it is very nice (MUCH better than the previous miniITX plastic boxes I've tried before).

Cons: The one con I have is that the included fan has no speed control, it's fairly quite, but still audible. My power supply has enough air ventilation to keep the case cool, so I just removed it. The lights are not too annoying, and don't project into a blinding spot. Maybe it's the fact that the surface is very scratch prone, so you have to be careful. Some people mentioned that the power cable has to go over the fan - absolute nonsense, I tried my Power supply in both orientations, and it's easy to feed the power cable out of the way.

blobby bass...

Polk Audio PSW Series PSW505 12" Powered Subwoofer Single
Polk Audio PSW Series PSW505 12" Powered Subwoofer Single

Pros: It's cheap, it's made by a reputable company.. Makes a lot of boom. Great for explosion or other non-discriminatory low-end frequency reproduction.

Cons: lots of blobby and inaccurate bass. Below 30Hz it plays a lot of frequency multiples and not much of the fundamental frequency. This sub is really not good as an actual accurate sound reproduction device, it's great for movie explosions.

Overall Review: I'm perhaps spoiled, I've had many expensive subs. I thought that perhaps that sound reproduction technologies have evolved and a low-end sub would actually be a decent low frequency source. Nope. This sub doesn't play to 23Hz, and the worst offender is that it plays a lot of artifacts (the artifacts are still low frequency, so the sub is good for non-discriminate low end reproduction). I'm not that demanding of subs (or at least, not as demanding as I am of the main speakers), but as a musician I couldn't stand this sub for classical and jazz music. It'll do ok for hip-hop I guess, all you need is a bump, irregardless of frequency.

10/19/2013

correction..

BIOSTAR A68I-350 Deluxe R2.0 AMD Fusion APU 350D AMD A68 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo
BIOSTAR A68I-350 Deluxe R2.0 AMD Fusion APU 350D AMD A68 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo

Pros: it draws 23W, just sitting at the desktop. And it draws 2W on standby.

Cons: still doesn't cook breakfast...