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Timothy Z.

Timothy Z.

Joined on 02/28/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 11
Most Favorable Review
ASRock Fatal1ty H87 Performance LGA 1150 Intel H87 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Gaming Motherboard
ASRock Fatal1ty H87 Performance LGA 1150 Intel H87 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Gaming Motherboard

Pros: IMO the perfect motherboard for a casual-to-moderate gamer who doesn't care about overclocking. Great feature set, including port layout, heatsinks, plenty of PCI slots and USB ports. Nice BIOS, easy to navigate and understand. Took my i5-4570S with the stock BIOS version (1.50).

Cons: None for me.

Great foundation for budget gaming

HP EliteDesk 800 G1 Tower  i5-4590 3.30GHz 8GB 250GB SSD Win 10 Pro 1 Yr Wty
HP EliteDesk 800 G1 Tower i5-4590 3.30GHz 8GB 250GB SSD Win 10 Pro 1 Yr Wty

Pros: -system was in great condition, a few scratches but nothing horrible. -fast, modern quad core processor -8GB more than enough for almost all applications -SSD was surprisingly fast (it's an OEM Samsung) -320W PSU more than enough for budget gaming graphics cards like the 750Ti, 1050 or 1050Ti -nearly silent cpu and exhaust fans -comes with Win10Pro

Cons: -PSU is proprietary and comes with only a few spare SATA power connectors. No 5-pin molex, floppy, 6-pin PCI-E power, etc. This can be worked around by using SATA to whatever adapters. I bought a SATA to 6-pin adapter so I could use my GTX 750Ti graphics card. Worked fine!

Overall Review: This is a great budget gaming sleeper rig. It looks very business-like. Due to the low power draw of the entire system, I wouldn't be surprised if even a GTX 1060 would work in this system. In fact, I've seen this configuration on the userbenchmark site, so someone has gotten it working!

Changhong 42" 1080p LED HDTV - LED42YC2000UA
Changhong 42" 1080p LED HDTV - LED42YC2000UA

Pros: Great value excellent picture (other than a defect on my screen)

Cons: Base is made of heavy glass, which can break and be a cutting danger. Our TV has a small triangular defect in the right-center part of the screen. It's only visible when the TV is displaying white or light-colored backgrounds. It's just bad enough to be annoying, but not bad enough to pack the TV up, pay for shipping and ship it back, then be without a TV for 1-2 weeks. I guess that's the bad part about buying a TV on the internet--if you have to exchange it, it's a huge hassle.

Overall Review: Changhong, if you're reading this and want a happy customer for life, offer to ship me a replacement that I can verify has no defects before making me ship this one back. I'll give you my CC#.

Intel Core i5-4570S - Core i5 4th Gen Haswell Quad-Core 2.9 GHz LGA 1150 65W Intel HD Graphics Desktop Processor - BX80646I54570S
Intel Core i5-4570S - Core i5 4th Gen Haswell Quad-Core 2.9 GHz LGA 1150 65W Intel HD Graphics Desktop Processor - BX80646I54570S

Pros: Low power, low cost quad core with high performance on tap (3.6Ghz) when needed. No need for aftermarket cooler unless you're pegging the processor for hours at a time.

Cons: Limited overclocking due to locked multipier. But you knew that going into this purchase, didn't you? Just think of the 3.6Ghz turbo performance as free built-in overclocking ;)

Overall Review: Gets 7.6 on the cpu portion of Windows Experience Index. Actually about 3% faster than my i5-3570K (not overclocked) in 7-zip benchmark (16677 mips vs. 16186 mips). If you're not interested in overclocking, this processor is probably the best bang for your buck, especially when you factor in power consumption and cool operation with stock cooler. The highest temps I've seen when running burn-in programs is around 65 C. Typically, it'll be closer to 45-55 C under load.

Rosewill CAPSTONE Series, CAPSTONE-450-M, 450W Semi-Modular Power Supply, 80 PLUS GOLD Certified, Single +12V Rail, SLI & CrossFire Ready, Black
Rosewill CAPSTONE Series, CAPSTONE-450-M, 450W Semi-Modular Power Supply, 80 PLUS GOLD Certified, Single +12V Rail, SLI & CrossFire Ready, Black

Pros: More than enough headroom for most people. Probably not enough for a dual GPU system, but otherwise it's plenty. Great reviews online for this model. It has high-end components and meets or exceeds its Gold rating in said reviews. Good value (I got mine on sale for fity dollars) Modular means you only use as many cables as you need and pack away the rest. Less case clutter.

Cons: None!

Overall Review: It is physically larger than any other PSU I've ever seen. Rather than being square in shape, it is slightly deeper than it is wide. No concern for me, I just thought I'd mention it.

NZXT Source 210 Elite White Steel with painted interior ATX Mid Tower Computer Case w/ Black Front Trim
NZXT Source 210 Elite White Steel with painted interior ATX Mid Tower Computer Case w/ Black Front Trim

Pros: Great value Very good looking in a stormtrooper sort of way. Not cheesy at all like a lot of "gamer" cases. Extremely roomy--will take super long video cards with plenty of room to spare. Nice exhaust fans--high air flow and quiet operation. Bottom mounted PSU.

Cons: Every NZXT case I've seen has the front USB ports "upside down" meaning you have to plug your USB devices in flipped over compared to other cases. The quality of the included screws and standoffs is shoddy. I didn't examine the threads carefully on them and one of them had bad threads which ended up stripping one of the motherboard mounts. If I ever need to change motherboards, it's not going to be easy to get that screw out.