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Brian C.

Brian C.

Joined on 08/25/01

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 26
Most Favorable Review

Great (after the RMA)

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 970 4GB AMP! Omega Core Edition, ZT-90106-10P
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 970 4GB AMP! Omega Core Edition, ZT-90106-10P

Pros: Very fast, very stable, and runs reasonably quiet.

Cons: The first card had the dreaded "black screen" of death after running for awhile whether in desktop or running a 3D app. Had to send it back. The turn around time was reasonable.

Overall Review: If you have issues with yours (i.e. screen suddenly going black), DO NOT waste time further troubleshooting this. Just return it. Seems to be a chronic issue with the 970 GTX. You can Google other examples of this on the net.

Most Critical Review

Best for office use only

COOLMAX I-500 500 W ATX Power Supply
COOLMAX I-500 500 W ATX Power Supply

Pros: Cheap. Light weight, fairly quiet, and seems to be adequate for office use. The cables, while thin, are very flexible.

Cons: Not enough wires and no connectors for PCIe. Clearly this is PSU was meant for lower end work PCs.

Overall Review: To be honest, if I had to do again, I would pass on this. I was piecing together a dedicated streaming PC from a pile of left over parts and wanted to keep the cost as low as possible, but this PSU is *really* low end. It's fine for desktop use, especially if you're just using the integrated graphics with your MB, but if you intend to slap on dedicated GPU, forget it.

Problem free install

SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 1TB, PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280, Speeds Up-to 7,000MB/s Best for High End Computing, Gaming, and Heavy Duty Workstations (MZV8P1T0B/AM)
SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 1TB, PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280, Speeds Up-to 7,000MB/s Best for High End Computing, Gaming, and Heavy Duty Workstations (MZV8P1T0B/AM)

Pros: - Fast - At the time of purchase, quite reasonably priced

Cons: - Does run a bit warm. Wondering if it needs a heatsink. Will continue to monitor.

Overall Review: Excellent NVMe for my primary boot drive and more.

10/12/2023

Nice features.

MSI MAG X670E TOMAHAWK WIFI AM5 AMD X670E ATX Motherboard
MSI MAG X670E TOMAHAWK WIFI AM5 AMD X670E ATX Motherboard

Pros: - BIOS is relatively easy to navigate. Lots of features for a MB in this class. - Drama free installation with no compatibility issues with my other pieces of HW (running with Ryzen 7900x, Radeon RX 6800XT, and 32gb DD5). - Detected my DDR's XMP profile with no issues. - WiFi works great, but I still prefer using ethernet cable. Good feature if you need it (i.e., Dorm room with no ethernet outlet).

Cons: A couple of annoyance. - Boot time is a little longer than you would expect (about 15-20 seconds) before the OS loads. Not sure what's causing it, but I haven't had time to investigate what BIOS option may be causing it. - BIOS screen would freeze up within 30 seconds or so. I had to make my changes VERY quickly and SAVE before it locked up (necessitating a hard reboot). Updated the BIOS to the latest version and this seems to have corrected the issue.

Overall Review: Good quality MB, but if you don't need all the overclocking and tweaking features, you're probably fine with a cheaper, non-enthusiast MB.

10/10/2023

No issues.

CORSAIR Vengeance 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR5 6000 (PC5 48000) Desktop Memory Model CMK32GX5M2B6000C36
CORSAIR Vengeance 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR5 6000 (PC5 48000) Desktop Memory Model CMK32GX5M2B6000C36

Pros: - Fast - XMP detected and boots at correct speeds on first try (MSI MAG E670 MB)

Cons: - None really.

Overall Review: Good value for the money. No fluff, just substance.

10/10/2023

Best AMD CPU yet for me

AMD Ryzen 9 7900X - Zen 4 12-Core 4.7 GHz - Socket AM5 - 170W Desktop Processor (100-100000589WOF)
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X - Zen 4 12-Core 4.7 GHz - Socket AM5 - 170W Desktop Processor (100-100000589WOF)

Pros: - Powerful - Fast - Easy install

Cons: - A bit hot running, but I've had hotter, slower CPUs. Do your research for a good quality cooling solution before buying.

Overall Review: Very impressed with the performance, especially since the price drop. Upgraded from an i7-8700k in my previous build.

10/10/2023