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bryan m.

bryan m.

Joined on 03/20/11

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

Great MOBO

ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4 FM2 AMD A85X (Hudson D4) USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4 FM2 AMD A85X (Hudson D4) USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: It's a great motherboard for the price (got it bundled with the A10 5800K) and it booted up into Win XP/ 7 / 8 easily and even boots into Linux: Unbuntu with no issues. No issues with memory (using F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL) or anything that would cause any crashes, freezes or anything.

Cons: I haven't really noticed any to be honest.

Most Critical Review
Seagate ST500LM000 500GB 5400 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Laptop Thin SSHD Bare Drive
Seagate ST500LM000 500GB 5400 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Laptop Thin SSHD Bare Drive

Pros: It's a bit faster than a normal HDD

Cons: Got a random BSOD and now the hard drive will not work at all. Not even three months after purchase, I have to hope that Seagate will give me a replacement because something caused this drive to fail after very light use.

Overall Review: I've bought from Seagate before, I own multiple drives from them and this is just one of those times where I got a bad apple from the pile.

Cooler Master Seidon 120M - All-In-One CPU Liquid Water Cooling System with 120mm Radiator and Fan
Cooler Master Seidon 120M - All-In-One CPU Liquid Water Cooling System with 120mm Radiator and Fan

Pros: Keeps my APU running cool, haven't broken 75c under full load.

Cons: A few (1 or 2) radiator fins are slightly bent.

Overall Review: I took my radiator off to give it a quick check and cleaning to make sure it won't get stuffed up and I noticed some specks of liquid on the fan. I don't know if it's from the fan or the radiator but it is something I'll be keeping an eye on. Would rather not have to worry about there being a leak.

Fantastic upgrade from an old one

RAIDMAX AGUSTA ATX-605BW Black / White Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
RAIDMAX AGUSTA ATX-605BW Black / White Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: More than enough room for my motherboard, HDD and two DVD/CD drives. I upgraded to this case after having a case from my first build back in 2003. The space in that case was very limited and was hard to keep it cool. This case has more than enough room with the hard drive bays in the bottom that are kept cool with 4 80mm fans doing push and pull.

Cons: I could have used a cut out above the mobo for my 8-pin connector but it was easily routed around the cpu cooler and ram.

Overall Review: If you plan to get this case, I do recommend a modular PSU. My PSU isn't one and it's a bit of an annoyance to have a pile of wires at the bottom. I don't mind it much because it doesn't harm the air flow at all since it's a bottom mounted PSU. Overall, I don't believe any issues have arisen that would require a drop in rating. It's a fantastic case for the price and gives me a chance to add more storage devices in the future.

Works fine for me

Rosewill RC-204 IDE to SATA  Mini Vertical Bridge (for IDE device)
Rosewill RC-204 IDE to SATA Mini Vertical Bridge (for IDE device)

Pros: It plugged right in and worked right off the bat.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I was expecting to have some trouble with it due to the reviews I read prior to ordering but I figured on sale being $6 with free shipping, I'd give it a shot. It worked great for me and even sped the data transfer up by a bit.

Stable core

AMD A10-5800K - A-Series APU Trinity Quad-Core 3.8 GHz Socket FM2 100W AMD Radeon HD 7660D Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic - AD580KWOHJBOX
AMD A10-5800K - A-Series APU Trinity Quad-Core 3.8 GHz Socket FM2 100W AMD Radeon HD 7660D Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic - AD580KWOHJBOX

Pros: It's very stable and will run various games I own (Battlefield 3/Skyrim for example) at the higher end of the graphics settings. -Great price -Handles it's own overclocking when needed (Will go up to 4.1ghz if the application calls for it with no issues)

Cons: The stock cooler does allow it to heat up a bit more than I like. (Will change to a third-party cooling system when I get the chance)

Overall Review: It's a fantastic chip for gaming without having to NEED to buy a card to play on higher end graphics. Of course, if you're into adding more graphics ability to your computer that is all you. I just found no reason to add one myself.