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Phil C.

Phil C.

Joined on 11/25/15

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 5
Most Favorable Review

A hidden gem, performs beautifully.

MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card GTX 1080 DUKE 8G OC
MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card GTX 1080 DUKE 8G OC

Pros: - Self-overclocks to over 2 GHz and maintains that ballpark frequency (at least for my card) - Nice and cool temps out of the box (Can probably apply new thermal paste and get even lower temps) - Blows all 1440p games out of the water (Ultra settings + max AA) - Clean black color scheme (no annoying designs and colors) - Matches color schemes for most case designs - Fairly quiet when under load (3 fans cool this beast), my CPU 212 EVO fan is louder lol - LED controllable with software (kinda tacky though...)

Cons: - The card is LONG. Absurdly long, make sure you look at the specs and measure inside your case. Its something like 13 in maybe? - The LED is tacky, it doesn't reproduce color accurately and the software is janky. It works okay if you use a simple solid color or color-cycling mode. Not much to complain about for $505 for this card.

Overall Review: - At $505 for this card, I would buy it again in a heartbeat (if it fits in my case lol). - Like I said, this card is LONG, do your homework on whether it'll fit. - I'd suggest leaving the card without a manual overclock as it should hit 1950-2000 MHz EASILY, that way it'll stay cooler. - If your temps are unusually high under full load and heat-soak, try applying new thermal paste. That should bring you down to regular temps.

10/26/2017

Incredible monitor for $300.

Acer H7 Series H277HU kmidpx 27" Gold LED Monitor, 2560 x 1440, 16:9, 100,000,000:1, 350 cd/m2, HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort, Tilt, Built-in Speaker
Acer H7 Series H277HU kmidpx 27" Gold LED Monitor, 2560 x 1440, 16:9, 100,000,000:1, 350 cd/m2, HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort, Tilt, Built-in Speaker

Pros: - The build quality is fantastic, with a real aluminum frame and bezels, I don't think I'll be able to go back to a cheap-looking plastic monitor anymore - The monitor is very light and does not shake unless you bang on your desk with your fists (lol) - The resolution is phenomenal (as expected) - I cannot get enough of the .8" bezels. They are truly amazing in person - The monitor actually looks very professional and matches the gold/rose gold/silver aluminum look of your iPad/iPhone if you have that near it - A display port is included! (It it's under 6ft long mind you) - The refresh rate is actually very nice for gaming at 60 locked - The IPS glow is faint and very reasonable even with a huge 27 inch display (totally worth purchasing this monitor despite it) - The IPS display is super bright and has colors that really pop, but aren't over saturated - The color management offers great customization (and even a customizable anti-blue light setting) - The actual monitor is very thin and sleek looking

Cons: - The stand does not rotate or raise - The aluminum doesn't seem super high-quality (but it still is much nicer than any plastic monitor available) - The refresh rate is only 60Hz (haven't tried OCing yet) - The response time is decent @ 4ms, but it would be awesome to have 1ms

Overall Review: For what it is, it is waaay worth it to buy this monitor, especially for $300 (which is what I paid). Unless you're a hardcore gamer who wants over 100Hz and 1ms response time, this monitor is extremely nice looking, stable, and still dominates in enthusiast gaming. The most anti-aliasing I now use with 1440p is 2x, most games look great without AA with this upgrade from 1080p. My GPU (R9 390X) is now struggling a bit more to hit over 40-60fps consistently now with this higher resolution, so keep that in mind before buying this monitor for gaming.

Great RAM for Ryzen 1600X on B350 Tomahawk.

CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model CMK16GX4M2B3200C16
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model CMK16GX4M2B3200C16

Pros: - Very clean aesthetics that will fit with any case colors (I love sleek black schemes like this RAM has) - Hit the advertised 3200MHz clock speeds with A-XMP profile on the B350 Tomahawk mobo (Using the stock 1.2 bios version as shipped). No manual OC needed. - The 3200MHz OC profile ran fully stable from the get-go with stress tests and maxed out gaming for a few weeks now. - Affordable compared to other Ryzen-friendly advertised RAM

Cons: - None that I can think of to be honest... - No RGB lights (If that sorta thing flips your cookie)

Overall Review: - I definitely recommend this RAM - If 16GB of DDR4 becomes obsolete somehow, I will definitely buy a couple more sticks of this RAM - I have no tried to OC further than the ADVERTISED 3200MHz, but I would imagine you can perhaps reach something like 3400MHz. - If you want stable and reliable OC'able RAM for your Ryzen CPU and respective mobo, don't pay more than this RAM. Unless you plan on doing some monstrous OC.

Great buy for basic RAM/CPU overclocking.

MSI Gaming 970 Gaming AM3+/AM3 AMD 970 and SB950 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
MSI Gaming 970 Gaming AM3+/AM3 AMD 970 and SB950 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: I overclocked my FX-6300 to 4.1GHz and my Ripjaws V ram to 1833MHz easily without any glitches for 2 years. The MSI bios is nicely laid out and is a reputable company.

Cons: I probably wouldn't buy it if I was doing heavy over locking of DDR3 RAM or heavy CPU overclocking. I also wouldn't use it with 2 GPUs, but I think that's obvious.

Overall Review: Cheap and reliable, hasn't given any issues after 2 years of use.

Ooooh how I love these SSDs.

SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III 32 layer 3D V-NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E500B/AM
SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III 32 layer 3D V-NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E500B/AM

Pros: I absolutely guarantee that you get the Samsung 850 Evo. I bought 2x 512GB 850 Evos over 2 years ago and I am still loving it. My operating system is super fast and all of my games load so quickly that I've been absolutely spoiled. I have also set each SSD to maximum reliability and they are still extremely fast. Not sure how many of the other SSD brands compare with reliability, but apparently the 850s are superb.

Cons: The price is painful to swallow @ $190 for just one 512GB SSD...

Overall Review: The way I see it, hard drive reliability is the #1 concern. And if you have to pay $30 extra to have extended life with these high performance SSDs, then I'd say it's worth it. After more than 2 years, the Samsung Magician software isn't giving me error codes or warnings for SSD health, and I don't expect it to anytime soon either.