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Matthew D.

Matthew D.

Joined on 05/16/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 22
Most Favorable Review

Solid little board - GREAT for budget gaming build

GIGABYTE GA-B150M-D3H (rev. 1.0) LGA 1151 Intel B150 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-B150M-D3H (rev. 1.0) LGA 1151 Intel B150 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: All the features you need, none you don't Plenty of USB 3.0 ports and front-header pins Two full length x16 slots (one running at 16 the other at 4) 4 fan headers (1 cpu, 3 system) - which is pretty good for an mATX board GUI bios w/mouse support - dated looking - but it has one nonetheless DDR4 support

Cons: No SLI support, only crossfire, but no loss of an egg for that given that's exactly how it's advertised.

Overall Review: Picked this board up because I have it's "sister version" using an AMD APU and never had any problems. When I built this system last year, skylake was new. There were hardly ANY user reviews available. I needed to go with something I knew was reliable. Given I had this exact board only in the AMD version, I figured it was a safe bet. I was right. The B150 chipset is excellent if you're not looking to overclock (and btw, you can if you want, just via the old-scool base clock method.) The customer I built this for was not interested in overclocking and was on a limited budget, so this fit the bill. The B150 chipset gives you everything you need without the 'fluff' (ie features that 90% of users won't ever use.) This system was designed with a single GPU (aka no SLI'ing) in mind. The B150 chipset will net you the same gaming performance in this case as any higher chipset, within margin of error of course. I coupled this with the GTX 960, i5-6500, 256gb SSD, 2tb HDD, and 8gb DDR4 memory for a mid-range build. Board is ROCK solid. Never a single crash or hiccup. Installed parts, installed windows 7 (and then upgraded to windows 10) on off she went. That simple. Board also runs VERY cool - but that's also the nature of the skylake systems in general.

Most Critical Review

Rapala should stick to lures

Rapala Trophies Wii Game
Rapala Trophies Wii Game

Pros: -Cheap -Can fish without leaving the house

Cons: -Gameplay -Use of Wii controller -Graphics -Sound -Difficulty (too easy)

Overall Review: This game was obviously created by amature game developers. The first thing you will notice, is that the wii pointer is unused throughout the entire game save for netting fish. The manus are navigated via the D-pad (which is annoying... I bought the Wii for a reason.) Also, the controls are VERY delayed. Casting is erratic, the graphics are horrible. Different pieces of scenery collide with one another.. the fish go through the boat on some occasions. The physics are all off.. the boat, while sitting still, looks like it's in an ocean or something. Luckily, the game was cheap. It DOES have some value to it.. I found myself playing for a few hours without getting bored. It has a decent array of fishing tournaments, which is nice. On the other side, the lakes are VERY small.. you don't get to fish an entire lake, just parts of it.

No fans needed

ENERMAX OSTROG ECA3253-BR Black / Red SGCC / SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
ENERMAX OSTROG ECA3253-BR Black / Red SGCC / SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Tons of cooling Excellent USB 2.0/30 front panel placement Tool-less Bottom-mounted PSU location PSU-intake filters

Cons: Stupid name.. "OSTROG" ?!?! The top is almost completely open - be careful of spilling something on the case - component damage will ensue.

Overall Review: This case is pretty slick. Tons of passive cooling. It comes packaged with a fan or two (pre-installed,) and that's honestly all you'll need. The top of the case is almost completely open, allowing the hot air to escape. No fans needed to blow hot air out the back when it can simply rise up and out! Also, the bottom of the case has filter-screens for the PSU - another nice feature.

Great version of the 960 - boosts higher than expected

MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support ATX Graphics Card GTX 960 2GD5T OC
MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support ATX Graphics Card GTX 960 2GD5T OC

Pros: Boosts well - This card boosted a good 100mhz higher than stated boost speeds, right out of the box. No tweaking via msi afterburner needed. Stays cool Low power consumption

Cons: Nada

Overall Review: Honestly, for the price you can get these at, what's there not to like?

CrystalDiskMark scores much higher than I expected

OCZ ARC 100 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ARC100-25SAT3-240G
OCZ ARC 100 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ARC100-25SAT3-240G

Pros: Fast - This drive, speed wise, tested right between my ADATA SP900 and my Samsung Pro850. For the price, I was VERY happy with that. Price - high value for this drive

Cons: None

Overall Review: Drive worked like a charm. At first I thought it was DOA, but turns out, my SATA cable was bad (first time that's ever happened to me.. I've NEVER had a bad cable before.) If you're looking to buy this - be leery about all the negative reviews. In my experience the VAST majority of bad reviews with PC hardware is due to user error.

A bit loud, but very fast for a HDD

HGST Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000 HUA723020ALA641 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive
HGST Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000 HUA723020ALA641 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive

Pros: Fast - speeds (tested via crystal disk mark) are anywhere from 5%-25% faster than my 2 and 3tb Seagate's depending on the particular test Reliable

Cons: A tad loud - only noticeable in a very quiet setting

Overall Review: At first I was a little concerned about how loud it was, but after taking it out of my office and putting it in an HTPC setting in the living room, you cannot hear it whatsoever. The drive is very quick - faster than other HDD's in my system (Seagate and Western Digital - all 7200rpm.) I wasn't expecting this kind of speed from a 'server/enterprise' drive, so was pleasantly surprised.