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Roland R.

Roland R.

Joined on 06/29/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 47
Most Favorable Review

Fantastic value

Intel Pentium G3220 - Pentium Dual-Core Haswell Dual-Core 3.0 GHz LGA 1150 54W Intel HD Graphics Desktop Processor - BX80646G3220
Intel Pentium G3220 - Pentium Dual-Core Haswell Dual-Core 3.0 GHz LGA 1150 54W Intel HD Graphics Desktop Processor - BX80646G3220

Pros: Fast as a single-core processor, low energy consumption, hence quiet fans, 2 cores. Absolutely sufficient for office work, web browsing and GOG.com games.

Cons: Doesn't brew coffee.

Overall Review: Windows experience index ends up 7 for CPU and 5.2 for GPU. The stock cooler fit into the Mini-ITX enclosure I placed this in, didn't end up needing the low profile fan I bought. The stock cooler is barely audible if I put my ear next to the machine under load.

11/20/2013
Most Critical Review

Nice and quite but with defects

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive Bare Drive
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Quiet, fast, large

Cons: Defects - not sure if they're electronic or on the platter. I get regular ntfs failure events for the boot sector (which I can work around, not sure if I'll RMA just yet), but I've also had a corrupted NTFS file system on a perfectly fresh system without any crashes. The samsung util claims the disk is fine, modulo the ECC error.

Absolutely quiet and delivering all the power it promises

Antec Value Power Series VP550 Plus, 550W Non-Modular, 80 PLUS Certified, Thermal Manager, CircuitShield Protection, 120mm Silent Fan with 3-Year Warranty
Antec Value Power Series VP550 Plus, 550W Non-Modular, 80 PLUS Certified, Thermal Manager, CircuitShield Protection, 120mm Silent Fan with 3-Year Warranty

Pros: Super quiet (as in you really cannot hear it), delivering ample power for modern builds

Cons: None

Overall Review: Great value for a power supply. I'd have gone with a modular supply if available for cable management but do not regret this purchase.

XMP is ok

G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800) Desktop Memory Model F4-3600C19D-16GVRB
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800) Desktop Memory Model F4-3600C19D-16GVRB

Pros: Worked out of the box with setting the MB to XMP

Cons: Doesn't overclock well (Hynix). Max bandwidth I got out of it was 50000MB/s, which is fine but you should not buy this is you plan on overclocking your ram.

Overall Review: Reliable and unproblematic but not overclockable.

Outstanding processor

AMD Ryzen 5 3rd Gen - RYZEN 5 3600 Matisse (Zen 2) 6-Core 3.6 GHz (4.2 GHz Max Boost) Socket AM4 65W 100-100000031BOX Desktop Processor
AMD Ryzen 5 3rd Gen - RYZEN 5 3600 Matisse (Zen 2) 6-Core 3.6 GHz (4.2 GHz Max Boost) Socket AM4 65W 100-100000031BOX Desktop Processor

Pros: Greatest value available in the Ryzen line right now - 6c/12t around 4GHz can handle even challenging workloads

Cons: The stock cooler is pretty terrible - my Ryzen idles at 45 and heats up to 92 under full load. This is within thermal limits but has me cringing whenever I check temperatures.

Overall Review: Fantastic value, highly recommended for gaming and work builds. I wasn't able to overclock the chip much (4.1GHz all core could not be exceeded), and temperatures run high on average. I am ok with this - overclocking doesn't actually generate major benefits with these chips, they perform excellently with all motherboard settings at default.

Pretty decent

MetallicGear Skiron MG-F140P_BBK 140mm Case Fan
MetallicGear Skiron MG-F140P_BBK 140mm Case Fan

Pros: Move substantial amount of air, PWM

Cons: Not as quiet as I imagined.

Overall Review: These fans do move a substantial amount of air but become audible quickly at about half speed. I would suggest setting them up so that they never exceed that threshold or spin at constant low revolutions.