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Neal B.

Neal B.

Joined on 01/15/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 17
Most Favorable Review

silent but deadly

MSI GeForce GTX 980 GAMING 4G
MSI GeForce GTX 980 GAMING 4G

Pros: about 11250 3dmark fire strike (not extreme), dx12 future proof, silent

Cons: cost

Overall Review: best card available today; cooler and quieter than my gtx 660 ti at same TDP

Most Critical Review

Origin seems to vary

Verbatim DVD+R DL 8.5GB 8X with Branded Surface - 15pk Spindle
Verbatim DVD+R DL 8.5GB 8X with Branded Surface - 15pk Spindle

Pros: You might get Singapore discs; price is decent

Cons: You might get Indian discs; shipping

Overall Review: I got Indian discs and they have errors on verification frequently, seems to be a crapshoot with the 3gg on this product.

Perfect understated case for modern gaming rig

Fractal Design Define 7 Compact Black Brushed Aluminum/Steel ATX Compact Silent Mid Tower Computer Case
Fractal Design Define 7 Compact Black Brushed Aluminum/Steel ATX Compact Silent Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Plenty of room for radiators and large GPUs without the wasted space of a drive cage No RGB Decent fans included

Cons: None

Overall Review: Fits a RTX 5080 and a top 240mm AIO with no issues and very little wasted space. I bet it would fit a 5090 but check the dimensions. Nice and thin but still has room for the GPU being "wider" than the PCIE slots. I replaced my front fans with Noctua but in hindsight with my temps I don't think this was necessary. Great temps under 3dmark stress tests. There is little reason to go larger than this if you don't run a bunch of old 3.5" drives.

well priced X299 with good feature set

MSI PRO X299 SLI PLUS LGA 2066 Intel X299 ATX Intel Motherboard
MSI PRO X299 SLI PLUS LGA 2066 Intel X299 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: 2x M.2 slots, one with heat spreader Intel LAN RGB Good price vs features Effortless overclock, 7740X at 4.8ghz via 1.248v Dedicated pump header Decent software Good diagnostic LEDs

Cons: wish there was a micro atx but I guess theres not enough room for the dimm slots weird dimm config if you are in single channel with a kaby lake- be sure to double check manual no wifi (but helps keep cost down)

Overall Review: Good solid OC board for 100 less than many others

Excellent low priced C236 board with 3x PCI-e 16x size slots

MSI C236A Workstation LGA 1151 Intel C236 HDMI USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard
MSI C236A Workstation LGA 1151 Intel C236 HDMI USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: - 3 pci-e x16 length slots, I have a geforce gtx 1050, quad port nic, and LSI SAS HBA in mine - good bios interface and built in EFI (for flashing HBA etc) - shipped with latest bios installed

Cons: - single NIC, would basically be perfect board with another intel nic - would be nice to have ipmi but again good to keep price down - x1 slots are just not useful for anything really, maybe have just one x4 or something - no SLI, do not buy this board for SLI, but it will work fine for OpenCL type stuff where the cards run independent

Overall Review: By far the best Skylake Xeon workstation board I can find anywhere, for a very reasonable price. I am going to buy a spare after xmas. If you are used to stoneage super micro bios this bios will blow you away

12/22/2016

great small nas, fantastic os

Synology DS212J Diskless System DiskStation Budget-friendly 2-bay NAS Server for Small Office and Home Use
Synology DS212J Diskless System DiskStation Budget-friendly 2-bay NAS Server for Small Office and Home Use

Pros: Best NAS OS available; decent speed and price

Cons: Cheap plastic housing, needs front USB ports

Overall Review: I have used Buffalo, QNAP, Nexenta, and several Linux based NAS distros and nothing compares to Synology DSM.