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Patrick M.

Patrick M.

Joined on 08/19/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 69
Most Favorable Review

Best of MSI's gaming series for most users

MSI Z97-Gaming 3 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
MSI Z97-Gaming 3 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: -All of the quality and performance of the Gaming 5, 7, and 9, just missing a few features that most of us don't use anyway. -Fit and finish is excellent, 'feels' like a much more expensive board. -UEFI interface is not bad, relatively easy to navigate and work through. -Manual overclocking is quick, easy, and stable. -Price performance ratio is great. -Legacy PCI slots, kept me from buying a new wireless card.

Cons: No SLI, which isn't a problem for me. OC genie remains useless in my experience, but I wouldn't use it even if it did work. Info panels for each item in UEFI are relatively unhelpful, user's manual isn't any better.

Overall Review: This is a "first impressions" review, but so far I am very impressed. I bought this board to replace an EVGA x58 board in a combo with the Pentium G3258 (highly recommend as well) because my i7 970 6-core met its inevitable end after years of loyal service. I knew I was getting a little The difference between x58 and Z97 is shocking, boot times are very fast, temperatures are very cool, everything works efficiently and in absolute harmony, Windows 7 is much more responsive, even though I went from a top of the line i7 to a bottom of the barrel Pentium. I am shocked that this board is not getting more attention, in my opinion it is the MSI board for anyone who doesn't need SLI.

Most Critical Review

Would do the job...

Rosewill RCM-8164 True 1.3 M Effective Pixels USB 2.0 WebCam
Rosewill RCM-8164 True 1.3 M Effective Pixels USB 2.0 WebCam

Pros: Good price. I usually like Rosewill's stuff.

Cons: Camera has a lot more lag than most webcams, also has a hard time compensating for lighting conditions. The microphone only worked if I held it up to my mouth and turned the volume all the way up, in which case the camera was useless. Even then the sound was muffled and messed up. I returned it but had to pay shipping myself and pay a restocking fee. I recommend spending a little more and getting something else.

Overall Review: Yes Rosewill, I understand that you're sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused me. No worries, I will continue to buy Rosewill products, just not this one. and I already returned it so I can't send it to you for an RMA.

11/17/2009

Survived Sustained Abuse

PC Power & Cooling ModXStream Pro Series 700 Watt 80+ Semi-Modular Active PFC Performance Grade ATX PC Power Supply (OCZ700MXSP)
PC Power & Cooling ModXStream Pro Series 700 Watt 80+ Semi-Modular Active PFC Performance Grade ATX PC Power Supply (OCZ700MXSP)

Pros: I punished this PSU far more than any respectable enthusiast would. Mobo: High Performance x58 CPU: i7 970 overclocked (6 cores x 3.67ghz) all 12 threads at 100% load 24/7 (F@H) GPU: GTX 560ti at 100% load 24/7 (F@H) 3xDDR3 @ 2000mhz 12 Fans and 1 water pump Having lasted as long as it did is a testament to its build quality.

Cons: The death of this PSU came 4.5 years after purchase, with the symptoms of its demise beginning at about 3.5 years. It started with an occasional random lockup, which I erroneously blamed on an aging SSD, there were then various stability issues which I neglected to do anything about for months; Finally, I pressed the power button after a shutdown and heard a loud electrical 'pop' followed by a completely dead machine, after I realized how old the PSU was, and I took stock of the abuse I put it through, I was satisfied with the way it has staggered onward through its misery for the past year.

Overall Review: There are a lot of negative reviews complaining that this unit died after "only" 4 years of use. If these users had looked at the warranty information, they would have known that the unit was only expected to last a little over 3 years. These reviews indicate to me that this unit exceeds reasonable expectations.

Middle of the road Cooler

CORSAIR Hydro Series H50 120mm Quiet Edition Liquid CPU Cooler - Intel Only (CW-9060006-WW)
CORSAIR Hydro Series H50 120mm Quiet Edition Liquid CPU Cooler - Intel Only (CW-9060006-WW)

Pros: Compact design makes cooling other components easier (ram mosfets, vreg, chipset) Keeps temps at an acceptable level on an x58 i7

Cons: Cannot cool like a Megahalems or any of the top air cooling towers. Small volume of water causes this cooler to become heat saturated much faster than a solid cooler. Radiator catches and holds dust more than an air cooler, so proper maintenance is a must. Possibility of pump failure makes this a more risky investment than a solid heatsink Needs 2 high performance fans to run acceptable temps with only a mild overclock.

Overall Review: I used the H50 to replace my Megahalems on an i7 940. The Megahalems is the superior cooler of the two, keeping an average of 6-9°C cooler than the H50 on the same rig with the same dual fan push-pull setup. The reason I went with the H50 anyway is to get more cooling to the Vreg on my EVGA x58 3X SLI board, which was much too hot at load, going as high as 102°C with F@H running. Evetually I'll upgrade to an XSPC Rasa, but this will do for now.

Not Bad for the Price

EVGA 132-BL-E758-RX LGA 1366 Intel X58 3X SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
EVGA 132-BL-E758-RX LGA 1366 Intel X58 3X SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Great price Decent bios Pretty good starter board if you're new to the X58

Cons: Long Post, Needs more front panel USB headers The Vreg runs extremely hot The Vreg heatsink gets in the way of a lot of CPU coolers, made it difficult to install a second fan on my Megahalems, and made it impossible to rear mount my H50. Will not run DDR3-2000 with an i7 940

Overall Review: I upgraded from an MSI P55 board with an i5 750, the MSI board had a slightly nicer revision of the same Phoenix Bios, was easier to overclock, ran cooler and more stable, but that's comparing apples to oranges. Overall an average board, I've had better and I've had worse. i7 940 @ 3.46Ghz (stock 2.93Ghz) 6GB Patriot Sector 7 ram at 1700Mhz (stock clock is 2000 Mhz) Galaxy GTX 465 @ 725mhz

Great Ram

Patriot Viper II Sector 7 Edition 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model PV736G2000ELK
Patriot Viper II Sector 7 Edition 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model PV736G2000ELK

Pros: One of the fastest RAM speeds available at a reasonable price, very nice coolers, runs much cooler than my old G. Skill DDR3 1333 RAM.

Cons: The taller ramsinks may interfere with your CPU cooler depending of the setup of your board and your HSF, mine fit fine in all 6 slots with a Megahalems push-pull 2 fan setup. Still can't tweak it to run at 2000Mhz on my EVGA x58 3X SLI board, most likely due to the i7's integrated memory controller. Regardless of the advice in the Patriot forums and in the EVGA forums, it just doesn't wanna go 2000Mhz

Overall Review: Running an i7 940 at 3.46Ghz Ram at 1700Mhz gets a 7.7 in WEI Not gonna knock an egg since no ram seems to want to run at 2000mhz yet, I hope Intel improves their IMC to play nice with today's ram standards, although I'm sure my older board doesn't help either.