cover
Craig G.

Craig G.

Joined on 04/28/02

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 4
Most Favorable Review

easy to work with

GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: works great, i like the touch bios windows program. gigabyte has a lot of Z68 boards, this one was the best fit for my budget and it didn't disappoint. i'm not too serious about overclocking but i like that the option is there and easily accessible with the gigabyte utility.

Cons: wasn't installed with the latest version of bios, but this was easy to get using their utility.

Overall Review: mine came with Bios version F1. i was getting an error using the smart response technology where i could enable it, but at reboot the drives would need to be disassociated and i would have to re-enable the acceleration. after updating the bios to version F2, everything worked fine. just make sure when you update bios to re-enable RAID control or you will get an endless loop of blue screens.

elegant, simple, roomy

Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Mid-Tower Gaming PC Computer Case, Expansion Ready: Internal 3.5" Bays & External 5.25" Bays, 3 Pre-installed Fans with Side Fan Mount Option
Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Mid-Tower Gaming PC Computer Case, Expansion Ready: Internal 3.5" Bays & External 5.25" Bays, 3 Pre-installed Fans with Side Fan Mount Option

Pros: lots of room, TONS of ventilation. awesome price. the removable dust screen tray for bottom mounted PSU fan is a nice feature, allowing me to mount the intake fan downward so it isnt sucking hot air from inside the case. also has foamy dust filters on the front bay drive blanks.

Cons: no controller for case fans, and no switch to turn off the fan LED light. plastic thumbscrews are cheap, but once your computer is put together i guess you don't need to access it much. cable for the front panel audio was way too short, i was unable to plug it in (header on my motherboard is located at the bottom end of the board with the other headers, but at back of the case).

Overall Review: all of the included HDD brackets were set to the right-mounted position. they are convertible to left-mount with some effort. removing the pins was easy, setting them back in the other holes was a bit of a challenge. with so many spares, it would have been nice to a couple sets of brackets preset to left-mount position.

nice graphics, a little noisy under load

ZOTAC AMP! GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card ZT-50302-10M
ZOTAC AMP! GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card ZT-50302-10M

Pros: great price, already overclocked for folks like me that are nervous about doing that stuff themselves.

Cons: the fans can spin up pretty loudly when i'm playing a game. the graphics keep up tho.

cables a bit short for bottom install

Rosewill Green Series RG700-S12 700W Continuous @40°C,80 PLUS Certified,Single 12V Rail,ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91,SLI Ready,CrossFire Ready,Active PFC"Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply
Rosewill Green Series RG700-S12 700W Continuous @40°C,80 PLUS Certified,Single 12V Rail,ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91,SLI Ready,CrossFire Ready,Active PFC"Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply

Pros: 80+ at a great price, good quality, neatly bundled cables.

Cons: cables to power the motherboard were a bit short. i had to run my two 4-pin connectors over my VGA card to get them to reach - they were too short to go around the motherboard at all.

Overall Review: would definitely recommend this for a case where the power supply is top mounted. the shorter cables would be just perfect for that. for bottom-mount like my case, its tight.