Joined on 12/06/07
Great Video Card, Good Price
Pros: - Great performance - Reasonable temperatures - Quiet enough - Plays VR games well
Cons: - Plastic backplate is kinda cheap - I don't much care for the placement of the 8 pin connector as it is about an inch from the back edge of the PCB - HDMI port in the middle of all the DP connections is a bit odd
Overall Review: I'm quite pleased with this card. It was a great upgrade from my older RX 470. Newer games are running a lot smoother at max settings in 1080p and certain VR games that were barely playable on the RX 470 are flawless now. The only problem I'm having isn't even the fault of the GPU. Oculus's software is just old enough that the 5600 XT isn't on the hardware whitelist so I keep getting told that my system with a Ryzen 5 1600 (the AF version with a 3.8GHz overclock), 16 GB DDR 4 3200, this great GPU, and tons of RGB isn't up to the minimum hardware requirements. I snicker when I see that but frown after because that dumb banner with the unnecessary notification is in the way when I'm using the Oculus software. I know some reviewers found this card loud and hot, but I haven't seen that. Temps are reasonable and fan noise is audible and noticeable, but I've not at any point even noticed it while gaming. I've actually been pretty happy as it is quieter than most of the video cards I've ever owned.
Very nice case
Pros: This case is pretty nice for the price. It has lots of fan mounting locations, some tool-less drive brackets, reasonably length on the cables. It has enough space for most all video cards.
Cons: It's a low end case so I'm not taking eggs off but you should know that there are some downsides. The side pannels are reasonably sturdy but the metal on the back is pretty thin. It bends easily. There isn't an SSD mounting point. It only comes with a front fan.
Overall Review: Overall this case fits my needs pretty well and looks good doing it. I added a rear fan and it fits everything I wanted. It has reasonably good airflow. I needed a bracket for my SSD but other than that my build went pretty easily. There is an included tool for tightening down the mobo mounts as well. More mounting point holes would have been nice but what is there should mount most ATX boards.
Great cheap PSU
Pros: 80 Plus Bronze, modular, good amount of power for the price, quiet, has pretty blue lights
Cons: Nothing. What isn't to like?
Overall Review: I'm using this in what I call a mid range energy efficient gamer. It is supporting an i5-4590S, R9 270X, Crucial MX100 SSD, Seagate 500GB, DVD Burner, and WACOM Intuos 3 tablet. This thing seems to have plenty of power to spare. That is more than I can say for my old system that the DVD drive would loose power if I plugged in the WACOM tablet. That was a 530W Antec with a Phenom II 945, Radeon 4890, Intel SSD, and 3 HDDs. Overall this is a great upgrade and uses half the power.
Great mid-range card
Pros: Good looking in my case, runs every game I've thrown at it at full settings 1650x1280. Just to note the most visually demanding game I play is probably Skyrim.
Cons: It seems a little excessive that it needs 2 PCI-E power connections but it wasn't a deal breaker with my PSU.
Overall Review: The card is reasonably sized, looks nice, and runs pretty cool. I've had a few small glitches on Fallout 3 but I think that is more the game than the card. Haven't seen any other problems on any games. This card seems to be a good balance with a high range i3 or a low to mid range i5.
I'm a fan
Pros: It blows air out the back of my case.
Cons: It doesn't give me a disco strobe effect.
Overall Review: Paired with the stock Intel CPU fan and the pre-installed front fan in my case this thing is great. My i5-4590S doesn't hardly heat up and the 270X gets a little warm but the Sapphire cooler is pretty good on it's own. As a result the internal temperature of the case is just about even with the room temp even in the most demanding games.
Excelent CPU
Pros: This is a very good CPU for the price. It's fast and uses less power than it's normal 4590 counterpart.
Cons: I haven't found a problem. I guess I'm disappointed that it doesn't light up and sing rock ballads. That isn't enough to drop an egg though.
Overall Review: You don't loose much (if any) performance over the normal 4590. This CPU will turbo all cores to 3.7 GHZ. It's really quite impressive. It is also a very cool running chip. I haven't seen the CPU fan go above idle for any games I've played.