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Andrew D.

Andrew D.

Joined on 02/01/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 15
Most Favorable Review

Nicest looking budget case I've seen

Rosewill NAUTILUS ATX Mid-Tower Gaming PC Computer Case, Supports: 240mm Liquid Cooler & 380mm VGA Card, 3 Pre-installed Fans, Steel Airflow Mesh, Side Panel Window
Rosewill NAUTILUS ATX Mid-Tower Gaming PC Computer Case, Supports: 240mm Liquid Cooler & 380mm VGA Card, 3 Pre-installed Fans, Steel Airflow Mesh, Side Panel Window

Pros: - Low price! I picked this up for $36 with free shipping. - Looks great. Has very nice fit and finish with a good amount of features for this price point. - Love the fact that it still has a drive bay for us nostalgic gamers. - Decent cable routing options. - Decent dust filtration for PSU and front intake fans

Cons: - not perfect, but no real cons for this price point.

Overall Review: - A bit noisy without a motherboard that supports all your fans since it doesn't have much for sound dampening. I suggest picking up a fan controller if you want to keep it somewhat quiet. - Not a lot of room behind the motherboard for routing and storing cables. If you don't have a modular power supply, you'll end up bundling cables under the HDD bays, otherwise you won't be able to get the back panel on. - Since there aren't rubber grommets in the routing holes, look for a PSU that has nice black cables to get the most out of the clear side window. - I used this case to refresh an 9 year old build. It had an old Athlon Dual core and two NVidia GPU's in SLI. This case really made it look awesome.

11/23/2016

Fantastic RAM

G.SKILL Flare X (for AMD) 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Memory (Desktop Memory) Model F4-2400C15D-16GFX
G.SKILL Flare X (for AMD) 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Memory (Desktop Memory) Model F4-2400C15D-16GFX

Pros: Worked out of the box and set to appropriate speed and timings automatically when paired with the ASRock B350 Pro motherboard. I've bought a lot of RAM from G.Skill and will continue to do so because of their reliability and broad compatibility.

Cons: Doesn't light up like Christmas time...if that's your thing...

Overall Review: None

Great overclocker for a budget gamer!

AMD Athlon X4 860K - Athlon X4 Kaveri Quad-Core 3.7 GHz Socket FM2+ 95W Desktop Processor (BLACK EDITION) - AD860KXBJABOX
AMD Athlon X4 860K - Athlon X4 Kaveri Quad-Core 3.7 GHz Socket FM2+ 95W Desktop Processor (BLACK EDITION) - AD860KXBJABOX

Pros: - Overclocked to 4.5 GHz stable on a Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-D3H FM2+ motherboard using a DEEPCOOL GAMMAXX 400 air cooler. Single core performance better than FX chips from all benchmarks i've seen, only bested by the Athlon 845, which isn't overclock-able. - Pairs very well with my R9 270 graphics card - Plays all games I've tried running on Windows 8.1

Cons: - none, unless you're expecting performance on par with a $200-$300 CPU

Overall Review: - Stock cooler will work fine for normal home/office use, but for gaming and overclocking, definitely purchase a good air or water cooler.

11/23/2016

Great Sound, Great Price

Creative Sound Blaster Z 70SB150200000 5.1 Channels 24-bit PCI Express (x1, x4 or x16) Interface Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster Z 70SB150200000 5.1 Channels 24-bit PCI Express (x1, x4 or x16) Interface Sound Card

Pros: This is a great sound card. Doesn't have all the frills of the other "fancy" gamer or recording artist cards, but if you just want good, clear, quality sound for gaming, watching videos and listening to music at a low price, this is the card.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: It's not a beautiful piece of hardware, so if you have a windowed case and want something flashy, get the gamer version of the card with all the LED's and frufru.

Average

Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 - Sleeve Bearing 120mm Blue LED Silent Fan for Computer Cases, CPU Coolers, and Radiators
Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 - Sleeve Bearing 120mm Blue LED Silent Fan for Computer Cases, CPU Coolers, and Radiators

Pros: Moves a lot of air, and keeps my system nice and cool. Looks pretty nice. Works good.

Cons: This is running at full RPM 24/7 because I didn't have an available fan header, and at max RPM it is annoyingly loud. I'm probably going to get a fan controller to manage all the fans more effectively for noise control. Fan has also begun to exhibit some vibration related noise, probably because of the higher RPM. I would probably recommend something with equivalent airflow at a lower max RPM, because it seems to me that this fan would still be a bit noisy even at lower RPM.

Overall Review: The LED's are placed in a way that makes it look cool, but it doesn't give off very much ambient light. so if you want a fan too help light up your case a bit, look elsewhere.

Big, Bulky and Brilliant

Fractal Design Define R4 Black Silent ATX Midtower Computer Case
Fractal Design Define R4 Black Silent ATX Midtower Computer Case

Pros: -Cable management is a breeze -Super quiet, tons of cooling potential -Build quality and features above expectation for price ($79.99) -Simple, effective, modern design that will satisfy the gamer and the home owner.

Cons: -Jumbo size, case is much bigger and bulkier than I expected, so make sure you have room for it, if I were to buy again, I think I'd drop down a size. - I would recommend getting some PSU cable extensions, especially if your secondary 4-pin MB power connector is located at the top left of the board.