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Brian M.

Brian M.

Joined on 12/25/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 19
Most Favorable Review

Excellent Video Card for the price

ASUS GeForce GTX 970 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Graphics Card STRIX-GTX970-DC2OC-4GD5
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Graphics Card STRIX-GTX970-DC2OC-4GD5

Pros: Going from two 670s in SLI to a 970. Popped the card in last night and I am very impressed so far. Noise/Cooling: If noise is the biggest factor for you, then buy this card. It is without a doubt the quietest card I have ever owned. The fans will not start spinning up until the card hits around 60C. Some may see this as a negative thing. Because of this, the card will idle around a warm 45C... The heatsink is massive, so when the fans do start spinning up, it doesn't take more than around 1000rpm to keep the cards cool, so it is still quiet even under load. Overclocking: Overclocked the card to 1300MHz with no problem at all and I am sure it could easily push 1400+ Games: Started BF4 for a quick test and at max settings with a few options turned off it sat at a constant 200FPS and I was very impressed. I am going to test out Shadow of Mordor tonight which is said to require 6GB of VRAM.. Tests were ran at 1920x1080 @ 120HZ Aesthetics: This card looks really sexy, I really like the black and red look. It even includes a backplate

Cons: Size: Not really a con for me because I am using an 800D but this card is HUGE. Compared to my 670s, it is like another 2 inches longer. There is a slight whine coming from the coil which is my biggest gripe with this card.

Overall Review: I did a lot of research on this card and after reading all the reviews online I deciced to go with ASUS. My past cards have always been EVGA but after all the problems I have been reading with the ACX cooling I decided to go with ASUS and could not be happier.

Most Critical Review

Good Soundcard, Bad software

Creative Sound Blaster Z PCIe 116dB SNR Gaming Sound Card with 600 ohm Headphone Amp and Beamforming Microphone
Creative Sound Blaster Z PCIe 116dB SNR Gaming Sound Card with 600 ohm Headphone Amp and Beamforming Microphone

Pros: -Huge improvement over any onboard audio you will find -Great sound quality -Looks pretty -Good price

Cons: After about 3 months of usage, I experienced some software failures. I would boot up the PC and Windows would not recognize the card, and the creative software also would not recognize the card. I had to reinstall all of the software and drivers to get the card functioning again. I also have random times when Windows will stop recongizing the card and I will just have to reboot.

Overall Review: For audio equipmet I use the following: Speakers: Corsair SP2500 Headphones: Steelseries Siberia V2s The sound card makes movies, music, and games sound much better than onboard audio on both devices. But the software problems have been frustrating, I would have rather spent the money and went with the ASUS Xonar..

Great monitor for the price

Acer G6 Series G246HL Abd 24" Full HD 1920 x 1080 5ms 60Hz VGA DVI Slim Profile Widescreen White Backlit LED LCD Monitor
Acer G6 Series G246HL Abd 24" Full HD 1920 x 1080 5ms 60Hz VGA DVI Slim Profile Widescreen White Backlit LED LCD Monitor

Pros: Size: Thin and light, around 8 pounds Brightness: Extremely bright with vibrant colors. Price: Picked this up for 140$, excellent price in my opinion for the quality of the product.

Cons: Blue power light is very bright, may be annoying to some. Color settings out of the box are horrible, but this can easily be fixed with some tweaking. I have another acer monitor with the same stand and it sucks. It only tilts like 15 degrees. I have them both mounted though so it is not a factor for me.

Overall Review: Have this monitor mounted on a stand, looks beautiful without the stand that comes with it. I got this monitor so I could have 3 in total. I did not want anything fancy, I just needed more screen space. All in all, this is a great everyday use monitor.

Amazing PSU

CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850 W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply
CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850 W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: -Bought this PSU well over 2 years ago and it is still running my gaming PC flawlessly. -80PLUS Gold -Quiet, I can't even hear it running -Fully modular, only use the cables you need for your system, this is a great spave saver -Beautiful PSU with rock solid build quality

Cons: None whatsoever

Overall Review: You know you are getting a quality product when you unbox a corsair power supply. The packaging for this PSU was simply amazing. The powersupply comes in a cloth bag and the cables come with a nice pouch too that I use for holding computer parts. I bought the individually sleeved cable kit from Corsair which is an awesome addition to this already excellent PSU. I reccomend the cable kit offered by Corasir. I am running overclocked dual 670s and an i72600K overclocked to 4.5GHz and this thing has power to spare.

Great set of Speakers

Corsair Gaming Audio Series SP2500 High-power 2.1 PC Speaker System
Corsair Gaming Audio Series SP2500 High-power 2.1 PC Speaker System

Pros: -HUGE Subwoofer with great bass -Comes with great preprogrammed EQs -Desktop remote is very convienient: lets you control volume, sub gain, EQ -Sound from speakers is very crisp -Great for music and movies as well

Cons: None

Overall Review: I have had this set of speakers for over a year and have not had any problems with them. I am using this set with a Sound Blaster Z which makes the sound quality even better, not to say that the sound quality without them is mediocre ( which it isn't). This system can get LOUD!! And the system itself is really sexy.

Awesome CPU for the price

AMD A4-5300 - A-Series APU Trinity Dual-Core 3.4GHz (3.6GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 65W AMD Radeon HD 7480D Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic - AD5300OKHJBOX
AMD A4-5300 - A-Series APU Trinity Dual-Core 3.4GHz (3.6GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 65W AMD Radeon HD 7480D Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic - AD5300OKHJBOX

Pros: -This is an awesome CPU for the price you are paying -Integrated graphics

Cons: None, got exactly what I expected.

Overall Review: Using this CPU to run my Linux server. The included CPU cooler is nice and quiet and keeps the CPU at reasonable temps. Have not had any issues thus far. Sid note: if using the included CPU cooler, I recommend removing it and applying your own thermal paste. But this is the same with the stock coolers that come with any CPU in my opinion.