cover
Clare M.

Clare M.

Joined on 12/21/09

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Good Value

AMD Athlon II X2 245 - Athlon II X2 Regor Dual-Core 2.9 GHz Socket AM3 65W Desktop Processor - ADX245OCGQBOX
AMD Athlon II X2 245 - Athlon II X2 Regor Dual-Core 2.9 GHz Socket AM3 65W Desktop Processor - ADX245OCGQBOX

Pros: Excellent performance, stable, cool, quiet. Good for medium range gaming and excellent for HTPC's and everyday computing.

Cons: Not free.

Overall Review: Easily takes a 10% overclock without voltage increase. Furthermore the temps will barely rise 2C over those at stock speed.

Excellent card

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity     (100315L )
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity (100315L )

Pros: -Card is quiet enough up to ~60% fan speed. -It runs very cool (idles @ 32C and typically stays below 60C when gaming. -Overclocks very easily. -Well designed cooler -Good value for money -Only requires one 6-pin 75W PCI-E power connector as opposed to 2

Cons: -Once you pass 70% fan speed it is no longer silent at all (but this isn't entirely surprising).

Overall Review: You want to overclock this card. You can easily bring the core clock up to 900Mhz and memory up to 1100Mhz (from 775Mhz and 1000Mhz) without increasing the voltage and without changing load temps significantly. It can be overclocked quite a bit more if you are experienced (950Mhz core and 1200Mhz mem) although I suspect that it might start to run very hot without proper case air flow.

Good card

MSI GeForce 8400 GS 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile Ready Graphics Card N8400GS-D256H
MSI GeForce 8400 GS 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile Ready Graphics Card N8400GS-D256H

Pros: Works flawlessly right out of the box. Fan-less cooling means no noise.

Cons: Heatsink is quite small which leads to high temperatures unless case is very well ventilated.

Overall Review: Good cheap card for HTPC or mainsteam PC. I recommend it if you want to spend as little as possible.

Value

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT

Pros: Stable, easy to install, and runs very well. I didn't have problems at all.

Cons: No heatspreaders.

Overall Review: I am extremely pleased with this memory. It handles overclocking extremely well considering the lack of heatspeaders.

Excellent mid-range card

XFX Radeon HD 4770 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card HD-477A-YDFC
XFX Radeon HD 4770 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card HD-477A-YDFC

Pros: Runs very cool and there is a lot of room for overclocking. The power draw is very low making it extremely efficient.

Cons: The fan can be irritating, it speeds up and slows down constantly until it finds a good fan speed to run at.

Overall Review: With enough overclocking it can yield better framerates than a stock HD 4850.

Flawless

MSI 770-C45 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
MSI 770-C45 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: The motherboard ran flawlessly from the get-go. For the price you can't go wrong. I also managed to do some nice overclocking with this motherboard. Simple and effective BIOS.

Cons: The Easy OC switch is improssible to access once you install a dual-slot video card. Then again it is somewhat useless...