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Matthew J.

Matthew J.

Joined on 12/22/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 16
Most Favorable Review

Great Card

SAPPHIRE 100281SR Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity
SAPPHIRE 100281SR Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity

Pros: Super fast, spent all night maxing out games that I played on medium with my 3870. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky runs smooth as butter. Can't wait to try Dirt 2.

Cons: HUGE, I had to do a lot of rearranging to get this to fit. Its the size of a schnauzer. Search AMD.com for the latest graphics driver, don't worry about the CD.

Overall Review: If you have a 4xxx series, or a gtx 2xx series, you might want to hold off until this card drops in price or a better version comes out. As for me I was a couple generations behind and this card blow me away.

Most Critical Review

Really Great Monitor - Just one BIG hitch

ASUS MS238H Glossy Black 23" Ring stand & Ergo-fit LED backlight LCD Monitor  Slim Design 250 cd/m2 10,000,000 :1 (ASCR)
ASUS MS238H Glossy Black 23" Ring stand & Ergo-fit LED backlight LCD Monitor Slim Design 250 cd/m2 10,000,000 :1 (ASCR)

Pros: I really love this monitor, its got amazing contrast, and the black levels are incredible. The size is perfect for gaming, and it is great on power consumption.

Cons: Now I knew the stand adjustment was limited, and my complaint isn't with that. My issue that I've found is that I like to slouch a bit and my monitor sits on a tall desk. I didn't think this would be an issue because my 24" Imac sits the same level and I have it tilted up slightly too. The problem lies in the viewing angle. For some reason as you get further down, the monitor develops a yellowish tint. They whites are no longer white. This is strange because on my mac the whites become slightly dulled, but not "colored". I am hoping I can adjust the saturation and contrast to a point where this is a limited issue, but so far it is just not usable for design work.

Overall Review: If you are going to keep this on a low desk, or even on a level desk and you are slightly taller (I'm 5' 10"), then this is an excellent buy. If you are used to other LED's with excellent viewing angles and need something viewable from a higher point look else where. I'm really disappointed, because I want to love it so much.

12/22/2009

Night and Day difference over stock cooler

ARCTIC Accelero TT II VGA Cooler - nVidia & AMD, Dual Quiet 92mm PWM Fans, SLI/CrossFire
ARCTIC Accelero TT II VGA Cooler - nVidia & AMD, Dual Quiet 92mm PWM Fans, SLI/CrossFire

Pros: Made a huge difference for an air cooler. Went from running basically a hoover vacuum that came with my 5870 to a whisper quite fan. I mostly just bought this for the quietness, but didn't realize the huge temperature difference it would make. My reference cooler would run at about 65% and hit temps near 70° C. I set this fan at 40% and temps stayed well under 50° C during an hour of BF4. For a cheap price I'll be able to keep my 5870 for at least another year, which is what I was going for.

Cons: The instructions aren't all that descriptive, but that's because it works for a lot of different graphics cards. I don't recommend using "pliers" to squeeze out the epoxy, as it comes out quick and easy.

Overall Review: There are a lot of great community made videos/instructions on how to put this cooler on various cards. The part that was hardest for me to understand was the "insulation tape". Basically it just needs to be put around the VRam, so the heat fins don't touch any metal. Like everyone else says, give it a day for the epoxy to bond before you seat the cooler. I really bought this to reduce the "hoover" noise from reference, and didn't realize how huge of an impact on cooling it would make. I highly recommend this if heat/noise is the only thing holding your card back from newer games. I can play BF4 on my 5870 at "mostly" high settings maintaining a 60 FPS, so there really wasn't any reason for me to upgrade the whole card.

11/14/2013

Low Quality

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 500GB USB 3.0 Ultra-Portable Hard Drive (Black)
Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 500GB USB 3.0 Ultra-Portable Hard Drive (Black)

Pros: Cheap Storage

Cons: Not durable at all.

Overall Review: I used this quite a bit and the speeds were alright, but after 2 months of use it slid from my couch to the carpet (about 10 inches) and refused to work again. Really disappointed, and lost a lot of work. Won't buy seagate again.

love it

BELKIN BE112230-08 8 Feet 12 Outlets 3780 Joules Surge Protector with Telephone and Coaxial Protection
BELKIN BE112230-08 8 Feet 12 Outlets 3780 Joules Surge Protector with Telephone and Coaxial Protection

Pros: I love this. I bought one of these with a gift certificate, and another on sale. These are great performers and the length is more than adequate.

Cons: None

Overall Review: If you need to bridge a long gap and have lots that need plugged in (home theater) get this!

11/12/2010

Good if it works...

Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC32G1333ELK
Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC32G1333ELK

Pros: Bought a 4 sticks about a year ago and they worked great, still do!

Cons: Just bought added a pair to an order so it would bring it over $1k for 12 months no interest. New pair won't let my computer boot without crashing. Took me a while to figure out too, because I bought some other components and "knew" these worked before. Also I looked and the heat sinks are placed on a little differently on each stick. Not sure which way is supposed to be proper.

Overall Review: It seems patriot has some quality issues, but as long as yours aren't defective out of the box they will last you a while!