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Noah T.

Noah T.

Joined on 02/13/04

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Most Favorable Review

Runs at CL14 3800mhz on AMD 5600x for a 1:1:1 ratio.

G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 4266 (PC4 34100) Desktop Memory Model F4-4266C16D-16GVK
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 4266 (PC4 34100) Desktop Memory Model F4-4266C16D-16GVK

Pros: -Runs at or above rated speeds. -bios picked up their rated speed out of the box no issue surprisingly at 4266mhz / 1.45v. -Best price I could find at this performance class. -Was able to hit 3800mhz CL14 for 1:1:1 ratio on a 5600x, with 1.48v on the memory. -Aida64 Memory Bench gave me 58k read and 51ns latency (great for ryzen).

Cons: -Barebones Packaging -Advertisement for Intel in product name could be misleading, as they work the same on AMD platforms; potentially turning away AMD buyers -I wasn't brave enough to bump the voltage on this memory over 1.5 to see if I could get CL13 or CL12 at 3800mhz.

Overall Review: Memory worked as advertised, and was extremely forgiving when pushing timings and subtimings. The new ryzen cpus are limited by the infinity fabric, and anything out of 1:1:1 sync suffers terribly in a variety of metrics. Knowing this ahead of time, I was really looking to buy a better kit so I could try and achieve CL14 at 3800mhz 1:1:1. There isn't a good guide on how to set the timings and subtimings for CL14 @ 3800mhz so it took some research trial and error, many bios resets, and a lot of patience but I believe I was able to squeeze almost everything out of this spectacular kit. I had to bump my kit up to 1.48v in bios to get CL14 to stick, otherwise I had to reset the bios due to memory failure at bootup. I would recommend this product to anyone running a 3xxx or 5xxx series AMD ryzen cpu if you want the most possible performance available today on the platform. Not sure how this kit performs on Intel so best of luck to you. I'm adding a screen cap of the Zen Timings for prospective buyers if you want to try your kit at CL14 3800mhz. I've manually adjusted almost every subtiming available to further improve performance. Unless dropping to a preposterous CL12, it doesn't get much better for new ryzen cpus.

12/27/2020
Most Critical Review

Drive Died after a month

OCZ Vertex LE (Limited Edition) 2.5" 100GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-1VTXLE100G
OCZ Vertex LE (Limited Edition) 2.5" 100GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-1VTXLE100G

Pros: Drive is extremely fast and hits all advertised speeds.

Cons: Drive failed after a month of regular Use. Bios had trouble recognizing it occasionally and would require multiple restarts to pick it up for booting Windows. Eventually the drive just died and can no longer be identified in bios at all. This happened after a normal manual shut down of Windows 7 the night prior. High price (paid $429) at launch. Packaging doesn't include mounting brackets.

Overall Review: I was extremely hesitant switching to a SSD after hearing some horror stories about having drives die after a month with important data on them. This is exactly what i had feared when purchasing this drive. Before installing i spent hours on the OCZ forums to make sure i knew everything NOT TO DO so that my drive didn't die. It didn't even matter. This was my first OCZ purchase and now i'm stuck with a Dead drive and the fear of replacement parts that will have the same fate. I have read countless people that have had these Limited Edition drives die. This is a very expensive SSD and to have a product with such a high failure rate is absurd. BUY WITH EXTREME CAUTION

Good case for the price

Metallic Gear Neo-G Mid-Tower ATX, Decorative Tempered Glass Front Design, 2x 120 Digital RGB Skiron Fans, D-RGB Controller, Black
Metallic Gear Neo-G Mid-Tower ATX, Decorative Tempered Glass Front Design, 2x 120 Digital RGB Skiron Fans, D-RGB Controller, Black

Pros: -Great looking case for an entry level build. -Really well thought out cable routing options. -Nice RGB element compatible with motherboard headers that support full sync. -Pretty good value at this price point for what you get. -Option for at least a 240 rad mount at the top of case

Cons: -Some of the materials are pretty thin and bend easily. -bent several pieces in the back of the case during installation due to their thinness.

Overall Review: Had a great experience building my son a new pc with this case. Everything worked as advertised, and made the installation a breeze. The number of cable hiding routing options is really well thought out by their engineers. You get a very clean, professional build when finished. I knocked off an egg due to some of the materials being barely adequate due to their cheap, thin nature. I'm sure this helped bring down the price but it shows when working with it. I would recommend this case to entry level system builders looking for a decent case with RGB at a good price.

12/27/2020

Works as expected

ARCTIC MX-4 (4 g) - Premium Performance Thermal Paste for all processors (CPU, GPU - PC, PS4, XBOX), very high thermal conductivity, long durability, safe application, non-conductive, non-capacitive
ARCTIC MX-4 (4 g) - Premium Performance Thermal Paste for all processors (CPU, GPU - PC, PS4, XBOX), very high thermal conductivity, long durability, safe application, non-conductive, non-capacitive

Pros: -keeps your cpu a few C cooler than standard thermalpaste

Cons: -I have a fond memory of using AS-7 for almost a decade in the last 00s but decided to finally change it up. I feel melancholy over the decision.

Overall Review: Easy to use, and tube contains enough for several builds. By my estimates 10+

12/27/2020

Pump either fails during use or never works at all - uses some awful AM4 mount hack job

Thermaltake TH120 ARGB Motherboard Sync Edition Intel/AMD All-in-One Liquid Cooling System 120mm High Efficiency Radiator CPU Cooler, CL-W285-PL12SW-A LGA 1700 Compatible
Thermaltake TH120 ARGB Motherboard Sync Edition Intel/AMD All-in-One Liquid Cooling System 120mm High Efficiency Radiator CPU Cooler, CL-W285-PL12SW-A LGA 1700 Compatible

Pros: -Cheap price for RGB. -Hooked up all the RGB elements into motherboard and they synced perfectly. -Packaging was sufficient to prevent damage during transit.

Cons: -AM4 Kit is some old hack job where you still have to remove all the mounting from a mobo and attempt to hold the TH120 mounts on both sides of the motherboard together while using a screwdriver to assemble the unit. Virtually impossible for a single person to do safely. Even tricky for two people to do. Other mounts for this pump may not be as difficult to assemble properly. -Pump didn't work first several times we booted the pc. Windows kept crashing to a hard power down. -After ruling everything else out, and testing every piece of the computer on a different machine, we looked at the temps in windows before it would crash, and saw temps eclipsing 100*c, as high as 112*c. -Could have damaged or destroyed expensive hardware like the cpu and motherboard. -After remounting several times (again, extremely awful AM4 mounting kit), the pump would kick on occassionally for a minute or two here and there, before turning off and causing the system to overheat and crash. -Over fears of hardware being destroyed, and deciding it had already been damaged more than enough for my comfort to keep testing this broken pump, we took it off and put the stock cooler on, again having to put the original motherboard mounting hardware back on. -0 issues with heat or crashes with stock AMD hsf. -Only a single small picture is devoted to the installation of the unit on the motherboard, yet they have a full page spread for the RGB element. No notes on how hard to mount it, specific installation advice, or anything other than a basic diagram of all the parts.

Overall Review: I received a defective unit that could have potentially damaged or destroyed my motherboard and processor being used in this build. Worst experience I have ever had with a cooling unit in over 20 years. It's really unfortunate because I had great results with some of their air cooling heatsinks in the past. They typically have a great price to performance value. No clue how my unit passed quality control. Having seen AM4 advertised in their mounting options, I figured it would have the convenient two clip method for plug and go installation most respectable manufacturers include in their products. Instead it was some backported draconian method that could easily lead to damage of your motherboard if not done precisely. The RGB on the fan and pump weren't very bright, but were able to be synced with motherboard headers for full support where applicable. Unfortunately I can't recommend this product to anyone looking for an affordable rgb closed loop setup due to the defective pump that typically never worked, or turned off shortly after powerup. If you value the investments you made in your hardware, stay away from this product. For someone less familiar with the ins and outs of pc building, you could easily fry your motherboard or cpu if you get a similar defective device as mine. I will be returning this product for the reasons listed throughout this review.

12/27/2020

It's 144hz and inexpensive, if you're on the fence just buy it already!

Acer Gaming Series KG241 Pbmidpx 24" Full HD 1920 x 1080 1ms 144Hz DVI HDMI DisplayPort AMD FreeSync Built-in Speakers WideScreen LED Backlit LCD Gaming Monitor
Acer Gaming Series KG241 Pbmidpx 24" Full HD 1920 x 1080 1ms 144Hz DVI HDMI DisplayPort AMD FreeSync Built-in Speakers WideScreen LED Backlit LCD Gaming Monitor

Pros: 144hz

Cons: None.

Overall Review: Bought this for the gaming rig I put together for my son. Coming from playing fortnight on xbox one X at 60fps, moving to 144fps blew his mind. Other games like CSGO really benefit from higher refresh rates. Unless you're a professional gamer, no reason to buy more than 144hz right now. It's the sweetspot, and at 1080, it's not going to break the bank buying a cpu/gpu combo that can push those frames in competetive fps games. I love acer monitors, they are by far the best value you can find right now for pc gamers.

12/15/2020