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Clint T.

Clint T.

Joined on 06/06/08

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Most Favorable Review

Easily one of the coolest mATX cases available on the market!

Corsair Crystal Series 280X RGB CC-9011135-WW Black Steel / Plastic / Tempered Glass Micro-ATX Case Computer Case
Corsair Crystal Series 280X RGB CC-9011135-WW Black Steel / Plastic / Tempered Glass Micro-ATX Case Computer Case

Pros: +The fans are far more vibrant and mesmerizing in person than pics lead to believe. +This case housed a x399m Taichi board which has a Threadripper 2950x on it and 2 RTX 2080 Ti cards with a 1200 watt psu, need I say more!? It's an absolute Mini Monster!

Cons: The only real con is that it didn't support my ideal Wraith Ripper heatsink for the 2950x out of the box. No problem if you don't mind adding a custom cut acrylic panel on the side in place of the glass. Ok, maybe two. The video card bracket that screws in and secures the video cards seemed kind of wonky to me. It works, it just takes a little work to get it right. Well.. ok... one more super minor thing. They could have included spacers for the glass panels for those who are into extreme overclocking or crazy builds like I've done. It gets a little warm in there as a result but nothing a little height adjustment on the panels can't fix to allow some more airflow.

Overall Review: The website and specs list that it only supports a 180mm PSU in length (which concerned me because I needed the extra power) but clearly it has room for more. I decided to get a EVGA 1200 watt fully modular PSU and it fits just fine. I just wouldn't suggest shipping a machine like this fully built and once you know where you're going to place it in your office, room, desk... set it and forget it. It'll be an anchor once fully loaded, you don't want to go moving it around.

Cool for the price, decent for the sound...

SOMIC G926 PC Gaming Headphones, USB Headsets with HiFi Stereo Sound and Extra Sound Card
SOMIC G926 PC Gaming Headphones, USB Headsets with HiFi Stereo Sound and Extra Sound Card

Pros: Inexpensive with cool yellow LED rings on exterior Decent sound, about what you would expect with cheap headsets in its range Nice volume adjustment implementation dial and mic on/off switch

Cons: As with the majority of these headsets with built-in mics, it uses just an open pin hole to the side of the headset. With a small arm extension, could be considerably better but could also be worse. Not really great for music imo but since I use it specifically for games, doesn't matter.

Overall Review: For the price, aesthetics and sound, would buy again. MIC could be better but again, typical with headsets in this range. If you have a dedicated microphone anyways, it wouldn't matter.

The Perfect (or only) x399m mATX board out there!

ASRock X399M TAICHI sTR4 AMD X399 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
ASRock X399M TAICHI sTR4 AMD X399 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: +Supports the Massive Wraith Ripper Heatsink (and does not cover first PCIE slot!) +Overclocks the 2950x to 4Ghz stable across the board with ease! (1200 watt PSU) +Supports a Monstrous Duo of RTX 2080 TI video cards! (not SLi, used for rendering) +64GB of RAM support and 64PCIE lanes! +Insanely Fast Triple M.2 Slot RAID Support!

Cons: More precautionary than cons: -Will not install W10 without IOMMU disabled in North Bridge settings under BIOS even with latest 3.5 BIOS -BIOS reports higher CPU temps due to zero software efficiency for scaling down CPU -Manual states to use front audio jack for stereo-only speaker setup

Overall Review: Don't freak out like I did when seeing high CPU temps in BIOS, once you get into Windows everything is normal. Also don't panic like I did if you can't get Windows 10 to install due to hanging at the logo screen. See above and disable IOMMU if you can't get it to install. I seem to get weird static/noise when plugging a USB into the mainboard that's next to the audio output jack but I'm not sure if that's a grounding issue or if it's my speakers. The illuminated gear is cool and Dr. Debug is very handy in diagnosing issues. I changed some settings and the board wouldn't boot, cleared CMOS and back in business again. Instant BIOS flash was a breeze and worked as expected. Do note that the board ships with the processor overclock switch enabled. I disabled it immediately at first due to the erroneous CPU temps in BIOS but back to normal now at a solid 4Ghz. I would buy this board again, and again, and again.

Perfect Affordable General Use Desktop Speakers

Creative Pebble 2.0 USB-Powered Desktop Speakers with Far-Field Drivers and Passive Radiators for Pcs and Laptops (Black)
Creative Pebble 2.0 USB-Powered Desktop Speakers with Far-Field Drivers and Passive Radiators for Pcs and Laptops (Black)

Pros: +Dual Speaker Design (tweeter in front and mini-sub in back gives you wider sound range) +Super Affordable +Ultra Compact +Aesthetically Pleasing and Well Designed

Cons: Less about Cons and more about being made aware of: -Cannot disconnect cables / 3 cables coming out of one speaker but you set it and forget it so it doesn't matter in the end. -Requires both USB and Audio Jack to be plugged in (power and sound) but works as expected and shouldn't be a problem.

Overall Review: Highly recommended for your average, typical use desktop environment that goes above the puny speakers built-in to most TVs around the 24" range (for the sake of comparison). They're not monsters but for $25, it's a very well rounded package both performance and design-wise that looks good, sounds decent and doesn't break the bank in the end. Smaller than I thought they would be judging from the picutres but that's not a bad thing and is preferred.

ITX Gaming Goodness!

MSI Z97I GAMING ACK LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
MSI Z97I GAMING ACK LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Compact Design and Layout for enormous heatsink support with video card installed! Rock solid stability OC 4790k @ 4.5Ghz Wifi and Bluetooth built-in M2 underside SSD Support Premium board with extensive OC features

Cons: Pricey for an ITX board -but it is a premium package DDR3 and USB 3.0 instead of the current DDR4 and 3.1 M2 only supports 2x instead of full 4x available 16GB Max Ram Supported

Overall Review: Overall, this is a prime piece of gaming real estate in an ITX package. Pair it up with a 4790k @ 4.5Ghz, 16GB of 2400 G.Skill and toss in a GTX 980 Ti and you'll be rocking solid for a long time to come, in 4K even. The extra premium features of having Wifi and Bluetooth built-in are convenient and nice but is preferable to have an updated version of this board that supports DDR4 and USB 3.1 - plus, while a M2 4x SSD underside is desirable for full speed usage, it's not exactly necessary. (I'm using a Samsung 850 SSD anyways so it doesn't really matter much for my personal build.) Little things aside, this board is a solid performer and I plan on using this platform for future builds.