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Kevin H.

Kevin H.

Joined on 03/16/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 8
Most Favorable Review

Great Performance with Bargain price

RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Power Supply, New Version with Build-in LED Fan On/Off Switch
RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Power Supply, New Version with Build-in LED Fan On/Off Switch

Pros: 20a + 17a on the dual +12v Rails! Good power for my system. Semi-Modular, and plenty of molex, 4x SATAs! SLi Ready (not for 8800 series SLi, but more than sufficient to power a single tho), quiet single 120mm cooling solution. Stable voltages, readings are 3v = 3.28, 5v = 5.07, 12v = 12.14. CHEAP!

Cons: not much info can be found about this PSU unit, no reviews, not listed on raidmax's site. but i cannot name anything bad for the unit itself.

Overall Review: Time will tell how good this is. Intel e4300 @ 3.4 @ 1.55v, wintec ampX PC6400 2x1GB dual channel kit @ 944mhz @ 2.1v, Asus P5B-E rev 1.01g, evga 8800GTS 320mb 600/1000, 2x Maxtor 7200 harddrives, 2x plextor optical drives, 6 Fans, 4 cold cathode tubes. This PSU is enough to power all that without a hitch so far.

Most Critical Review

Not quite there

Rosewill Stallion Series 500W ATX12V Gaming Power Supply - RD500-2DB
Rosewill Stallion Series 500W ATX12V Gaming Power Supply - RD500-2DB

Pros: cheap for dual +12v rails, pretty looking, sleeved cables, plenty of connectors, decently lengthed cables. fairly quiet. somewhat stable voltages.

Cons: starts making crackling sound when my system is at load. maybe build quality? maybe defective? maybe not made for my system? but i would think 500w with those amps are good enough for this system.

Overall Review: e4300 @ 3.3ghz 1.45v, ampx 2x1GB ddr6400 @917mhz 2.1v, asus p5b-e 1.01g, evga 8800gts 320mb 600/1000, 2x 7200 maxtor hdd, 1x optical drive, 6x fans, 4x cold cathodes

Great SSD contender from Corsair

Corsair Neutron Series 2.5" 240GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-N240GB3-BK
Corsair Neutron Series 2.5" 240GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-N240GB3-BK

Pros: Very consistant performance across the board in any situation. Very fast sequential reads, saturates the SATA3 6.0. Very low latency and access times. fast writes comes with a nice black brushed metal 2.5 to 3.5 adapter, with corsair etched on it. that's a 5 to 10 dollar value right there compared to others that dont come with one.

Cons: Not the cheapest drive around. Not a GTX, thus slower writes, but this isn't really a con, it's an option. New controller debut, potentially risky. No migration/transfer software included for those that need it, but this could be seen as a Pro or Con, as it can drive up the price if it did include one. No biggy for me 240GB is the biggest they offer at time of purchase, but im sure larger versions will be released later.

Overall Review: a Solid contender from corsair for sure. if you dont need the extreme write speeds (as in if you are not using any productivity software), get this over the GTX, and save yourself 30-40 bux. write speeds are still fast being a non-gtx model compared to competition. extremely consistent performance compressible or non-compressible. Personally i think it's priced just right for it's class of performance.

Great cards for SLI

EVGA 04G-P4-3673-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW+ 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
EVGA 04G-P4-3673-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW+ 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Pros: Full Length 680 PCB 4GB VRAM 95% Performance of a 680 Great overclocks on both core and mem I was able to OC my cards to 1300mhz core on both and 3400 mem on both, I can go higher, but haven't done extensive overclock yet. Best bang for you buck if you plan on going SLI with 4GB for nvidia surround resolutions. looks GREAT with waterblocks since they are on 680 PCB, not like the reference 670s my SLI setup pulls 21000+ graphics score in 3DMark11 (about 16000p score, but irreverent because of CPU)

Cons: If I really have to FIND a con, then it'll be that its somewhat expensive, but it's worth it. 4GB VRAM overkill for single card setup, especially single 1080p monitor, as these cards STILL dont have enough horsepower (single gpu) to really utilize the 4GB anyways. $500, 680 vs 670 4GB? Bottom line: single card setup, get 670 FTW 2GB sli setup with multi monitors, get 670 FTW+ 4GB Yep, that's right, 680 is not in either of those scenarios. Easy choice, unless you are a hardcore benchmarker where synthetic scores matter.

Overall Review: I original had a single 670 FTW 2GB, and went 3x monitor setup, it still a GREAT GREAT card, but i felt like i needed some more horsepower to compensate for the drop in framerate switching to that high of a resolution. So to future proof myself for nvidia surround, i sold the 2GB FTW and went with 2 of these 4GB version for SLI. now you may ask, why would i pay 500 bux for a 670 when i can pay the same and get a 680? simple, 4gb vram, for 95% of it's performance. wanna go 680 SLI? sure.. ok that'd be roughly 5% faster, but what if the game demands 2.1GB for buffering, AA and textures. all the sudden your 1000 dollar gpu setup just became unplayable with sutter. want 680s with 4gb? cough up 600 bux for a single card. 3570K @ 4.7Ghz Asus Sabertooth z77 Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) 1866 2x EVGA 670 FTW+ 4GB in SLI Corsair 700D Chassis Corsair AX850 PSU XSPC RASA CPU Block 2x Watercool Heatkiller GPU-X Ni-Bl 680 Waterblocks w/ polished Backplates 3x Asus VH238H Monitors

iHAS124-04 B confirmed

LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model iHAS124-04
LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model iHAS124-04

Pros: for those who are wondering if this is rev B. here it is folks, straight from the drive's label: Manufacturing date: July 2011 Model: iHAS124-04 B

Cons: i'll have to find out

10/18/2011

Impressed

ASUS GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card ENGTX470/2DI/1280MD5
ASUS GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card ENGTX470/2DI/1280MD5

Pros: Very fast, GREAT looking with the carbon fiber pattern. Plays Crysis warhead and Bad Company 2 on max with 4x AA smoothly. Easily overclockable. Asus's comes with voltage adjustment for even greater OC.

Cons: a bit warm, but not HOT by all means. i set my fan profile to about 1% fan load to 1 degree celcius. after an hour of bad company 2, card never gone above 70 (at 70% fanspeed). fan gets loud above 75%, but not an issue if you set your profiles to your preference. power hungry, but hey it's fermi power.

Overall Review: on a core2 Quad @3.2ghz 4gb 1066 pc p&c 1kw sr so far so good.