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Wendy H.

Wendy H.

Joined on 09/25/11

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 12
Most Favorable Review

Great CPU Overclocker

GIGABYTE GA-Z87N-WIFI LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-Z87N-WIFI LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Amazing CPU Overclocking (4670k at 4.8 Ghz stable, 5.1 Ghz validation) Beautiful BIOS The ability to make a custom tab in the BIOS is great. I have all of my overclocking settings in a single tab. Dual LAN if you need to bridge your connection through LAN Good integrated audio Never have to reset the CMOS when overclocking, failed boots are recovered and give you the choice between setting everything to default or entering the BIOS. Dual BIOS so failed flashes don't brick your motherboard

Cons: Control of fan speed is pretty basic.

Overall Review: This board was clearly designed with overclocking in mind. As a Mini-ITX enthusiast, I was skeptical of a Gigabyte Mini-ITX board being reviewed as having the best CPU overclocking in the lower price range (There are two highly expensive boards that probably overclock better but naming other manufacturers is not allowed in reviews)

10/18/2013
Most Critical Review

Only stable at 2200 Mhz

Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model 997123
Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model 997123

Pros: Completely stable at 2200 Mhz and standard voltage and timings. No high-profile heatsink Attractive heatsink

Cons: Can't post at 2400 Mhz (XMP, manual, with additional voltage to memory controller or DRAM, etc)

Overall Review: CPU: i5 4670K Motherboard: GA-Z87N-WIFI

Light, Thin, Slow, Amazing Sound

ASUS Laptop Intel Celeron 1007U 4GB Memory 320GB HDD Intel HD Graphics 15.6" Non-Touch Screen Windows 8 (64 bit) X502CA-RB01
ASUS Laptop Intel Celeron 1007U 4GB Memory 320GB HDD Intel HD Graphics 15.6" Non-Touch Screen Windows 8 (64 bit) X502CA-RB01

Pros: Extremely Light Thin ASUS's SonicMaster really is amazing. I've never heard any laptop even come close to the crisp, warm, and clean sound that this laptop can make. I really was blown away by it.

Cons: Slow. I can't even listen to music on Youtube or Google Music while browsing websites in other tabs without the music stopping or stuttering until the page is finished loading. It also took me about 4 hours on a 20 mb/s to update to Windows 8.1 The touchpad is awful. It's hypersensitive and yet somehow also poorly responsive. The left and right buttons are part of the touchpad, so you can't click on things without making the computer think you're trying to drag them unless you take your other finger off the touchpad. You could also just try to use that one finger to move the mouse and click, but the higher you go on the touchpad, the more force is required to click, until you get towards the top which can't click at all. It's absolutely silly.

Overall Review: Screen turned and stayed white on the second day of owning it, so I decided to return it instead of wait a couple weeks to get it replaced. Tech support was very professional and didn't try to push their service on me when I really needed a new laptop the next day.

190R 60W

SanDisk Extreme 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive SDCZ80-016G-A46
SanDisk Extreme 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive SDCZ80-016G-A46

Pros: 186.3 MB/s read and 60.79 MB/s write according to CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 4K R/W are 11.14 and 4.98, respectively.

Cons: Not sure why the package claims that it can read at 245 MB/s when it only claims 190 MB/s on Newegg.

Works as advertised.

VANTEC ST-530S3-BK Aluminum 5.25" SATA USB 3.0 External 5.25" Optical Drive Enclosure USB 3.0 External Interface
VANTEC ST-530S3-BK Aluminum 5.25" SATA USB 3.0 External 5.25" Optical Drive Enclosure USB 3.0 External Interface

Pros: Does actually operate at USB 3.0 speeds Solid design Everything fits correctly Somewhat attractive enclosure, certainly not a work of art

Cons: Paint scratches pretty easily Blue light looks dumb and is really bright

Best Budget Keyboard

LITE-ON SK-1788/BS Black and Gray 104 Normal Keys PS/2 Wired Standard Keyboard
LITE-ON SK-1788/BS Black and Gray 104 Normal Keys PS/2 Wired Standard Keyboard

Pros: Responsive PS/2 Attractive

Cons: None

Overall Review: This really is my favorite budget keyboard. I love using this for various builds when I can't use a nice mechanical keyboard.

10/21/2013