Joined on 03/12/13
The Honda Accord of motherboards
Pros: Everything you need and nothing you don't. This board is just like the more expensive model but a good bit cheaper. The VRM and PCI-Express layout is the same. You don't get the fancy heat sinks and all the RGB. Once you put on a tower air cooler and a 2.5 to 3 slot GPU you don't see most of that stuff anyway.
Cons: The baord came with a very old BIOS, update it right away or your memory training will take 3+ minutes. I don't care for the BIOS layout, but others like it. Just a preference thing. It's all there. The sound chip is a bit meh and the lack of audio ports on the back can be annoying for some. For me it's fine. I run my main speakers thru my GPU to my monitor with a 3.5 cable and use the audio ports on the back for a headset and mic.
Overall Review: If you're considering an AM5 based gaming PC and that's the focus, gaming. Get this. Do not spend more money on a different motherboard. You literally do not need to.
Great mouse, OK software
Pros: Extremely comfortable mouse to use withe either a palm grip or a claw grip. My grip is somewhat in the middle of those. The shape is extremely comfortable and all the buttons are within reach except for the sniper button. Lighting effects are good and you can do a lot with them in software. Connectivity options are fantastic, being able to use the mouse on it's 2.4ghz is superb but also having the ability to bluetooth and use a USB cable are great for this price range. The sensor is extremely accurate and you can adjust it within 1 dpi increments to really fine tune everything. Software can be configured to load certain profiles for certain games. Battery life is pretty good.
Cons: iCue can be a little finicky and hard to get used to, but once you learn all of it's nuances and how to really configure it, it's quite good. Which isn't a knock so much against the mouse as it is the software. The sniper button is an annoying spot. I don't play a lot of game that require so it's my primary push to talk for discord (mapped to tilde). It's generally easier to hit this with the index finger than the thumb. Crashing does occur and I had plenty of times when the profiles wouldn't work. Be nice if the battery wasn't built in. Means you can't replace it when the lithium loses it's ability to hold a charge.
Overall Review: This is a great mouse and I would recommend it for anyone with larger hands or likes to have plenty of options to configure buttons or for connectivity.
Excellent CPU cooler
Pros: *The majoirty of this review was done with an Arctic P12 Max fan instead of the stock Deepcool fan. Super easy to install. Keeps a 7800X3D at 36c to 38c idle, 50c to 66c during gaming (depends on the game) and 80 during a 30 minute cinebench run. Stock fan idle is closer to 40c. Quiet with the stock fan.
Cons: The cable length of the USB 2.0 and RGB header COULD be longer. One routed up and behind the motherboard tray there isn't much slack left at the bottom to plug in the 2.0 header.
Overall Review: It's a great cooler and I would recommend it. It's a better cooler if you replace the stock fan with a $10 Artic P12 max. More air at a lower RPG with less noise.
High failure rate
Pros: Quiet.
Cons: About all of them. Put three of these into an unRAID server at the end of April and 2/3 have failed in the middle of July. Toshiba warranty does not replace the drive, they just offer you a refund for "what you paid for it" or "the market value". Whichever is lower. Just as well, I suppose, Guess I can go buy some WD Reds.
Overall Review: Buy something else. Drives of this nature should not be dying after 3 months of use.
Great while it worked, which wasn't very long....
Pros: Excellent IPC uplift. Doesn't get hot. Cooler in the box is all you need unless you want to do something in particular.
Cons: Core 8 is dead on my PC. I've submitted an RMA with AMD and it has been the slowest experience I've ever had to deal with. I was getting constant BSODS on the Windows desktop at an idle and on stress tests core 8 and it's extra thread would sit idle. MemTest showed erros on "core 14", which is core 8 due to SMT. After a few different kits of RAM I would still get errors. Isolating MemTest to just Core 14 would cause an instant crash. I've sent this info to AMD on Sunday and was asked to send a screen shot of the error, I did so Monday morning and a few days later I have not heard back. I may be calling my credit card for a charge back as this is unacceptable. Also never hit the advertised 4.4ghz boost clock on a single core. I'm not sure what kind of opportunistic environment this CPU needs to do so but a Gigabyte X570 Master and a Corsair H115i RGB Plat with Kryonaut as the TIM couldn't get it past 4.35.....
Overall Review: It's an excellent CPU as long as you get a good one. I have to get my hands on another one sometime soon. I've already spent enough to buy into the AM4 platform on X570.
Constant BSODs and crashes
Pros: The RGB on these is pretty cool.
Cons: About all of it. Submitted an RMA with G.Skill twice and have yet to hear anything back.
Overall Review: Memory was used with a Gigabyte X570 Master with a 3700X. Memory would post and work fine at 3600mhz with the correct timings but after a week BSODs and crashes randomly started. Tested at 3600mhz, 3200mhz, 2933mhz, and 2133mhz (because why not). Tested each stick individually in each RAM slot also with the same results.