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Jason E.

Jason E.

Joined on 11/14/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 22
Most Favorable Review

Excellent Cooler

be quiet! Pure Rock 2 FX CPU Air Cooler | Black ARGB Air Cooler | LGA 1851 1700 1200 2066 1150 1151 1155 2011(-3) Square ILM Compatible | Intel and AMD AM5 AM4 CPU Cooler | 150W TDP | BK033
be quiet! Pure Rock 2 FX CPU Air Cooler | Black ARGB Air Cooler | LGA 1851 1700 1200 2066 1150 1151 1155 2011(-3) Square ILM Compatible | Intel and AMD AM5 AM4 CPU Cooler | 150W TDP | BK033

Pros: I'm comparing to the cooler master hyper 212, as it's a cooler that i've used alot. This cooler far exceeds the hyper 212. The tower is staggered away from the ram, so there is no issue with the push fan hitting the top of your ram. There is no springs on the mounting screws, so you don't have to apply a ton of pressure to get it to mount. Cooler looks great, uses existing amd backplate (cooler master replaces it with a plastic piece), and light wings fan is quiet while looking stylish. Assembly was a breeze. I'd buy this over the hyper 212 again!

Cons: The fan mounts are the one downfall IMO. It's wire that stretches over and sits in the fins of the cooler. if it's not mounted just right, it bends the fins easily. I haven't really seen a fan mounting system that blew me away tho, so I'm not knocking an egg off for it. If i'm looking for a plus for the fan mounting system, it definitely holds them firmly.

Overall Review: Buy this cooler. You won't be disappointed. Also, no problems with shipping from be quiet!. Arrived quickly.

great board, worked with 5600G

GIGABYTE B550M AORUS PRO AM4 AMD B550 Micro-ATX Motherboard with Dual M.2, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0
GIGABYTE B550M AORUS PRO AM4 AMD B550 Micro-ATX Motherboard with Dual M.2, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0

Pros: solid construction, lots of fan headers for a micro atx board. i'm writing this review to address concerns i had when ordering it. i didn't know if i would have to update bios to work with ryzen 5 5600G. gigabyte's website specified F13 bios was needed for it. board shipped with F10 and it recognized it with no update. i was concerned i'd have to update bios and didn't have a previous gen cpu to put in, which is why i went with this board and it's ability to update bios with no cpu installed. i didn't have to use this feature, but it's nice that it comes with it if needed.

Cons: none so far, i will update my review with any issues.

Overall Review: i've only owned this board for a week or so, so i can't vouch for longevity. i did want to clear up concerns that i had for anyone else hoping to pair new ryzen 5000 apu's with it. bios itself is set up nicely, xmp is in the "easy mode" screen it starts you on, so i didn't have to dive further into advanced settings.

12/10/2021

Good all around case

Corsair Carbide Series 100R Silent Edition CC-9011077-WW Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (Power Supply Not Included)
Corsair Carbide Series 100R Silent Edition CC-9011077-WW Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (Power Supply Not Included)

Pros: Well constructed, comes with 2 fans preinstalled, more than enough room for a micro atx build, dust cover for bottom mounted psu, and doesn't seem flimsy to me.

Cons: I'm knocking an egg off because of the lack of cable management space in this case. There are a decent number of cable routing holes on the sides of motherboard. However, there is no hole up top to route the 8 pin cpu cable, so I had to cross the whole mobo with the cable. With the bulge that Corsair has on the sides of this case, I figured there would be ample room for tying up cables and hiding extras behind mobo, but that is not the case. I couldn't comfortably fit any cables when they were ziptied to the tie down points on back of mobo tray. I'm using an EVGA 500w bronze psu, so cables have a mesh coating that makes them a little harder to give, but they aren't that much thicker than other brands. It almost gave me the impression that the case wanted to look like cable management was possible, but once you start building, you realize that wasn't going to work. Maybe i'm being a little too picky, but i would expect better cable management on a case over $50, especially a case from Corsair. I have built systems in other cases in this price range that utilize their case space much better.

Overall Review: Even with the cable management issues, i would still recommend this case. I'd almost go as far as saying a modular psu is a must if you don't want a cluttered looking build. Also, I can't speak for how well the fan controller works, because I removed it so I didn't have to hide more cables. It is very easy to remove (only 2 screws), and the hole it leaves is an inch by half an inch big. The positioning of the controller makes routing the cables to hide them impossible (no top holes where 8 pin would go), so I'd rather have a small hole that's easily hidden vs. more wires to deal with.

GREAT case

NZXT Source 530 CA-SO530-M1 Matte Black Steel / Plastic / Mesh ATX Full Tower Computer Case
NZXT Source 530 CA-SO530-M1 Matte Black Steel / Plastic / Mesh ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: solid build quality. side panels aren't thin metal, they feel very sturdy. all corners rolled, no sharp edges. plenty of options for fans / water cooling. more HDD cages than i'll ever use (not a bad thing) that can be removed with thumb screws (thank you NZXT!) for simple modification. bottom mounted PSU spot has rubber standoffs so PSU doesn't sit directly on bottom. plenty of cable routing holes (no grommets, see cons). one thing that i really liked is the front panel doesn't have the front usb/ power cords directly connected to it, so even after i did all my cable management and installed front fans after, i wasn't fighting cables tied to the front panel. tons of dust filters. all hardware came individually packaged by size! and there were atleast 20 zip ties in the accessories, which i was very happy about, considering most companies ship a case with 2 or 3. back has atleast an inch of space to stuff all your extra cables out of sight. and there are plenty of tie down points to anchor said cables. included fan header on back is a nice touch too, although your fans will be running at full rpm if connected. all front header cords are more than long enough to route behind case for a clean look (usb 3.0 looked to be almost 2 ft long). I/O light on back of case is a GREAT simple addition

Cons: no grommets on the cable management holes. i won't knock off any points because of it, but i figure it would be easy to include them. front dust filter can't be cleaned without removing front panel, but there is one, so again, can't knock it too much. only two fans, but this is stated on specs.

Overall Review: this is one of my favorite cases for the price. i love NZXT quality! if every customer i had gave me a good enough budget i'd build in this case every time. Build: AMD 6 core with hyper 212 evo (push/pull) asus m5a97 r2.0 evga gtx 960 SSC 8 GB gskill ram 240 GB samsung 850 evo 4 140mm cougar vortex HDB fans (best fans i've found!)

updated review, still highly recommended

Rosewill - LINE-M Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case - Dual USB 3.0 Ports, Dual Fans Included, Supports Up to Four (4) Fans and Up to 12.5" VGA Cards
Rosewill - LINE-M Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case - Dual USB 3.0 Ports, Dual Fans Included, Supports Up to Four (4) Fans and Up to 12.5" VGA Cards

Pros: i have already written a review on this case, but I have noticed a couple of things and decided to write another updated one. First of all, I am still giving this case 5 eggs. The amount of features, such as USB 2 and 3.0, not being too thin metal, and actually being wide enough to be able to mount 92mm heatsinks (i used silverstone AR02 on all 4 of my builds with this case) and the included fans that are enough for every day usage for most people, this thing is a great case. It also comes with plenty of extra screws and hardware, which isn't the case with alot of products in this price range. The instructions aren't extremely detailed, but diagrams and instructions that they include is enough to understand what is supposed to be mounted where.

Cons: In the instructions, which must have been updated since the last time I bought this case (probably about 8 months ago), it tells you the SSD should be mounted at the bottom and the mechanical HDD to be mounted under the DVD trays. this poses a few problems. first of all, if you are using an aftermarket cooler with push/pull, you have no room to get the SATA and power connectors on the mech HDD and still use the push fan. also, the rubber grommets on the bottom of the case are meant for mech HDDs to dampen sound and vibration, so why would Rosewill suggest installing an SSD on rubber mounts when they make almost no vibrations? i tried to do it the way Rosewill suggested, but without ample room to connect power/SATA, I moved mech HDD to bottom mount where I have always installed it in my last 4 builds. All of my other builds in this case didn't include a second drive, so with this newest build I also had an SSD. What I ended up doing was using velcro and mounting it at the bottom of the 3.5'' HDD cage(under DVD drives), which worked and gave me more than enough room to get power/SATA connectors to it without being to close to my push fan.

Overall Review: This case has almost NO cable management to speak of, but again, for the price and all the other features you get, I don't feel it's right to knock an egg off even for that. If you do your research first, and know that there won't be any huge graphics cards or other products producing massive amounts of heat, this is a GREAT case for building a great pc. I put APU's in mine, so the only piece of hardware that produces alot of heat is the cpu, and with the right cooler, you won't have any overheating problems. I highly recommend this case

great mobo

MSI A78M-E35 FM2+ / FM2 AMD A78 (Bolton D3) USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
MSI A78M-E35 FM2+ / FM2 AMD A78 (Bolton D3) USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: paired with an amd a8-5600k and gskill ares 1600 mhz ram. didn't need to set xmp profile for ram, it recognized correct speed. bios is easy to navigate for the most part. booted up with not a single issue. i've been a big fan of msi mobos for apu builds, they are solid and priced great!

Cons: OC genie doesn't work as intended. tried to use it with my a8-5600k, it told me it wasn't a compatible processor. i'm not taking any eggs off for that tho, because it's not a necessity since i'm building it for someone who won't use a quad core to it's fullest potential anyway. i was a little disappointed in sata port locations, they will be at the bottom of your case, so all satas will have to be long enough to reach your whole case length. the 2 included were long enough for my micro atx case, so again, no eggs off for it

Overall Review: for the price, i will definately buy this mobo again. it has all the features i need for entry level builds, and supports great ram speeds if you need it!