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Logan S.

Logan S.

Joined on 08/21/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 19
Most Favorable Review

"Technically" supports AM4

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler, 4 CDC Heatpipes, 120mm PWM Fan, Aluminum Fins for AMD Ryzen/Intel LGA1200/1151
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler, 4 CDC Heatpipes, 120mm PWM Fan, Aluminum Fins for AMD Ryzen/Intel LGA1200/1151

Pros: It's a big block of metal. Simple design and cheap but it works well. Included fan is alright It's not too loud and it gets the job done. Included thermal paste comes in a syringe rather than preapplied. I also appreciate the extra hardware for mounting your own CPU fan or doing a 2-fan arrangement.

Cons: The listing and box claim AM4 motherboard compatibility. However this actually requires a separate AM4 bracket that is not included in the box. Wish they had mentioned this earlier. The scissor bracket which binds the block down to the CPU die is a bit finicky and allows the block to wiggle a bit even under tension, which seems less than ideal.

Overall Review: Overclocked Ryzen 7 3800X stays under 65 C at full load with this cooler so it performs well enough for me. Knocked off an egg for misleading me about the AM4 bracket not actually being included.

Most Critical Review

Decent case BUT the front panel gives me grief

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)

Overall Review: Building in this case is fine, there's the usual room for pretty much whatever. Looks nice for an office or sleeper gaming PC. Quiet. Airflow is a bit restrictive since there's no option for a top fan and no mesh on the front, just a solid metal panel with some grills on the side. There's some kind of issue with the front panel USB ports not being properly grounded, apparently? About 10% of the time when I plug something in the front, the PC shuts down instantly. Sometimes it resets the BIOS when this happens. I don't fully understand since I verified that the USB IO shield has a positive trace to the ground pin on the power supply plug. Whatever the cause, it's really annoying.

Finally I can actually print things using this printer that I paid money for

Limeink 8 Pack Compatible PGI-35 & CLI-36 Ink Cartridges (5 Black, 3 Color) Color Set Use for PIXMA iP100 PIXMA iP110 Series Printers 1509b002 1511B002
Limeink 8 Pack Compatible PGI-35 & CLI-36 Ink Cartridges (5 Black, 3 Color) Color Set Use for PIXMA iP100 PIXMA iP110 Series Printers 1509b002 1511B002

Pros: - It's compatible. I haven't seen the "Incompatible cartridge detected" error, which ironically I have seen before from genuine Canon tanks. - It's cheap - It gets the job done

Cons: None so far

Overall Review: I was a bit hesitant to buy off-brand cartridges, worrying about either poor color quality or the chance of being blocked by "Ink DRM". But I was absolutely fed up with the overpriced genuine product (especially compounded by the _miniscule_ tank capacity of the iP110), so I took the chance and bought these. And....I'm satisfied. They work fine so far. No errors or problems with installation. The print quality is OK - haven't actually done a side-by-side comparison, but color photos look and behave as expected. In all respects they behave just like Canon tanks only at a fraction of the cost.

ViewSonic PJD7828HDL DLP Home Theater Projector 3200 Lumens 1080p HDMI
ViewSonic PJD7828HDL DLP Home Theater Projector 3200 Lumens 1080p HDMI

Pros: Clear picture. Bright. Fairly quiet fan. Zoom is handy to have for filling your entire screen frame. Projects on our 100 inch home theater screen just beautifully. Eco mode is barely a step down in brightness which seems a fair trade for supposedly double the bulb life. Advanced color and brightness controls are there but I haven't fiddled with them too much. Built-in speaker is adequate for most movies and games.

Cons: A few rare instances it took a few attempts to turn it on, reporting a vague "Lamp error" before finally working properly. One day it kept showing "high temperature" warnings in the corner which went away when I turned off Eco mode. Presumably, Eco mode also lowers the fan speed (?) and it wasn't smart enough to counter that when the bulb got hot, which seems strange.

Overall Review: The only thing I think could be improved here would be better contrast, but that's not to say that it's bad to begin with. I haven't touched any of the fancy 3D features so I can't say anything about those.

Fantastic performance

Intel Core i7-4790K - Core i7 4th Gen Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1150 88W Intel HD Graphics 4600 Desktop Processor - BX80646I74790K
Intel Core i7-4790K - Core i7 4th Gen Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1150 88W Intel HD Graphics 4600 Desktop Processor - BX80646I74790K

Pros: I designed my system with the intent to use it for video editing/encoding and running emulators, both of which require very high single-thread performance. So far I have been completely satisfied with the fantastic performance of this processor.

Cons: It's hot. Realllllly hot. I have a 1-rad closed loop liquid cooler (a Seidon 120M), and when the CPU is under a load above 50-60% the temperatures will jump to about 65C. It works, and 65 is still tolerable, I'm just saying to make sure you get a good cooler if you want a quiet system, and it's ABSOLUTELY necessary if you intend to overclock.

Awesome for everything

SAMSUNG 850 PRO 2.5" 256GB SATA III 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7KE256BW
SAMSUNG 850 PRO 2.5" 256GB SATA III 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7KE256BW

Pros: Lightning fast, compact, does everything I want it to do.

Cons: Filling it up above 85-90% capacity causes some performance issues, but that's true with basically any SSD so it's not surprising