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Brian O.

Brian O.

Joined on 07/15/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Very Nice HTPC

AMD Athlon 5350 - Athlon Kabini Quad-Core 2.05 GHz Socket AM1 25W AMD Radeon R3 Desktop Processor - AD5350JAHMBOX
AMD Athlon 5350 - Athlon Kabini Quad-Core 2.05 GHz Socket AM1 25W AMD Radeon R3 Desktop Processor - AD5350JAHMBOX

Pros: This processor works very well in the living room. I use it for DVD, Blu-ray, online video streaming from several services, and music. The TV it is hooked to is a 720p television (32" in Sony). I may have seen the system stutter once or twice in a couple of weeks worth of use, but only at the beginning of whatever I am watching. The system pretty consistently runs at about 20-30 celsius. and it's really quiet. I expect that my power bill will be lower, but that remains to be seen.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: The system is this processor, the Gigabyte GA-Am1m-s2h micro atx motherboard, and 4 GB of Crucial Ballistix Sport RAM. I am powering it with an old Antec True power 430 watt PSU, which is totally overkill but also what I had laying around

Sapphire does it again

SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 570 8GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 11266-78-20G
SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 570 8GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 11266-78-20G

Pros: - Powerful enough for gaming needs - Reasonable Price - Fits in smaller cases - Only requires 1 Power plug - Two fan cooling

Cons: None so far

Overall Review: The card is good so far. Please note that we've only had it for a couple of weeks.

Works well

Ballistix Sport 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model BLS4G3D1609DS1S00
Ballistix Sport 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model BLS4G3D1609DS1S00

Pros: It works great with my AMD Kabini processor and Gigabyte Socekt AM1 motherboard.

Cons: None

This should have been a 5 egg review except for one thing

GIGABYTE GA-AM1M-S2H AM1 USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-AM1M-S2H AM1 USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Solid motherboard. Fits nicely in the gigantic case I have and runs very stabily. Good number of expansion slots and the correct number of I/O ports for HTPC. Seems to perform very well.

Cons: When you go to install the drivers, there is a bunch of G**gle software that automatically installs. This really ticks me off since I hate that company with a passion. I knocked off a full egg for the annoyance of having a toolbar, an internet browser, and a cloud drive program install without my permission that I then had to go and uninstall.

Overall Review: @Gigabyte: please quit saddling your driver disks with Crud ware.

this is a great processor

AMD Phenom II X3 740 Black Edition - Phenom II X3 Heka Triple-Core 3.0 GHz Socket AM3 95W Desktop Processor - HDZ740WFK3DGI
AMD Phenom II X3 740 Black Edition - Phenom II X3 Heka Triple-Core 3.0 GHz Socket AM3 95W Desktop Processor - HDZ740WFK3DGI

Pros: The processor is already fast at 3.0 Ghz. I unlocked the fourth core and it works perfectly. My system will run Crysis with all settings on high and no lagging so far. With the Thermaltake Maxorb it is running around 44 Celsius.

Cons: None yet.

Overall Review: video card Radeon 4890 4gigs of corsair XMS2 ddr2 800 MSI 790 mobo.

11/14/2010

Great Card

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 100269HDMI
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 100269HDMI

Pros: This card runs all games great; I have a monitor that supports 1680X1050 resolution so I don't know about any bigger resolution performance.

Cons: None so far

Overall Review: I have a full tower case so size was not an issue nor is heat; the card runs in the 60's (celcius scale) no matter what I am doing. I could see the card getting hot if someone tried to cram it in some tiny case with a rats nest of wiring and no fans; lesson here: clean up your wiring and buy some fans before you complain about heat issues.