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Michael N.

Michael N.

Joined on 01/30/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 13
Most Favorable Review

Great Power Supply!

EVGA 700 GD 100-GD-0700-V1 700 W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Non-Modular Active PFC Power Supply
EVGA 700 GD 100-GD-0700-V1 700 W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Non-Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: Looks pretty handsome for what it is. Cables wrapped nicely. Quiet and cool, handles my Ryzen 5 3600 with Radeon 5700 XT and all the drives and USB devices just fine.

Cons: For the price? None. I didn't need a modular supply because I plan on looking at my monitor and not the inside of my case.

Overall Review: Would definitely recommend this PSU to anyone in the market for one. 700W should give almost any PC a good amount of overhead, so the PSU can stay efficient and cool.

12/16/2019

Fast and cheap

Team Group MP34 M.2 2280 1TB PCIe 3.0 x4 with NVMe 1.3 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) TM8FP4001T0C101
Team Group MP34 M.2 2280 1TB PCIe 3.0 x4 with NVMe 1.3 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) TM8FP4001T0C101

Pros: Very reasonably priced for what it is. I've put this in my new build and am quite happy with it so far. Noticeably faster than a SATA SSD. So far, I'm glad I gave this off-brand sounding manufacturer a chance.

Cons: at ~$100 a TB for this kind of speed? None.

Overall Review: I have a second M.2 that I'm not using, if I ever fill up this drive, and PCIx 4.0 drives remain expensive, I'd definitely buy a second one of these.

12/16/2019

Surprisingly good

ROCCAT Isku FX USB Multicolor Gaming Keyboard
ROCCAT Isku FX USB Multicolor Gaming Keyboard

Pros: I wanted to replace my ancient G15 when I built my new gaming rig, but I didn't have much budget left over for doo-dads. I went to Best Buy but they didn't seem to have the selection of keyboards they used to, and I didn't want a boring one. So I took the plunge and got this even though I was skeptical about the brand and the almost too good to be true price. I was pleasantly surprised. Overall, it looks pretty sharp for the price. The driver is very full-featured with a ton of customization options, but you have to D/L from their site, no CD comes with. You can create profiles to make it behave differently for different programs. The ability to make the keys light up in any color and brightness you want is pretty cool. The keys feel good to the touch and have good feedback. Physically the keyboard is very low profile and pretty light, but sits solidly on my desk, I don't have to chase it around. The hand rest on the bottom is very solid and nothing jiggles or rattles on it anywhere. I didn't really care for the three thumb buttons under the space bar when I ordered it, but they are very useful and have a good solid feel to them. I thought they'd be chintzy and easy to misclick from the picture, but they're well positioned and require some force to press.

Cons: The only real con I would give it is that the lighting on the number keys on the keyboard doesn't seem to cover the symbols on top completely. On mine, they sort of fade out a little near the top and it looks like the keys have dirt on them from a low angle. When looking directly down at the keyboard you don't notice this as much. Still, if they told me they could fix it, I wouldn't bother sending it back it's so minor, so not worth knocking an egg off. Another thing could be that all the non-key lights are deep blue, which I personally like, but might clash if you want the keys a different color than blue. But I'm really stretching for cons here.

Overall Review: The guy who said the narrator for the driver software sounds like George Carlin was spot on. I giggled at that myself. The logo looks a lot like the Thundercats logo , which could be good or bad depending on your world-view of Thundercats.

Great Stuff

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-8GBXM
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-8GBXM

Pros: I can't believe I got RAM this fast and pretty for about $10 a Gig. The heatsinks look and work great, and the timings are really tight.

Cons: Did not jump into the motherboard by themselves when I opened the package. Really none that I can think of.

Overall Review: I really do like to peek into my rig and look at them sometimes :)

Solid CPU

Intel Core i5-4690 - Core i5 4th Gen Haswell Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1150 84W Intel HD Graphics 4600 Desktop Processor - BX80646I54690
Intel Core i5-4690 - Core i5 4th Gen Haswell Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1150 84W Intel HD Graphics 4600 Desktop Processor - BX80646I54690

Pros: I'm writing this review based on my experience with this CPU, and not on my irrelevant observations on the x86 processor market, or Intel's corporate management. This is a real solid CPU for my new gaming rig. 4 real cores, with no hyperthreading hokum, decent on board graphics (so I can keep my desktop on one monitor and not bother the GPU as I game on another), and all the benefits of the haswell / series 9 architecture. Can hit 3.9 Ghz for single threaded stuff with the turbo boost. If overclocking is important to you then wait for the K part. Personally I think chips this well built in a gaming box, it's a waste of electricity and only good for showing off. Paired with a good GPU this thing rocks, the 4 cores give you extra horsepower if you need to do real work with it as well.

Cons: Locked multiplier makes it less future-proof, but my vision for the future includes me having $224 in my pocket to buy the next generation of chip rather than throwing power and fans at ol' bessie to try and get her to keep up, so not much of a con for me really. I wish Intel would knock a few bucks off and keep their stock cooler.

Overall Review: I miss AMD

Runs like a champ!

ASUS G Series 17.3" Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 6GB DDR2 Memory Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
ASUS G Series 17.3" Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 6GB DDR2 Memory Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Pros: Great performance in a good looking package.

Cons: Doesn't vacuum the room like a Roomba?

Overall Review: Took this out of the box, booted it up, put in the password for my wireless router, and was up and running. It's been running great ever since and is a nice unit for gaming. No complaints. Onboard mousepad works better than most, and I like the way it looks.