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Greg W.

Greg W.

Joined on 12/30/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 32
Most Favorable Review

Great Board

GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3 AM3 AMD 770 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3 AM3 AMD 770 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Fast. Supports SATA 3 and USB 3.

Cons: The SATA 3 sockets are at a right angle to the board, making it tricky to insert the cable.

Overall Review: When using DDR3 at 1333 or above, go into the BIOS and turn up the memory voltage. My OCZ memory (OCZ3P13332GK) requires 1.8 volts. This is not something that the motherboard can auto-detect. At the default 1.5 volts, Windows will lock up after a few minutes.

Most Critical Review

Flawed

Rosewill RC-103 - 4 + 1 USB 2.0 PCI Adapter (Four External + One Internal Ports)
Rosewill RC-103 - 4 + 1 USB 2.0 PCI Adapter (Four External + One Internal Ports)

Pros: - Price. - Requires no drivers on Win10.

Cons: Sound is terrible when I connect my external USB audio device (Schiit Modi). Pops and crackles. I don't have this problem when I connect it to my motherboard's USB. Both are USB 2.0, 3.0 is not required.

Bluetooth not functioning

MSI PRO PRO X670-P WIFI DDR5 AM5 AMD Ryzen™ 7000 Series SATA 6Gb/s ATX Motherboards, Wi-Fi 6E, 2.5G Network Solution, Frozr AI Cooling.
MSI PRO PRO X670-P WIFI DDR5 AM5 AMD Ryzen™ 7000 Series SATA 6Gb/s ATX Motherboards, Wi-Fi 6E, 2.5G Network Solution, Frozr AI Cooling.

Pros: - Price - Runs G.SKILL F5-7800J3646H16GX2-TZ5RS at full speed (7800)

Cons: - Bluetooth adapter not functioning. Windows 11 never sees it. MSI support admitted it was probably defective but offered nothing in recompense. - Some random SATA device resets, although this seems to have cleared up. - Extremely slow for BIOS to start posting, like 30 seconds. Ridiculous. - No PCIe 5.0 slots. - Can't use 4th M.2 and bottom PCIe slot at the same time. - Win11 does not have the ethernet driver built-in.

Overall Review: When I was putting on the chipset drivers, I think Win11 may have been trying to install updates at the same time. Try to avoid that. Also, Win11 sucks.

12/14/2023

Doesn't support Win2016

AMD RYZEN 3 2200G Quad-Core 3.5 GHz (3.7 GHz Max Boost) Socket AM4 65W YD2200C5FBBOX Desktop Processor - Retail
AMD RYZEN 3 2200G Quad-Core 3.5 GHz (3.7 GHz Max Boost) Socket AM4 65W YD2200C5FBBOX Desktop Processor - Retail

Pros: - Cheap

Cons: - No drivers for Win2016 - No hyperthreading

Overall Review: Tried to build a cheap web server, totally wasted my money.

The clear choice

ASUS 28" 60 Hz TN UHD 10-bit Color Monitor HDMI/MHL, DisplayPort PB287Q
ASUS 28" 60 Hz TN UHD 10-bit Color Monitor HDMI/MHL, DisplayPort PB287Q

Pros: - Price. I shopped around a lot, looking at every model on the market. For price and performance, this one stood out. - Great picture. - Not a single dead pixel, just like my last Asus monitor which lasted 7 years and was still going strong.

Cons: - It is a TN panel and not IPS, but that would drive the cost way up.

Overall Review: To get 60 Hz refresh, you must use a DisplayPort 1.2 cable. Make sure the monitor is set for DisplayPort 1.2. Windows 7 has poor support for high DPI setting, which is required if you want to be able to read the text. Windows 10 is much better, although some third party programs are a bit buggy at high DPI. I set my DPI to 250%. Use a warm color balance to avoid the eye strain caused by strong blue light.

Great cooler

MSI Core Frozr L 120mm Hydro-Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooling
MSI Core Frozr L 120mm Hydro-Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooling

Pros: - Easily keeps my Ryzen 1800x cool. - Fan is whisper quiet.

Cons: - Quite a bit of assembly required. You must remove the motherboard's bracket and assemble a custom one for the Frozr. Took about 30 minutes.

Overall Review: This thing is very large, but had no trouble fitting on an ATX board. A Mini-ATX might be pushing your luck.