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Nathan W.

Nathan W.

Joined on 06/02/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 10
Most Favorable Review

Excellent gpu.

EVGA 015-P3-1583-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) Black Ops Edition 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
EVGA 015-P3-1583-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) Black Ops Edition 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Pros: I've had this card for about two weeks now. I upgraded from a Sapphire 4890 1gig that was oc'd 950/1050. This card easily puts it in the dust. I rarely , and I mean rarely with precision see if breaking 50% usage in any game. Games played so far on this card. WoW 1900x1200 Ultra settings, 16,8x view max. V-sync on sits at 60fps no matter the area,usage varies from 20-45% fan speed doesnt get higher than say 50%. Temps are stable around 59-70 depending on action going on. *side note Nagrand is the only zone to test the card in game due to its fields of flowing grass, shadowy floating mountains * L4d2 -1900x1200 Max settings again. Vsync off- sits at 300fps, 60 on. Smooth as butter running around plastering zombies. temps max 70c Black Ops- 1900x1200 Max settings. Again sits at 60fps with vsync on temps dont ever go above 72c. The game itself is a bit hiccupy and buggy but plays great. Overall great temps and performance, drivers should only get better.

Cons: Price... nvidia cards are always freakin expensive..was 576.00 after tax and all that jazz...worth every penny, but UPS sucks at delivery..3 days shipping left on a Tuesday, should've got their friday..arrives next week..

Overall Review: System specs i7 920 3.6 6gigs mushkin ram evga x58 mobo 750 corsair tx Love this card.

Most Critical Review

Avg case

APEVIA X-Plorer ATXB8KLW-BL Black/Blue Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
APEVIA X-Plorer ATXB8KLW-BL Black/Blue Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Great looking case, loved the design.

Cons: Airflow. I thought my aftermarket cooler or TiM was bad. My idle core temps were in the mid 50's in this case. I even bought a 120mm fan and put 2 additional 80mm fans in the front of the chasis. Airflow just wasn't good enough for a heat machine like the 920. Also had some weird grounding issue like if you even tapped the case would cause the pc to shutdown..really weird. Needless to say I swapped the antec 900 temps went thru the floor and no more random power offs if I touch the pc case.

Overall Review: i7 920 2.66 corsair 750tx sapphire ati 4870 512 4gig mushkin ddr3 ram win32xp seagate bar 250gig 7200rpm zalman 9900 hsf/Antec 900

Solid Mobo

EVGA Z75 SLI - LGA 1155 Intel Z75 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Motherboard (131-IB-E695-KR)
EVGA Z75 SLI - LGA 1155 Intel Z75 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Motherboard (131-IB-E695-KR)

Pros: Enough ports,plugs to do what you need for a good setup. Booted up without errors first try. Able to use fast cpu's and the ram has quite abit of acceptable compatibility.

Cons: If your a crazy enthusiast who wants to put tons of hardware with this, might run out of ports after a few and placement of sata plugs run underneath a long GPU card etc.

Good when working

Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 2.5" 480GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDCR480GB-DX
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 2.5" 480GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDCR480GB-DX

Pros: Solid made, easy to put into case. Comes with a nice solid mounting bracket. When OS is installed into drive, loads incredibly fast. Games/applications all launch and run smoothly.

Cons: The issue I give a 2 and not a 5 is simple. First one died on me. Had to RMA. It would started vanishing from BIOS not showing up at all. Tested power supply cables, diff sata cables and ports. RMA'd and recieved the second one and it its done the same thing once so far. Showed back up after a power cycling. Unacceptable for the cost of these things.

Overall Review: Bios is up-to-date to latest for board. Going to try some more testing/trouble shooting but like another guy I suspect a horrible batch with this one. It was discontinued pretty fast off newegg.. EVGA 75sli Ivy 3770k Corsair 750tx EVGA 680 ftw 4gig Mushkin 8gig blackline 2133

Great card

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card 100269SR
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card 100269SR

Pros: Stock speeds of this card are great. Comes 850/975 , using ATI overdrive it boosted it to 990/1100, tweaked it down to 950/1050 and its running stable, no artifacts so far. Temps on stock idle around 51c-55c and go to 69c on load in Crysis:Warhead. When using my Oc profile I have the fan set to manual at 40% idle around 41c and loads so far 52c is the highest. As far as quality I went from a Sapphire 4870 512mb card to this one so I could play at higher resolution. Playin on 1920by1080. In WoW with vsync on sits at 60fps everywhere even in Dalaran lowest I've seen it go is 42 mainly bc its a crowded lil burg. Without vsync in Ulduar I can hit 240fps , but not like your eyes can tell anyways. I've got all the settings on Ultra. In crysis warhead I play on very high settings on same reso and FPS sit around 30fps everywhere. Gameplay is very smooth , no stuttery lag spikes or anything. I'm very pleased with how great the card is for the price.

Cons: Same as the one I sent back via RMA. This is my 2nd card, though this one isn't nearly as bad. Harmonic distortion. From the card it can produce a either humming or high pitched whine sound. This cards not nearly as bad as the first. Still annoying, but with the fan on 40% and my normal music goin I can't hear it. Thats the only con. I think sapphire made a bad batch or something. Still a great card and I'd recommend it.

Overall Review: Current system: I7 920 3.66oc zalman 9900 antec 900 mushkin 4gig ram xp sp3 corsair 750tx Sapphire 4890 1gig 950/1050c. I give props to newegg on the excellent RMA process was worried I'd be without the card for weeks, but took 1 week mainly bc UPS..ya 3day shipping haha. The tracking was awful didnt updated it till the day it arrived...a week later... If you get one that makes sounds and you can tolerate it I'd say yes. This card is nice. All the reviews in the world and benchmarks dont matter bc each card is gonna be a little bit different then the others on how it runs.

Rma'd

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card 100269SR
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card 100269SR

Pros: Great card runs fast, handles Crysis:warhead on 1900 reso at max settings with ease. idles at 50c, if you leave on auto fan control. Put it at 30% manual and the temp dropped to the 37c idle.

Cons: the only Con and why I'm rma'in it. Mine happens to have a harmonic distortion and it is driving me nuts.It gets louder when its under load. I'm talking its bad enough to give a headache. Didnt have this issue with 4870 512. So hopefully the replacement wont have this issue.

Overall Review: If the replacement doesnt have this I'll be redoin my review and bumpin to 5/5. The card is a beast, but the audible whine sound is to much, even with my antec case with all the fans in it. I7 920 3.6oc zalman9900 antec 900 mush 4gigs ddr3 xp sp3 corsair 750tx seagate 320gig hd 7200rpm