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Mathew S.

Mathew S.

Joined on 07/10/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 8
Most Favorable Review

Solid product and worth the price

CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850 W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply
CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850 W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: Over 90% efficient at half load, capable of handling all single-card and most 2-way SLI setups, solid build quality. No coil whine, high-quality cables, fully modular.

Cons: None worth mentioning.

Overall Review: The difference in power efficiency between my old Antec 480W and this unit is obvious. Before I was drawing ~430 at full load; this maxes out at 355. High build quality throughout, excellent product. It's unfortunate that others are getting coil whine, but their 7-year warranty should cover it.

Solid card, performs as it should.

EVGA GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 3GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Graphics Card 03G-P3-1584-RB
EVGA GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 3GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Graphics Card 03G-P3-1584-RB

Pros: Higher compute performance than Kepler-based GPU's, runs properly and never gets too hot under full load.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: It would rock if retailers still had these new because of their high compute potential in Blender, Adobe Premiere, and Adobe After Effects.

12/25/2013

Oh snap, had to RMA my first set

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2X1600C8B
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2X1600C8B

Pros: The sticks feel solid and the headspreaders are no joke. I felt the heat coming off of them during the burn-in phase, so I know the spreaders are doing their job. Feels like solid construction, so no worries there about getting flimsy hardware.

Cons: Unfortunately the first set didn't survive even 5 minutes of memtest before generating errors. Seems to only be 1 stick out of the pair with all of the issues. I had to remove an egg because these should have never left the factory. I'll get them exchanged today and we'll move on.

Overall Review: I'll write another review in a few months after we've put these through their paces, but I'm optimistic on how they'll perform. And finally these are sticks that will run at specified speeds.

Great heatsink...Difficult to Install

ZALMAN CNPS 9700 NT 110mm 2 Ball Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler
ZALMAN CNPS 9700 NT 110mm 2 Ball Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler

Pros: Cools very well. On an E6600 it keeps it 42C or below, never above. Is quieter than my power supply fan and graphics card, which is nice.

Cons: Pretty difficult to install. Be prepared to lean on the screwdriver to get the second clip screw in properly.

Overall Review: Just remember to assemble the backplate and front mount before you screw down the mobo. Other than that, the trouble to install it is worth it, it cools very well.

Solid Processor

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 - Core 2 Duo Conroe Dual-Core 2.4 GHz LGA 775 65W Processor - BX80557E6600
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 - Core 2 Duo Conroe Dual-Core 2.4 GHz LGA 775 65W Processor - BX80557E6600

Pros: Very stable processor. Excellent upgrade from Prescott P4. Runs cool @ 35C idle and 42C full load with Zalman cooler. I haven't overclocked it yet, but I've seen people get this up to 4GHz, but a 3.6 would be fine.

Cons: Unless yours shows up DOA, there are none.

Overall Review: Just align the tabs on the socket with the notches on the chip and installation is easy, like it always is. Very stable processor, does everything it says it does.

Solid Chip

Intel Pentium 4 524 - Pentium 4 Prescott Single-Core 3.06 GHz LGA 775 Processor - BX80547PE3066E
Intel Pentium 4 524 - Pentium 4 Prescott Single-Core 3.06 GHz LGA 775 Processor - BX80547PE3066E

Pros: Great processor that runs just fine. I'm not overclocking, so the stock HS and fan work without a problem. Much faster than my old-school 1.8 P4(and it should be.)

Cons: Nothing really. No heat problems, doesn't crash my system, works great.

Overall Review: Great price for a chip with this performance. I'd buy another one if I had the reason to.