Joined on 01/08/07
Samsung CHG70 Series C32HG70 32"
Pros: Good color, good refresh rates, easy set up, solid monitor stand that doesn't wiggle or threaten to tip.
Cons: As mentioned, the stands are DEEP. I actually went out and bought a new 36" depth desk just so I'd have room to use my keyboard and write. Would seriously consider a swing arm monitor clamp if new furniture isn't feasible , especially on a 24" depth desk. also you want your face to be at least 24" back from the beast. If you have a glass desk, be aware this is a heavy beast.
Overall Review: I originally matched this with a SAPPHIRE Radeon RX Vega 64. Unfortunately the card blitzed out and at the time the cost effective replacement was a MSI GeForce RTX 2070. I was worried about the match up, but Nvidia hooked up fine. The color options are good, and I see no tearing whatsoever whille playing. I have the 32" model and the curve actually makes sense . I will buy a second one of these soon so a dual setup. I love the thing.
good while it lasted
Pros: Was a very cheap Raptor Raid 0 with the sale price. Fast RW, good heat dissipation.
Cons: I'm just not lucky with my hardware for Raid 0, Third time I've tried a Raid 0 set up in 5 years, None made it to a year without a drive failure. On the plus side, it wasn't an expensive experiment. Plus I had data backup in place, so it was more of a grin and bear kind of moment.
Overall Review: HD failures are luck of the draw, I've seen drives last for years, while others die within 3 months. I just have a knack for buying the latter I guess. Always have data backup in place.
Perfect
Pros: I build desktops without writable media drives, as well as buying my laptops the same way. Upon occasion You still need to read CD or DVD media for some reason. Plug this in, good to go. works great for me, but I am a light user.
Cons: Micro USB cable that comes with it is really to short, I bought a longer one just to have some flexibility in positiong.
Overall Review: I would buy this again.
Great buy.
Pros: Solid ram, I bought 2 kits and set up a new AMD build for 64 gig . It passed an overnight run of testing without error and I run a work from home office and end up using quite a bit of ram with all the software opened and have had no hardware issues with it. I would buy this again.
Cons: No cons I can think of.
Overall Review: A note on a negative I see a lot of people post in memory reviews. The XMD setting on this is an overclock (1.35 volts). It will boot to default spec until you go into BIOS and set it to recognize and use the XMD setting, that is not a flaw, it is standard procedure.
Best SSd I've tried
Pros: Fast, faster than any SATA SSD. doesn't require a drive bay, and has been very stable for almost six months now. I plugged it in and my Mobo recognized it and my OS setup was without incident. windows did pull a driver in from the internet during the setup, so a connect might be prudent. Was a bit pricey, but on can feel a reel difference, my old SSD is relegated to a mirror drive now.
Cons: Does run warm, make sure you have good airflow in your case as the heat cannot be conductive to a long service life.
Overall Review: Soo as I can get a mobo that will let me run two of these in raid 0 at full bandwidth, I'm going to give it a go.
Ready to go on the first pass.
Pros: Took my time, installed 4 sticks of ram, CPU, Heat sink, Samsung 950 Pro before ever putting the mobo into the case. Stuck the current version of the Win 10 Pro ISO onto a USB, plugged it in and fired the up the power. Went to Bios, let it flash the current Bios, and then watched it go straight to windows setup and load. Surprised me how smoothly it went, even went ahead a set my ram to the SMP for me.
Cons: Bios is a twitchy when trying to tweak the voltages, tends to hardlock, I ended up using the software instead. going to switch BIOS this weekend see if that clears the problems. Board is stable other than that.
Overall Review: This is my first ASRock, it's too early to tell if I would buy another, but I must say that the setup process is very user friendly for a new builder. Good directions as well. I got it on sale for $179 and a $20 rebate on top, so really cannot complain.