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Diane D.

Diane D.

Joined on 12/22/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 9
Most Favorable Review

Fantastic Card!

XFX Radeon HD 5830 1GB DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card HD-583X-ZAFV
XFX Radeon HD 5830 1GB DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card HD-583X-ZAFV

Pros: Overclocked this puppy to 890/1290 (Stable under 80c) and gets WEI gaming and aero rating 7.7 on 64-bit W7 with ATI 10.10 drivers. Yes, ATI fixed the scaling issues with this driver. Runs Final Fantasy XIV at 1080p (max settings) in Windowed Mode!

Cons: Don't try to run this card using a 500W PS! I have a burned out one to prove it! ;) Uses 2x 6-pin PCI power connectors. Newegg sells a Apevia 650W PS "cheap" that powers this baby perfectly. Has 2x2 (4) lines for video cards. I used seperate lines.

Overall Review: If you're gaming bump up fan to 40-50% to keep GPU cool. Preset cooling seems to be low for this card when gaming.

10/29/2010

Very Happy!

APEVIA JAVA ATX-JV650W 650 W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
APEVIA JAVA ATX-JV650W 650 W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply

Pros: Has 4x SATA lines and 2x2 (4) PCI video card power lines. Powers AMD 965BE w/ XFX ATI 5830 with no problems. Power supply fits Rosewill Challenger case and the Apevia QPack2 case nicely. Had a Apevia 500W PS blowout and because of the protection had no loss of equipment; MB, CPU, GPU, or memory and drives!

Cons: Would be nice if instead of all 4 SATA lines on one cable that it were 2 and 2.

Overall Review: Comes with Norman support! It don't get better than that! I would give Norman an extra Newegg if I could! ;)

10/29/2010

Good for the Money!

Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Mid-Tower Gaming PC Computer Case, Expansion Ready: Internal 3.5" Bays & External 5.25" Bays, 3 Pre-installed Fans with Side Fan Mount Option
Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Mid-Tower Gaming PC Computer Case, Expansion Ready: Internal 3.5" Bays & External 5.25" Bays, 3 Pre-installed Fans with Side Fan Mount Option

Pros: Nice looking black case! Fans are quiet (except for the top fan which is a bit louder, but not unbearable). Front blue LED fan makes the case really look nice. Ventalation is excellent with the option of 2x 120mm side fans (great for cooling CPU and Video cards). Quick (screwless) mounts for optical drives.

Cons: HDD mounts are backwards. I think they were made incorrectly and why they sell this case so cheaply. Not a "deal breaker" because you can remove both sides of the case. The RED led showing HDD activity is very annoying. Removing front panel was scary -- pull at bottom until it pops to remove it.

Overall Review: No problems installing XFX ATI5830 video card. I wished it came with 8x extra tapered fan screws for side fans.

10/29/2010

Works Great!

BYTECC BT-300 USB 2.0 to IDE / SATA Adapter
BYTECC BT-300 USB 2.0 to IDE / SATA Adapter

Pros: This worked better than expected after reading the other reviews posted here. I used in on an IDE notebook drive and on a DVD sata drive, both with no problems and no overheating issues. It didn't even get warm! Box shows that it supports Mac, Linux, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Also, supports HDDs up to 2TB. This may be an updated model since the packaging shows W7. It looks well made and quality cables and power supply. I am a happy camper with this purchase.

Cons: Instructions are a joke (because there aren't any).

Overall Review: I would follow the connect order as stated in other posts: Connect to device, power up Adapter, plug-in USB.

10/29/2010

Great Budget Card

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5550 1GB DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Graphics Card 100294L
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5550 1GB DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Graphics Card 100294L

Pros: Big improvment over onboard ATI4200. Raised my W7 WEI gaming score to 6.6! Overclocked as told in other posts here to 675 & 475. Running ATI Catalyst 10.8 now. The ATI auto tune wanted to run this card at 690 & 500, but had a game crash and backed it back to 675/475 and runs smoothly now. Appears to run very cool and quiet. I have very happy with this purchase. Yes, not the fastest card by any means, but this card has a lot of BANG for the BUCK! :)

Cons: None really -- card preforms better than expected for only having DDR2 memory.

Overall Review: This card will run FFXIV beta in 720P (fullscreen) smoothly with normal settings. My ATI4200 could barely play it with all settings at the very lowest settings. The FFXIV beta benchmark score in 720P is about 1500, vs. the 326 I got from the ATI4200.

Windows 7 64-bit Memory Rating

GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Windows 7 rates the onboard video at 4.5 and 5.4. I stepped up the motherboard speed from 2000 to 2600, and got video scores of 5.0 and 5.5.

Cons: Wasn't FREE and didn't install itself in my computer case automatically! ;)

Overall Review: Memory speed is CAPPED in Windows 7 64-bit at 5.9 no matter what type of memory you have installed if you have less than 4GB of memory. The onboard video uses 512MB of system memory, so if you have 4GB installed, it shows 3.5GB to Windows 7 and rates your memory at the CAPPED 5.9. I looked at the WEI XML code and saw this! Confirmed on the W7 technet forum. To get around this -- have 4GB showing available to W7, or use a video card. Current BIOS is F6A -- board came with F5. After updating my cordless keyboard worked in the Bios setup. Gigabyte has a @BIOS updating program available for downloading. However, you need to download the F6A file and use it to manually update your Bios within @BIOS. The auto update won't give you this version. Memory setup is really required because the defaults are rather safe (read slow). Set memory to manual and you will see 2 columns of numbers. One says SPD and other AUTO. Set the memory to the same as the SPD settings and you're good to go!