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Zane L.

Zane L.

Joined on 01/02/04

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Most Favorable Review

Very Stable!

ABIT AT8 32X 939 ATI CrossFire Radeon Xpress 3200 ATX AMD Motherboard
ABIT AT8 32X 939 ATI CrossFire Radeon Xpress 3200 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Super stable, went into my Coolmaster case perfectly. I don't have 2 video cards (yet) so I cannot comment on the crossfire compatibility...

Cons: The on-board audio sounds great, but I'm not a big fan of the drivers. When I plug in my head phones to the front port audio the drivers pop up EVERY TIME an ask "What did you plug in?" - even if I'm in a game, but then it only kicks me back to the desktop and I can go back to the game. Just annoying, but works and sounds great, and is not affected by the spinning of the CD-ROM drive (un-like other on-board audio I've tried)

Overall Review: I was a little confused when I was putting my computer together with this mobo, because it comes with a little cable for extra rear Fire-wire and USB ports. It has two Fire-wire ports to plug into the mobo, but the mobo itself only has enough pins for one of them to be plugged in, that I already used it to have a front Fire-wire port...

Most Critical Review

Okay, seems to work

MSI MAG CoreLiquid E360 Black - AIO ARGB CPU Liquid Cooler - Rotating Cap Design - 360mm Radiator - Triple 120mm ARGB PWM Fans - LGA 1851,1700 Ready / AMD AM5 Compatible
MSI MAG CoreLiquid E360 Black - AIO ARGB CPU Liquid Cooler - Rotating Cap Design - 360mm Radiator - Triple 120mm ARGB PWM Fans - LGA 1851,1700 Ready / AMD AM5 Compatible

Pros: - Seems to work very well at cooling the CPU. - The purrs very quietly at full RPM (advice: Make sure your motherboard has an "AIO" power header to always run the water pump at full RPM). - The radiator fans are quiet at low speed. - The power cord for each fan was long, but I did need extensions for 2 of them (see "Cons" below). - The pump heat sink was made very nicely from what appears quality copper and it fit very well on the i9-14900K (it also had brackets to fit an AMD processor) - The water lines to/from the pump were very flexible and I did not have any twisting or alignment problems to attach the AIO pump to the CPU cooler mount. It was a bit tricky to mount the radiator while the AIO pump was just dangling there. - I have no need for the RGB but fortunately you can just turn it off (or not connect the wires, but I like to have everything connected).

Cons: - The thermal paste was (old?) dried up garbage (-1 star) but fortunately I learned long ago to always buy my own high quality thermal paste. - The fans came with a 3 to 1 power adapter to power all 3 fans from 1 motherboard fan header so you could guarantee they'd all be controlled together but it didn't work with the fans?! (-1 star). Each fan is PWM (4-pins) but two of the legs of the adapter only had 3 pins and thus, it ran 2 of the fans incorrectly at very low speed. I wired two of the fans to my motherboard CPU Fan and CPU Aux Fan header. Since my motherboard didn't have three CPU fan headers, I ran the 3rd radiator fan to a regular 4-pin Chassis Fan header. This seems to be working. - The fans do get loud when at full RPM and I am considering replacing them with Noctua variants, but no great need as of yet.

Overall Review: This is the first water cooler I've ever owned as I've just stuck with direct air cooling since 2003 and never really overclocked a processor. This AIO seems to work really well. It came pre-filled and zero leaks (I had assumed I'd need to fill it myself) but I don't know what it is filled with (distilled water? 50/50 automotive coolant? I assume the former. If so, don't let your computer get below 32F!)

If you need the space, this is the best computer case

Fractal Design Define 7 XL Black Brushed Aluminum / Steel E-ATX Silent Modular Full Tower Computer Case
Fractal Design Define 7 XL Black Brushed Aluminum / Steel E-ATX Silent Modular Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: This is one of the best computer cases that I have ever had the pleasure to build in. So much so that I have purchased it THREE times for my 3-2-1 data backup and home server. Obviously, this is a very large computer case, but it checked ALL the boxes I needed between the three different builds: 1) Space to spread out 3.5" HDDs for PROPER air flow. In each case I have a 3 HDD parity array, which I expect to expand with an additional 3 HDD parity array in the future. This will fit all 6 drives with excellent spacing for my (likely unnecessary) HDD heat sinks and proper fan coverage. 2) Optical Drive (Bluray MDisc Archival backups) 3) 360mm Radiator compatible on top WITH an installed optical drive. 4) Easily removable filters for cleaning (**I can't stress how important this is for home servers that run 24/7) 5) Sound deadening panels 6) I absolutely love how much space is behind the motherboard for all the cables. 7) I love how nice it is to remove the side panels, yet they hold very securely. Bonus pro: With NVIDIA GPUs passive cooling (not spinning their fans until they get to ~135F) , all that heat soaks right into the M.2 SSDs on the motherboard right behind the GPUs. While this still may be well within the operating temperature of the M.2 SSDs, I wanted to keep things cooler. This case is large enough to have two fat video cards installed AND still be able to use the vertical GPU slot for additional fans. (Yes I know there is software you can use to turn on the GPU fans, but I'd rather put that wear on other, more easily replaceable components)

Cons: 1) Expensive. I wish I had bought all 3 cases at the same time so I could have saved a few dollars through Newegg's "Make Offer" feature. 2) The filter on the very front of the computer is not as easy to remove as the others and kind of hurts my fingers. 3) Maybe the plastic filter screen clasps/frame will break break over time from being removed for cleaning, but that'll probably be a decade from now (if ever). Otherwise, I could see this computer case forever. 4) In my 3rd photo, there is a plastic panel that covers the back mounting screws for the 3.5" HDDs, that is probably for airflow, but it's not the easiest to remove, and I always fear breaking plastic. 5) It doesn't really support fans mounted below the GPU/above the power supply, but that is easily "fixed" with a cheap dual fan in the expansion slot and a GPU brace with a magnetic bottom. 6) Plastic feet, but I've not had any problems with them (they're very solid), but if you need to transport the case, I can see them getting broken in the unlevel surface in the back of a vehicle) 7) It is so modular I have to store the extra pieces somewhere. This is not really a Con IMO, but someone may care, as I'm certainly not throwing away the parts I didn't use! I didn't use the 2

Overall Review: Can the case be improved? Yes, of course, see my "Cons" list, and it's easier to complain about something than praise it. For being an off-the-shelf case (and not some thousands of dollars custom built case) it is fantastic. It meets all of my diverse needs, and very few other cases can compete with these features.

I didn't know I would hate it, but maybe you'd love it

Corsair K70 RGB PRO Wired Mechanical Gaming Keyboard (CHERRY MX RGB Speed Switches: Linear and Rapid, 8,000Hz Hyper-Polling, PBT DOUBLE-SHOT PRO Keycaps, Soft-Touch Palm Rest) QWERTY, NA - Black
Corsair K70 RGB PRO Wired Mechanical Gaming Keyboard (CHERRY MX RGB Speed Switches: Linear and Rapid, 8,000Hz Hyper-Polling, PBT DOUBLE-SHOT PRO Keycaps, Soft-Touch Palm Rest) QWERTY, NA - Black

Pros: - Beautiful and well made. - Double shot keys

Cons: - WAY TOO SENSITIVE and Unusable by the likes of me (but maybe not for you?).

Overall Review: I have primarily used my computers for gaming for many years and I have only ever use "regular" keyboards, probably considered inferior or cheap by the types of hard-core gamers that may like this one. I thought it'd be great to have a high quality, very responsive keyboard with letters that wouldn't wear off. I didn't know it would have super-hyper sensitive keys that would register with the *slightest* touch. Seriously. I could not even put my fingers on the keyboard and find home row with out it typing. This made it impossible for me to use and would require complete re-learning how to use a keyboard. I did not decide to do that because I like to rest my fingers on the keys without it typing. What is the point of having _all_ that key travel length if it triggers at the very top of the keystroke with only the slightest movement? Returned.

I love it

Cooler Master Ammo 533 RC-533-SWN1 Black/ Silver Aluminum+Plastic front bezel; SECC chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Cooler Master Ammo 533 RC-533-SWN1 Black/ Silver Aluminum+Plastic front bezel; SECC chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: I love the large rubber stands on the bottom of the case, it doesn't slide all over the desk, sits where I put it. This case really does look much cooler in person, and has excellent air flow. Buy high quality parts and it shows - when I built my computer all the parts went together flawlessly.

Cons: Non

Overall Review: The pictures don't show this but the front plasitc front comes off the case (if you want to clean the foam filter pad over the front fan) Also that front fan lights up blue.