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Charles E.

Charles E.

Joined on 06/12/06

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Most Favorable Review

Fantastic water cooler. Corsair always deliveres.

Corsair Hydro Series H100i PRO Low Noise 240mm RGB Water/Liquid CPU Cooler 240mm (CW-9060033-WW) Support Intel LGA 1200, 2066, AMD AM4
Corsair Hydro Series H100i PRO Low Noise 240mm RGB Water/Liquid CPU Cooler 240mm (CW-9060033-WW) Support Intel LGA 1200, 2066, AMD AM4

Pros: Love the RGB option. Quiet Super easy to install Cools very well Did I mention it is quiet?

Cons: None

Overall Review: OK; let me start by saying I currently own 5 Corsair water cooling kits. 3 are currently being used and two are waiting on the shelf for their own builds. My point is I like Corsair water coolers. They work great, they are quiet and they provide long service. My oldest one has been running strong since 2009 and it still works as new. Before I got into the retail water cooling systems I was an avid custom water loop builder. Over time I started to get tired of flushing and exchanging water, cleaning the system, and replacing pumps as they wore out. I finally decided to try one of these all in one kits and haven't looked back since. This new cooler from Corsair is much the same that they have been putting out but it performs about the same as my best Corsair water kit and a bit better than some of my others. I love the RGB feature as it allows me to set the color I like to match the other RGB lights in my cube. Much nicer than the other Corsair coolers with just the logo lit up in white. So if you like RGB and enjoy the ability to change colors and such...this cooler is right for you. I find that with my overclocked 7800X @ 4.7GHz that this cooler performs well and keeps temps within the safe zone. It does not cool as nice as my Corsair Hydro Series H115i extreme 280mm but it is not as far off as I would have thought. Put it this way; I plan to keep this cooler in and not put my H115i Extreme back in my main gaming rig. That alone should tell you how happy I am with the H100i Pro. It is without a doubt quieter too which is a huge plus for me. Being able to control the pump speed is killer and something I didn't realize I was missing but I do like it. Crank it up while gaming or doing heavy multitasking, video editing and then turn it down for light duty, web surfing etc. Pretty neat if you ask me. The iCUE software is much nicer IMO compared to using Link (which I always hated). It has a bit of a learning curve to it but all in all offers more features. Installation is super simple and anyone can do it. All in all this is one of the best units they have come out with and they did it at a very fair price. I'll get many years of use out of this cooler and you should without a doubt feel confident in buying this unit.

Most Critical Review

A budget keyboard

Gamdias Ares P1 Membrane Gaming Keyboard, Multi Color Lighting
Gamdias Ares P1 Membrane Gaming Keyboard, Multi Color Lighting

Pros: It works! Has lights Spill resistant

Cons: Terrible software (Hera) membrane keys a bit ugly

Overall Review: I'm going to be honest here. I don't like it. It works, it lights up and I even purposely spilled a glass of water on it and it continued to work without issue. It just isn't a great keyboard but for $43 (at the time of this review) it is not all bad. Instead of the multimedia keys I would have preferred them to be marked as hot keys. I couldn't get the software to run. It kept crashing so I gave up. As a mechanical keyboard user I have a hard time with the membrane keys but they are fairly quiet and if used in a bedroom at night I'm sure my wife wouldn't complain. Without software the keyboard works fine and though it is a tad on the ugly side it does get the job done. There are better keyboards at this price point though. YMMV.

Fantastic ram at a great value!

Crucial Pro 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model CP2K16G4DFRA32A
Crucial Pro 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model CP2K16G4DFRA32A

Pros: -2x16GB -Great performance -No RGB -Heat Spreaders -Solid timings -Price

Cons: -No RGB

Overall Review: For a great price, you can have 32GB of memory! Memory prices have been coming down but it wasn't long ago that we were spending more. Memory sticks are easy to install and I like that these are black and they almost disappear in the PC, unlike so many of the RGB models. This memory might not be flashy but it gets the job done. Latency is a bit higher than I'd expect but anyone buying this is most likely not a power user anyway so the average person will be quite happy. I removed some high-end G. Skill memory (4x 8GB) and as I thought, the performance difference was there. The Crucial doesn't compete. That said, if not benching the memory to see the difference, you won't notice it in real-world use. The bottom line is, if you need 32GB of memory in a two-stick configuration and you are on a budget, BUY THIS RAM. You won't regret it. Not to mention you can buy two packs, and have 64GB of DDR4 for a more than fair price! 32 or even 64GB is not needed for gaming but if you are into video editing or you have some other task that can take advantage of a lot of memory, well this is the ticket!

Impressive at this price point.

Crucial P3 2TB PCIe 3.0 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD, up to 3500MB/s - CT2000P3SSD8
Crucial P3 2TB PCIe 3.0 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD, up to 3500MB/s - CT2000P3SSD8

Pros: Fast! Runs cool The price!

Cons: Nothing.

Overall Review: Here we have the Crucial P3 2TB M.2 SSD. It's been many years since I purchased Crucial memory and my current PC is loaded with Samsung M.2's in the form of 2 980 Pros, and 1 970 Evo. I have been very happy with the Samsungs, and I was not expecting much from the Crucial M.2 but after installing it, and benching it, I was pleasantly surprised and a little bummed that it outperformed my 970 Evo. So after running all of my M.2 through CrystalDiskMark I found that the Crucial P3 performed slightly better than the 970 Evo and almost as good as my 980 Pros, but the Pros, without a doubt came out on top. That said, the Crucial runs much cooler than the 980s and 970. Six degrees cool to be exact. Not bad at all. In all fairness, this SSD outperformed my expectations and considering the price, it really surprised me. All of this performance, at 2TB and it runs cool under load too? Awesome. I don't often give 5 eggs but this one earned it.

10/16/2022

Easy setup and it works! But at a cost....

devolo Magic 2 LAN triple Starter Kit
devolo Magic 2 LAN triple Starter Kit

Pros: Nice looking kit Easy setup (literally plug N play) It works

Cons: -Once plugged into a power outlet's lower receptacle, another standard 3 prong plug will not fit into the empty upper receptacle. That means I lose access to one plug outlet, (See picture). -Slower speeds than WIFI in my house.

Overall Review: I was excited to try this out as I have a PC in the kitchen that is forced to use WIFI. I never wanted to run hardwire through my walls so I have been using WIFI for a long time and I've been happy with it. Now along comes the devolo Magic 2 and I have a chance to use hardwire where only WIFI was used before! Awesome! Unpacking the unit I found an instruction manual, a couple of ethernet cables, two power units, and an extended warranty offer: if I decide to regester the device. After setting everything up, the units linked up automatically, detecting the world wide web and I had internet! It was as easy as plugging everything in and that's it!! I ran a few speed tests and found that my WIFI actually outperformed the Magic 2 kit. I have a pretty decent web connection using a Fiber 1GIG down and 1GIG up service. The best I could get using this kit was 81.11 Mbps down and 54.73 Mbps up. My WIFI router is pretty far away and with it, I am getting 97.33 Mbps down and 88.95 Mbps up. I ran these tests multiple times and in the end, my WIFI connection is faster. Sure the ping is a bit behind but not by enough to care. All of my other hardwire connections are receiving 970 Mbps up and down. So this kit works but in my house, I just don't see the point. My biggest gripe wasn't even the speed, I mean in a pinch the speed is good enough but when using both of these bricks plugged into any standard power outlet, you have to place the Magic 2 into the lower receptacle. Now each Magic 2 offers a passthrough for a power plug but the units are so large that I cannot insert another standard 3 prong power cable into the upper free power receptacle in the outlet, (see picture). So in the end, this unit does work. I do not see anywhere near the speeds it claims to provide but maybe that is due to my house? But the design of the unit, and not allowing me to use the upper power receptacle of the outlet is in my humble opinion a huge design failure. I honestly can't recommend this unit as is. I will give it two eggs only because it does work and it's simple to hook it up. In a pinch, this will get you by.

Solid memory at a reasonable price point.

CORSAIR Vengeance RGB RS 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model CMG16GX4M2E3200C16
CORSAIR Vengeance RGB RS 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model CMG16GX4M2E3200C16

Pros: Slick looking. Very nice RGB lighting. Runs at its stated speeds. Fair price. Made by Corsair.

Cons: Not the fastest timings. Cue software is not my favorite.

Overall Review: Overall I like this ram. Being a Corsair fan, I have not purchased anything Corsair that has failed or did not perform as intended. This memory is no different. It looks slick and the RGB lighting looks fantastic! The black aluminum heat spreader has a very nice pattern and the RGB lighting is just the Cheri on top. Let's face it, many of us want the most performance out of every piece we buy and install in our computers but we also want it to look cool too! These sticks run their rated speed, run in XMP and just work. No-fuss at all. I run 32GB of G. Skill in my gaming PC and after installing the 16GB of Corsair, I did not detect any difference in performance. Both the G. Skill and Corsair ram are DDR4 3200. My G. Skill cost a hell of a lot more though. After benchmarking the ram I found performance on par with ram of this class and I also found that the ram was completely stable under XMP. That is not always the case but the Corsair performed well. Is it the fastest memory out there? Nope. Does it do what it's supposed to do? Sure does. It won't break the bank either. I am not the biggest fan of the cue software so I opted to use a 3rd party program to control the RGB. The lighting on these sticks is fantastic and easily controlled without the bloat of Cue. I will be knocking one egg off for the software and that the timings are a little slower than the Pro model (which is cheaper).

10/20/2021