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Michael W.

Michael W.

Joined on 11/07/16

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 4
Most Favorable Review

No one man should have all this power

EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB GDDR6 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Graphics Card 11G-P4-2281-KR
EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB GDDR6 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Graphics Card 11G-P4-2281-KR

Pros: - Does 4K/60fps/Ultra on nearly every well-optimized modern game - Design is sleek

Cons: - It runs REALLY hot (80°C under full load with fans on 100%) in contrast to the relatively low idle temp (45°C)

Overall Review: Upgraded to this from a GTX 1080 and I regret nothing. The 2080 Ti can run 4K/60fps/Ultra with little problem and completely destroys anything on 2K or lower. That said, if you don't have a monitor with a high display resolution and/or refresh rate, this card is massive overkill and, frankly, a waste of money. I haven't delved much into the raytracing stuff mainly because I prefer 4K with a steady frame rate over 1080p with pretty lighting. I ran a raytracing demo of a game whose name escapes me, and it looked nice, but again, the low resolution and inconsistent frame rate isn't worth it. If you're reallyinterested in raytracing I'd just wait another gen or two so the technology can catch up to the idea; raytracing is just far too demanding and too rare in modern games this early in its lifetime. But with non-raytraced games, it's a monster. The extra power doesn't come without cost, however. Although its idle temp is ~45°C, the temperature can skyrocket to 80°C under full load, even with fans on 100% speed. I didn't have this problem with my 1080. Had an issue with my first card in that one of the fans just died for seemingly no reason, but I contacted EVGA and they replaced it. I don't think it's a very common problem but I'd keep an eye on the temps if you decide to get this card. Just make sure to register your card on EVGA's website so if it *does* happen to you, you're covered. I paid extra for the EAR program to have my replacement card shipped to me before sending mine in so I had zero GPU downtime. All in all, it's an excellent card for us graphics snobs that need every last pixel and frame they can get.

It hasn't caught on fire yet, so I guess that's good

SeaSonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
SeaSonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

Pros: I've been using this PSU for several months now and haven't had any problems whatsoever. A good deal for the price (I managed to snag it for $60 when it was on sale, bwahahahaha).

Cons: My only gripe is that the included SATA peripheral cables are a bit too short for my case -- had to move my optical drive down a slot so the cable could reach it. Then again, I have the original NZXT Phantom case, which is known to be a massive case anyway.

It's like Rainbow Road in my PC, sans the frustration

G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Desktop Memory Model F4-2400C15D-16GTZR
G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Desktop Memory Model F4-2400C15D-16GTZR

Pros: Beautiful lighting, easy to install, worked on first boot and works great. I gave the new sticks a test run using Mirror's Edge Catalyst (which happens to use quite a bit of memory) and having multiple Chrome tabs open to tax them a bit more, and the game still ran wonderfully. Hopefully G.Skill will release that RGB editing software soon -- I can't wait to tinker with the colors!

Cons: None at the moment. Will update if anything changes.

Overall Review: LOOK AT THE PRETTY COLORS

Good, but a bit slower than I expected from an SSD

Crucial MX300 750GB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive - CT750MX300SSD1
Crucial MX300 750GB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive - CT750MX300SSD1

Pros: - Great alternative to other SSDs due to its price, but...

Cons: ...it's a bit slow as far as SSDs go. I've ran a few benchmarks over the recent months and have gotten consistently slower-than-expected R/W speeds. I mean, it's still incredibly fast compared to a HDD, but compared to other SSDs it's a bit sluggish.

Overall Review: Good option for the price, but if you want real, godlike SSD speed, you may want to invest in a different brand and/or model.