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Gary K.

Gary K.

Joined on 09/16/08

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Product Reviews
Seller Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

Use BIOS Flashback for Ryzen 5000 install

ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS AMD AM4 (3rd Gen Ryzen) ATX Gaming Motherboard (PCIe 4.0, 2.5Gb LAN, HDMI 2.1, BIOS FlashBack, USB 3.2 Gen 2, Addressable Gen 2 RGB Header and AURA Sync)
ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS AMD AM4 (3rd Gen Ryzen) ATX Gaming Motherboard (PCIe 4.0, 2.5Gb LAN, HDMI 2.1, BIOS FlashBack, USB 3.2 Gen 2, Addressable Gen 2 RGB Header and AURA Sync)

Overall Review: I've had three good builds with Asus MB 's from the Athlon era, and this B550 board did not disappoint me. I could quibble about pin locations, side facing SATA ports, and having to cut the button side of the port shield, but these minor things apply to other boards, too. The flashback feature saved my Ryzen 5600x cpu install. The BIOS download instructions for flashback on Asus website are very literal and must be followed to the letter, as I learned. 1. Use the rename tool with the BIOS download to rename the file from the long download name to the short xxxx.CAB name. 2. Put the file on the root directory of a flash drive formatted (old) FAT, not FATe. New flash drives are FATe and do not format back to old FAT32. Find a old small capacity one. 3. If the green flashback light flashes three times and stays lit, then the flashback is not working. 4. If flashback is working, the green light blinks on and off for about ten minutes. 5. DO NOT interrupt the flashback process. Give it a good while to be sure it finishes. A small item: I paired this MB with an Asus GTX1650 TUF series graphics card. Board and card combo is the best looking inside-case hardware I've ever seen!

12/21/2020

Quality Product

EVGA SuperNOVA 650 GA, 80 Plus Gold 650W, Fully Modular, ECO Mode with Dbb Fan, 10 Year Warranty, Compact 150mm Size, Power Supply 220-GA-0650-X1
EVGA SuperNOVA 650 GA, 80 Plus Gold 650W, Fully Modular, ECO Mode with Dbb Fan, 10 Year Warranty, Compact 150mm Size, Power Supply 220-GA-0650-X1

Overall Review: The SuperNova 650 GA has a month of solid use so far with no problems. Max power draw is only 400 watts, but I bought this because I need two separate SATA power cable for this build. (Three drive in the top of the case and three drives in the bottom.) Fan is inaudible with eco switch off, and I suspect the fan doesn't even need to kick on under non-gaming use. I did not need the instructions because I've done plenty of PC builds. The instructions that come with this power supply are the clearest and best-written instructions for a PC component that I have ever seen. EVGA should give their tech writer a bonus! Cables are long enough. Even the 4-pin cpu power cable can be routed around an ATX MB to reach the pins at the top. The cables look good and are wrapped in black shrink material. The cable are very stiff. I had to use a four-wire unwrapped sata power cable extender so that I could close the back case panel to the back of the HD cage. The supplied cables are long enough, but do not squash flat to close the case. Not a big deal to me.

Anti-consumer legal baloney included

WD Blue 3D NAND 2TB Internal SSD - SATA III 6Gb/s M.2 2280 Solid State Drive - WDS200T2B0B
WD Blue 3D NAND 2TB Internal SSD - SATA III 6Gb/s M.2 2280 Solid State Drive - WDS200T2B0B

Overall Review: Product seems to work so far over a week or so of completing a windows install. No instructions or product info is included in the packaging, but my MB instructions are sufficient to complete the installation. What *is* included is a large sheet of a WD "contract" requiring the consumer to agree to individual binding arbitration if there is an issue with this or another WD product. Remember shingled drives? You can spend some time and a postage stamp back to WD opting out of binding arbitration. I recommend doing so. I also recommend buying from a company that doesn't stoop to legal shenanigans.

12/27/2020

Works

Rosewill RCSC-18010 [3-Pack] SATA Cable 90 Degree Right Angle SATA III 6.0 Gbps, SATA Cable 24 Inches, SATA 3 Cable - 24 Inches, Blue, 3-Pack
Rosewill RCSC-18010 [3-Pack] SATA Cable 90 Degree Right Angle SATA III 6.0 Gbps, SATA Cable 24 Inches, SATA 3 Cable - 24 Inches, Blue, 3-Pack

Overall Review: I used this length to connect to an optical drive at the top of a case. It works. Also used a red and black SATA cable in the same PC so I can either what end at the MB goes to what drive. The 90 degree bend end works better for drives hanging past the cable chase or the MB.

12/27/2020

Very Useful Product

Rosewill COUPLER-CAT6-STP Black Cat6 STP Ethernet Shielded 8P8C RJ45 Network Jack In-Line Coupler Female, Lan Patch Cord Cable Extender
Rosewill COUPLER-CAT6-STP Black Cat6 STP Ethernet Shielded 8P8C RJ45 Network Jack In-Line Coupler Female, Lan Patch Cord Cable Extender

Overall Review: I use this to connect two 14 foot lengths of Ethernet cable from my router to a workbench where I am assembling a PC. A continuous run is better for a permanent installation, but this splicer allows me to roll up either end of the cable and get it out of the way when I'm not using the PC. Simple and useful item!

12/27/2020

Good Case for Extra Drives

Corsair Carbide Series 200R Black Steel / Plastic Compact ATX Mid Tower Case
Corsair Carbide Series 200R Black Steel / Plastic Compact ATX Mid Tower Case

Pros: Support for 3 optical drives, which can be modified to 3.5 internal drives. Quality metal construction. Edges are all finished so you do not slice your fingers. Dust filter under power supply air intake.

Cons: Not an "airflow case", but fine for a reasonable build. Cable raceway behind the motherboard does not have room for really fat cables like the main motherboard power cable, but what do expect on this size case? I did not remove the plastic front panel to complete the install, but I can see that keeping those side air intakes clean is going to be a pain.

Overall Review: I used this case for a Photoshop PC requiring five internal 3.5 drives + an optical drive. Case has a bottom-front mounted cage for three internal hard drives. Added a Sabrent 3.5" into 5.25" drive tray to the lower two optical drive bays, and that worked. (But not perfectly because the three optical drive bays are not drilled for a hard drive tray.) I added a Rosewell fan to the top. The stock fans are quiet, but weak. Still the case is more than fine airflow wise for the five hard drives, a Ryzen 5600x cpu and a GTX 1650 video card. I will probably buy a second one and add a better video card for my own gaming use.

12/19/2020
seller reviews
  • 1

Seller delivered

I bought a "Y" splitter power cord extension. It arrived on-time and worked as just as described.

On-time
Delivery
Product
Accuracy
Customer Service
Satisfactory