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James M.

James M.

Joined on 05/27/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 4
Most Favorable Review
ECS A990FXM-A AM3+ AMD 990FX + SB950 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
ECS A990FXM-A AM3+ AMD 990FX + SB950 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Rock solid motherboard. Tons of cool features and the 990fx chipset. Best bang for the buck I could find at the time. Runs my FX-8320 like a champ.

Cons: Need a PS2 keyboard to get into the bios the first time. Luckily I can borrow one of these from work fairly easily so this isn't worth an egg to me, but it may be for others.

Overall Review: Wish the color scheme was just gray, not gray/white. most of my components are red/black, so the white seems to clash a bit. But at this low of a price, who cares!

11/23/2013
Most Critical Review

Acceptable...barely.

Olevia 42" 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Olevia 42" 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV

Pros: Awesome price for the size. Good Looking TV. All imputs work as expected. Great color and resolution.

Cons: There are five dime-sized dark spots in the screen. They are only visible when there are dark, solid colors displayed. They are in a uniform pattern, so it appears as though something was set on top of the box either during shipping or in storage. They are faint so its not the end of the world. If my wife hadn't pointed them out I may have missed them. The Back of the TV is made of flimsy plasitc and the screws for the stand don't want to stay in. These issues aren't bad enough to warrant waiting a week or more to get a new one (though I heavily considered it).

Overall Review: If you turn the sound farther than "80" the speakers buzz. No big deal since I'm using a home theater sound system.

Thermaltake SMART Series SP-650PCBUS 650 W ATX 12V 2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Thermaltake SMART Series SP-650PCBUS 650 W ATX 12V 2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: Nice heavy duty construction, feels solid. Plenty of power at 650w. Lots of connectors that can reach anywhere in my case. Looks great, if you are into that sort of thing.

Cons: I knew this wasn't modular when I bought it, but I should have sprung the few extra dollars to go modular. cable management is a pain with this many cables. The flat cables seemed like a good idea, but they are hard to get around corners. Not worth an egg, since its just cosmetic.

Overall Review: If you don't care how your cables look inside the case, this will serve you well, otherwise get a modular power supply.

11/23/2013
AMD FX-8320 - FX-8000 Series Vishera 8-Core 3.5 GHz (4.0 GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Desktop Processor - FD8320FRHKBOX
AMD FX-8320 - FX-8000 Series Vishera 8-Core 3.5 GHz (4.0 GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Desktop Processor - FD8320FRHKBOX

Pros: Super fast and can run anything I throw at it so far. My new GPU comes in later this week, so I'm hoping to really put it through its paces then.

Cons: As many have stated before, the stock cooling is poor. The CPU idles at around 35-40c and gets into the low 50's regularly, which isn't HORRIBLE, but its not great. My particular fan makes a rapid high pitched squeaking sound that is annoying if I don't have headphones on. It was also a bit difficult to install because the heat sink clips felt like they were about 1/8 of an inch to short. I was afraid I was going to harm the proc, but I forced it a bit and it went on. I thought I could get away with just using the stock cooling since I'm not much of an overclocker, but I'm going to be buying a new cooler asap.

Overall Review: Seriously, plan on buying a new fan.

11/23/2013