Joined on 04/04/04
HIS R9 290X
Pros: Extremely fast, quiet (thus far), but it is hot.
Cons: Drivers!!! Come on AMD. When you release a card, have non-beta drivers to go along with it. That said, I have only hit a few minor snags along the way.
Overall Review: The size of the card was exactly the same as the Radeon 6970 that it replaced. I thought it may been a few mm smaller, but could have been mistaken. I've run synthetic benchmarks at 3960x1200 and seen fantastic results and I've run BF3 maxed out (which I could do before with the 6970). Want to get my hands on Metro Last Light to really push this thing, but I believe from what I've seen this card should be able to handle it. Seriously thinking of getting another one to run in x-fire! :)
Stay away
Pros: It has a pretty box. Sorta.
Cons: Generally I heed others' warnings when purchasing, I should have done the same here. Could not get the board to boot to save my life. Ended up returning it for a completely different board.
Overall Review: Was building a HTPC and ended up going with the Micro ATX. ordered an FM2 A75 MSI board.
AMD A10
Pros: Bought this for use in a HTPC build and chose it due to low power consumption and was genuinely interested in how the integrated graphics perform. I have no intentions of running the latest games, I have a monster system as well as an Alienware M17x R4 for the most demanding games. The Windows Experience Index gave it a score of 6.7! This thing will emulate PS2 flawlessly! I can run everything on the eumlator I've tried. I also bought a HD Homerun Prime to get my full range of cable channels on it, and I have a 3TB drive as the PVR drive. If you are looking to do something like this build - this is your PC!
Cons: None really. I probably wouldn't buy this particular CPU for my main rig but for HTPC or "general everyday use" PCs, it can't be beat for the price.
Great board
Pros: Worked the first time I plugged everything in. I love this board.
Cons: I am knocking it an egg because it's proving to be difficult to use a 3TB drive as a data drive. Got an idea so may have to amend this review.
Cheaply made
Pros: If you ignore the flimsy shell, the fact that it's virtually impossible to get a Blu-Ray drive installed with the power supply included, I guess it would be an OK case. It is really small...
Cons: Cheap, flimsy, shoddy build quality. Returned for a refund and ordered a MicroATX Thermaltake.
New life into my old T61
Pros: I have an old T61 that we keep downstairs just for general use. I decided to try Windows 8 on that machine since it gets a lot of general use (web surfing, email, word, nothing heavy duty). It's really showing its age, so having really good things to say about the 256GB version of this in two of my other machines, I bought a 128GB version to throw in that laptop and it's really like the things was given new life. It has 4GB RAM and a Core 2 Duo, but with the platter drive it was just SLOW. Runs really great now.
Cons: none except price per GB, I got it on sale for under $1/GB.