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Ray P.

Ray P.

Joined on 08/03/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 30
Most Favorable Review
AMD FX-6300 - FX-6000 Series Vishera 6-Core 3.5 GHz Socket AM3+ 95W Desktop Processor - FD6300WMHKBOX
AMD FX-6300 - FX-6000 Series Vishera 6-Core 3.5 GHz Socket AM3+ 95W Desktop Processor - FD6300WMHKBOX

Pros: It's a processor, it has six cores. Said cores operate with a quickness. Worked in my GA-990FXA-UD3 without a BIOS update, though POST was kind of wonky until I flashed the new, Vishera-compatible update. This processor replaced an old Wolfdale-based Core 2 Duo, and seems to run quite a bit quicker. Haven't had time to re-install all of my games, but I played some Civ 5 on it, and the game is noticeably smoother with the same GPU. Obviously, multitasking is much better with the additional cores.

Cons: Usual cheapness in the heatsink department, but I'm not overclocking and it's keeping things cool enough.

11/12/2012
Most Critical Review

Really doesn't like my laptop

Intel Centrino 6235 IEEE 802.11 Dual Band N600 Mini PCI Express Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Adapter, 2.4GHz 300Mbps/5GHz 300Mbps-OEM
Intel Centrino 6235 IEEE 802.11 Dual Band N600 Mini PCI Express Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Adapter, 2.4GHz 300Mbps/5GHz 300Mbps-OEM

Pros: Fits mini-PCIe slot, theoretically offers the features I want.

Cons: Installed in my Acer Aspire 5560-sb613 - no POST. Removed from laptop, machine boots normally. Unable to ascertain whether the blame falls on Intel or Acer on this one just yet.

Overall Review: Giving it a few days while I deal with support and try to find a workaround. With luck I can update this to an awesome review.

Feature rich for the price, but not super well built

COUGAR MG120 Black Micro ATX Mini Tower Elegant and Compact Case
COUGAR MG120 Black Micro ATX Mini Tower Elegant and Compact Case

Pros: Pros: - Relatively easy to work in. The overall layout of the case is similar to other higher end cases I've built in, just with the build quality turned down a few notches. No issues with sharp edges or weird drive cages blocking access. Heck, even the HDD cage is tool-less if you aren't shoving SSDs in there. While they aren't grommeted, there are cable passthroughs and enough room behind the mobo tray to stuff extras. - Good support for AIO coolers, both up front and on top, though I noticed a decent amount of flex on the steel around the fan once I got mine bolted in. - Removable dust filters on ALL intakes were a surprise at this price point. Magnetic top filter is prone to wiggle around though. - Decent airflow, though the solid front panel chokes it a bit.

Cons: Cons: - Overall build quality is "meh" at best. Thin steel, some things don't quite line up (I had to wiggle the front audio jacks around so they'd actually align with the holes and allow a headset to be plugged in fully. The doors don't slot in the way you'd expect and I had to kind of hold them in with one hand while doing up the thumbscrews. - Depending on your motherboard, the front panel audio/USB cable can be a problem. It was just barely long enough to reach the hd audio header on my mATX board (at the bottom left, under the PCIe slots).

Overall Review: TL;DR is I'd recommend this if you just need a budget rig that doesn't look horrible and want to shave dollars off for the go-fast bits. Personally, I got it so I could frankenstein bits of my old gaming rig and some spare parts into a secondary desktop and it's certainly adequate for that. If it's something you're going to move around a lot, I'd go a bit more upmarket and find something more solidly built but for the cash this is a decent little case.

Great compact microATX case

Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Series PH-ES314E_WT White Aluminum / Steel mATX / MicroATX Tower Computer Case
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Series PH-ES314E_WT White Aluminum / Steel mATX / MicroATX Tower Computer Case

Pros: - The construction is lovely. Feels solid all around. All exterior panels save the bottom and back are decently thick aluminum. The side-mounted USB and audio jacks are a nice touch - rather than being mounted to the panel, they slot into cutouts in the door, making opening the beast up less of a hassle. - Both side panels are hinged at the back (and can be completely removed by swinging out and lifting the door off the hinge pins), very easy to get inside when needed. - Lots of room for the size (still a little tight, though, see cons). Was able to fit my 1070, two 3.5" hard disks, an SSD, and my old DVD burner in. Fits on the side of my desk (front-to-back is good, but there isn't much room left-to-right due to the width). - Hidden optical drive bay in the top rear, for legacy games. - Quiet, thermals are good as well.

Cons: - Is wider than perhaps I wanted in a "compact case" - it's easily the same width as my old Fractal Arc Midi mid-tower. This *does* allow for bigger fans and a little bit of room behind the mobo tray for cables, though. - Cable management will take some planning. The case's girth allows for a bit of wiggle room behind the right side panel, but it's still pretty tight when snaking large bundled power cables (like the 24-pin mobo connector) to their appropriate places. However, it's pretty doable if you take a few minutes to plan out your runs rather than toss cables in there all willy-nilly.

Overall Review: The case's short depth may cause issues with long GPUs. My 1070 has about two and change inches between it and the front intake fan. Would be problematic if the power in for the card was on the front edge rather than the side, as there's nothing guarding the fan blades inside the case. As it is, things are just peachy, but longer cards than a reference 1070, or cards with front-edge power blocks may be trickier. This also comes into play if you want to use the ODD bay and a secondary fan or 120/140mm radiator up top. I have a relatively short DVD drive I carried over from several builds, and it stops just short of the front fan mount up top. My Corsair H60 technically fit in the remaining space, but there was nowhere to fit the cables for the drive. I just swapped it with the bundled 140mm exhaust fan, which gave me just enough room.

Great compact AIO

CORSAIR Hydro Series H60 (CW-9060007-WW) High Performance Water / Liquid CPU Cooler. 120mm
CORSAIR Hydro Series H60 (CW-9060007-WW) High Performance Water / Liquid CPU Cooler. 120mm

Pros: - 120MM form factor for fan/radiator will fit most any case's rear/top fan mount - pretty quiet (pump is a little loud, but it's much better than the tower cooler it replaced) - copper plate on the water block - keeps my 7700K cool. Idles at 28C, peaks at a little over 60 when under a full load with superpi on 8 threads at stock clocks. Have not tried to OC yet.

Cons: - Fluid tubing is pretty heavy duty, and can be hard to bend to get things installed the way you want.

Day One review

ASRock Z270M Pro4 LGA 1151 Intel Z270 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Micro ATX Motherboards - Intel
ASRock Z270M Pro4 LGA 1151 Intel Z270 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Micro ATX Motherboards - Intel

Pros: I've only had this board running for a few hours, so bear with me here. - Z270 chipset in a mATX form factor at a pretty reasonable price - Everything Just Works(TM) under Linux (Fedora 25, your mileage may vary but it was out-of-the-box for me) - UEFI layout is reasonable, but is gonna take me a little getting used to as my previous board rocked an old-school BIOS - Looks nice - Intel LAN chipset is a plus - USB C port is handy - Two CPU fan headers - useful for push-pull tower coolers or AIO units with a power lead for both the fan and the pump.

Cons: - Only two chassis fan headers, one of which is between the CPU socket and the backplate. Docking half an egg for this as it was difficult to run fan cables cleanly in my setup - I'm using a Corsair AIO liquid cooler as exhaust, and the wire from my second front fan barely reaches. Just having the connector next to the CPU fan headers on top of the board would've been a nice compromise rather than pretty much forcing it to be a rear/top fan header. - Most of the SATA ports live right under where a full-size GPU sits. Docking half an egg since they at least had the common decency to put them parallel to the board surface facing the edge, so you can still get at them from the back if your case allows and you don't want to remove the card to add a new drive.

Overall Review: TL;DR - seems pretty solid, docking an egg on header-placement technicalities which may not apply to your setup.