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Robert T.

Robert T.

Joined on 09/21/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 3
Most Favorable Review

Great board, very satisfied.

ASRock Z87M OC Formula LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
ASRock Z87M OC Formula LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: * Tons of functionality * Excellent suite of features for a mATX board * Looks great * Well designed placement of connectors * Amazing BIOS (Really, it's just wonderful) * Extremely easy to tune overclocking * Phenomenal sound quality * Excellent I/O features * Switchable BIOS feature is nifty

Cons: Memory slots: For whatever reason, this board was designed with DDR slots that only have one locking tab. One side pushes in, the other has the conventional tab lock. This was mildy frustrating. Installing memory modules feels awkward, and I feared damaging the motherboard in the process PWM fans connections: This motherboard has about an equal number of 3- and 4-pin fan connectors. I'd have really enjoyed it if all fan connections had PWM pins, With such excellent fan control software, why not enable PWM across the board?

Overall Review: I'm absolutely infatuated with this motherboard. It's the nicest I've ever used. I was debating between this board and the Asus Maximus Gene, and have no regrets whatsoever. With only a few small annoyances, I enjoy this board a great deal. ASRocks on-the-fly Windows-based overclocking software works very well indeed, and it's great to be able to apply different OC curves while monitoring performance and temperature in real-time. Note regarding failure to POST: This is a revised review. I had left a review stating that this board failed to POST with memory installed in banks A1 and A2. After booting to BIOS with one stick of memory installed and flashing to the newest BIOS (you can do this from BIOS via USB media, very easy and straightforward) everything worked fine.

Good as any other brand, just less expensive!

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10D-16GBXL
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10D-16GBXL

Pros: * Inexpensive * Error-free * Stable * Fast * No compatibility issues * Looks great installed

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: I was a little hesitant to run G.Skill memory, some of my friends have reported instability and compatibility problems. I've been running burn-in tests, and the memory is operating flawlessly throughout. No crashing or inconsistancies in gaming or performance benchmarking.

The Samsung 216BW

SAMSUNG 21.6" WSXGA+ LCD Monitor 5 ms D-Sub, DVI-D 216BW
SAMSUNG 21.6" WSXGA+ LCD Monitor 5 ms D-Sub, DVI-D 216BW

Pros: To summarize the Pros: 1) No dead pixels. 2) Bright, vibrant colors. 3) Color balance is exceptional, and adjustable. 4) Perfect stand height for my application. 5) Big enough for any realistic application.

Cons: This monitor is flawless. I've never been dissapointed by Samsung or NewEgg. The ONLY complaint I have, is that NewEgg shipped this thing in the Samsung box. No additional packaging, which scared me. I am easily freightened though.

Overall Review: I'm very, very happy with this purchase. If this screen were broken or stolen, I'd buy another tomorrow. I plan on buying a second one, just because that'd be straight epic.