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Blaine R.

Blaine R.

Joined on 01/03/13

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 13
Most Favorable Review

Best 140mm ever

XIGMATEK AOS (Aeronautical Oil System Bearing) XAF-F1456 140mm White LED Blue Case Fan Ultra Quiet Copper Bushing Axis Aeronautical Oil System Bearing
XIGMATEK AOS (Aeronautical Oil System Bearing) XAF-F1456 140mm White LED Blue Case Fan Ultra Quiet Copper Bushing Axis Aeronautical Oil System Bearing

Pros: - Moves a lot of air - Unique look and design - Mounts to 120mm fan slots

Cons: - While it's relatively quiet, it isn't "Ultra Quiet" like they try to describe it, simply because it's almost impossible to move 90CFM of air silently, so I hardly consider this a con

Overall Review: Honestly I'd rather have clear fan blades with blue LEDs instead of blue-tinted blades with white LEDs. It doesn't really fit it with the rest of my blue LED fans, doesn't emit that nice blue glow. Just my persona preference though.

Most Critical Review

Update after replacement

MSI R7970 TF 3GD5/OC BE Radeon HD 7970 3GB Twin Frozr OC Boost Edition 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
MSI R7970 TF 3GD5/OC BE Radeon HD 7970 3GB Twin Frozr OC Boost Edition 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Pros: - Sturdy design - Waterblock compatible

Cons: After sending back the first card because of unbearably loud coil noise, the replacement is hardly any better and still unacceptable. ASIC is a terrible 60.9% (compared to 69.5% of first card). Stock voltage is higher at 1.256v (compared to 1.219v). Awful at over clocking, also worse than first card. Runs hotter, 73C under load with all stock settings. I cannot recommend this GPU. By the way, this is NOT a real reference PCB. It's a reference design, meaning waterblocks will fit on it, but it is an alternate, cheaper PCB, not the real reference.

Overall Review: I cannot stand a GPU that makes a BZZZZZ sound the whole time I'm gaming or screeching sounds in accelerated game menus. And no I'm not going to LOWER my core clock to 925Mhz like MSI suggested. The card is advertised to perform at 1050Mhz and I'm not going to make it slower just to avoid a defect that comes with low quality components. I'm not going to go through more hassle of another RMA, paying for back shipping yet again and going without a GPU for at least a week again. Just gonna try to sell it...

Truly blazing fast!!

HyperX DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive DTHX30/64GB
HyperX DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive DTHX30/64GB

Pros: This is one of the few high-speed USB 3.0 drives that actually lives up its promises in real-world scenarios. For me, this thing has been significantly faster than what it's even advertised at! When moving large sequential files I usually see write speeds over 160Mb/s and read speeds over 260Mb/s! Amazing speed

Cons: It shows only 58.8GB usable space? Maybe it's a formatting issue on my part but that's over 5GB less space than advertised...

The Best 28nm GPU You Can Get

EVGA 03G-P4-2888-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 780 Ti Dual Classified w/ EVGA ACX Cooler 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card
EVGA 03G-P4-2888-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 780 Ti Dual Classified w/ EVGA ACX Cooler 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card

Pros: - Both fast and quiet simply out of the box - Absolutely ridiculous power, humbles any demanding game with max settings and 60+ fps without even breaking a sweat. Almost too much power for 1080p. - Cooler is highly effective without going over 2 slots - Built for the overclockers. Overcomes Nvidia' Green Light restrictions with special voltage control, power limit control, and PWM frequency control software, unleashing huge overclocks. Mine can reach 1500Mhz+ core with water cooling. - It's EVGA, and EVGA is the no-brainer option with Nvidia GPUs.

Cons: - No backplate. Considering how huge the PCB is and now heavy the cooler is, they should all really come with a backplate that has a PCB support so that the case holds the weight instead of the PCI-e slot, and so the PCB doesn't warp over time. - A small amount of coil noise, but considering the amount of power running through this card, it's understandable. Still nowhere near as bad as many of the AMD cards I've owned. - Newegg price-gouging. It's $800 here, but the MSRP is $760. Frankly, that's ridiculous.

Overall Review: This is the king of all 28nm GPUs. It's the best custom version of the most powerful 28nm core available, the 2880 core GK110, from the best brand. Right now it's just the best single-GPU graphics card you can get (unless you do LN2 cooling, in which you'll want the KINGPIN edition of this card). Overclocks well with any kind of cooling. Yes, it is overpriced, but this is not a card for those seeking price/performance. It's for those who will do anything for maximum performance. If you want the best single GPU graphics card you can get, you don't need to look any further.

Impressive!

Team Xtreme 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model TXD38G2400HC10QDC01
Team Xtreme 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model TXD38G2400HC10QDC01

Pros: - Super fast!!! - No to get it running at rated speed. Simply plugged them in, enabled the XMP, and my PC booted right now without having to mess with any other settings. Running perfectly on my ASRock Z77 Extreme4 w/ Intel i5 3570K. - Heatsinks are amazing. They are solid and beefy and have a nice heavy feel, they really feel high quality. They also look really cool. - Timings are good for 2400Mhz - Black PCBs. Just an aesthetic thing, but I like it. - Just all around impressive quality, and very fast

Cons: - 1.65v, which outside of the maximum 1.575v spec of Intel CPUs, and this is risky. You NEED proper cooling to avoid burning out your IMC, and even then it's still risky. If you have a poor heatsink like the Intel stock heatsink, you should avoid 1.65v ram, stick to 1.5v. I don't know why they call this kit "LV" because it's definitely not low voltage. Since I do water cooling I'm not so worried. - The heatsinks, even though they are awesome, stand very tall, and might block some large 3rd-party CPU coolers like the CM Evo 212, so be aware before buying. Again since I have a waterblock on my CPU it's not a problem for me.

Overall Review: Team seems to be pretty new to the arena and with their lower prices I was a bit skeptical about their quality but they totally provide me wrong. I'm very impressed with the quality of this RAM and I love it, highly recommend it. Everyone should give Team a try! Another reviewer said something about these being single-sided, claiming it was slower than double-sided. He is misinformed, a quick bit of online research will show you single-sided is FASTER than double-sided because the CPU has access to all the individual memory chips at the same time instead of only half (which is the case with double-side). Single-side RAM is newer tech than double-side and again, single-side is better. Almost all DDR3 kits are single-side nowadays. As I said above, I have these running on an ASRock Z77 Extreme4 motherboard so that confirms this kit is compatible, and I had no problems getting these to play nicely with my i5 3570K on the first try, but do note that this isn't the case with all 3570Ks - you may have to adjust additional CPU voltages in the BIOS first.

11/27/2013

Good quality mid-range RAM

Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model BLS2KIT4G3D1339DS1S00
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model BLS2KIT4G3D1339DS1S00

Pros: - decent heat spreaders that are also very low-profile and have no problem fitting under a big CPU cooler - Popped right in and fired up with no problems - low-ish 1.5v with decently low timings is great - Already overclocked to 1600Mhz on stock volts with stock timings(9-9-9-24 1T). It could easily go higher, but I haven't tried to go any further yet. - Got it on sale for $52 - Stylish

Cons: None so far!