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Charles D.

Charles D.

Joined on 12/14/13

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 11
Most Favorable Review

Solid for almost six months now

Antec HCG M HCG-850M 850 W ATX12V SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
Antec HCG M HCG-850M 850 W ATX12V SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: Rock solid amperages across all rails. I have yet to see my +12V rail dip below 12.0 amps, even when playing the most extreme games. The LED light is pretty sweet too, and I like how they put a switch for you to turn it off in case you aren't into flashy systems the way I am. This power supply is SLI and CrossFire certified so you're set if you like to do dual video card setups. I love the modular cables. It just reduces case clutter very well.

Cons: Cables are a bit stiff.

Overall Review: Antec is reknown for their quality in the power supply field; I use them almost exclusively for my builds. This power supply was a perfect match for Antec 1100 "Illusion" case. Looks pretty cool with all the lights.

Most Critical Review

Varying experiences with rev 1.2 and 4.0

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX + SB950 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX + SB950 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: My experiences varied significantly between the two revisions of the board I got. For rev 1.2: Love this board. We've had it running for three years now with an FX-8320 overclocked at 4.4GHz, and 16GB of RAM with a EVGA GTX 670 FTW (soon to be ASUS R9 390 Strix). The price was right, the overclocking is solid. The feature set is fairly mainstream. The board has enough ports and everything you need. For rev 1.2 my experience was fine.

Cons: Now as for rev 4.0: It's a completely different story. While at first the system seemed stable. Eventually everything flaked out and the board completely died. After step by step testing I confirmed every piece of hardware worked independently other than the motherboard. After RMAing the board, I got a repaired unit that fixed one of the voltage blocks. After very little operation, the repaired board's NIC stopped working. I couldn't even get it to show up in the hardware manager. This means a second RMA. In this second board's case, I probably got a dud, but that didn't stop me from switching to the ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0. It's basically the same board except the ASUS variety.

Overall Review: I've been a Gigabyte guy as long as I remember, but my experience with the rev 4.0 version of the board left me with a very sour taste in my mouth. It won't stop me from recommending it, but a two star reduction is warranted for having one of the boards be such a lemon. I'd probably recommend the ASUS board I mentioned earlier over this one. The older rev 1.2 board has been flawless however. Gigabyte's warranty service also performed admirably, although I must confess, I wish they would've sent me a brand new replacement instead of a repaired unit that ended up frying as well.

11/26/2015

Good card for the right price.

ASUS Radeon R9 390 8GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card STRIX-R9390-DC3OC-8GD5-GAMING
ASUS Radeon R9 390 8GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card STRIX-R9390-DC3OC-8GD5-GAMING

Pros: It was cheap, when I got mine around Black Friday for $275 after rebate. The card is quite fast, I play every single game I own on ultra settings on 1080p, although your experience may vary depending on differing hardware. I've also found that the 8GB of VRAM sets this card up in a "future proofing" manner, I won't have any issues when it comes to having enough memory. The card is quiet, It actually turns the fans completely off when the system is not under load. The three fans, when using an MSI Afterburner or a comparable program to set the fan speed high, keeps the card cool as well.

Cons: It's hot! Sometimes reaching up to 70C. Despite having a very good cooling setup, the fans will only reach 40-50%, even when under load. To remedy this, I use MSI Afterburner to set the fans in the 65-80% range, depending on which game I'm playing. This card's silicon can technically get up to around 90C without any worry, but I still like to keep the card cooler. I docked one egg because I shouldn't have to remedy this myself. I've also found that old drivers would sometimes prevent my monitor from waking. This was fixed for me in later drivers, I think, as it has not happened in over a month. Because it seems fixed, I did not dock a second egg.

Overall Review: With the Polaris and Pascal around the corner, it might be a good idea to wait to upgrade. I got this card for Black Friday, and waited this long to write a review because I didn't want to write a review prematurely. Overall this has been a great card to me. I game and do quite a bit of Adobe CC work, so the extra VRAM has come in handy thus far. Yes I would recommend this card, if you can grab it for a great price like I did.

Fans can be hard to review

Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 - Sleeve Bearing 120mm Blue LED Silent Fan for Computer Cases, CPU Coolers, and Radiators
Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 - Sleeve Bearing 120mm Blue LED Silent Fan for Computer Cases, CPU Coolers, and Radiators

Pros: First and foremost, the fan has a high RPM which matters to me in my cooling setup. This fan also looks great, the combination of black and blue matches my build perfectly. I would say the LEDs have a slick, sleek nature to their shimmer.

Cons: First of all, these fans are pretty loud. I don't care about this, but it can be a annoying and deserves a docking of one egg.

Overall Review: These fans aren't quite as bright as the two Antec fans they replaced. I generally only use ball bearing fans, but the rebate and high RPM make for a great deal. What can I say, Cooler Master is a good brand and I have no problem running two brands of fans, even if they do look slightly different.

Black Series 2TB

WD Black 2TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD2003FZEX
WD Black 2TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD2003FZEX

Pros: The fact it's a 2TB is a pro in itself. The write speeds are great for a hard disk. The drive is quite fast, Windows boots up before I have enough time to use the restroom. It works great as a storage option. I have it split into two separate partitions, one for the OS and one for storage.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: Western Digital has always been my preferred storage company over Seagate.

Great if you grab it on sale.

Logitech G430 USB Connector Circumaural Surround Sound Gaming Headset
Logitech G430 USB Connector Circumaural Surround Sound Gaming Headset

Pros: The sound quality is pretty great, although maybe not for an audiophile. The headset is fairly comfortable with all its padding and what not. The 7.1 works excellent in my games, I can hear footsteps a mile away. The mic quality is solid, everyone in ventrilo and mumble say I sound perfect. I like how you can use the USB adapter for surround sound, or you can use the old fashioned analog cables for regular stereo sound. Overall I like these headphones a lot.

Cons: With the USB adapter, the sound can be a little too quiet when listening to music. Of course you can fix this by simply not using the USB adapter, but you'll lose your surround sound abilities. It's also a little annoying having to open up the program each time to adjust whether or whether not it's in surround sound mode. There also seems to be a break in period before they become completely comfortable and accustomed to your ear. For these small issues Logitech loses one star

Overall Review: I got these for $39.99 on sale. I'd definitely recommend them if you can find them for a low price like that. Otherwise, if you have to pay full price, maybe you should step up the G35's just because they have extra buttons on them, although in my experience the sound quality is nearly identical between them. Overall, highly recommended, especially if you can grab them when they're on sale.