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Matthew C.

Matthew C.

Joined on 02/03/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 13
Most Favorable Review

Awesome game

Mirror's Edge PC Game
Mirror's Edge PC Game

Pros: Wonderful game. Looks even better on a good computer than on any of the consoles. you truly need PhysX to fully appreciate this game though. graphics and game system and play are all well thought out.

Cons: pretty good sized system requirements. takes up alot of disk space. wouldn't recommend for a laptop if it isn't strong enough to handle gaming.

Impressive

Intel Xeon W3520 Bloomfield 2.66 GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W BX80601W3520 Server Processor
Intel Xeon W3520 Bloomfield 2.66 GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W BX80601W3520 Server Processor

Pros: Absolutely incredible for a CPU. Replaced an i7 920 D0 and put this in instead. system is slightly more responsive than before and is a little cooler, definitely worth the extra $20 or so to buy this. it even supports ECC memory. on stock with turbo 2.8GHz runs fully stable under max load on temps in the average 60s on 1.24V.....definitely something to be proud of and makes it a substantial overclocker as a result.

Cons: A little costy, but it handles everything I throw at it. Also a little challenging to find this thing too, as it's a server CPU not a desktop one.

Overall Review: Definitely no legend that Intel makes Xeon processors with a little more care. The silicon is much better picked/binned than their lesser intended i7 counterparts. saves power and heat, because these suckers are made to be worked, and 24/7! can get pretty impressive overclocks on air....even beyond 4GHz on minimal power (~1.25V or so) hard to do that on an i7.

11/24/2009
Intel X25-M Mainstream 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDSA2MH080G2R5
Intel X25-M Mainstream 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDSA2MH080G2R5

Pros: Incredibly fast for a single drive. These things make a wondrous boot or gaming drive. a good read of 240MB/s never hurt anyone..... xP definitely one of the fastest things around. personally I prefer SAS drives, but once these come down in price more, they're definately going to be a force to be reckoned with....

Cons: Price, and reliability is still semi-questionable....but you can't beat it for performace / $, SAS drives are better for size, but are much more pricey yet.....

Overall Review: Had 2 of these in RAID0 but got burned by the Intel update (which was only up for a day I might add) one of the drives was empty and survived the fault, while the other failed and was RMA'd though due to shortage I got a refund instead of a replacement. $300.00 back into my wallet isn't bad, but I have to say I like my good ol' rotational platters...reliability is good.

11/12/2009
ARCTIC MX-2 (4g) Carbon-Based Thermal Compound, Non-Electricity Conductive, Non-Capacitive
ARCTIC MX-2 (4g) Carbon-Based Thermal Compound, Non-Electricity Conductive, Non-Capacitive

Pros: Works like a charm....keeps my Core i7 920 D0 with even the stock cooler at a minimal heat level....38-40C and 64C on load. put a aftermarket cooler on it and it stays under 60C pretty easily.

Cons: None I can think of

Overall Review: keep up the good work. There's a reason people use this stuff. I also put it on my Radeon 4890, and it keeps it at 57C or so, as opposed to 62C. for -5C that's pretty good for a high performance GPU Temp. change.

11/12/2009

Fast for the size

Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Definitely one of the best drives I have ever owned. It's fast, and reliable. I know alot of other people who have the extra $ and bought these and are pleased with them as well. They're much better hand-picked than the WD caviar black drives. the react better to heat changes, as well as have low seek time and are backed by a 5 yr. warranty. They also officially support RAID, as well as are marginally faster than the WD blacks. Monstrous amount of storage.

Cons: A bit pricey, but you get what you pay for. They do run a little warm as well, might want to invest in a fan to blow on them if you can. they're a little loud too, but not so much it's annoying, especially over a performance machine with multiple fans.

Overall Review: Put 2 of these into a RAID0 with a 128KB stripe and was rather pleased with the results. These drives were made to be run under stress without major performance loss, and hold up surprisingly well. Give them workout and you won't be disappointed. they perform in rival with a velociraptor, but have colossal storage space in comparison. Love it!

11/12/2009

Great Drive

Western Digital Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Awesome Disk Drive. It's got a whopping 320 GB of space for a 2.5" drive and at 7200RPM as well. Pretty impressive, It has average power consumption for a 7200 as well. I've heard alot of complaints about vibration and noise from these drives, and I'm going to put the questions to rest right now. This is mainly at startup only. (see other thoughts) it's not too hot either - Good bang for the $ for a performance drive.

Cons: seek times could be a little better in my opinion. 12 ms isn't any better than the scorpio blue drives. I know they can do it, as a velociraptor has a 4.2-4.8ms seek.

Overall Review: The drive will dynamically change according to it's usage...while seeking and spinning up it is indeed reasonably loud and vibrates a reasonable amount. after boot and such, it's pretty quiet in fact....and the vibrations drop as well. unless you are being demanding of it, the drive is pretty standard and quiet.

11/12/2009