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David P.

David P.

Joined on 03/22/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 11
Most Favorable Review

Trade off

XFX Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card HD-487A-CDF9
XFX Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card HD-487A-CDF9

Pros: I did a decent amount of research before buying this beast. As always there is a trade off for dual core vid cards as compared to a more powerful single core (I was torn between this and the 285) I ordered this instead due to it's better performance at higher resolutions and higher AA and AF settings. That said if you game at lower resolutions you will actually get better performance out of a 285.

Cons: Heavy, like a brick. No, for reals, this thing IS as heavy as a brick.

Overall Review: If you are not limited to a single slot you will get better performance out of 2 4870s in Xfire than a single 4870x2. A good all around card especially if you plan on buying a second one to put in quad Xfire and making mince meat of all games you throw at it. =)

Most Critical Review

Maybe in a laptop

G.SKILL 2.5" 64GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) FM-25S2S-64GB
G.SKILL 2.5" 64GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) FM-25S2S-64GB

Pros: Shock proof, high continuous (not random) read rate, low energy usage.

Cons: If your buying this for a desktop you need an adapter/cage (I bought an icy box cage that works perfectly). Did not notice much of a performance increase over a 8mb cache 500GB WD drive. It is a bit snappier when it doesn't hang up thinking about what it wants to do next, but it does hang up enough for me to wish I had not bought this drive (CANNOT RETURN EXCEPT FOR REPLACEMENT).

Overall Review: I would recommend going with 2 V-Raptors in raid 0 or two WD Caviar Blacks (or something comparable) in a raid 0 over these. I think MCM SSDs need some time before they will be blowing people away in real world environments.

11/21/2008

Replaced a 4870x2

XFX Radeon HD 5870 1GB DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card HD-587X-ZNFC
XFX Radeon HD 5870 1GB DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card HD-587X-ZNFC

Pros: I received this card as an RMA from XFX replacing a 4870x2. The RMA process took about two weeks from the time I submitted the ticket online to the time I received the new card; which is, in my opinion, a very short time. No hassle, no fuss they just replaced my old card with a brand new one; can't beat that. The double lifetime warranty is worth the money.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Quieter than the 4870x2 it replaced and not as heavy.

Bullet proof? Possibly.

Logitech S 510 Silver/Black 104 Normal Keys 14 Function Keys RF Wireless Slim Cordless Desktop
Logitech S 510 Silver/Black 104 Normal Keys 14 Function Keys RF Wireless Slim Cordless Desktop

Pros: For the price this is probably the best wireless general use keyboard I have found. Looks great, installs on XP, Vista, Win 7 no problem. Keys are not the quietest but feel smooth when depressed. Full num pad and media controls are a bonus.

Cons: Operational distance leaves something to be desired. I would not recommend using this for a media center.

Overall Review: So in my first review I raved about the fact that I spilled coffee on my keyboard and how it functioned flawlessly AFTER I rinsed it off under the faucet. Fast forward roughly 8mos and repeat. This time it took a day or two to completely dry out but violas, I am typing on the same keyboard that was just 48 hours ago covered in coffee and nearly drowned in H2O. Great product IMO.

Cooking, with gas

G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8TU-6GBPI
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8TU-6GBPI

Pros: Has worked perfect so far. Turned on XMP profile and its running flawlessly at 8-8-8-19-60-1t.

Cons: Not black?

Overall Review: Great ram for the price. As always G Skill provides a quality product on the cheap.

East Motherboard Massive!!!

Scythe MUGEN-2 SCMG-2000 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler
Scythe MUGEN-2 SCMG-2000 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler

Pros: For reals, not yokes, probably the biggest HS I have ever laid eyes on, which means great cooling power. Easy install (you do need to remove the MB to do so). It can be installed facing any 1 of 4 directions which is nice for MB compatibility.

Cons: The gynormus size also means that it will get in the way of many things. I had to mount the fan about 1/3 the way up the HS because it was blocking the two closest memory channels. Doing this means that the performance of the unit is compromised. The other issue with doing this is that the fan for the HS is now right up against the case window. A low profile 120 fan would do the trick but I really don't want to spend any more money this build.

Overall Review: Keeps the chip cool but probably not much better than stock with how I have it setup. If you have plenty of space in your case an a mobo that has some extra room between the chip and the memory go for it. My mobo is an EVGA x58 Sli.