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Kyle K.

Kyle K.

Joined on 03/22/15

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 21
Most Favorable Review

Possibly the Best RX 480 Yet!

XFX Radeon GTR RX 480 DirectX 12 RX-480P8DBA6 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Black Edition Video Card
XFX Radeon GTR RX 480 DirectX 12 RX-480P8DBA6 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Black Edition Video Card

Pros: Great Performance Solid Overclocker Solid Undervolter Nice Design Excellent Build Quality Cool and Quiet Awesome Warranty FreeSync Support

Cons: It is a little expensive

Overall Review: This is a very nice, solid, well designed card. It has been running flawlessly and I have experienced zero issues. It seems a little loud at stock under load, but nothing a custom fan curve can't resolve. I really like the overall design and it looks great in my black and white themed build. The XFX logo definitely lights up a solid, pure white and doesn't look blue at all like it appears in the marketing video. I feel this card looks much better in person, especially the back plate which is awesome! As for overclocking, I was able to hold 1400mhz on the Core at 1150mv and 9000mhz on the Memory at 1100mv, all with the card topping out at 72c. (Stress Testing) I know it could go further as well if it wasn't for the voltage cap in Wattman. As for undervolting, I was able to hold 1340mhz on the Core at 1075mv and 8000mhz on the Memory at 950mv, temps now topping out at 65c. This card provides all of the performance that I need. I am currently using the LG 29UM68 monitor. This is a 29" 2560x1080 IPS 5ms 75hz FreeSync (40hz-75hz) display. I set my maximum FPS to 75 and FreeSync takes care of the rest. The gaming experience is insanely smooth and there is zero screen tearing or stuttering. This may be $60 more than a reference model, but I feel what you are getting for that increase in price is worth it. It has Higher Clock Speeds, Custom PCB w/ Much Higher Quality Power Delivery Components, Very Nice Heatsink, Nice Large Dual Replaceable Fans, Quality Aluminum Back Plate, Much Quieter than a Reference Card, and an Awesome Warranty! I went with the XFX GTR Black Edition over the Sapphire Nitro+ because I feel it is a better performer, has a much nicer heatsink, and has a way better warranty. I also like the overall design more as well. My Build: Case: Fractal Design Define Nano S Mobo: Msi H110i Pro CPU: Intel i5 6500 Ram: HyperX Fury DDR4 2133 GPU: XFX RX 480 GTR Black Edition SSD OS: 240gb HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe 2.0 x4 SSD Data: 1TB Samsung 850 Evo PSU: EVGA 550G2 HSF: Cryorig M9i Monitor: LG 29UM68 29" 2560x1080 IPS 5ms 75hz FreeSync

Excellent Price to Performance / Capacity

Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSHD 2TB SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Notebooks / Laptops Internal Hard Drive ST2000LX001
Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSHD 2TB SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Notebooks / Laptops Internal Hard Drive ST2000LX001

Pros: Better Performance than a regular HDD Higher Capacity than an equally priced SSD Seagate Reliability 5 Year Warranty

Cons: 5400rpm

Overall Review: I purchased the Seagate Firecuda 2TB 2.5" SSHD for my Xbox One S. I already swapped it out and it is working great. It feels much snappier overall and bootup / application load times seem to have improved even though it is 5400rpm like the 500gb HDD it replaced. I would have preferred a 7200rpm drive but the Xbox One S requires a 2.5" drive and it seems that 1TB is the cut off for 7200rpm 2.5" drives. That said, I figured the 8GB Flash Storage and Seagates caching implementation should more than make up for the performance difference between 5400rpm vs 7200rpm. Either way, I'm not that concerned considering it's just an Xbox One S and capacity was priority. If a 1TB drive would have been enough for me it would have been a tough choice between the Seagate Firecuda 1TB 2.5" SSHD and the HGST 1TB 7200rpm 2.5" HDD. It's too bad Seagate couldn't have pulled off 7200rpm in the 2.5" Firecuda like they did in the 3.5" Firecuda. On a side note, upgrading the Xbox One S internal hard drive is not for the faint of heart. The warranty sticker has to be removed so it voids your warranty. All you need is two USB Flash Drives (One for Clonezilla ISO and one for Linux Ubuntu ISO) Run the Clonezilla bootable USB and clone the Stock HDD to your New HDD. Then run the Ubuntu Bootable USB and run gparted. The extra space will be unallocated under the partitions. You have to move the bottom 3 partitions under the unallocated (one at a time starting with the very bottom going up). This will put the unallocated space under the User partition. Now you can extend the user partition and give it the extra unallocated space. After you add the unallocated space to the user partition, hit the green check mark and sit back. I recommend factory resetting the Xbox beforehand as it makes the cloning process much faster and seemless. Turn off auto on at the very least so the Xbox actually shuts down all the way beforehand. There are YouTube videos on this. Lookup XFiX, he has an awesome tutorial on how to do it!

12/23/2016

Best Headset I've Owned

Logitech G633 Artemis Spectrum 3.5mm/ USB Connector Circumaural RGB 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset
Logitech G633 Artemis Spectrum 3.5mm/ USB Connector Circumaural RGB 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset

Pros: Nice Build Quality Excellent Design Fit Great / Comfortable Great Sound Quality Good Mic Quality RGB Lighting Braided Cabling Dual USB / 3.5mm Support

Cons: Mic could be better Kind of heavy White setting is light blueish

Overall Review: This is the best headset I have owned. That said, the mic quality could be a bit better but it's not "bad" by any means. If you purchased these planning to set the lighting to white like I did (to match my G810 Mechanical Keyboard), you will be disappointed. The lighting will not go "WHITE", the white setting appears as a very light blue. I don't know if this is due to the LEDs or the plastic they shine through but white is not white. All of the other colors look great though. Also note that many people have said these don't fit well and tend to slide forward / backward. I don't have this issue and they fit me perfectly. If I whip my head around, they don't move. It blows my mind that these support "16.8 million colors" and white is not one of them....

Need Thermal Paste? Buy This

GELID Solutions GC-Extreme Thermal Compound
GELID Solutions GC-Extreme Thermal Compound

Pros: High Quality Non-Conductive Includes Spreader

Cons: None

Overall Review: This is the best Non-Conductive thermal paste on the market. I use to use and swear by trusty Arctic Silver 5, but now I use this and you should too! Why? Because I said so in chat.

Great Cable Combs

CableMod® ModFlex™ E-Series Basic Cable Comb Kit - TRANSPARENT
CableMod® ModFlex™ E-Series Basic Cable Comb Kit - TRANSPARENT

Pros: Look Nice Work Great

Cons: Overpriced

Overall Review: I ordered these to use with my new CableMod Cable Set. They look and work great. I feel CableMod should include these with their sleeved cable sets considering how much they cost. I also feel that these cable combs are overpriced and should come with more than what they do and include a couple 4 pin combs as well. I paid $11.90 for less than $0.25 worth of plastic.

Pretty Nice Sata Cable

CableMod® ModFlex™ SATA 3 Cable (6Gb/s) 30cm - WHITE
CableMod® ModFlex™ SATA 3 Cable (6Gb/s) 30cm - WHITE

Pros: Nice Sleeving Quality Cable It Works

Cons: Snagged Sleeving

Overall Review: Mine arrived with a pretty nice sized snag in the sleeving. It was easy for me to hide though so not a huge deal. I ordered this with the CableMode E-Series Basic Cable Set in Black/White. Matches Great!