All posts by lunger

GeForce GTX 980 Graphics Card

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The GeForce GTX 980 is a high end video card made for gaming. It is one of the top rated video cards according to videobenchmark.net. The GPU (graphics processing unit) is made by Nvidia which is one of the leaders in graphics cards.
Here are some of the specifications of the card:
Core Clock Speed 1190 MHz
Memory Size 4GB
Memory Type GDDR5
Ports  1 x HDMI, 3 x DisplayPort, 1 x DVI
Max Resolution 4096×2160
SLI Support Quad SLI
Power Requirements Recommended 500W Minimum Power Supply
Interface PCI Express 3.0 x16
This card also features DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.4 which lets you render 2D and 3D graphics. The core clock speed is how fast the GPU operates so the higher the better. It features 4GB of memory on the graphics card so it can be faster and not have to transport data across the motherboard to the RAM. It has GDDR5 which is the newest and fastest memory available. SLI is how many other video cards it will work with, so in this case it can link 4 video cards together to produce a single picture. It uses two fans to cool it and requires a power supply with a minimum of 500 watts. The graphics card also requires two 8-pin power connector. It features 3 different clock speeds including OC (over clock) mode which is maximum performance, Gaming mode which is a balance between best speed and increased fan performance and silent mode which is best for the least amount of fan noise. It is priced on newegg.com for $479.99.

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OCZ Z-Drive m84 PCI-E SSD Review

<![CDATA[OCZ Technology was started in 2002 and produced RAM, video cards, and USB drives. They filed for bankruptcy in 2014 and they were bought by Toshiba. They are now called OCZ Storage Solutions and they now sell high performance solid state drives (SSD).

I am reviewing the OCZ Z-Drive R2 m84 solid state drive. This SSD is priced for $1,299.88 on Newegg.com. I think this SSD isn’t worth the cost even though the max read and max write is very fast compared to other 1 TB SSD’s but the IOPS speed on the 4KB random read/write is very low. It is different from most other SSD’s because it uses a PCI-Express slot instead of a SATA connector which could allow for different builds.
Here are the OCZ Z-drive R2 m84 specifications:

Form Factor: PCI-Express
Size: 1 TB (Terabyte)
Max Read: 800 MB/s
Max Write: 750 MB/s
4KB Random Read: 29,000 IOPS (113 MB/s)
4KB Random Write: 7,700 IOPS (30 MB/s)
Sustained Write: 500 MB/s
MTBF: (Mean Time Between Failure) 1 million hours

This SSD has its pros and cons but I think that it is too expensive for what you are getting because you can get a Samsung 840 EVO for $599.48 on newegg.com and it has faster IOPS by a lot but its max read and write is slower but it is half the price. The OCZ’s price per gigabyte is $1.29 and the Samsung is only $.59 a gigabyte which is a lot less expensive. I wouldn’t recommend this product because of its price per gigabyte and its IOPS are lower than most other 1TB SSD’s.]]>

Corsair Dominator Platinum Memory

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Corsair was founded in 1994 and they have grown from making high-performance DRAM to power supplies, cases, graphics cards, keyboards and more. Corsair also launched their gaming brand in 2014 where they provide mice, keyboards, headsets and mouse mats. They are featured in “dream systems” all the time because of their high performance memory and video cards. If you want to learn more about their memory click  here.

 

The RAM I am reviewing is the Corsair Dominator Platinum Series which is a great option if you want high speed memory for a gamer PC. The memory specs that I reviewed are listed below:

Capacity: 16GB (4x4GB)
Type: 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM
Speed: 3000 (PC3 24000)
Cas Latency: 12
Timing: 12-14-14-36
Voltage: 1.65V
Multi-channel Kit: Quad Channel Kit
This was the best memory I could find that would work with my motherboard because it would only take DDR3 3,000 O.C. memory. The memory is priced $574.99 on Corsair.com and it is one of the cheapest places I could find it. The most important things to look for when determining the speeds of memory and how they compare to others is to look at how much memory it offers, the speed of the memory, and it’s cas latency. For the speed of the memory the higher the number the better and for the cas latency you want the lowest number you can find but you have to make sure that the motherboard accepts that type and speed of memory.

Works Cited

“About Corsair.” Corsair Company Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2016. <http://www.corsair.com/en-us/company/about-corsair>.
http://www.corsair.com/en-us/dominator-platinum-series-16gb-4-x-4gb-ddr3-dram-3000mhz-c12-memory-kit-cmd16gx3m4a3000c12
“Newegg.com Corsair Mem”CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 16GB (4 X 4GB).” Corsair Memory. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.corsair.com/en-us/dominator-platinum-series-16gb-4-x-4gb-ddr3-dram-3000mhz-c12-memory-kit-cmd16gx3m4a3000c12>.ory.” CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 16GB (4 X 4GB). N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2016. <http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233706&cm_re=Corsair_dominator_platinum-_-20-233-706-_-Product>.

 

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