All posts by Syd

Still Budget Friendly, a Look at the PowerColor Red Devil. Radeon RX 570

Video Card Reviews, , , , ,
<![CDATA[

So you want to buy a graphics card for your child or friend, but you don’t want to put a large dent in your wallet. AMD’s RX 570, more specifically PowerColor’s famous Red Devil Lineup, has got you covered. The card is cooled by 3 fans, cutting it down from a bulky triple slot to a dual slot card. The card is 310mm long, making it unable to fit in much smaller cases.

The PowerColor Red Devil comes with 4GB of GDDR5 VRAM, plenty to start off any budget gaming PC without needing to rely on the struggle of integrated graphics. The rear ports come with DVI-D, HDMI, and 3 DisplayPorts. The card supports AMD CrossFire, where you get 2 GPUs and connect them with a CrossFire Bridge. This would generally give a boost in performance. However, one would need a CrossFire Supported Motherboard to get the full use of it. It supports both DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.5. The card has a max resolution up to 4k if you use either the HDMI or DisplayPort, with the DVI only being able to support 2560×1600. More details about this card can be found on PowerColor’s website.

Price/Conclusion

With a price of $139.99 the card is the best choice for getting the best performance for your money. The Card is almost a must-have for wanting to game on a budget.

Note: This post was part of a classroom project.

]]>

Stunning in all the right ways (A review on the G.Skill Trident Z RGB)

Memory Reviews, NT IT Reviews
<![CDATA[
G.Skill Trident Z RGB

Nothing makes a PC build look finished like a sleek kit of DDR4 RAM. Well, G.Skill has you covered with their Trident Z RGB.  They are praised for their overclocking capabilities while still staying stable. Complete with aluminum heat spreaders and RGB lighting. 

Specifications

  • Capacity: 32GB (2x16GB)
  • Speed: DDR4 3200
  • Type: 288 Pin DDR4 SDRAM
  • CAS Latency: 16
  • Non-ECC
  • Unbuffered
  • Dual Channel Kit
  • Access time: 5 ns
  • Voltage: 1.35V

Our Testing

We decided that we needed to see this for our own eyes and got us the 32 GB kit of two 16 GB sticks. Out of the box, it feels sleek and gives off the finished look with its RGB on top. We decided to hook it up to a Gigabyte Aorus X470 Gaming 7 motherboard to get the most out of its overclocking capabilities. It is good to mention now that G.Skill has a limited lifetime warranty on all of their RAM until they stop manufacturing the RAM in question. It ran smoothly with little to no problems even with overclocking it.

Don’t just take our word for it. On newegg, the product has an average of 4 eggs overall with the lowest rating for it being 3 eggs. 


Pros: – The Asus AiSuite3 software automatically detected the timing profile and configured it to run at 3200 Mhz as advertised. Or just go to the BIOS and turn on XMP. I’ve had my system running stable at this clock speed for over 2 weeks. 
– Beautiful RGB as everyone expects.
– It’s cheaper than buying the 8 GB module (4 x 8), leaving room to upgrade to 64 GB.
Cons: – Nothing to complain.
Other Thoughts: Recommend to anyone who just want to turn on XMP in the BIOS and be done with it at 3200 Mhz.

Quentin H.

Note: This review is part of a classroom project.

References

Newegg

]]>

AMD Ryzen 7 2700X CPU Review

CPU reviews

<![CDATA[

Imagine that somebody buys a new Intel CPU. He dished out over 300 dollars for it. The enthusiast inside him says that they want to overclock it,

… but he didn’t notice that the processor is locked.

Meet AMD, the underdog of the two CPU tech giants.  Their Ryzen series comes with not only a CPU cooler, but every CPU in the Ryzen series is able to overclock.

AMD Ryzen 7 2700X

Meet the fastest CPU for this motherboard. The AMD Ryzen 7 2700X sports:

  • 8 Cores/ 16 Threads
  • Stock Frequency of 3.7 GHz
  • Max Frequency of 4.3 GHz
  • 768 KB of L1 Cache
  • 4 MB of L2 Cache
  • 16 MB of L3 Cache
  • TDP: 105 W
  • Comes with the Wraith Prism Cooler

After unboxing it, we put the CPU and its included cooler into a Gigabyte B450M DS3H after making sure all other components are installed and properly working. Booting it was a breeze with little to no problems. No bluescreening, no failed POSTS.

Reviews/Passmark

Passmark charted the 2700X with a score of 16974, putting it ahead of even the high-end 8th gen processors. 

Look at the 8086K falling behind by 300 score even though it is almost double the price.

Being only $309.99 on Newegg, the CPU gains mostly positive reviews. People call this a great CPU that rivals Intel in how much performance you are getting for the price. 


Pros: -Comes with a top-notch cooler. I’ve been doing this stuff for years and have never seen a stock cooler I’d even CONSIDER leaving on. Performs EXTREMELY well. If I didn’t already have a big AIO I’d just bolt this puppy on and call it a day.
-Most of the issues people had with 1st gen Ryzen are solved here : Is able to use much faster ram without complaint and gets a pretty nice boost in single/multicore max speed.
-Silicon lottery isn’t much of an issue here. Your CPU WILL boost to 4.3 for single core loads, and will hit 3.9-4.1 on all-core depending on your cooling. In other words, works EXACTLY as advertised.
-With some tuning and fiddling, comes within spitting distance of it’s main competition in single core loads and DEMOLISHES it in multi-core.

Justin D, 2018

While the CPU might be potent with its raw performance, some people noted:


Pros: So fast it cought me off guard at 1st. Everything runs super smooth and fast. Replaced my 6700k.
Paired with MSI Carbon Pro and G Skill 3200mhz memory.
Everything Worked like a charm. Didn’t even had to re-install windows it just worked. I will reset windows just in case.
Stock cooler is good. I was playing cs go with an open case and my temps were 49-51 Celsius which is insanely cool.
Cons: Fan a bit loud, but it’s not a big deal

Tolik O.

Resources:

cpubenchmark.net

Newegg.com 

Note: This review is part of a school project.

]]>

Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wifi Review

<![CDATA[

So imagine that you need a great gaming motherboard for your new Ryzen CPU. Well have no fear as the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wifi has got you covered with extensive coverage of both non overclock and overclock speeds for the price. It comes with the specifications provided by Gigabyte.com

  • ATX form factor
  • Support for up to AMD Ryzen  2nd Generation 
    • AMD X470 Chipset
  • 4 DDR4 sockets for up to 64 GB of RAM
    • Dual channel support
    • Non overclock speeds of 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 MHz
    • Overclock speeds of 3600+ / 3400 / 3333 / 3200 / 3000 MHz
  • Onboard components
    • HD Audio with up to 7.1 channel audio
    • 1 Intel GbE LAN chip for up to 1000 Mb/s 
    • Bluetooth 5
  • Expansion slots
    • 2 PCI Express x16 slots (Running at x16 and x8 respectively)
    • 2 PCI Express x1 slots
    • Support for both NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFire for either 2 or 4 GPUs
  • Storage Devices
    • 1 M.2 connector with both SATA and PCIe 3.0 x4/x2 SSD support
    • 1 M.2 connector supporting PCIe 2.0 x4/x2 SSD
    • 6 SATA 6Gb/s connectors
  • Voltage, Temperature, Fan speed, and Water cooling flow rate detection
  • Overheating and fan failure warning
  • Fan speed control
  • So much RGB lighting.

With a MSRP of $239.99, this motherboard averages around 4 eggs on Newegg. just look at these reviews:


Pros: Amazing VRNs
Amazing VRN cooling ( not even necessary with such high efficiency VRN)
Onboard Wifi is nice and effective
Cons: BIOS layout is definitely subpar
Other Thoughts: Huge upgrade from Asrock AB350 pro

Timothy L.


Pros: After reading all the reviews here it was difficult to decide to get this board or not as half the people here where having problems with this board supposedly…………
But because it was the best looking board in its class with some really interesting features I took a risk.
I installed it in a corsair air 540 case. The board looks great with lighting all around and in the middle with the memory and PCI lanes lite up. it is very fast from boot to desktop, I’m very happy with it and glad I made the decision to get it compared to what’s out there. Also unlike some of my other boards the two M.2 slots do not interfere with closing down certain SATA ports which was convenient
Cons: NA

Joseph C.

This motherboard is a great gaming motherboard given the price point and the versatile overclocking potential. Like all Gigabyte motherboards, Gigabyte has a 4 year warranty if something breaks. I would recommend this motherboard to anybody needing a great gaming motherboard

Note: This review is part of a classroom project.

]]>