All posts by Blake

Final Fantasy XV and ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 Ti OC

April 25, 2024Video Card ReviewsBlake

“Final Fantasy XV” follows Prince Noctis and his loyal companions on a journey across the vast world of Eos. Tasked with reclaiming his kingdom and fulfilling his destiny as the rightful heir to the throne of Lucis, Noctis must navigate through political intrigue, forge alliances, and confront powerful foes, including the imperial forces of Niflheim and the enigmatic Astrals. Along the way, Noctis and his friends Ignis, Gladiolus, and Prompto form unbreakable bonds, facing personal trials and discovering their true strengths. With a blend of real-time combat, exploration, and emotional storytelling, “Final Fantasy XV” delivers a captivating adventure filled with friendship, sacrifice, and the eternal struggle between light and darkness” (ChatGPT Conversation on Final Fantasy XV. OpenAI, 1 May 2024), This game can be found on Steam for $13.99.

The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4060 Ti OC Edition Gaming Graphics Card is manufactured by ASUS and features the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GPU, with a clock speed typically ranging from 2685MHz -2715MHz (OC). and 4352 CUDA Cores It offers 8 GB of GDDR6 video memory operating at around 18 Gbps. The card utilizes a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface and requires at least a 650-watt power supply with its 160 TPD. Cooling is managed by ASUS’s advanced cooling solution with three fans and RGB lighting. It supports DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.6 APIs and achieves a Passmark score of 22,898 placing it among the top-tier GPUs available at a rank of 34. I found this card at $496.44 on Newegg.

Playing Final Fantasy XV with this card was no problem, being able to play in 1440p with relatively high FPS gave this game the ultimate experience I wanted. For $496.44 for this brand new graphics card, I think it’s a relatively good deal having all the VRAM I need with three cooling fans to keep the card at good temperatures as well as having the RGB option to keep the aesthetics of my PC looking sweet. I think this card is great if you’re looking for something that doesn’t consume a whole lot of power, but still can play any game in 1080p and even 1440p in some cases with ease. I am thrilled with the setup I have now and don’t regret buying the card one bit. Would recommend this card to anyone, have a great day!

NOTE: This is a class project

Works Cited

“FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION on Steam.” Steam, http://store.steampowered.com/app/637650/FINAL_FANTASY_XV_WINDOWS_EDITION/. Accessed 24 April 2024.

ChatGPT Conversation on Final Fantasy XV. OpenAI, 1 May 2024

“ROG Strix GeForce RTX™ 4060 Ti 8GB GDDR6 OC Edition | Graphics Cards | ROG United States.” ROG Strix GeForce RTX™ 4060 Ti 8GB GDDR6 OC Edition | Graphics Cards | ROG United States, https://rog.asus.com/us/graphics-cards/graphics-cards/rog-strix/rog-strix-rtx4060ti-o8g-gaming/spec/. Accessed 24 April 2024.

Crucial T500 Hard Drive Review

March 21, 2024Hard Drive ReviewsBlake

After needing some more storage for my games, I decided to buy an M.2 SSD to help compromise my problem. Note that my games were previously on a regular 2.5-inch SSD drive instead of an M.2. After paying $71.99 on Amazon, I was happily waiting for the arrival of my new M.2 SSD made by Crucial to upgrade my PC. After receiving the drive and installing it on my motherboard, I am happily pleased to say that this drive is a definite game changer for me.

I would like to proudly say that this drive has increased the performance of my PC and it makes all the difference with its 7,400/7,000MB/s sequential reads/write speeds, which is beyond impressive compared to my 500MB/s SSD drive. Now, my games load a lot faster, and it does not take very long at all to download stuff. I believe this was a great purchase for the price and I recommend this product fully.

Note: This is for a Class Project

Works Cited

“Crucial T500 500GB Gen4 NVMe M.2 Internal Gaming SSD, Up to 7200MB/s, Laptop & Desktop Compatible + 1mo Adobe CC All Apps – CT500T500SSD8.” Amazon.com, https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Internal- Gaming-Desktop- Compatible/dp/B0CK2R8YLY?source=ps-sl-shoppingads- lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1. Accessed 19 March 2024.

Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM 32GB 4800mhz (2x16GB)

February 15, 2024Memory ReviewsBlake

With newer and newer generations of technology, this set of RAM does a good job representing the newest generation of RAM DDR5 with its speed of 4800Mhz and its CAS Latency of 40. With 32GB anything is possible from video editing to gaming, to regular day use, you will be confident to say that your RAM speed will never be an issue. Even the aesthetics of this set of RAM by Corsair looks good, blending in with any motherboard, and looking high performance and fresh.

After buying a 32Gb set of this DDR5 Corsair RAM, I have concluded that if you are still on DDR4, it is not yet time to convert to DDR5. Although this RAM does a great job and has excellent performance, for its heavy price tag of $92.99, I would say if you still have DDR4, it might be a good idea to wait until DDR5 prices drop a little bit. Thank you for reading this and I wish you success in your future PC builds.

Resources: https://www.amazon.com/CORSAIR-VENGEANCE-4800MHz-Compatible-Computer/dp/B09MTS5YH1?th=1

Note: This is for a Class Project

AMD Ryzen 5 7600x Review

January 25, 2024CPU reviewsBlake

AM4 was a success with it being continually used since 2016 with customers like myself being extremely happy with the performance of the AM4 lineup but now its time for a new area of CPUs. With AM5’s socket and its Zen 4 CPU microarchitecture, we can expect even better performance than the previous generation, and the Ryzen 5 7600x does not let down the expectations.

The Ryzen 5 7600x has 6 cores and 12 threads, and with a base clock of 4.7 GHz and a boost clock of 5.3 GHz, this CPU gives its predecessor, the Ryzen 5 5600x, a run for its money. The Ryzen 5 7600x has 384KB of L1 Cache, 6MB of L2 Cache, and 32MB of L3 Cache, which provides an ideal amount of core memory that allows you to do all the gaming and workstation tasks you need. This allows me to play Farming Simulator 22, Fortnite, Flight Simulator, and great FPS without having to buy the most expensive GPU on the market.

With a PassMark score of 28,650, and a rank of 273, this CPU nears the top 8 percent of CPUs on the market. My personal experience so far has been great with this CPU and I only have a couple of bad things to say about it. First of all, unfortunately, this CPU does not come with a cooler for the $228.95 that it costs on Amazon right now. It kinda stinks comparing it to Ryzens 3rd gen CPUs that normally came with a cooler when bought new. In conclusion, I would give this CPU a 4.5 out of 5 stars compared to the 4.6-star rating that it has on Amazon because of its ultimate performance, but if you use an AM4 chip right now, I would suggest waiting a little longer before investing in the AM5 socket so maybe you could snatch a CPU like this at a little better price.

Note: This review is part of a classroom project.

MSI MAG B550M MORTAR MAX WIFI Review

December 1, 2023Motherboard reviewsBlake

After first getting the MAG B550M Mortar Max Wifi motherboard I was thrilled to see the amazing esthetics behind this creation. With the black and white smooth and futuristic style it had in my sleek black PC case, it fit the overall look perfectly. What I like the most about this motherboard is the amount of compatibility it has, with the ability to put anything from a Ryzen 3rd gen to a Ryzen 5th gen, I can choose the best CPU for the budget and the uses I need out of this motherboard. With wifi being built into this motherboard, I no longer have to worry about using an adapter like I was using on my old motherboard, allowing me to get the best family-friendly use at home. With four RAM slots, I can truly pick how much I need for my uses for this motherboard from a range from 8 GB of RAM to 128 GB.

Even with the integrated components of the motherboard, you have a wide variety of options. I like being able to connect my phone to the PC Via my USB-C phone cable, and with these integrated component options, I no longer have to worry about using adapters that don’t give me the speed I need. With the display port and HDMI port, I can hook two separate monitors without the need for a graphics card. Also, with the 7.1 audio this baby has, I can hook up the ultimate sound system that I can use when I work.

This is the rating this motherboard has on Newegg, which isn’t bad, it is pretty close to how I would rate it. Now my rating on this motherboard, based on the experience I have had so far with this motherboard, would be 4.5 out of 5 eggs/stars. I was truly hoping that there would be more expansion possibilities with this motherboard for the price of 169.99 on Newegg. Though this motherboard does have plenty of storage connection available, with its 6 SATA ports, including an M.2 Slot, it just doesn’t have enough expansion slots as I would prefer to have. That is how I would rate this motherboard and my review of it.

Note: This review is part of a classroom project.