GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GA-Z170X-Gaming 3 Motherboard Review

<![CDATA[High-quality PC building is a very pricey thing to do.  Some of the best builds can cost up to 3,000 dollars and much higher.  This can cause builders to skimp on some products like the motherboard. The GA-Z170X-Gaming Motherboard is full of performance for its price. It also was not the worst experience for the $335 price tag.
GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GA-Z170X-Gaming 3 (rev. 1.0) LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
This motherboard has many expansions slots for gaming and video editing. It also has amazing specifications

  • Intel Z170 Chipset
  • LGA 1150 Socket Type
  • Supports 6th and 7th generation Intel Processors (I7, I5, I3, Pentium, and Celeron)
  • Supports 4 sticks of DDR4 RAM duel channel
    • running at 2133 and overclocked speeds
    • maxing out at 64 GB
  • 3 PCI E x16 3.0 Slots (Shielded to support the weight of heavy graphics cards)
  • 3 PCI E x1 3.0 Slots
  • 9 SATA III connectors and 2 M.2 slots
  • 6 SATA 6 Gb/s connectors
  • 3 SATA Express Connectors
  • 2 M.2 Socket 3 Connectors
  • Support for 3-Way/2-Way AMD CrossFire and 2-Way NVIDIA SLI Technology
  • Supports On-board Video, Audio and LAN
    • Integrated Graphics Processor-Intel HD Graphics support
    • Realtek ALC1150
      • 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
    • Killer E2201 LAN chip
      • 10/100/1000Mbps

These specifications are pretty hefty for a board this price. This motherboard is in theory a great choice for high end gaming or editing. There are also many drawbacks for this board. Its flimsy when it came to plugging the power connector in. Even after the board had a decent start and work fine for a while, it had died just a few months after installing it into my PC.
There are also many review one Newegg of people who had the same problem as me.
Donald V stated;
“Pros: Performed well for 8 months. Installation and operation were as expected. Nice layout and features.
Cons: Died after 8 months. First board to die on me but I am not a heavy hitter. Just a gamer who updates for some added performance every 2 years or so. Minor OC. ”
Also an anonymous user stated;
“Pros: Works well easy uefi and easy board software
Cons: Width is slightly shorter than a normal atx board. I wouldn’t have bought it if I new that because the 24 pin power hangs on the end and the amount of force to insert the 24 pin is scary sometimes afraid of cracking the board. Also had 2 USB ports stop working on the motherboard.”
There were also many other reviews of people who had problems that had issues with it working after just a few months and had components short out.
In conclusion, this is a solid board to buy and use, but the long term of the board is not good at all due to it dying very shortly. Though it is a solid board, I personally would not recommend it due to the lifespan.

Note:  This review is part of a classroom project.

To see more you can go to Newegg and Toms Hardware
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Review of the MSI X99A GODlike Gaming motherboard.

Motherboard reviews, NT IT Reviews

<![CDATA[Many believe in the high quality gaming market, but few can actually afford to build such a rig to meet the demands of some mainstream triple A title games now-a-days. Due to hefty costs it is no wonder why some motherboards are out of reach to the average consumer. But… Lets just say if you need a motherboard with these specs it is safe to say that you are not just an average consumer.  This will leave even the hardest of tech enthusiasts drooling out their mouth when they take a glance at this product.
I present you with the MSI Gaming X99A GODlike gaming motherboard.

This motherboard is the best of the best with specs that can not be found almost anywhere else on a E-ATX board.  Lets take a look at these specs:

  • Chipset: X99
  • USB Ports: 6x 3.1 (1x Gen 2 1x type-C, 4x Gen 1), 2x 2.0
  • Audio Jacks: 5x analog, 1x 6.3 mm, 1x S/PDIF out
  • Sata Connectors: 10x 6Gb/s (Shares 1x SATA-E, 1x M.2)
  • Compatible CPU’s: Core I7’s for the LGA 2011 v3 socket (Not backwards compatible)
  • Memory: 8x 288 pin dims. (DDR4, Quad Channel)
  • Memory Speeds: (*=OC) 3400*/3333*/3110*/3000*/2800*/2750*/2666*/2600*/2400*/2200*/2133
  • Expansion Slots: 5x PCIe X16
  • Expansions Slot technologies: Supports 4-way AMD crossfire along with 4-way Nvidia SLI (With a CPU with 40 PCIe lanes). Also supports 3-way Nvidia SLI (With a CPU with 28 PCIe lanes)
  • Wi-Fi: Killer Wireless 1535
  • Lan: Killer E2400 Gigabit
  • Bluetooth: v4.1

This motherboard definitely does not disappoint on the spec sheet, and with a–wait for it– monstrous $999 price tag attached to it (Via Newegg) one would hope it didn’t.
What comes in the box is not disappointing either.

With premium packaging the box withholds the following:

  • Installation CD
  • 8GB installation USB drive
  • Instruction manual
  • Quick start user guide
  • Padded I/O back-plate shield
  • 10 SATA cables Including five with angled heads
  • Four flexible SLI bridges
  • M.2 to U.2 adapter card
  • Six voltage check extension leads
  • 3.5mm to 6.3mm headphone jack adapter
  • Two WiFi antennas with external magnetic mounts

After a look at this, one could draw the conclusion that the box is as loaded as the specs are.
But what you are really interested in, is the performance. Will it be future proof? Is it reliable? Etc. Well since my word is not enough I will present a customer review (via Newegg).
“I don’t know where to begin. I had this motherboard up and running my Core i7 5960x @ 4.7Ghz in an hour w/ a dual custom water loop. Ran into ZERO problems. Everything fit perfectly and booted up like lightning! I updated the BIOS to the newest version with ease.” ~Vincent D.
He went on to say:
“Best motherboard I have ever used. I was wary about the price at first but all worries went away when I finished my build and fired this monster up for the first time. A Happy MSI and Newegg Customer!”                                                                                                                                                   ~Vincent D.
Among many other reviews on Newegg I find the same general Pros and Cons amongst all of them. The good parts of the motherboard review is quite obvious, with great specs and an overall good quality of materials used, it is no surprise that this is one of (if not) the best motherboard on the market for gamer’s right now.
The only gripe that is negative that persists throughout the most reviews is that you’re beholden to the red aluminum on the motherboard, even with the glowing bright multi-colored LED’s that come with it. The red aesthetic may not be for you or your rig, so keep that in mind if you plan to buy this board.
In conclusion this motherboard will suit almost anyone’s needs for any given use-case. With that being said, assuming you can throw around $1k at your rig this will be future proof for an estimate of 4-5 years, and will come with reliability and class.
If you wish to read up on more reviews or even buy this product I’ll leave the following links:
Buy on Newegg / read other reviews.
Tom’s Hardware overview
Note:  This review is part of a classroom project.
“MSI Gaming X99A GODlike Gaming LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard.” MSI Gaming X99A GODlike , 2018, www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAGAH8C24815.
Linden, Eric Vander. “MSI X99A Godlike Gaming ATX Motherboard Review.” Tom’s Hardware, Tom’s Hardware, 25 May 2016, www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msi-x99a-godlike-gaming-intel-lga-2011-v3-atx-motherboard,4570.html.
“Intel® X99 Express Motherboard X99A GODLIKE GAMING.” Overview for GeForce GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G | Graphics Card – The World Leader in Display Performance | MSI USA, us.msi.com/Motherboard/X99A-GODLIKE-GAMING.html.
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Moodle Installation

IT Support

Since the Moodle Docs site has been so sketchy, I decided it would be best to document my recent installation.
Note:  I am installed on a VMWare ESXi 6.5 Virtual Machine.  750GB SSD, 16GB RAM, and 8 Cores.

  • Install Ubuntu 16.04
  • If you are doing it on a VM, check Check CPU#, Increase Video RAM, and move LAN to the 1000e.
  • I immediately open root and do everything else as room
    • sudo -i passwd root
    • sudo passwd -u root
    • su
    • gedit /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-ubuntu.conf
      • Add the following lines to the bottom.
        [SeatDefaults]
        greeter-session=unity-greeter
        user-session=ubuntu
        greeter-show-manual-login=true
    • gedit /root/.profile
      • Delete last line -> mesg n
  • Reboot and logon as root
    • Update  and install vm tools
      • apt-get update
      • apt-get upgrade
      • apt-get install open-vm-tools
    • Install LAMP and required Moodle dependencies.
      • apt-get install apache2 mysql-client mysql-server php7.0 libapache2-mod-php7.0
      • apt-get install graphviz aspell php7.0-pspell php7.0-curl php7.0-gd php7.0-intl php7.0-mysql php7.0-xml php7.0-xmlrpc php7.0-ldap php7.0-zip php7.0-soap php7.0-mbstring
    • Restart the server and then create the Moodle database
      • reboot -r now
      • mysql -u root -p
        • CREATE DATABASE moodle DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
        • create user ‘username‘@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘password‘;
        • GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES  ON moodle.* TO username@localhost IDENTIFIED BY ‘password‘
        • quit;
  • I make the folders for Moodle in the /var/www folder and initially open all permissions there.
    • cd /var/www
    • mkdir moodledata
    • mkdir moodlesql
    • chmod -R 0777 /var/www
    • If you are restoring a previous version.
      • cd /var/www/moodlesql  (or wherever the sql file is)
      • mysql -p moodle<moodle-database.sql
    • If you make a mistake you can always delete the database and start over
      • mysql -u root -p
        • drop database Moodle;
        • quit;
    • There are a couple tweaks I make to PHP before the installation
      • gedit /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini
        • find “post_max_size”
        • Change the value to the number of Mb you want your site to accept as uploads
        • find “upload_max_filesize”
        • Change to the same value as above
        • Find “max_execution_time”
        • Raise to a larger value if needed (like 60-600)
  • Download Moodle from Moodle.org and extract the file to /var/www/html
    • Navigate to 127.0.0.1 in your browser and begin the installation!
  • When you are complete you may want to:
    • Reset your folder permissions
      • chmod -R 0775 /var/www
    • make your IP address a static one and then get that address permanently in the moodle config.php file until you have an actual web address to put in there.

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Samsung EVO 850 Review

<![CDATA[Samsung is a South Korean multinational conglomerate headquarted  in Samsung Town, seoul. It comprises numerous affilated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand, and the largest south Korean chaebol.
Image result for Samsung evo 850
The 500 GB model of this give you the best value for only $156.99. With this drive you get a 3 year warranty, and it has a MTBF of 2,000,000 Hours.
In my review of the SAMSUNG EVO 850 500 GB, I can determine that it is one of the fastest and most reliable drives for the low price. This is all done by the SAMSUNg MGX Micro Controller put in these drives to help give them the boost over other SSDs, and defintly over any traditional hardrive
Specs:
Storage Size – 500GB
Read – 540MBps
Write – 540 MBps
4KB Random Read – 98,000 IOPS
4KB Random Write – 90,000 IOPS
Life Span – 2,000,000 Hours
Overview:
Overall the Samsung EVO 850 500GB is an amazing SSD. The speeds for the drive are outstanding compared to other drives in this price range, with a fair amount of storage space. For a home PC this drive is great, it is just about all the storage you will need, and it is faster than you would ever need for a home pc. In the end I would give this SSD a 7.5/10 for its great speeds and storage for a machine that will mainly be used for surfing the internet and even more intence office tasks.
Note:  This review is part of a classroom project.
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147373]]>

SAMSUNG 860 EVO 1TB SATA III (Review)

Uncategorized

<![CDATA[ 

The Samsung 860 Evo is an SSD which contain up to 1TB and will last up to 1.5 million hours. So if you hope of getting this it would last you for a life time. The only problem you would have using this SSD is your limited in space. Using an SSD would last you so much longer than a hard-drive that will only last about 5 years. Not only is the SSD faster but if your trying to make a computer that you move from place to place you would want an SSD. An SSD doesn’t have any moving parts which would break. An SSD is also lighter than a Hard-drive making your case a 1 or 2 pounds lighter.


 
I love this SSD every time I start up my PC it takes less than a second for it to pull up the home screen. I can open games so much quicker on my SSD than my old hardrive I had a month ago. I able to open some of my favorite games like H1Z1 and Rainbow Six Siege instantly.
 
Knowing that this SSD will last me over 1.5 million hours I will just keep it when i build my new PC and save over $200. With the extra $200 I could put that into a video card which would have me speed up my gaming. I could play my gaming with High quality graphics instead of medium quality.
 

  • Specs/ Details:
    • Up to 550 MB/s Sequential Read
    • Up to 520 MB/s Sequential Write
    • 3bit MLC
    • Capacity: 1,000 GBs = 1TB
    • SATA 6 Gb/s Interface, compatible with SATA 3 Gb/s & SATA 1.5 Gb/s interface
    • 1.5 Million Hours Reliability (MTBF)
    • AES 256-bit Encryption

“Newegg.” Newegg.com, www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147673.
“SSD 860 EVO 2.5’ SATA III 1TB Memory & Storage – MZ-76E1T0B/AM | Samsung US.”Samsung Electronics America, www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/solid-state-drives/ssd-860-evo-2-5–sata-iii-1tb-mz-76e1t0b-am/.
This review is part of a classroom project.
 
 
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Crucial MX500 SSD – Crucial for every PC in need of a SSD *Pun Intended*

Uncategorized

<![CDATA[Crucial MX500 SSD – Crucial for every PC in need of a SSD *Pun Intended*
The Crucial MX500 2TB SSD was obviously produced by Crucial. Crucial is a branch of Micron Technology Inc. They were founded in 1978 by Ward Parkinson. They are located in Boise Idaho and are known for their SSDs, Flash memory, RAM, ect.
Image result for Crucial Micron hq
Overall this SSD is well built to start. It is durable (which i would hope for in a $500 SSD). I did a little research, and Crucial’s Website and Amazon both has 4.9-5.0 Stars over close to 200 reviews. They all talk about buying this product to upgrade their speed and I must say it does just that and more. I had a lot of success with this SSD and would definitely recommend it to anyone.

Crucial MX500 2TB SSD

As you can see from the picture it looks as any ordinary SSD, but it feels solid and would be hard to break, this is essential for any SSD considering how expensive they can be.
 
 
————————————————————————————————————————-
Specs:
´Size: 2 TB
´Interface: SATA III (SATA 6.0Gb/s)
´IOPS:  Reads 95000 IOPS, Writes 90000 IOPS
´Warranty: $50 for 3 year protection plan and $70 for 4 years
´Access Time: Up to 560 MBps
´Life Span: 1.8 Million Hours
————————————————————————————————————————-
Overall View: Overall this SSD is well worth 500$. This SSD does everything it says and more, runs great, run FAST, and is a huge upgrade from what I had. To simply put it, it is a well built, great running SSD. If you are looking to upgrade to an SSD I would definitly advise you to check out this SSD.
Note:  This review is part of a classroom project.]]>

Review of the Corsair Vengeance LPX

Memory Reviews

<![CDATA[Corsair is one of the world’s leading providers of PC components. Corsair produces top of the line cutting edge SSDs, along with PC cases, PC and CPU cooling solutions. Under their gaming brand, they produce mice, mouse mats, keyboards, headsets. They have a global operations infrastructure with multiple distribution channels, partnerships, and great marketing in over 60 countries worldwide.
I used their very own Corsair Vengeance LPX memory kit in my PC for home use, equipped with my Biostar TB250-BTC motherboard.

The Corsair Vengeance LPX specifications:

  • 4 GB
  • 288 pins
  • DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200)
  • Single Channel
  • Cas latency of 14
  • An access time of 5.83 nanoseconds

I bought this RAM at a great price of $60.74 at Newegg! According to PC World they give this a 4.5 out of 5 expert rating. 
Note: This is part of a classroom project]]>

WD Blue SSD Review

Hard Drive Reviews, NT IT Reviews

<![CDATA[Western Digital is an American computer data storage company and one of the largest computer hard disk drive manufacturers in the world, compared to its main competitor Seagate Technology (Western Digital Wikipedia).

The 500GB model of this memory gives the best value for a price of $129.99 . They offer a 3 year warranty period for parts and labor, and provide a MTBF of up to 1.75 million hours (Tom’s Hardware).
The WD Blue’s performance is far from exciting. As a hard disk drive manufacturer, Western Digital is having trouble keeping up and updating with optimized solid state drives. Many hard drive companies fail to create newer and updated products when they are consumed in an old mindset. Although the 1 TB Blue SSD breaks the 10,000 random read IOPS barrier, the price for this performance is steep (Tom’s Hardware).

Specifications (For 500GB) :

Capacity-500 Gb
Read– 560 MBps
Write– 530 MBps
IOPS Read– 95,000
IOPS Write– 84,000

Overall, the WD Blue is not worth the effort. If you’re paying the cheaper option, you’ll definitely see it in the performance. If you choose the better performance option, the price is ridiculous. It is just another piece of evidence that older companies that get stuck in their old ways are bound to fail.
Note:  This review is part of a classroom project.
References:
www.newegg.com
http://www.tomshardware.com
en.wikipedia.org
www.wdc.com]]>

My Review of the 500 GB Western Digital SSD

Memory Reviews

<![CDATA[Western Digital is all about quality products, being the first manufacturer to offer mainstream ATA HDDs in 2001. Since then they have been about delivering only the best to their customers
The 500 GB SSD I put into my home PC makes my PC runs great, and according to the reviews on Newegg other people think so too.  “Faster response time”, “very easy to install”, “Spot-on performance for a late-model SATA SSD”

The specifications for this SSD are as follows:

  • 500 GB capacity
  • Read and Write speeds up to 560 and 530 MBps
  • Mean time before failure is up to 1.75 million hours
  • A limited warranty of 3 years

I bought this SSD off of Newegg for just $129.99! 
I would recommend this SSD to anyone looking for a good performance out of their SSD for their time and money!

Note: This is part of a classroom project]]>

Toshiba P300 – The Unexpected Failure

Hard Drive Reviews, Uncategorized

<![CDATA[Toshiba— Founded July 1875 in Tokyo, Japan has a rich history of innovative technology. They’re continuing to expand the limits of mobile computing but their passion for innovation is hardly new. In fact, it dates back centuries (as they claim)
The P300 can either be a good buy or a bad buy. On Benchmark.com shows that the age months on this hard drive is 29. That means this hard drive will average about more than a 2 year life span, and too bad the warranty ends in 2 years. But by looking at the reviews on Newegg it seems like you will never know if it will last 2 years or 2 weeks.

  • Storage: 1 TB
  • Speed: 7200 rpm
  • Age Months: 28
  • Access Time: 4.17ms
  • Read/Write: 153 MB/s
  • Buffer: 64 MB

Warranty: 2 year limited
After seeing these bipolar reviews I decided to do research for myself. With the product having a 4 egg review seemed weird. It was either a hit or miss, some people said it was great and it lasted more than two years and still working. While 25% of the reviews varied from failing right after the warranty ended, to not working out of the box.
I bought 4 of these hard drives to use a RAID 5 array, and see the failure rate based off of the reviews. All four came in and only 3 worked out of the box. After an hour of setting up, one of the hard drives kept crashing the BIOS. Finally getting it to work, that hard drive lasted for about a week before all three hard drives died. I sent all four drives in for RMA. There online RMA process was simple enough, however it has been 10+ weeks since they received the drives and approved a reward card in exchange and no rewards card has arrived. Whats worse than a bad hard drive? A bad hard drive company.
In conclusion, never buy a hard drive from Toshiba. A lot of people lost TB of information with these drives. Along with everyone else in the reviews… spend your money on a hard drive with a nice warranty from a good company like (Western Digital).
References:
https://www.newegg.com
http://www.toshiba.com/tai/
http://www.kitguru.net
Note:  This review is part of a classroom project.]]>