Post by Wolf_Fang on Dec 1, 2009 12:36:49 GMT -5
thought id break away from the usual games review posted here and post somethign a bit different. partly because just recently I rebuilt my computer and secondly because i havnt boughten any new games in a while (other then odst which i will put a review for if i dont find 1) up first the tower
Raidmax Smilodon "extream black" edition:
One word for this tower. amazing! front bezeil hows nicely aranged lighting using green acrylic bars with green led behind to show a nice glow on the front. the front is held closed with magnets that are intentional weak so that the cd drive does not jam if accidently ejected via my computer with the door closed. instead it will simply push the door open. with the door open the layout is your norm, nothing real fancy here 4 5.5" expasnion bays and 2 3.5" bays just to the left of the 3.5" is the power button and reset button, below the 3.5" bays is a nice 120mm fan with black mesh grill infront. the left side of the tower is a windowed siding with a fan over the CPU and another attached on a bar that presses onto the video card holding it in place resulting in great circulation and cooling. there is a spot for another fan on the right side panel to cool the hard drives however this fan does not come with the case. there is a single thumb screw placed on the back (does not come with case?) to hold the door from opening. instead of the panels sliding back them poping off both sides simply swing downwards from the top. the impressive thing about this is that the right side actualy brings the motherboard tray with it. this combined with full removal of the door makes for easy motherboard and component installation, with that being said however i would not fully load the motherboard components with the door actually removed from the tower as there isnt much space to get the door back on. all expansion bays use the almost now standard tool less design and there is a handy little tool kit in the bottom of the tower with extra standoffs for hte motherboard and parts for hard drive install. the standoffs are already placed for standard atx boards however with my board i needed 3 more of which only 2 more were included (wasnt a huge deal as we had several extras) tower is also quite roomy with installed components and very sturdy, only downside i have with the case is the HDD LED cable is pretty short and barely reaches its place on the selected motherboard (may be different on other boards) this doesnt really matter tho as the light is not even visible due to its location on the case itselfe.
M4A79XTD EVO motherboard (asus):
what can i say? its a motherboard, not a whole lot to say about them. its pretty much what you would expect to find in a motherboard. normal atx motherboard of nice design looks pretty and works great. this board has 8 USB ports for direct input as well as 2 on the tray for components such as multicard readers full 7.1 HD sound capability. no fans on this motherboard like some others have, instead it simply has heat spreaders. 4 RAM slots 2x PCI-E, 2x PCI 1, 2x PCI 16 and 8 sata connections as well as 1 IDE
G-SKILL DDR3 RAM (4GB):
not much to say here ether. RAM is well.. RAM these sticks work great and look good in they're shiny red heat spreaders. Simply ploped em in they're place and that was that.
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black edition (CPU):
All i can say is WOW, probaly the best bang for your buck cpu on the market right now. This is a 3.4 ghz quad core beast. This core keeps with the game and doesnt back down even under the hardest loads. this core runs games that use the unreal 3 engine as well as the newer source engine used in left 4 dead 2 on maximum settings at only %43 usage. with the stock cooler (and the case used) the cpu core temp has NEVER risen past 47C leaving a fair ammount of head space with the stock cooler, and this is even after almost steady gaming from 11am - 2am.
XFX GTX 260 (videocard):
last but not least, the videocard. this thing is HUGE before buying one of these make sure you have enough room in the case. this card uses 2 slots in the back 1 for digital outputs and the second for the cooling fan which is attached to the end making this card VERY long. previously i was running an nvidia xfx 8600 GT, and was getting framerates of 25 on left for dead 2 on "recomended settings" wich placed most settings to normal or high and about 22 frames per second on unreal 3 engine games with same settings. this of course resulted in noticable lag when ever a buton was pressed for movement or the mouse turned to aim or look around. since installing the gtx 260 the frame rate jumped up to 75 frames on left 4 dead 2 at completely maxed settings and 60 on unreal 3 engine games also using max settings. this of course resulted in much smoother perfomance and more enjoyability. as said tho this card is fairly large so make sure there is room for it first!
Raidmax Smilodon "extream black" edition:
One word for this tower. amazing! front bezeil hows nicely aranged lighting using green acrylic bars with green led behind to show a nice glow on the front. the front is held closed with magnets that are intentional weak so that the cd drive does not jam if accidently ejected via my computer with the door closed. instead it will simply push the door open. with the door open the layout is your norm, nothing real fancy here 4 5.5" expasnion bays and 2 3.5" bays just to the left of the 3.5" is the power button and reset button, below the 3.5" bays is a nice 120mm fan with black mesh grill infront. the left side of the tower is a windowed siding with a fan over the CPU and another attached on a bar that presses onto the video card holding it in place resulting in great circulation and cooling. there is a spot for another fan on the right side panel to cool the hard drives however this fan does not come with the case. there is a single thumb screw placed on the back (does not come with case?) to hold the door from opening. instead of the panels sliding back them poping off both sides simply swing downwards from the top. the impressive thing about this is that the right side actualy brings the motherboard tray with it. this combined with full removal of the door makes for easy motherboard and component installation, with that being said however i would not fully load the motherboard components with the door actually removed from the tower as there isnt much space to get the door back on. all expansion bays use the almost now standard tool less design and there is a handy little tool kit in the bottom of the tower with extra standoffs for hte motherboard and parts for hard drive install. the standoffs are already placed for standard atx boards however with my board i needed 3 more of which only 2 more were included (wasnt a huge deal as we had several extras) tower is also quite roomy with installed components and very sturdy, only downside i have with the case is the HDD LED cable is pretty short and barely reaches its place on the selected motherboard (may be different on other boards) this doesnt really matter tho as the light is not even visible due to its location on the case itselfe.
M4A79XTD EVO motherboard (asus):
what can i say? its a motherboard, not a whole lot to say about them. its pretty much what you would expect to find in a motherboard. normal atx motherboard of nice design looks pretty and works great. this board has 8 USB ports for direct input as well as 2 on the tray for components such as multicard readers full 7.1 HD sound capability. no fans on this motherboard like some others have, instead it simply has heat spreaders. 4 RAM slots 2x PCI-E, 2x PCI 1, 2x PCI 16 and 8 sata connections as well as 1 IDE
G-SKILL DDR3 RAM (4GB):
not much to say here ether. RAM is well.. RAM these sticks work great and look good in they're shiny red heat spreaders. Simply ploped em in they're place and that was that.
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black edition (CPU):
All i can say is WOW, probaly the best bang for your buck cpu on the market right now. This is a 3.4 ghz quad core beast. This core keeps with the game and doesnt back down even under the hardest loads. this core runs games that use the unreal 3 engine as well as the newer source engine used in left 4 dead 2 on maximum settings at only %43 usage. with the stock cooler (and the case used) the cpu core temp has NEVER risen past 47C leaving a fair ammount of head space with the stock cooler, and this is even after almost steady gaming from 11am - 2am.
XFX GTX 260 (videocard):
last but not least, the videocard. this thing is HUGE before buying one of these make sure you have enough room in the case. this card uses 2 slots in the back 1 for digital outputs and the second for the cooling fan which is attached to the end making this card VERY long. previously i was running an nvidia xfx 8600 GT, and was getting framerates of 25 on left for dead 2 on "recomended settings" wich placed most settings to normal or high and about 22 frames per second on unreal 3 engine games with same settings. this of course resulted in noticable lag when ever a buton was pressed for movement or the mouse turned to aim or look around. since installing the gtx 260 the frame rate jumped up to 75 frames on left 4 dead 2 at completely maxed settings and 60 on unreal 3 engine games also using max settings. this of course resulted in much smoother perfomance and more enjoyability. as said tho this card is fairly large so make sure there is room for it first!