This video card, even though it is priced well, is a beast. Installation was easy, uninstall the previous card drivers, remove the old card, put in the new card, and install the drivers. Immediately things were running well and much better than they used to. I was previously running a Radeon 5750 and the difference in performance is massive. Even though I have an Intel Core i5-750 CPU, the new card wasn’t bottle necked at all. Performance gains were huge in every benchmark.
Furmark 720 test: Before (1500) After (4000)
Passmark GPU: Before (1500) After (4300)
Windows: Before (7.2) After (7.9)
Homefront: Before (30 fps) After (110 fps)
Bad Company 2 Online Multiplayer: Before (30 fps) After (85-100 fps)
This case is solid, textured well to prevent slip, and protects the screen when flipped over, in other words…amazing. It is available on Amazon for $11.80 and it is well worth it. The colors are a bit off due to the old phone I was using to photograph the One, but in person the color of it contrasts the phone very well.
The textured backYou can see how it is raised above the screen
The Rosewill Ranger-M case retails for $39.99 and I found it on eBay being sold from Rosewill for $29.99 with free shipping. This seemed like a bargain for such a good looking case and since I was in need of a case for my components, I went ahead and purchased it.
The case is made of aluminum and is very light, the case looks good, and the case comes with a 120mm blue lit fan in the front and an 80mm fan in the back preinstalled. Installation of everything was easy but as you will see below, there really isn’t much space inside to do anything comfortably.
First, the box was small and very light:
Ranger-M Box
Then, it was packaged well and had all of the screws inside:
Inside The BoxInside with Screws in a Bag
Then, installation was simple but tricky as not everything seemed to fit too easily:
Cramped Inside due to the excess of power supply cables
Finally, the front has built in HD Audio and AC-97 support along with 2 USB 2.0 ports. The Audio worked flawlessly with the Realtek Drivers that I already had installed and the USB ports only worked after I enabled them in the BIOS settings:
Front of the case
Overall, I am very pleased with the case as it looks good, is very functional, and is relatively cheap for the good quality it has. If only it was an inch longer to space the hard drives away from the motherboard 24 pin power input, things would have been perfect. Maybe after I find a way to organize the wires better, it will be perfect.
I walked into Best Buy hoping to buy the Samsung S24D590 but things took a turn. Looking at all of the models side by side and playing with different modes, I couldn’t help but notice that Dell had the best looking monitors. There was one issue with them and that was their glossy screens, immediately I removed them from my mind. This left me to compare the Samsung with the LG 22MP56. The Samsung had the worst blacks I have ever seen and very yellow tinted whites. The LG seemed to be the most accurate but the whites on the LG had a slightly blue tint. It was sad to see that no displays were both matte and accurate out of Dell, Asus, Acer, AOC, LG, and Samsung.
You could say I settled for the LG but at a sale price of $140 it was still a great deal. I was surprised to see that its color calibration results were placed inside the box (see image). The colors overall are great, and watching High Definition content on it is a pleasure.
The blacks are not as good as I had hoped but they are not as bad as the Samsung. I guess IPS displays are still ahead of PLS as I was not impressed with what I saw.
For the price I am very happy with the display, but next time I would probably pay more for a matte Dell Ultrasharp to really enjoy my purchase.
I have recently switched to a Moto X from the LG G2 and the device is surprisingly great. On paper, it doesn’t seem like it would be the best phone to use, but in actuality, it runs smoother and faster than my LG G2 ever did. This holds true for all of the roms I had tried, even stable builds of CyanogenMod 11.
The active display comes on an any slight hint of movement which is a nice way to check notifications without draining the battery. The video below shows how I check the time by just holding the phone.
The screen is only 720p but because it has a full RGB matrix and isn’t pentile, it is a much better experience than previous 720p AMOLED devices as text is not crunchy on the edges. I wouldn’t mind better whites but it isn’t too bothersome.
The battery lasts for around 5 hours of solid screen time but not for over a day off of the charger as the standby isn’t as great as the G2. The G2 would also reach 5 hours of screen time but if used minimally could reach 2 days off of charge as well. The speaker is great as it balances a loud volume with a full range of sound and is one of the better phone speakers I have heard.
The camera so far seems to be good enough for my nature shots but maybe not as good as the G2.
The BUILD is my favorite thing about the Moto X, from the way it feels to the way it looks, it is all done right. The attention to detail is much better than that of the G2 as a device is only as good as its weakest component and the Moto X is just a pleasurable device to use.
The case can be found on their official site or one of many other online retailers for $25-$35.
The LG G2 Ballistic Tough Jacket case appealed to me because I had already broken my screen once, and I did not want it to happen again. This was the best quality and toughest case I could find at an affordable price and it didn’t disappoint.
The case comes in two layers and the camera protector can be popped out fairly easily. I recommend removing the camera protection to ensure that night photos are not distorted by the case.
The case is a bit bulky though but it gives a comforting feel that the phone is safe. I dropped it once from around 2 feet from a coffee table and it was fine.
The Samsung SSD 840 Evo is new, fast, affordable and very good looking. It is an elegant package that combines speed and solid performance. During Black Friday of 2013, the 250GB drive was marked down to $140 from $180 which made it an unbelievable deal at only $0.56 per GB. The purpose of this review is to give the average consumer an idea of how the drive would perform in a normal laptop and not a standard benchmarking desktop that most reviewers would use. The test laptop is a DV6-6190us (2011 Model) with a Core i7-2630QM and 8.00 GB ram running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. According to the included software, the drive is connected via a SATA 3 connection which is 6GB/s and should be able to reach maximum performance.
Aesthetics:
The drive is fully covered in metal and when left alone is cool to the touch. It feels very light, almost hollow and according to a review by AnandTech, the drive has alot of empty space inside. The way it looks is fierce yet sleek and is my favorite looking SSD thus far. Its simplistic design gives a modern feel to a part of the computer that may never be seen and this attention to detail by Samsung is much appreciated from my end.
The SSD in the laptop hard drive mount
Performance: Does it live up to the rated speeds?
According to Samsung, the drive should reach up to 540 MB/s read and 520 MB/s write speeds. The included Samsung Magician Software has a benchmarking tool and it seems to yield positive results.
Samsung Magician Benchmark
This is only half of the story, as the benchmark seems to use algorithms that work in the favor of this drive. A more standard way of benchmarking using CrystalDiskMark is shown below.
CrystalDiskMark Benchmark
The read speeds averaged to be 484.8 MB/s and the write speeds averaged to be 470.6 MB/s. While these are very solid, they are well below the rated speeds by around 50 MB/s.
Boot Speed:
Boot speed has dramatically decreased and can boot to a usable environment in 27 seconds as seen in the video below.
In Conclusion:
The drive at its retail price of $180 is a great deal offering stable performance and reliability yet it can be found for an incredible $140 on sale occasionally. This drive is one of the first at this price point offering stable performance with real read and write speeds over 470 MB/s making it worth every penny. If you are in need of an SSD and don’t want to spend a lot yet desire fantastic performance, the Samsung 840 Evo line is worth every penny.
The Lost Digit 