shirokuro73's contributions

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward - PlayStation 4

For a thousand years, Ishgard and Dravania have been locked in a bitter conflict, known as the Dragonsong War. Nestled in the Coerthas Mountains, the city of Ishgard is home to an all-new adventure in the Final Fantasy realm. Get ready to take flight with this all-new expansion pack.Heavensward allows you to expand your Final Fantasy XIV experience with an all-new storyline and features. Raising the level cap from 50 to 60 across all jobs and professions, Heavensward lets you enhance your existing character or build an all-new one. Craft an all-new player race with both male and female characters. Choose from multiple new jobs, including the Dark Knight, which serves as a tank, lets you wield a two-handed greatsword and use darkness-based actions. Meet the new Vanu Vanu and Gnath beast tribes, as well as their respective primals, Bismarck and Ravana. Explore massive new areas, new dungeons and new high-end raids. Get ready for an all-new Final Fantasy XIV experience.

Overall

5 out of 5

Exactly as described

By Anonymous

Sale price was nice and ship time was better than average. I was however pleasantly surprised to see that it not only came with the expansion disk but a download code for the expansion as well. I bought it assuming I'd use the disk (which isn't an issue) but the fact that it came with both is quite nice.

shirokuro73

Chicago, IL

Thanks for the disk/download information!

February 29, 2016

I was wondering about the disk/download status of this, since I'd prefer not to have to use the disk to play. Thanks for posting the information! I could buy it on PSN but I have Best Buy Gamer's club so I'll get a discount if I buy it from BB. Thanks again!

0points

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MSI - 15.6" Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 - 1TB Hard Drive + 128GB Solid State Drive - Aluminum black

Take your gaming on the go with this MSI Stealth Pro laptop, featuring Nvidia graphics for amazing images. The 15.6-inch, anti-glare screen offers full HD to keep you in every moment of the action, and powerful Intel Core i7 processing provides lag-free performance even in multi-layered games. This MSI Stealth Pro laptop 16GB DDR4 RAM system memory for massive support.

Overall

5 out of 5

Unbelievable laptop. Period.

By Fernando

I am a software engineer and university professor for a Computer Science department, so I am very picky about my laptop.

This is the fourth MSI laptop I have owned. I started with the GT60, then the GS60, then the GE62 and finally this one. Don't get me wrong, I am by FAR not a fan boy, I had Macbooks, Lenovos, etc... but I keep iterating over MSI for I know the work they are putting in evolving and building on top the solid foundation they started developing since the GS series. I am currently writing this from my own GS63VR.

Form factor wise, MSI nailed it by shrinking and polishing the GS60's design. The laptop is slim, light, edges are round and soft, palm rest is a pleasure to put your hands on, screen hinges have the perfect pressure, you name it, everything you could think of, is there. The screen is by far not flimsy, and it feels really sturdy, very premium quality. I was holding my breath on my first startup since I am a maniac of back bleed, it is a HUGE deal breaker for my. At least my unit is PERFECT. MSI corrected all the bad panels assembly they did with the GS60's panels (which by the way returned due to several problems). Quality wise, the screen could be one of the best screens I've ever laid eyes on, not to mention the software MSI provides for customizing many other system features, including color profiles, brightness etc.
The keyboard is steelseries... Oh man, I will cry and cry if someday MSI moves away from steelseries. As a computer programmer, the keyboard is aother deal-breaker for me... I spend probably +12 hrs a day just typing on this thing, and should the feel is not right, it would literally make my life miserable.

Ports wise, there is no way you would find yourself wanting more, 4 usbs, thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps), HDMI full size, Ethernet, display port, mic and headphones, SD card, Kensington lock... it is just unbelievable ... I am a triple monitor user and this laptop laughs at it.... it doesn't even break a sweat. Colling is quiet, smart and very customizable. There is only 1 button, the power on, that's it! forget about all the hardware buttons form the past. Most of the features are software controlled, which brings me to the Soft. MSI puts in this thing.

Usually I would rant about bloatware, but MSI has been putting a LOT of effort in a unified-system-oriented software, called the dragon center... you can do ANYTHING system wise.. keyboard, screen, fans.. everything can be controlled and customized, except for audio, which is controller by another proprietary software called Nahimic. They update version regularly, which indicates this is not a dead commercial piece of code, but that there is real effort, goals and continuity.

I am not even mentioning the performance since if you are looking into this system, you know what a monster it is, hardware-wise. The GPU is a beast, the CPU is amazing, RAM is glorious and the OS on top of everything is just out of this world.

Last and not least, the price will make you feel you are robbing best buy... premium laptops like Dell XPS 9550 etc.. cannot compete at this price range... when I saw the system published, I new t would sold out (as it did) in less than 2-3 days.

Give it a shot, you would thank yourself for a long while.

Future proof, 100%

shirokuro73

Chicago, IL

August 25, 2016

How is the trackpad? I had a GS60 and I despised the trackpad - biggest flaw of that machine (aside from terrible battery, which is to be expected of gaming machines).

0points

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Dell - XPS 2-in-1 13.3" QHD+ Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - 512GB Solid State Drive

Dell XPS Convertible 2-in-1 Laptop: Ensure you always have access to your files when you carry this Dell XPS two-in-one laptop. An Intel Core i7 processor combines with 16GB of RAM so that it has enough power to blast through tasks at lightning-fast speeds. A reliable 512GB solid-state hard drive in this Dell XPS two-in-one laptop keeps your data secure.

Overall

2 out of 5

Wifi and screen problems

By shirokuro73 from Chicago, IL

Purchased this yesterday after my local store unexpectedly had stock. Build quality, keyboard, trackpad etc are all fantastic. I haven't thrown anything intensive at it yet but so far the Y series processor is keeping up despite being lower powered than the usual U series chips in most ultrabooks. However I am having 1 major and 1 minor issue with it which has me very close to returning it unless Dell or someone can fix these issues.

1) Randomly and frequently disconnects from WiFi or loses internet connection. I'll be using it quite happily when suddenly nothing on the web will load. It has lost internet connectivity. Sometimes I get a visible notification (exclamation mark in wifi icon on taskbar) but sometimes the wifi icon looks fine and there's no visible indication of any problem, despite a complete loss of connectivity. When the wifi issue happens, if I bring up a command prompt, I'm unable to even ping my WiFi router (eg 192.168.1.1) . Sometimes the pings are inconsistent, sometimes they fail completely. The only solution I've found is to click on the wifi icon and disconnect then reconnect to the wifi access point. That will recover the problem, but sometimes it's only a few minutes until it spontaneously happens again. This issue has happened frequently - literally every few minutes - since I got the machine yesterday and if there's not some easy fix then this unit is unusable and I will return it. It's a shame because this is such a lovely computer in all other ways, but if it can't reliably perform its most basic task, it's a no-go. Perhaps I just have a defective unit. I have many other wifi devices and computers in the house and none of them exhibit issues like this, so I don't believe the problem is on my router or internet side.

2) The screen brightness visibly adjusts itself before my eyes despite my having explicitly turned off "adaptive brightness" in the Power control panel. I understand from reading around that this might be a deliberate "feature" but I find it unsightly and I DO NOT WANT IT. If this can be turned off, I'd love to know how to do that. If not, it's another reason to return the machine.

To summarize, I want to love this machine and if the above issues could be fixed I'm sure I would. Otherwise, I will be returning it, which is a shame. The amount of love and care Dell's designers and engineers have put into this machine is obvious, it doesn't deserve to be marred by these issues.

shirokuro73

Chicago, IL

UPDATE

January 30, 2017

UPDATE: I was able to exchange for a different unit, and thankfully the replacement does not exhibit the wifi problems! It does still exhibit the dynamic screen brightness adjustment, which I really with I could get rid of, but it does become more bearable over time. It doesn't happen if the screen is on max brightness already, but when on battery I often run on half brightness or less. What is concerning me is the processor speed. Google Chrome in particular can be choppy, even when I only have one or two tabs open. Edge behaves much smoother in general. I'd up my rating by one maybe 2 stars for fixing the wifi issue, but my jury is still out on the processing speed. I want to use this machine for work and much of that work is done in Chrome - so I'll see how it behaves over this week at work.

+5points

5of 5voted this comment as helpful.

HP - Spectre x360 2-in-1 13.3" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 8GB Memory - 256GB Solid State Drive - Natural silver

Only at Best BuyExperience better productivity and up to 15 hours of battery life with this 13.3-inch HP Spectre convertible laptop. It includes a stylus compatible with Windows Ink for precise drawing, and its speedy Intel Core i7 processor and 8GB of RAM ensure efficient multitasking. This HP Spectre convertible laptop has a 256GB solid-state drive for all your files and programs.

Overall

5 out of 5

If Apple made a Windows PC...

By usa1776

If Apple made a Windows PC, it might look something like the HP Spectre x360 13.

Design:
This laptop is made from unibody aluminum, which makes it look and feel very "premium." Most of the body is a matte sandblasted silver color with a few chrome accents. It's super thin and light, about the same size as the new MacBook Pro. Side bezels are very thin, while top and bottom are more typically-sized. Overall fit and finish is impeccable, and would have been unthinkable of HP only a few years ago. I am very impressed.

Display:
The 1080p IPS panel is vibrant enough, if a little yellow. It's not the brightest thing ever, and is prone to reflections, especially when using it flat on a table (in tablet mode, for instance). This generation reintroduces the digitizer for active styluses. In particular, HP has chosen to use N-Trig technology, meaning the included HP Active Stylus is interchangeable with Surface pens (tested). The pen is on par with the Surface pen in terms of accuracy, latency, and pressure sensitivity. Palm rejection is good and multi-touch finger input is smooth and accurate.

Performance:
Obviously, this is a dual-core low-power Core i7. It's fine for basic web browsing, YouTube playback, and word processing. It struggles to keep up in 3D CAD software and photo editing, but that's not a typical use case for this product, anyways. 8GB of RAM is appropriate as well, since this is not meant to be an extreme performance machine. The Intel HD 620 graphics are plenty for driving a 1080p display under non-gaming loads. Do not expect to do anything besides the most basic gaming on here. 256GB SSD is also fine for this use case. In summary, the performance is nothing special, but that's what you'd expect.

Keyboard and trackpad:
The trackpad is very wide, which takes some getting used to. However, the palm rejection is very good so it's fine when you're typing and dragging your hand over it. The clickpad is accurate enough and satisfying to press. Standard Windows 10 gestures work fine. The keyboard is phenomenal for what it is. The keys have very little travel and still manage to be satisfying. I'm used to mechanical keyboards, so that says a lot. The tactile response is crisp and the keys are balanced very well. One downside is that there's this row of function keys (home, end, etc.) on the right edge that makes the rest of the keyboard offset and slightly awkward to type on. Once you get used to it, it's perfectly fine. Backlighting is acceptable in a dark room. In a bright room, you'll want to turn them off to increase the contrast of the letters on the silver keycaps. The Fn key layer can be reversed (so that F1, F2, etc. are default and special functions require the Fn key) in the BIOS, so no complaints there.

Ports:
1 USB-A 3.0, 2 USB-C/Thunderbolt, 1 3.5 mm audio. You'll probably need dongles.

Interesting features:
Windows Hello is genuinely useful and convenient. The 360-degree hinge is also useful. I'm typically a traditional laptop user and was initially skeptical of alternative form factors. However, I'm totally convinced now that 2-in-1s are the way of the future. Bang and Olufsen speakers sound pretty good; was not expecting that.

Power:
Charging is done via the two USB-C ports. The included charger is compact and comes with a Apple-style interchangeable extension cord and a folding prongs. Battery life is great, given the combination of Kaby Lake and a 1080p display. I've been getting about 9-10 hours of real-world use (20-25 Chrome tabs, Spotify, and some office software).

Other quirks:
The HP logo on the display is copper, despite the rest of the computer being all silver. Not sure if that was a mistake in early production or intentionally. Either way, it adds a nice bit of flair. It comes with a nice leather sleeve, even though it's not mentioned anywhere. That was a nice surprise. The cardboard box that you pick up in the store actually has another box inside it, surrounded by foam. That was strange, but it doesn't really matter. Estimated time remaining for the battery level is disabled by default, but can be enabled in the BIOS.

10/10 would recommend.

shirokuro73

Chicago, IL

Wonderful review!

February 12, 2017

Thanks for such a detailed, thorough review! I actually bought the 16/512 version of this yesterday (13-ac023dx) and wanted to add to your comments about the pen.

Like you, I tested a Surface pen and it works just as well as the included HP pen. One added bonus I would say about the Surface pen is that if you pair it via Bluetooth to the Spectre, you gain the ability to use the shortcut button on the top of the surface pen, which the HP pen doesn't have. You can use this button to launch certain ink-related actions (customizable in the Devices section of Settings) such as launching OneNote, or the Windows Ink workspace.

For a balance between price, performance and amazing quality, HP knocked it out of the park with this machine.

0points

0of 0voted this comment as helpful.

Dell - XPS 2-in-1 13.3" QHD+ Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - 512GB Solid State Drive

Dell XPS Convertible 2-in-1 Laptop: Ensure you always have access to your files when you carry this Dell XPS two-in-one laptop. An Intel Core i7 processor combines with 16GB of RAM so that it has enough power to blast through tasks at lightning-fast speeds. A reliable 512GB solid-state hard drive in this Dell XPS two-in-one laptop keeps your data secure.

Overall

2 out of 5

Wifi and screen problems

By shirokuro73 from Chicago, IL

Purchased this yesterday after my local store unexpectedly had stock. Build quality, keyboard, trackpad etc are all fantastic. I haven't thrown anything intensive at it yet but so far the Y series processor is keeping up despite being lower powered than the usual U series chips in most ultrabooks. However I am having 1 major and 1 minor issue with it which has me very close to returning it unless Dell or someone can fix these issues.

1) Randomly and frequently disconnects from WiFi or loses internet connection. I'll be using it quite happily when suddenly nothing on the web will load. It has lost internet connectivity. Sometimes I get a visible notification (exclamation mark in wifi icon on taskbar) but sometimes the wifi icon looks fine and there's no visible indication of any problem, despite a complete loss of connectivity. When the wifi issue happens, if I bring up a command prompt, I'm unable to even ping my WiFi router (eg 192.168.1.1) . Sometimes the pings are inconsistent, sometimes they fail completely. The only solution I've found is to click on the wifi icon and disconnect then reconnect to the wifi access point. That will recover the problem, but sometimes it's only a few minutes until it spontaneously happens again. This issue has happened frequently - literally every few minutes - since I got the machine yesterday and if there's not some easy fix then this unit is unusable and I will return it. It's a shame because this is such a lovely computer in all other ways, but if it can't reliably perform its most basic task, it's a no-go. Perhaps I just have a defective unit. I have many other wifi devices and computers in the house and none of them exhibit issues like this, so I don't believe the problem is on my router or internet side.

2) The screen brightness visibly adjusts itself before my eyes despite my having explicitly turned off "adaptive brightness" in the Power control panel. I understand from reading around that this might be a deliberate "feature" but I find it unsightly and I DO NOT WANT IT. If this can be turned off, I'd love to know how to do that. If not, it's another reason to return the machine.

To summarize, I want to love this machine and if the above issues could be fixed I'm sure I would. Otherwise, I will be returning it, which is a shame. The amount of love and care Dell's designers and engineers have put into this machine is obvious, it doesn't deserve to be marred by these issues.

shirokuro73

Chicago, IL

Thank you Dell!

February 12, 2017

Thank you very much for your response Dell. It's wonderful to see you respond quickly to your customers. I saw that you had indeed posted the update to disable the CABC feature, which is great! Unfortunately, I somewhat reluctantly ended up returning the XPS 9365 2-in-1 for an HP Spectre x360. The backlight was certainly one reason, but the main reason was performance related. Once I got a chance to use the machine at work, it was having performance issues with certain tasks - most notably in the Chrome browser. Performance was quite sluggish on many occasions. Performance was certainly better in Microsoft Edge, but for work I specifically have to use Chrome. I loved everything else about the machine - the size, weight, build, keyboard, trackpad - you name it. It's quite possible that my problems could have been improved with patches or updates but I didn't want to bank on that and so within my exchange period, I exchanged for the HP machine with the higher TDP Core-U series. I was very sad to return the Dell and I look forward to seeing future revisions as I think it has the potential to an amazing machine.

+3points

3of 3voted this comment as helpful.

Samsung - Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 12.3" Touch Screen Chromebook - 4GB memory - 32GB eMMC Flash Memory - Platinum Silver

Samsung Chromebook Plus 12.3" Touch-Screen Chromebook: Enjoy effortless multitasking and superb video quality on the go with this Samsung Chromebook Plus. It has a 2.0GHz hexa-core processor and 4GB of RAM, so it responds quickly to your commands. This Samsung Chromebook Plus 12.3" has a 32GB hard drive with plenty of room for documents, photographs and music.

Overall

5 out of 5

Beautiful Chromebook

By John

It does everything I need without slowing down. Beautiful device and screen. Nice rounded edges feels great in your hands. Only thing I don't really like are the rubber feet, they are more like plastic so they do not grip very well. You could easily put some rubber sticker pads over them if you needed to, not worth taking a star away. The hardware isn't really anything special but I didn't get it for the hardware really( you can get the same or better internal hardware for half the price, but it wont look or feel anything like this sexy beast). I wanted a Chromebook that felt great in my hands and was pleasurable to look at for hours at a time. The display compared to my wife's Asus flip 2 is just way more vibrant and natural. The display is probably the #1 reason I bought this, just BEAUTIFUL!!!. And the size is perfect for me. The 10 inch was just too small for me and any any bigger is just getting too big for what I wanted. Google apps work fine. I really got this for the aesthetics. love the rounded edges. And a touch screen is a must for me. Tablet mode is nice sometimes as well.

shirokuro73

Chicago, IL

rubber feet

February 14, 2017

Hey! Great review! I was watching a video review and they mentioned that out of the box, the rubber feet each have a plastic film over them. The video reviewer removed the plastic film. Did you check to see if maybe your rubber feet have the plastic film, and if so remove it?

+3points

3of 3voted this comment as helpful.

Dell - XPS 2-in-1 13.3" QHD+ Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - 512GB Solid State Drive

Dell XPS Convertible 2-in-1 Laptop: Ensure you always have access to your files when you carry this Dell XPS two-in-one laptop. An Intel Core i7 processor combines with 16GB of RAM so that it has enough power to blast through tasks at lightning-fast speeds. A reliable 512GB solid-state hard drive in this Dell XPS two-in-one laptop keeps your data secure.

Overall

2 out of 5

Wifi and screen problems

By shirokuro73 from Chicago, IL

Purchased this yesterday after my local store unexpectedly had stock. Build quality, keyboard, trackpad etc are all fantastic. I haven't thrown anything intensive at it yet but so far the Y series processor is keeping up despite being lower powered than the usual U series chips in most ultrabooks. However I am having 1 major and 1 minor issue with it which has me very close to returning it unless Dell or someone can fix these issues.

1) Randomly and frequently disconnects from WiFi or loses internet connection. I'll be using it quite happily when suddenly nothing on the web will load. It has lost internet connectivity. Sometimes I get a visible notification (exclamation mark in wifi icon on taskbar) but sometimes the wifi icon looks fine and there's no visible indication of any problem, despite a complete loss of connectivity. When the wifi issue happens, if I bring up a command prompt, I'm unable to even ping my WiFi router (eg 192.168.1.1) . Sometimes the pings are inconsistent, sometimes they fail completely. The only solution I've found is to click on the wifi icon and disconnect then reconnect to the wifi access point. That will recover the problem, but sometimes it's only a few minutes until it spontaneously happens again. This issue has happened frequently - literally every few minutes - since I got the machine yesterday and if there's not some easy fix then this unit is unusable and I will return it. It's a shame because this is such a lovely computer in all other ways, but if it can't reliably perform its most basic task, it's a no-go. Perhaps I just have a defective unit. I have many other wifi devices and computers in the house and none of them exhibit issues like this, so I don't believe the problem is on my router or internet side.

2) The screen brightness visibly adjusts itself before my eyes despite my having explicitly turned off "adaptive brightness" in the Power control panel. I understand from reading around that this might be a deliberate "feature" but I find it unsightly and I DO NOT WANT IT. If this can be turned off, I'd love to know how to do that. If not, it's another reason to return the machine.

To summarize, I want to love this machine and if the above issues could be fixed I'm sure I would. Otherwise, I will be returning it, which is a shame. The amount of love and care Dell's designers and engineers have put into this machine is obvious, it doesn't deserve to be marred by these issues.

shirokuro73

Chicago, IL

XPS vs Spectre

March 17, 2017

@ReviewsHonestly As I mentioned, I ended up exchanging the XPS for the Spectre, mainly for performance reasons. The biggest issue I had with the XPS was it was VERY chuggy in Chrome on some sites (Guardian newspaper being one example, so me of my work sites as well). Terrible performance. Performance in Edge was much better, but I have to use Chrome for some work applications. After I had already returned the XPS, somebody pointed out that turning off hardware acceleration in Chrome might have helped - but I had already returned the machine, so I couldn't try that. The Spectre has no performance problems with everyday tasks. The other thing I didn't like about the XPS was the dynamic backlight - however Dell has subsequently released a firmware patch to turn that off. Again, I couldn't try that because I had already returned the machine. The Spectre is a GREAT machine. Performs well. good keyboard, good screen and, if you get the newer revisions (13-AC013DX, 13-AC023DX, 13-AC033DX) they have active pen (synaptics) capability plus the pen in the box. The previous revisions (still kaby lake) with W instead of AC in the name DO NOT support pens at all. So be careful which revision you buy. I will say that overall I like the XPS much more than the spectre. I love the form factor, the keyboard, the size, the weight, and I think the screen is nicer than the Spectre's (very very good) screen. In hindsight I wish I had kept the XPS a little longer to see if the 2 fixes would have sorted my problems with it. It's purely subjective, I just LIKED the XPS more. Being fanless was a nice bonus. The machine doesn't get too hot, and it's almost silent. There was some coil whine (electrical noise) here and there but nothing serious. The Spectre I can certainly hear the fan at times, plus it can get hot, but not too bad. If you are willing to give the XPS a chance, I think you will like it, but either are great machines. It's a really really tough (but great) time to be laptop shopping!

+4points

4of 4voted this comment as helpful.

ASUS - ROG G20CB Desktop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 - 1TB Hard Drive - Black/Red

ASUS ROG G20CB Desktop: Stay productive with this Asus desktop PC. With 16GB of RAM and an Intel Core i7 processor housed in a deceptively small 9.5L case, this machine is built for performance. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics let you feel like you just stepped into the game with this Asus desktop PC.

Overall

4 out of 5

WOW!

By Autarch28

I came from a Computer i built my self which had a Core i5 4690k, an ASUS Strix GTX 1070, 16GB of DDR3 and a ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark S (limited edition) all neatly installed into an NZXT S340 Chassis with watercooling. - This Rig was solid and could hold its own even next to all the newer gaming rigs out there! However it was HEAVY and I broke my Motherboard. It was Damaged in a way that allowed it to run, but started having problems as of late.
It was time for another Gaming rig.

So, I decided to go prebuilt this time around (even though i would rather build a PC my self.) I chose the ASUS ROG G20CB because I trust ASUS and i needed a small form factor PC or at least a more portable option- i also didnt really want to take on another build project this time around so the ROG G20 was my obvious choice!

Pros:
1.Small Form Factor -So many features in such a tightly knit unit.
2.Can game without Compromise or sometimes VERY LITTLE Compromise! Dont be afraid to turn those settings up!
3.Has Internal Bluetooth AND Internal Wifi (no need for an Antenna near the I/O port) Wifi adapter inside the ASUS ROG G20CB is Almost as fast as an ethernet connection (which really was a big awesome surprise!)
4.Has very Subtle RGB Lighting that reacts to sounds/music output. (not so obnoxious or hard on the eyes!)
5.Its Built VERY sturdy

Cons:
1. The 1TB HDD is Mechanical but for the price of all that you are getting, its ok....Mechanical HDDs are actually the cause of some performance hits that come in the form of "Pop-ins", "Stutter" and insanely long Loading times in some of the latest games (NO I AM NOT KIDDING) Get a Beefy SSD to replace the Stock HDD.
2.Quite a bit of finesse needed if you want to install an SSD to go along with the 1TB HDD that comes with it., it was the hardest thing to do so far.
3. The Graphics card (both the 1070 it came with and the 1080 that i replaced the 1070 with) run on avg under full load at about 82c (even with a custom fan curve set using afterburner) -not too happy about that.
Although I did heard from a few people that the GTX 1080 is known to run about as hot under full load anyways .even if thats the "norm". I STILL would RATHER it be somewhere in the high 60c area.
these above are the only reason i took a star off.

OVERALL:
The ROG G20CB as it is sold will get the job done and then some!

I wanted a little more SOOOO>
I ended up swapping out the GTX 1070 for an Nvidia GTX 1080 FE (an actual NVIDIA Manufactured GTX 1080 Founders Edition, not a third party card). The GTX 1080 was easiest to install over the SSD I ended up putting in but still requires a steady hand and being gentle. I ended up adding a 250GB SSD (for games like Ghost Recon Wildlands, GTA 5, and Batman Arkham Knight to hasten the texture streaming and irritating loading times in these games. This was actually incredibly difficult to do as it requires you take most of of the chassis apart. Luckily i was able to do it without damaging or even scratching anything!. It was just really hard to do. Lastly i purchased an ASUS ROG Swift PG248 Gsync enabled 24" monitor.

I STRONGLY Recommend pairing this PC with an ASUS ROG SWIFT PG248 24" Gaming display with Gsync.
Using a GSYNC Display with Refresh rates over 120 and that has a Display Port on it, is the only way to fly.
I didnt realize it, but because of the advanced nature of the GTX 1080 coupled with a high end CPU and DDR4 Ram, you are actually going to cripple your Pascal GPU with a regular HDMI connection. the 2nd Iteration of HDMI is OK (i guess) but Display port allows for the highest Framerates and Fidelity Possible.

To sum it all up:
GET AN SSD and a Gsync Monitor with higher than avg refresh rates and get a Display port connector (Ditch HDMI).
These three things will change your gaming life forever!

9/10 would buy again, but dont need to! because this thing is beast, and even more beastlier after i upgraded to a GTX 1080!

shirokuro73

Chicago, IL

Great review - any more details about adding SSD?

March 29, 2017

Great review! I've been eyeing this machine for a while, but have been put off by the sole HDD and lack of SSD. I know it uses standard parts but I'd heard it was quite awkward to replace the HDD with an SSD (or add an SSD). Did you use some instructions from somewhere, or just figure it out? Did you replace the standard HDD or add a second SSD, and if so, was it a 2.5" SATA3 or did you use an M.2 slot? Did you make the SSD the boot drive, or a secondary drive? Sorry for all the questions!!! I'm glad to hear it was relatively easy to replace the GPU. I plan to use the machine in the living room on my 1080p TV, so a GTX1070 should be more than enough for that right now. Down the line though, I might look at upgrading the card. Thanks again for a great review and thanks for any advice you can offer about adding the SSD!

+2points

2of 2voted this comment as helpful.