Brandon Whitehead's Tech Blog

Before we dive into the review, check out this gallery of unboxing and installation images. ID COOLING FROSTFLOW X 280 Rating ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5) TL;DR For the price point and the performance this cooler offers, I am beyond satisfied with my purchase and definitely recommend this cooler for anyone looking to get a no-frills, high performance, 280mm AIO without having to break the bank. Pros Price Paid $49.99 (pre-tax) Performance 280mm Radiator vs a 240mm radiator = More surface area and larger fans that can run at lower RPMs to achieve the same level of cooling performance Works well being setup as a front intake push configuration It keeps my i7-11700K temperatures in check even under extreme synthetic load (230-250w sustained at 4.5GHz all core) with temps staying between 90-93c. Under a more reasonable load (125-150w), temps hover around the mid 50's! Under idle, temps hover around 30C or below. Fans The included 140mm fans come with a highly compact and convenient dai...

Rating ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5) Pros Price to Performance Paid $289.99 (pre-tax) for a 180Hz with adaptive sync, 3440x1440, VESA Certified DisplayHDR 400 monitor Desktop Software  G-Menu /I-Menu for controlling the monitor hardware settings within the windows desktop is a nice addition Hardware Design is fairly tame, not overly gamer looking by any means Plenty of input and output options 2x HDMI 2.0 - Up to 100Hz 2x DisplayPort 1.4 - Up to 180Hz (8-Bit with dithering) or 144Hz (10-Bit) 3.5mm audio out 4x USB [one of which supports Quick Charging] with upstream USB-B port Good stand (although I'm not using it because mine is VESA mounted) VESA 100x100 support Visuals Great Contrast! Black levels are MILES better than the Acer Predator Z1 I'm coming from Hardly any "flashlighting" on the screen from the backlight, or at least I can't see it  High refresh rate Going from 165Hz to 180Hz isn't a huge jump, but it does provide just a bit more smoothness PPI ~110 PPI ...

Here's a quick little review about an audio mixer, but before we get into it, check out this gallery of images first! Anleon MX200 Rating ★★★★★ (5 out of 5) Pros Build quality Plenty of ports Volume knobs feel good On/Off power button Cons Wish it came with some adhesive rubber feet Instructions are a bit simplistic (but realistically this is a simplistic device) Brand name (Not really a con but I've never really heard of Anleon before) Other Thoughts TL;DR Overall I am satisfied with this purchase and it works exactly as expected for my needs. The only thing I wish it came with was some adhesive rubber feet but those are cheap enough to purchase separately that it's not a big issue at all. Full Review I wanted to find a "proper" way to connect both of my computers to one set of speakers for simultaneous audio playback. This could be achieved with an extremely cheap 3.5mm Y-splitter but I had read that going with a solution like that...

Quick gallery of unboxing images and the stand arm/mount attached to my monitor before we hop into the review. VIVO STAND-V101H Rating ★★★★★ (5 out of 5) Pros Easy assembly Good build quality Securely holds 20+lb monitor (AOC U4308V) without issue Included 200x100 VESA mount bracket is nice (for my use case especially!) Easy adjustment of height, spring tension and monitor position Built in cable routing Cons None Other Thoughts Full Review I bought this arm/mount to replace a dual 32" (inch) monitor arm/mount I was using. I moved my secondary 32" (inch) monitor onto its included stand and I wanted something that would be tall enough and could handle the weight of a heavy 43" (inch) 4K monitor (the AOC U4380V). The monitor I wanted to mount supports 200x100 VESA so I liked that VIVO included an adapter in the box. With the included adapter, the overall price was comparable and in some cases cheaper than other options which required buying an a...

This is the last fitness wearable/smartwatch post in a while. I swear this time! Before getting to the meat of this review, check out the gallery of images below. Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music Rating ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5) Pros Build and Design Lightweight and unobtrusive Universal 20mm quick release watch bands Waterproof (5 ATM) Battery Lasted about 4 full days on a 90% charge even with 1hr and 20mins of GPS usage Charges very quickly Display Always on without significant battery drain Customizable Easily readable in sunlight and in darkness with the backlight Training Configuration Ability to create and schedule custom workout plans Automatic rep counting (inconsistent but it's there and will hopefully get better) Metrics 24/7 wrist based heart rate tracking with stress level tracking Very detailed tracking information. Garmin really does provide some of the most detailed information when it comes to fitness and wellbeing tracking.  GPS and al...

Check out this small gallery of unboxing images before we jump into the review. Rating ★★★☆ (3 out of 5) Pros Build/Design Metal and glass construction with some plastic 5 ATM water resistance Vibrant screen Rotating bezel still has a very satisfying tactile feel The blue color is nice on the watch itself and the band is eye catching Customization Tons of watch faces to choose from Widget customization App layout customization Fitness app Integrations Under Armour app suite integration is nice. This includes installing the apps directly on the device. Cons Battery Life With continuous HR enabled, about 60% of the battery was drained in 24 hours so it doesn't fare much better than the Gear Fit2 Pro did When the watch seems to not "sync" with my phone for a while the battery dies extremely quickly Sometimes an app somehow is continuing to run in the "background" and chews through battery like a mower cutting grass Functiona...

Back again with another Razer product review, check out this gallery of unboxing images below... Rating ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5) Pros Physical characteristics Build quality The keyboard feels very solid and the material choice (mostly hard plastics) is sufficient Size The design is very compact with not a lot of "wasted space" for the frame of the keyboard. Wrist wrest  By far THE BEST included wrist wrest I've seen. It is soft but still firm enough to supply plenty of comfortable wrist support Lighting The lighting is very vibrant, customizable and clear Design The design is very clean and definitely not anything I would consider to be "gamery" in my opinion. The overall aesthetic is really muted and tastefully executed in my opinion Switches The Razer Orange switches are quite comparable to cherry mx browns in my opinion. This makes for a great typing experience as well as a great gaming experience. Software Razer synapse 3...

Razer... you either love them or hate them it seems. I've personally never used Razer products in the past so this mouse has been my first experience with them and I have to say that I am quite pleased with my purchase. Before we hop into the review, check out this gallery of unboxing images. Rating ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5) Pros Shape/Design Very reminiscent of the G502 from Logitech except a little bit wider which is more comfortable for my large hands Pretty clean design with all the essential buttons and no extras Scroll Wheel Very satisfying feeling and I love the fact that you can adjust the tension of the scroll wheel Click feel All of the mouse buttons (aside from the scroll wheel) have a satisfying click to them, including the DPI clutch button Sensor/Tracking The tracking is very smooth and doesn't have any acceleration from what I can tell Software The software has a lot of features and allows you to highly customize the mouse. I will most ...

After recently downsizing back to Mini-ITX, I hit a snag when it came to my current CPU and its thermal performance. To cool my i7-7700K, I utilized the be quiet! Shadow Rock LP that I had purchased for my 2015 Mini-ITX build. In 2015 that build contained an i5-6600K and the Shadow Rock LP had no problem keeping that cool. Unfortunately, the i7-7700K is a notoriously hot running CPU and the Shadow Rock LP simply couldn't keep up. Especially with the limited airflow of the FTZ01. I was thermal throttling even at stock speeds. Putting the CPU under heavy AVX loads like HandBrake encoding made that very apparent. Not to mention the fan noise from the cooler running at 100% to keep things cool became rather annoying. Prior to downsizing to ITX I initially had the i7-7700K under a be quiet! Dark Rock TF cooler which performed well at keeping the i7-7700K under check. With the i7-7700K, the only way to truly wrangle in the temperatures (especially if overclocking and without modifi...

Introduction I never thought that I would want to have two Desktop PCs for myself. I had traditionally used one Desktop PC to "do it all". Afterall, that's one of the benefits of a PC to begin with. You can spec it for entertainment, work and other usages all within 1 device. Prior to acquiring 2 Desktop PCs, I had a Gaming PC, a personal laptop and a work laptop. I don't really count the personal laptop because it is about 8-9 years old (as of this article's publishing date) and not very usable anymore. For the work laptop, I try to strictly keep everything work related on that since the equipment is provided by my organization. I don't like to use it for personal things as much as I can. So realistically, I had one usable computer for home. My gaming/primary PC was used as my "swiss army knife" where it could game, host VMs and do more. As we all know though, a swiss army knife can only do so much without showcasing its shortcomings. That is unle...