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Eugene J.

Eugene J.

Joined on 06/12/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 20
Most Favorable Review

Great case for the money

Xigmatek ASGARD II B/B CPC-T45UC-U01 Black / Black 0.8 mm SECC / Aluminum and Aluminum Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Xigmatek ASGARD II B/B CPC-T45UC-U01 Black / Black 0.8 mm SECC / Aluminum and Aluminum Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: A mid-size case with all the room you could need. Painted a matt black inside and out for a professional look. The tool-less holders for the drives work fine. If you want both sides held solid, use a clamp on both sides. There are enough clamps for two HDD held on both sides or 5 clamped on one side. Enough clamps for 1 CD/DVD clamped on both sides or 3 clamped on one side.

Cons: A heads-up rather than a con. If you wait until you have installed the MB before you remove the slot covers, you may have some difficulty removing them without interference with the MB. Just figure out which ones you will need and remove them with a screwdriver inserted in the top slot. A couple of twists and they pop right out. There are three traditional black-painted slot covers included if you remove too many and need to fill back in. Note: the entire slot cover retention bracket removes with 3 screws if you need access after the fact. Yes, there is paint in the screw holes, a result of painting the insides as well as the outside. Live with it.

Overall Review: SECC stands for Steel, Electrogalvanized, Cold-rolled Coil. The case is .8mm or .032" thick which is typical for inexpensive cases. When fully assembled with everything in place, the case is plenty stiff...unless you plan on sitting on it, of course. I have used this case for several builds and have not been disappointed. Recommended for all except high-end gamer builds. This is one pretty case...

Most Critical Review

Great non-bicycle light

Rosewill RFL-101 150 Lumens - 3W LED Aluminum Flashlight w/ Bicycle Bracket
Rosewill RFL-101 150 Lumens - 3W LED Aluminum Flashlight w/ Bicycle Bracket

Pros: This is the nicest hand held light for it's size i have owned.

Cons: Although it is a great light for being seen on a bike, it does not work for lighting up the road. The bike mount is questionable in many applications as pointed out in other reviews.

Overall Review: Since a 3 watt bulb would drain 4 watts (max power out of a set of AAA batts) in a little over an hour of run time, and the unit definitely lasts much longer on a set, I have to assume they mean "compare to 3 watts of incandescent light". The light color is very blue, and changes the color of whatever it is lighting up. If you need a good, small, well made flashlight, this one is for you.

Nice little case

Fractal Design Core 1000 Black Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case
Fractal Design Core 1000 Black Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case

Pros: Nice little case. about medium size for micro-ATX. Black finish inside and out is classy, as are the knurled-knobs just about everywhere. The mesh screen front looks upscale also. Pleasure to build. Beautiful to own.

Cons: Getting a full sized micro-ATX mobo in here is a VERY close fit, but can be done best in an empty case. The blue case light is a beacon coming out the side of the case, really now... The beautiful mesh front also lets all the inside sounds out, making this a study in purchasing quiet components. Oh, did I mention there were NO instructions other than a spec sheet. Good luck if this is your first build.

Overall Review: Having built dozens of cases in all price ranges, I was pleasantly surprised by this gem. The build is of good quality and the steel sides are thicker than most at this price range. Make sure to pick quiet components as the mesh front lets every inside sound out. I had to change the power supply and remove the fan from the video card (no, it doesn't get hot) to finally get the level of quiet I could live with. The vertical mounting of the hard drives (two max by default) is interesting.

Dongle died

Logitech Recertified 981-000541 H600 USB Connector Supra-aural Wireless Headset
Logitech Recertified 981-000541 H600 USB Connector Supra-aural Wireless Headset

Pros: Sound quality is fine. Not like high end audio ones, but quite good for a headset.

Cons: After three days the dongle was no longer recognized by any of my several linux and Windows computers. Once I fugured out how to pair the headset to a bluetooth dongle, I was back in business. Note: Hold mic mute and up volume buttons down until light flashes quickly to start pairing.

Overall Review: I was surprised when the receiver died, but the AZIO bluetooth dongle I am now using has better range. I can now walk anywhere in my three bedroom house and listen to music or chat. As to comfort, I have worn less comfortable ones. I consider these good for smaller heads as there is a strong headband. That same headband does a good job of insuring they do not fall off during normal movements.

Almost perfect

DELL Notebook (no Optical) Latitude XT2 Intel Core 2 Duo 1.60GHz 2GB Memory 120GB HDD 12.1" Windows 7 Home Premium 18-month warranty
DELL Notebook (no Optical) Latitude XT2 Intel Core 2 Duo 1.60GHz 2GB Memory 120GB HDD 12.1" Windows 7 Home Premium 18-month warranty

Pros: Unit was like new, I could hardly tell it had been used. It had a couple of tiny dings in the bottom cover, but I love the way it looks.

Cons: Win7 did not work 100% out of the box. The cursor disappeared and finger gestures would not work amongst several other small details. A system restore from the hidden partition displayed the same symptoms, so I put Win7 Home Premium from the DVD on a USB stick and installed from scratch. After installing minimal drivers from the Dell support page and doing updates, all was right with the world. Note: the N-trig drivers will need to be installed a couple of times to get the touch screen running right.

Overall Review: This unit came from the factory with Vista and was refurbished and released with Win7, so I'm not too surprised there were some problems. If you are capable and patient, this is a very nice laptop for the price. Linux (Ubuntu/Fedora) will run fine also, but you will have to give up gestures and the disappearing onscreen keyboard. I deducted the egg because of the extra work needed to get it working 100%.

12/20/2013

Review update

TRENDnet TEW-737HRE N300 High Power Easy-N-Range Extender
TRENDnet TEW-737HRE N300 High Power Easy-N-Range Extender

Pros: TRENDnet support made an excellent effort to help me with my connection problem. I received a follow up phone call from upper tier support that worked with me to make the modem/router setting changes needed to connect smoothly to their TEW-737HRE adapter. The second adapter is now up and running as per expectations.

Cons: I use a Pace4111N modem/router supplied by ATT that apparently does not play well with the TRENDnet adapter. It required going into the router wireless settings and changing the "Authentication Type" in the wireless settings from Auto to WPA2-PSK (AES) by itself. Once changed and applied, the adapter connected. (When we were able to connect to an unprotected network with no problem the support tech turned the attention to the Pace modem.)

Overall Review: The reason for the 4 eggs instead of 5, was because of the necessary time spent trying to resolve the problem. I believe the problem was with the Pace modem and not the adapter. The techies I talked to at TRENDnet were very knowledgeable and courteous in walking me through to a solution. Kudos to TRENDnet support.

12/13/2013