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Walter B.

Walter B.

Joined on 10/22/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 5
Most Favorable Review
IN WIN IW-BQ656T.AD80TBLR, Mini ITX case w/ AD80A7-2 T power supply, w/ external remote that has USB 2.0 and Audio(HD) ports, comes with plastic mounting bracket that can be used as a stand or mounted at the back of the monitors.
IN WIN IW-BQ656T.AD80TBLR, Mini ITX case w/ AD80A7-2 T power supply, w/ external remote that has USB 2.0 and Audio(HD) ports, comes with plastic mounting bracket that can be used as a stand or mounted at the back of the monitors.

Pros: ultra-small footprint, enough room for all the necessities, and easy to take apart and re-assemble. only one screw on each side to keep the panels on. plenty of air flow, looks pretty. the instructions have plenty of diagrams.

Cons: it's a tight fit, but that should be expected. not incredibly crowded, but you might want to brush up on your Tetris skills if you want to fit more than a few cords inside. the controller with the USB ports and headphone/mic jacks is described as optional, but it has the only power button for the case, so i can't see how that could be true. the cord for the controller is also pretty stiff, limiting its mobility. all pretty minor problems, but still worth noting.

excellent value

ASRock E350M1/USB3 AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core) AMD A50M Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo
ASRock E350M1/USB3 AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core) AMD A50M Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo

Pros: This motherboard is a really low price, not only in comparison to other motherboards of the same type, but also just for the amount of stuff it has on it. The BIOS automatically recognized and overclocked for the 16 GB of 1333 RAM that I plugged into it, and it came with detailed and easy-to-understand instructions and software.

Cons: When I first set it up, I didn't have a hard drive ready, so I was running it off of a Linux pen drive. With that setup, I was having the same problems that a few other commenters had with full-screen video. Now that I'm running Windows 8 on an internal HDD, fullscreen video on 720p youtube videos are pretty smooth with the occasional hiccup, but 1080p is still pretty choppy. I haven't tried any driver upgrades yet, but I'm not particularly worried about it since my setup only involves a 720p screen. if you're using a 1080p setup, you might want to consider more powerful graphics.

Overall Review: I wish the maxed-out ram would help the video issues, but for my setup it runs well enough that it's not a huge deal. I'm also only using youtube videos as a reference, so DVDs and Blu-Ray might be a different story. All in all, I'm very satisfied. Since i'm going to be using this computer primarily to draw, it's not going to be the bottleneck on my system. For people using it as an HTPC, it might be more of an issue.

CORSAIR XMS 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMX16GX3M2A1333C9
CORSAIR XMS 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMX16GX3M2A1333C9

Pros: works. great value. haven't checked it for errors yet, but both sticks showed up in my BIOS, so there can't be anything terribly wrong with them. the heat spreader is low-profile, which is just what i needed for my mini-ITX case.

Cons: it appears to be randomly accessing things, so unless a memory test finds errors, i don't see anything wrong with them.

good printer for the price.

LEXMARK Z1300 20A0000 Up to 22 ppm Black Print Speed 4800 x 1200 dpi Color Print Quality USB Thermal Inkjet Color Printer
LEXMARK Z1300 20A0000 Up to 22 ppm Black Print Speed 4800 x 1200 dpi Color Print Quality USB Thermal Inkjet Color Printer

Pros: prints quickly, the included sample ink cartridge prints colors and blacks fairly well, so i'm sure that when i get real cartridges and some black ink it'll be even better.

Cons: colors are a bit muddy and blended with each other, and are accurate but seem light on the page. may just be the settings or a result of only using the sample ink cartridge.

Overall Review: for $40, this is perfect for someone who's going to be printing papers and documents with simple pictures or graphs. may not be a perfect product for colorful artistic work or crisp photos, but a good single-function printer without a bunch of bells and whistles.