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Jonathan H.

Jonathan H.

Joined on 01/16/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 4
Most Critical Review

Common serious issues with BIOS

ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Its got every possible option known to mankind.

Cons: Having same BIOS overclock error that tons of other people are having with this board. There's pages and pages of people on tech forums talking about same issue... system powers, gets through POST and stalls, then tries to power up again. Called double posting or double booting, I would imagine the repeated start stop start with power isn't the best thing for your parts lol. Sometimes it might get started. But most of the time you just get an overclock error message with option to enter BIOS. Me and many others online have changed memory brand/speed/XMP profile settings several times, changed power supplies multiple times, changed processors, changed every other setting possible, jumpered the board ... nothing helps. Someone mentioned online that they manually changed the voltage and timings for the memory in BIOS and got the board to work fine for a month before running into the issue again... that's just unacceptable.

Overall Review: I thought I had the problem fixed, because I had it running all day fine and even did several power down and reboots. However if you leave system off for more then 10 minutes you may never get it running correct again.

All Hype

TP-Link Archer C3200 AC3200 Wireless Tri-Band Gigabit Router
TP-Link Archer C3200 AC3200 Wireless Tri-Band Gigabit Router

Pros: great 2.4 ghz speed

Cons: having 6 antennas means nothing apparently, as the 5ghz bands have no range. I was told by TP-Link to test the 5ghz speeds while in the same room as router, and that 5ghz wasn't great at reaching through walls to other rooms. Which is ridiculous because if I had multiple computers in same room I would just wire them to router for best speeds for transferring files between systems. Tried all the channels in 5ghz range, router is pretty limited on channels however. Nothing helped.

Overall Review: Tried 2 different TP LINK AC1900 PCIE network adapters paired to the TP LINK Archer C3200. Tested both adapters in three different computers in three different rooms. Neither made any difference. After talking to multiple people who have been running various AC routers for couple years I've come to the conclusion AC is all hype. The speeds would be great, but the 5ghz band is just too weak. The speeds really only matter if transferring files between systems on network anyways, since your internet speeds will never be as fast as your wifi speeds.

Screen Burn

Acer S231HLbid Black 23" 5ms HDMI  LED-Backlight LCD monitor  Slim Design  250 cd/m2 ACM 12,000,000:1 (1000:1)
Acer S231HLbid Black 23" 5ms HDMI LED-Backlight LCD monitor Slim Design 250 cd/m2 ACM 12,000,000:1 (1000:1)

Pros: Acer normally makes good products

Cons: Had screen burn (image burn) after one week

10/12/2012

Speakers face up

Asus VK278Q Black 27" 1920x1080 Full HD HDMI LED BackLight LCD Monitor w/Webcam 300 cd/m2 10,000,000 :1 (ASCR)
Asus VK278Q Black 27" 1920x1080 Full HD HDMI LED BackLight LCD Monitor w/Webcam 300 cd/m2 10,000,000 :1 (ASCR)

Pros: Price, Excellent webcam

Cons: Speakers are inside the back panel so it sounds like its in a cave. They also point towards ceiling so you have to turn them all the way up to hear and then the sound is awful. My speakers stopped working completely after trying the headphone jack... which also didn't work.

Overall Review: Just buy a nice monitor, then speakers and webcam separate