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Keith A.

Keith A.

Joined on 01/21/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 27
Most Favorable Review

Love this Processor

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 - Core 2 Quad Kentsfield Quad-Core 2.4 GHz LGA 775 105W Processor - BX80562Q6600
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 - Core 2 Quad Kentsfield Quad-Core 2.4 GHz LGA 775 105W Processor - BX80562Q6600

Pros: OK, I received this a few days ago and put it into my Gigabyte DQ6. It promptly hit 3.0 Ghz on air with a Zalman cnps 9700 and 4gb of ddr2-667. Smokes at encoding dvd's to wmv for my xbox and has no problem running 2 virtual machines for folding@home.

Cons: Huge voltage droop on my motherboard. Using the auto voltage setting would put the processor at 1.275v in the bios which resulted in a real voltage of 1.23 and wasn't stable at 3.0ghz. Manually setting the voltage to 1.35v in the bios gave me a real voltage of 1.296v which runs great.

Overall Review: Temps originally were in the mid to high 60's, so I reseated the zalman and re-applied thermal grease and now loaded temps are high 40's low 50's which is perfect. These are %100 load temps while running 2 instances of folding@home linux smp client via vmware virtual machines.

Most Critical Review

Very good for the price

ASUS Ultrabook ZenBook Intel Core i5-5200U 8GB Memory 256 GB SSD Intel HD Graphics 5500 13.3" Touchscreen Windows 8.1 64-Bit UX303LA-DS52T
ASUS Ultrabook ZenBook Intel Core i5-5200U 8GB Memory 256 GB SSD Intel HD Graphics 5500 13.3" Touchscreen Windows 8.1 64-Bit UX303LA-DS52T

Pros: Price Specs Upgradable SSD Upgradable Ram (a single slot)

Cons: Screen brightness could be better Hinge broke after 10 months. Not sure why or how, I closed the thing and heard some crunching and crackling. That was it, one hinge is now broken. It still works though, just threw some duct tape on it to hold it together. I would say after inspecting the hinge mechanisms since they are wide open now, that they look a bit flimsy for my liking.

Overall Review: This is a great laptop for the price, however I would be gentle with the hinges if you decide to buy one.

Great Cards!

SAPPHIRE DUAL-X Radeon R9 270 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card With BOOST & OC 100365L
SAPPHIRE DUAL-X Radeon R9 270 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card With BOOST & OC 100365L

Pros: I bought 4 of them because the price finally came back down to reality. I put them in my scrypt mining rig and they fired right up at or near the max hashrate for this model. All 4 have been running great at 1100/1500 for just over a week and I couldn't be happier. I've even ordered another identical card to max out my miners PCI-e slots. :D All the cards came with HDMI cables too, which coincidentally I happened to be running short of in my house so it was a nice bonus! (it seems everything takes HDMI these days.)

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: I have pretty good cooling on my mining rig so temps usually stay in the 60c (+/- 2c) range which probably helps them run at 1100/1500. I'll probably end up getting a 6th to replace the aging HD5850 in my desktop.

A Portable Cellphone Amp that works

Wilson Electronics MobilePro Dual-Band Amplifier (801242)
Wilson Electronics MobilePro Dual-Band Amplifier (801242)

Pros: Easy Setup and Take Down. 5v power so with the addition of a portable usb charger it's completely portable All the necessary power connections for use nearly everywhere. Improves a spotty signal

Cons: Only a 2-3ft usable radius

Overall Review: I've been using this amplifier for several weeks now. I've used it in my vehicle during my drive to and from work as well as on my ship while at work I've tested the signal via my phones included signal information screen and during the test, my phones received signal went from -85dbi with the amplifier unplugged to -60dbi with it plugged in so I know the amplifier works. FYI, phone signal bars tell you nothing. All android phones have an information tab in settings that will give you actual -dbi of signal strength. One thing many people don't seem to understand is that this will amplify a marginal signal, but will not give you a signal when there is no signal to amplify. I think many of the poor reviews are from people who expect this to boost a non existent signal. On a couple occasions I had to put my phone in airplane mode and then take it out to get data working. I see this as more of a phone issue though. It seemed to happen when I was on the edge of LTE and the phone would switch back and forth between poor LTE and amplified 3g. Not really a con with the Mobile Pro, just a hassle brought to light because of the amplifier doing it's job. Usually in these locations I wouldn't have had date period.

Great Digital Tuner

SiliconDust HDHomeRun Dual HDHR3-US HD Digital Network Attached TV Tuner Device
SiliconDust HDHomeRun Dual HDHR3-US HD Digital Network Attached TV Tuner Device

Pros: This thing is exceptionally useful and very easy to get up and running. It give you many options, including remote antenna with a CAT 5 connection to your network. By moving the tuner closer to the antenna, you reduce the length of your coax run which improves reception. I'm ordering another one and a powerline ethernet setup to move my antenna into my attic since I have electrical up there. Amplified large digital antenna, 3ft. coax run to HDHR3, cat 5 to Powerline adapter out to my network...........:D

Cons: ipad app is spendy, but that's not SiliconDust's fault.

Great Value Server Board

ASUS Z8NA-D6C Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5500 ATX Dual Intel Xeon 5500 and 5600 Series Server/Workstation Motherboard
ASUS Z8NA-D6C Dual LGA 1366 Intel 5500 ATX Dual Intel Xeon 5500 and 5600 Series Server/Workstation Motherboard

Pros: Simple to get running, reasonable price, runs great with 2 - Xeon E5520 cpu's and 12gb of Patriot 1333Mhz DDR3 (runs at 1066Mhz of course). Solid board with ATX form factor.

Cons: Chipset gets incredibly hot, needs active cooling or better heatsink.

Overall Review: Not sure what all the fuss about the Asus MIO sound card is, I bought one from Newegg at the same time I bought the board. Just searched for Asus and MIO and it popped up. No problems with this setup at all, installed ubuntu 9.10-server-beta-amd64 with no problems. Currently churning out folding@home bigadv work units at a brisk pace without so much as a hiccup. As mentioned, the intel STS100C heatsinks work well with this tightly packed board.

10/10/2009