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Samuel D.

Samuel D.

Joined on 11/10/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Nice enclosure

ICY DOCK MB662U3-2S Dual Bay SuperSpeed USB 3.0 RAID Enclosure
ICY DOCK MB662U3-2S Dual Bay SuperSpeed USB 3.0 RAID Enclosure

Pros: Fast, keeps drives cool, just works like it's supposed to.

Cons: Having to wait for it to be released....

Overall Review: Got this enclosure as I wanted a RAID 1 system after a previous external HD died on me causing me to spend a ton of $$$$ to get the data recovered. A lot of the other RAID enclosures seem to have so-so reviews so I decided to wait for this one to be released and I'm glad I did. With two 7,200 RPM drives (3TB Hitachi's) the enclosure is fast through it's USB 3.0 connection. If you're worried that the enclosure is going to be slow.... don't (Unless you are going to use a 2.0 connection LOL). I'm sure it would be ever faster in RAID 0 but after my last failure my nerves just wouldn't let me do it! Installation was easy, just plug it on and turn it on, drive should be recognized as whatever RAID mode you set it to. Formatting took several hours but that's par for the course with 3TB drives. The outside gets slightly warm, but that's because the solid aluminum acts as a heatsink along with the fan. I don't think you'll have to worry about drive failure caused by heat in this thing. So would I buy this again? Absolutely. It does what it says it does and does it well. For the price, you can't go wrong.

Great memory

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-1866C9D-16GXM
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-1866C9D-16GXM

Pros: Fast memory. Recognized by my motherboard without issue. Nice "pretty" blue heatspreaders.

Cons: See other thoughts.

Overall Review: Depending on your motherboard, the memory might get recognized as 1333, not 1866. If this happens, the memory is NOT defective! Just go into your motherboard's BIOS settings and change the multiplier to 18. Problem solved!

Fast + Cheap = great product.

Crucial MX100 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CT256MX100SSD1
Crucial MX100 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CT256MX100SSD1

Pros: FAST! Very good price per GB ratio.

Cons: No matter how you slice it you're still paying for the OEM's development costs with these things.

Overall Review: I have two of these in a RAID 0 configuration. Windows 7 loads so fast it doesn't even get a chance to finish the "starting windows" screen before it loads to the desktop. Programs load and install blazingly fast now compared to my old computer. Now that I have gotten into the SSD game, I'll never go back! The funny thing is, these are the "low end" versions. I'm sure that the higher end models are faster but other than benchmarks I'm sure the average person is not going to see a difference in real-world usage. PS: Make you go for the 256mb or 512 version, the 128GB version has a much slow write speed which makes it not as good of a value.

Excellent power supply

EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 220-G2-0750-XR 80+ GOLD 750W Fully Modular EVGA ECO Mode Includes FREE Power On Self Tester Power Supply
EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 220-G2-0750-XR 80+ GOLD 750W Fully Modular EVGA ECO Mode Includes FREE Power On Self Tester Power Supply

Pros: Sturdy, well built, pretty much all the cables you'll need and they are plenty long enough. Great price!

Cons: Ummm.... nothing.

Overall Review: I was going to get the 850w, but decided to save a little $$$$ and go with this version. Great quality power supply, you can tell just by its heft and how it's packaged. There is no other 750w power supply that can compete with this on price or performance. If you are looking for a 700-750w power supply, this is it.

I'm impressed.

CORSAIR Hydro Series H110 Extreme Performance Water/Liquid CPU Cooler. 280mm (CW-9060014-WW)
CORSAIR Hydro Series H110 Extreme Performance Water/Liquid CPU Cooler. 280mm (CW-9060014-WW)

Pros: Keeps temps anywhere between 23-25 C when idle / light use to around 60 C full load. Quiet when fans are at the low setting.

Cons: PITA to install but that's mainly on me for trying to squeeze the huge radiator in a mid-tower case!

Overall Review: I'm using an I-7 4790K in a Corsair 450D case. As I alluded to above, it'll fit but it's a tight squeeze. Fans can get loud at the higher settings but that's a tradeoff of this level of performance.

A no-frills photo printer that prints outstanding pictures.

EPSON Artisan 50 Up to 37 ppm Black Print Speed 5760 x 1440 dpi Color Print Quality USB InkJet Personal Color Printer
EPSON Artisan 50 Up to 37 ppm Black Print Speed 5760 x 1440 dpi Color Print Quality USB InkJet Personal Color Printer

Pros: Excellent lab quality photos, true 6-ink system, individual ink tanks, seems like it's good with ink usage, relatively fast. Best of all less then 100 dollars.

Cons: A little noisy when starting up and shutting down. Not the best looking printer in the world (but I don't really care about that). Text quality is not that great but this printer really isn't made for that.

Overall Review: Got this printer to replace my nearly 6 year old Canon i960 that stopped printing properly. I used to be very anti--Epson because there printheads are not removable so if they clog, you're stuck. However, when doing research I found that Canon and HP both have stopped making consumer-level printers that have a light cyan and light magenta ink system in addition to the normal 4 colors. Instead they have gimmicks like a grey ink, 2 black inks or even a clear ink. Canon does make a printer that has a true photo ink system (Pro9000) but it's $450 and there is no way I'm spending that much. So, the Epson Artisan 50 is where it's at if you want a true 6-color printer for not much money. It lacks things like a card reader and LCD screen but I know how to print from my PC just fine. It does what it's supposed to: print excellent pictures and it's fast. Plus, ink usage doesn't seem like a problem. Only issue is the text prints aren't good but I'm getting an all-in-one for