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Keith S.

Keith S.

Joined on 12/03/12

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 3
Most Favorable Review

Happy with my upgrade

MSI GeForce GT 730 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile Graphics Card N730K-1GD5LP/OC
MSI GeForce GT 730 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile Graphics Card N730K-1GD5LP/OC

Pros: Works well for streaming media at 1080p. NVIDIA drivers are easy to download, install, and configure. The price was very reasonable.

Cons: No cons really, but please read my "Other thoughts"

Overall Review: This was a GPU upgrade a small form factor Dell Optiplex 760. It was great that this card came with both regular and low profile brackets that are easy to change. My problem was that the shield on this is a little higher than I expected. On the board it has only one slot available and it puts it too close to the hard drive case. The hard drive cradle has a fan and also only fits in one spot which does not have enough room to seat properly with this card inserted. I was fortunate that I also gave the computer a SSD upgrade which I was able to place elsewhere. The HDD cradle is still inside with the fan active, but it is not securely fastened. This is okay for my situation, but it would not work if it was holding a 3.5" HDD.

Most Critical Review

Update from "OK"

RAIDMAX Agusta ATX-605BT Black / Titanium Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case
RAIDMAX Agusta ATX-605BT Black / Titanium Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: Same as before

Cons: Same as before, but my fears about the plastic 3.5" trays were confirmed. I originally put some 3.5" HHD in 3 of the trays to test the tower out and went to remove them (making room for my RAID 5). The screws on the sides of the drive trays (screws provided with the kit) got stuck 75% of the time. The screws actually threaded themselves into the plastic drive bays where no threading is supposed to exist. I had to use a small flathead screwdriver and a set of pliers to pull the screws from the trays. I was afraid I was going to either break the trays or damage the hard drives that were in them. The computer I built into this case has not been on for even a total hour since I purchased the case, so extreme heat and warping was not a factor - it is made of cheap materials! My RAID 5 that I want to put in is made up of 2.5" drives, but now I am afraid they may also get jammed in the trays. This vexing ordeal has caused me to drop my rating down to 2 eggs.

Overall Review: I still don't regret buying this while it was on sale, but now that I have worked with this case I would recommend people strongly consider something else. I still love the older mid-size RAIDMAX case that I had handed down to me for free, so I hope this Agusta is not indicative of their entire product lineup. I just have no idea what made them release this product as it is - something clearly went wrong between design and final product.

Nice

Support Win 8.1 - EDUP 2in1 Client / AP Mini 300M 300Mbps USB WiFi Wireless N LAN Network Adapter 802.11 n/g/b EP-N1571
Support Win 8.1 - EDUP 2in1 Client / AP Mini 300M 300Mbps USB WiFi Wireless N LAN Network Adapter 802.11 n/g/b EP-N1571

Pros: Works well. This is on a small desktop that rests on a TV mount on our wall. Even though the adapter is behind the TV we never experience any signal drops. Our wireless network is N only.

Cons: Nothing really.

Overall Review: I was initially looking for a low-profile adapter for a laptop but settled for this one based on specs and price. Perhaps it would not work so well if thew adapter was shorter. It works great for what we need though.