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Vincent Z.

Vincent Z.

Joined on 01/29/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 9
Most Favorable Review

144hz GSYNC, Nice, but not perfect

Acer XB270H Abprz Black 27" 1ms (GTG) 144HZ Widescreen LED Backlight LCD G-SYNC Monitor, 300 cd/m2, USB Hub, 1000:1
Acer XB270H Abprz Black 27" 1ms (GTG) 144HZ Widescreen LED Backlight LCD G-SYNC Monitor, 300 cd/m2, USB Hub, 1000:1

Pros: Great price for it on a flash sale. 144hz is amazing. I've noticed improved K/D in games like Battlefield because of it. DECENT colors since it's an 8bit TN panel GSYNC works, however I think it's a bit overrated. Nice adjust-ability in the stand If you're an FPS gamer, recommend it!

Cons: I would give it 3.5 if possible. But I rounded up to 4/5. - LED backlight FLICKER: This is the worst bit about this monitor. In some games with occasional dark scenes or depth of field, I definitely notice the LED's flickering while trying to dim to the requested low light levels. I hope future games don't increase the frequency of this flickering, otherwise I may have to get a different monitor (i.e BenQ). - The backlight bleed others report is definitely existent in my panel. Top-Left, Bottom-Right, 70% of the bottom bezel - all have noticeable blue backlight bleed when the display is showing dark gameplay/video. Had some inactive pixels for the first couple weeks; luckily they came back by using a pixel revive program. - 27" is too large for TN panels - some subtle textures disappear in the top corners when looking at the monitor dead center. -Typical TN colour shift with slight viewing angle changes

Overall Review: Only reason I went with this monitor is because it was on a flash sale for $399...otherwise it's overpriced in my opinion. This monitor will likely end up being the budget GSYNC monitor once more IPS GSYNC/FreeSync monitors flood the market. This one will drop in price. Overall I decided to keep the monitor because of how improved games like Battlefield are vs. a non 144hz monitor. I do miss the colors of my previous VA panel though!

Most Critical Review

Can't get to function on Windows 7 64 bit

IOGEAR Bluetooth 2.1 USB Micro Adapter with Low Power Consumption (GBU421W6)
IOGEAR Bluetooth 2.1 USB Micro Adapter with Low Power Consumption (GBU421W6)

Pros: Compact, could remain in laptop without issue.

Cons: Can't get it to function on either my desktop or laptop. Both are running Windows 7 64 bit. Tried installing and uninstalling and installing again the driver from both the disk and the manufacturers website. Neither worked. Windows recognizes it as a bluetooth dongle and puts the icon in taskbar, but when you right click the icon none of the options there work once clicked. Newegg wants me to pay $10 for a shipping label when I only paid $9.99 for the item in the first place.... so RMA isn't even worth it.

Overall Review: Fits into USB ports very very tightly. Not really a con, I suppose it's better than being loose and falling out.

Great price and it works

BELKIN F9L1001 N150 Wireless Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Up to 150Mbps Wireless Data Rates
BELKIN F9L1001 N150 Wireless Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Up to 150Mbps Wireless Data Rates

Pros: Super low price It worked immediately after installing the driver. Connected right away to my Aris modem/router combo that is located in the basement while both my laptop/desktop that I used to test the adapter on are on the second story.

Cons: Bulky - covered adjacent usb port on my Asus laptop Speeds aren't stellar, but I didn't expect warp speed for the price. Neither my desktop running Windows 7 Pro or my laptop running Windows 7 Home Prem. had a preloaded driver for the adapter. This required either going to the Belkin website or using the included CD.

Overall Review: Purchased this to keep as a spare in my technician bag since it was almost free! testmy dot net 25mb download speed tests: Belkin vs i5 based Asus laptop's Atheros ar9285 ----------Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Belkin 4.9mbps 5.7mbps 4.3mbps built-in 15.7mbps 16.4mbps 17.3mbps I have a 60mbps ISP and N based WLAN two stories away from router for all tests.

Unreliable, not recommended

TP-LINK TL-WDR4300 Dual Band Wireless N750 Router, Gigabit, 2.4GHz 300Mbps+5GHz 450Mbps, 2 USB port, IP QoS, Wireless On/Off Switch
TP-LINK TL-WDR4300 Dual Band Wireless N750 Router, Gigabit, 2.4GHz 300Mbps+5GHz 450Mbps, 2 USB port, IP QoS, Wireless On/Off Switch

Pros: Got it at a good sale price luckily. The web management interface has a lot of granularity and features. Especially compared to the 8 year old Buffalo it replaced.

Cons: Just unreliable. The 5ghz network just disappears sometimes; the concurrent feature is a joke. Just recently the router basically STOPPED working entirely until I upgraded the firmware. Would not route outside my internal network. The new firmware increased the range of the wireless just a little bit. And brought back the 5ghz SSID which again, vanished for no reason. Constantly logging into it to reboot it because the internet is slow and it always seems to get better after the reboot. I think it has some internal memory issues. Memory overflow or not clearing/allocating properly. Just a guess, but would explain some of my issues. Sad I have to consider flashing third party software on it after only 5 months. Overall, not a simple/reliable purchase.

Overall Review: I'm a certified IT personnel, so I understand all the features in the web interface and how to set them up. I wish this router was a reliable option, because it has a good feature set for the price and would be nice to recommend to clients. Certainly won't be recommending this. Infact if it decides to outright STOP working again I'm going to contact TP-LINK. Or experiment with flashing OpenWRT on it and see if I can save it from being a paperweight.

Never worked

Rosewill RC-505 - 2-Port USB 3.0 PCI Express Card
Rosewill RC-505 - 2-Port USB 3.0 PCI Express Card

Pros: None, never worked. Can't wait to upgrade mobo for native 3.0!

Cons: It never worked when I got it. I gave up on it and just settled for native 2.0 ports for my WD 2tb backup drive. Recently tried to get this card to work again because I want to redo my entire back up (~800GB!!!), but still worthless. Thought maybe they would have released new drivers/firmware by now. Tried their drivers along with the automatic Windows Driver installation, multiple clean installs. No change. Tried firmware update, error with "Could not find device".

Overall Review: EVGA x58 Triple SLi main, Windows 7 Pro 64bit

Rebates are a complete scam from Xigmatek

XIGMATEK Gaia SD1283 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler LGA1150 Haswell Compatible
XIGMATEK Gaia SD1283 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler LGA1150 Haswell Compatible

Pros: Cooler performs adequately.

Cons: I bought this in November 2011 on Black Friday and mailed the rebate form within a week of receiving the item. So it has been over 12 weeks and still no check/giftcard. It is completely wrong for Xigmatek to bait people under false pretenses to buy their products and eventually, the law will catch up with them. Could have just bought the CM-Hyper 212 and gotten better performance for the money.

Overall Review: Order total was $24.99 and the rebate value was $20. I emailed Xigmatek two weeks ago and have not received a reply. Complete joke...