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Scott L.

Scott L.

Joined on 07/12/01

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 18
Most Favorable Review

Very cool case

nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum / Acrylic / Steel HTPC 5000B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum / Acrylic / Steel HTPC 5000B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

Pros: Looks like AV equipment - will blend right in; Takes standard ATX PSUs; Full height expansion slots; Should handle a full length video card (a standard mATX board is fully exposed in this case - nothing hangs over it)

Cons: The LCD display isn't included - and you can tell where it's supposed to be; All 3 fans have standard 4-pin molex connectors, so there is no fan speed control; HDD LED is so dim it might as well not be there

Overall Review: I am very pleased with this case, for the price I don't think you'll find a better HTPC case. Overall construction is good enough. The back panel does seem a little flimsy at first until you bolt the PSU in, and with the top on it is plenty strong. Maybe my ears aren't as sensitive as others, but these fans seem very quiet to me. There is space to add another 90mm fan on the other side of the case if you so desire. Unlike another reviewer I was easily able to have the HD cables all running to the center of the case, not sure why he thought they had to go towards the sides. I love all of the front panel connections, including eSATA. FP audio can be setup as HD Audio or AC97. Bottom line - if you're looking for a HTPC case to blend in with your other stereo equipment you can't go wrong here.

Most Critical Review

Good for HTPC, with issues...

ASUS M3A78-EM AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
ASUS M3A78-EM AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Has just about every port known to man built in: 6 rear USB + 3 internal headers; Firewire, eSATA, VGA, DVI, HDMI, Display Port, even internal headers for a COM and LPT port (Expansion slot brackets are not included, but who cares?) Integrated ATI HD 3200 is good enough to decode everything, including Blu-ray (see other thoughts on driver issues)

Cons: Both the HDMI and Display ports have limitations.... The HDMI port will only be activated if the panel it is connected to is turned on before the PC. Also, with some panels if you turn the panel off & then back on you will only get a black screen. The only way to get the signal back is a reboot. (This happened during setup with my Sharp 46" TV, but not when hooked to my friends 37" Samsung - it's a flaky issue) The Display Port is hardware limited to only carry video signal - there is no way to enable audio.

Overall Review: I bought this thinking that it would be the perfect board for building a HTPC for my friend, and it turned out OK despite a couple of issues. Thankfully the HDMI issue I noticed when I was setting it up wasn't an issue with his TV, otherwise I could not recommend this board. I also spent considerable time trying to set it up to play Blu-Ray with Arcsoft TMT. Everytime I enabled hardware decoding I would get the BSoD. It was obviously a display driver issue but I was using the latest drivers from ATI (Catalyst 9.1). I ended up having to go back to the Catalyst 8.9 drivers in order to get it to work, but now everything is great!! Build: Asus M3A78-EM, AMD X2 5200, A-Data 2GB Memory, WD 1TB, LG BD-DVDRW, 2 ATI 650 PCI ATSC Tuners, Vista 32-bit

Pretty good for casual phone use

netTALK DUO VOIP Telephone free USA and Canada Calling
netTALK DUO VOIP Telephone free USA and Canada Calling

Pros: Cheap, doesn't need to be plugged into a computer, decent call quality

Cons: Can sometimes hear an echo of myself, doesn't output a timestamp with Caller ID info

Overall Review: I only bought this because my Magic Jack would not call my parents home phone number (vonage) - never figured out why. Thankfully this netTalk duo did work! The other main benefit is not having to have a PC running 24/7 to make the phone work. My only two complaints are a slight echo sometimes (which could be the phone), and it not timestamping the caller ID info. When you come home and check the caller ID - it lists the names and numbers, but no date or time. So you don't know if they called that day, or that is from when they called you a week ago. Not the end of the world, but still seems like a simple fix.

It works well for ATSC

KWorld UB435-Q USB ATSC TV Stick
KWorld UB435-Q USB ATSC TV Stick

Pros: Works well for my intended use - ATSC tuning.

Cons: None

Perfect media PC

Foxconn NTA350-0H0W-B-A-NA AMD A45 (Hudson D1) Black Mini / Booksize Barebone System
Foxconn NTA350-0H0W-B-A-NA AMD A45 (Hudson D1) Black Mini / Booksize Barebone System

Pros: Small size, whisper quiet, USB 3.0, decent built in GPU

Cons: None

Overall Review: I love this little box - it makes the perfect little media PC to connect to an HDTV as long as you don't plan on gaming on it. Honestly this would make a fine desktop computer for 95% of the population who only surf the web, use office apps and play non-graphics intensive games. The GPU is much better than the Intel ones integrated into the other nettop boxes out there. My only suggestion will go along with what others have mentioned: When you first open it to install your memory and HD, go ahead and remove the heat sink so you can replace the poor heatsink pads of goo with some Arctic Silver 5. I did this and mine barely get warm, even running 24/7

Nice little wifi

Rosewill RNX-MiniN1 (RWLD-110001) Wireless-N 2.0 Dongle (1T1R) IEEE 802.11b/g/n, USB2.0 Up to 150Mbps Data Rates, WEP 64/128, WPA/WPA2, and IEEE 802.1x
Rosewill RNX-MiniN1 (RWLD-110001) Wireless-N 2.0 Dongle (1T1R) IEEE 802.11b/g/n, USB2.0 Up to 150Mbps Data Rates, WEP 64/128, WPA/WPA2, and IEEE 802.1x

Pros: Incredibly small, yet has suprisingly good reception. Stable so far through 3+ weeks of use.

Cons: So small you might lose it if you're not careful.

10/11/2011