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Kevin A.

Kevin A.

Joined on 11/08/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 4
Most Favorable Review

Another Vantec enclosure I love

VANTEC NST-370A31-BK Aluminum / Plastic 3.5" Black Standard SATA USB Type-B 3.5” SATA 6 Gb/s to USB 3.1 Gen II Type-A HDD Enclosure
VANTEC NST-370A31-BK Aluminum / Plastic 3.5" Black Standard SATA USB Type-B 3.5” SATA 6 Gb/s to USB 3.1 Gen II Type-A HDD Enclosure

Pros: Fast 3.0 speed (which is all I have). Easy assembly. A long power wire (6 feet). 3+ foot USB cable No overheating on long transfers to my WD Black drive. Note, though, that the transfers take much less time than they used to. I like the rectangular shape. Possibly-dampening pressure pads hold the stand on securely (The vertical stands on my older Vantecs fall off easily.)

Cons: Minor: my WD Black FZEX 1TB 3.5" drive does vibrate through to my wooden desk so I have to put something under it. A third pad in the stand may have prevented that.

Overall Review: The USB cable is marked "USB 3". The blinking blue LED was bothersome when I ran it overnight. The tray can be installed either way. I have the LED at the top which puts the power socket near the bottom. The LED's so close to the top that it's easy to hang something over the edge to block it. I came to Newegg to buy my second one (because the local computer store ran out).

12/11/2015
Most Critical Review

Recessed motherboard tray blocks Z97-Pro SATA ports

Cooler Master N400 ATX Tower with Front Mesh Ventilation, Minimal Design, 240mm Close-Loop AIO Support
Cooler Master N400 ATX Tower with Front Mesh Ventilation, Minimal Design, 240mm Close-Loop AIO Support

Pros: Price, 2 very quiet fans with long cables and detachable MOLEX pass-through adapters, flat top (with hole grid, no fan) for putting your stuff on, lots of screws, includes cool little Phillips slot cylinder that slips over the hex brass m/b spacer mounts (forgetting the proper name) for driving them in.

Cons: UNUSABLE with an ASUS Z97-Pro motherboard! "HORRIBLE", as others have said. UNFORTUNATE for CoolerMaster. The recessed area for the motherboard is barely bigger than the mother board and blocks the lower row of SATA ports. This includes 1 of the 2 ports in the black block (vs. gray) that aren't SATAexpress. UNAVOIDABLE, UNFIXABLE without sawing up the plate. Instructions show the wrong illustrations and count for some screws and parts. e.g. Hex head screws for mother board are shown as round head.

Overall Review: Bought locally at a computer super store. (Friend needed easy returns, et al.) A motherboard speaker is included in the accessory bag. Except for having to return it, I was very happy with this case. ASUS Z97-Pro (WiFi ac) Does Newegg have incompatible part checking? Intel Core i5-4690K 8GB Crucial Ballistix Memory (1600 no OC) Crucial X500 PS WD Black 1TB WD1003FZEX

Beautiful 1080-only for $139 but mishmash at heart

UpStar 23.6" 1080p 60Hz LED-LCD HDTV - P24EWT
UpStar 23.6" 1080p 60Hz LED-LCD HDTV - P24EWT

Pros: Inexpensive, brings in many over-the-air channels with simple HD antenna, deep colors, great side to side viewing angles. At a comfortable distance (and warm color setting on mine), a 1080i channel is beautiful with sufficiently saturated colors and good contrast. I moved Sharpness all the way up. The speakers emit downward which is much better than backward when you have neighbors. While raising bass has little effect on the built-ins, medium-low bands on the equalizer do.

Cons: The 1080i over-the-air picture is not digitally rendered pixel by pixel. I started out with digital down-scaling projectors and HD CRTs and moved through various resolutions to full HD LCDs. This TV seems to be an assembly of old now inexpensive parts sewn together. The digital tuner output is clearly processed by mixing pixels, I guess in the chip that does the comb filtering. 480p channels, as they often are, are converted to 1080 instead of 960, which leaves them a colorful blur. Basically, it does not show 1080i programs the way they show up on a full-digital LCD television

Overall Review: No free lunch. To get multiple inputs AND a real digital 1080 TV image, it seems we have to pay a considerably higher price. I can't test the HDMI input yet but I'm convinced it goes through the same path. As a 1080 monitor through VGA, it has the usual Auto feature through the menu that sharpens well, better than the 1080 HD TV, but the look is a little soft for reading, but very good for any on-line 1080 movies. Again, the 1080 is not pure through any input. I'm usually a purist and I'm keeping this as a portable small-footprint do-it-all while I'm looking for a more permanent place to live. Don't want to watch the old movies on 480p channels though.

12/24/2013

Combo great but dirt prone

Kingston 2GB MicroSD Flash Card + Reader Model FCR-MRR+SDC/2GB
Kingston 2GB MicroSD Flash Card + Reader Model FCR-MRR+SDC/2GB

Pros: - Worked perfectly without formatting in my LG VX8300 V03 phone. Popped card into phone, then into computer. Copied MP3 files, back into phone, loaded titles into library, pressed play and MUSIC! - The same when phone formatted (all 2GB) - USB works perfectly (Windows XP SP2) where none of my old SD card readers (including Mitsumi multi-drive FA404M) would (according to the web). This will work on any computer I come across. - Little cord attached to reader threads through case and has tiny key ring at the end to keep the two connected.

Cons: - USB reader is so small it will drop into places where it will pick up dirt. You can't just add a standard cap to the USB end. - It's true; card is very very difficult to remove from reader.

Overall Review: Even though I had read all the reviews, the small size still surprised me. Took an extra day for NewEgg to send it but then it arrived in less than 24 hours (Boston area).