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George D.

George D.

Joined on 03/26/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Excellent

TOPOWER ZU-850W 850 W ATX12V v2.2/ EPS12V v2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply
TOPOWER ZU-850W 850 W ATX12V v2.2/ EPS12V v2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: High specs, 4x20amps 12v rails should be good enough for any rig. All rails output tested stable at high load. Large number of connectors.

Cons: Fan is loud in Turbo mode.

Overall Review: None, I brought this against the geek community's suggestions. They say e-power is the worst brand, and recommended models from what they considered "good" brands, which cost around $200 for a 500 watt model with around 40amps total on 12v rails. Glad I didn't listen to the 1337 ppl.

Most Critical Review

Average

KeyTronic NAV-5-U5 Black/Silver 104 Normal Keys 13 Function Keys USB Standard Keyboard
KeyTronic NAV-5-U5 Black/Silver 104 Normal Keys 13 Function Keys USB Standard Keyboard

Pros: Standard key layout. All keys functional as intended.

Cons: Keys are a little mushy, don't feel as crisp when hit.

Overall Review: Included drivers for multimedia keys do not work with Vista. Not a con, since you can download Vista drivers on manufacturer's website. Keys are relatively flat, but not as flat as notebook keys.

9800gx2

PNY XLR8 GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB (512MB per GPU) GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Video Card VCG98GX2XPB
PNY XLR8 GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB (512MB per GPU) GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Video Card VCG98GX2XPB

Pros: Fast, outperforms $400 gtx280 in most games for half the price. Internal sli does not require sli capable motherboard.

Cons: Runs hot. Exhausts a portion of hot air into case through vents on side of card in addition to outside the case through back of card. High power consumption. Package does not contain 6pin/8pin pcie power adapters.

Overall Review: Newegg shipped me the factory overclocked version, at 675mhz core/2100mhz vram, compared to standard 600mhz core/2000mhz vram. Not sure if it's an error in the product description, and every card is factory overclocked, or Newegg made a one time mistake. It's a good thing though.

12/25/2008

Defective, only half capacity

EVGA GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB (512MB per GPU) GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Video Card 01G-P3-N891-RX
EVGA GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB (512MB per GPU) GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Video Card 01G-P3-N891-RX

Pros: Outperforms a $420 gtx280 for half the price, if it works.

Cons: First card is defective. Only one processor is recognized. Borrowed a friend's 9800gx2 for troubleshooting, and Device Manager recognized 2 instances on the working card, but only one for mine. Had to rma for another one. You have to pay shipping for rma yourself. It has to be shipped back to Newegg's return center in California instead of nearest warehouse in your own state. UPS Ground took a week. Replacement still isn't shipped out yet. Very annoying.

Overall Review: Buying recertified comes with risk. I was unlucky. Most people get working cards. Hopefully, better luck with replacement.

11/14/2008

High specs

LG 19" SXGA LCD Monitor 2ms(GTG) 1280 x 1024 D-Sub, DVI-D L1933TR-SF
LG 19" SXGA LCD Monitor 2ms(GTG) 1280 x 1024 D-Sub, DVI-D L1933TR-SF

Pros: High specs - 3000:1 contrast ratio, 2ms response time. Ideal for gamers. No dead pixle or any other defects. Satisfied so far.

Cons: Low tilt range, base seems a little unsteady.

Excellent

MASSCOOL SYTRIN Kuformula SHF1 Ultra HDD Cooler – BK
MASSCOOL SYTRIN Kuformula SHF1 Ultra HDD Cooler – BK

Pros: Quite fans, drawing cool air from outside into case. Blue led. 15 degrees C drop in hdd temperature (1TB 7200rpm), which is far higher than most other hdd coolers.

Cons: The 2 small fans do not move a lot of air, although they seem good enough to cool hdd significantly.

Overall Review: The heatsink and rack can be customized with additional fans(40/80/120), according to the manual. I haven't tried it though. The additional fans have to be brought separately.