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Aaron B.

Aaron B.

Joined on 08/26/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

Great Image Quality

Belkin F3H981-06 6 ft. Pro Series High Integrity VGA Monitor Extension Cable
Belkin F3H981-06 6 ft. Pro Series High Integrity VGA Monitor Extension Cable

Pros: Allows the monitor and processor box to sit farther apart. No noticeable image quality degradation.

Cons: Nothing comes to mind...

Overall Review: I tried a longer and thinner VGA cable extender and got terrible image quality. This proved to be a great solution and looks great running at 1200 x 1600.

Most Critical Review

Great, until....

SAMSUNG 20.1" a-si TFT/TN LCD UXGA LCD Monitor 5 ms 1600 x 1200 D-Sub, DVI-D 204B-BK
SAMSUNG 20.1" a-si TFT/TN LCD UXGA LCD Monitor 5 ms 1600 x 1200 D-Sub, DVI-D 204B-BK

Pros: SAMSUNG! Auto adjust button, good company. Nice and large with good resolution. Looks nice with decent contrast ratio and fast response.

Cons: Lost a total horizontal row of pixels within 60 days. ALWAYS kept on a UPS, so power should not have been at fault. Too long after purchase to RMA, so now we'll see how well SAMSUNG customer service works.

Overall Review: I assume that I'm one of the unusual unlucky ones. It performed great until now, so they get a three rather than the 5 I had been planning.

Perfect with Ubuntu

Corsair Nova 2.5" 32GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-V32GB2-BRKT
Corsair Nova 2.5" 32GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-V32GB2-BRKT

Pros: No noise. No noise. No noise. My system boots up with Ubuntu 10.10 in under 20 seconds, shuts down in 3 seconds. So far the performance seems very good. I'm running it as my primary (and only) drive for my system. Have performed some tweaks to preserve the life of the drive (noatime, etc.) so I'll see how long it lasts. Most of my stuff is cloud-based, so I'm not exactly terrified of a failure.

Cons: Nothing to report so far.

Overall Review: Paired this with an Atom motherboard in a very small case. No need for any moving parts! No fans anywhere (removed the fan that came with the case). Love it! - Corsair Nova CSSD-V32GB2-BRKT 2.5" 32GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Intel BOXD525MW Intel Atom D525@ 1.8GHz (Dual Core) BGA559 Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo - Antec ISK 300-65 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case - 4 gigs of Crucial RAM

Low Power, No Noise, Great Board

Intel BOXD525MW Intel Atom D525@ 1.8GHz (Dual Core) BGA559 Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo
Intel BOXD525MW Intel Atom D525@ 1.8GHz (Dual Core) BGA559 Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo

Pros: I have gotten away from running big, heavy programs, but I still had a couple of large, power-hungry computers in relatively big cases just hanging around. I knew that my netbook (running a single-core Atom) was able to handle most everything that I needed to do, so I decided to build a desktop version with this dual-core Atom. So far, it has been perfect! If you want a silent, low-power (15 watts at idle) system that is capable of handling all basic day-to-day computing tasks (browser, word processor, spreadsheet, etc.), then you should definitely look into this board.

Cons: No noisy fans to drown out the voices in my head.

Overall Review: Here are the basics of my system: -Corsair Nova CSSD-V32GB2-BRKT 2.5" 32GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) -Intel BOXD525MW Intel Atom D525@ 1.8GHz (Dual Core) BGA559 Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo -Antec ISK 300-65 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case -4 gigs of Crucial 204-pin SODIMM DDR3 PC3-10600 I pulled the fan out of the case (including its mounting cage) and with the computer placed vertically, I have no issues with heat. It's still kinda weird to press the power button and have no sound come from the computer. I highly recommend it!

Perfect!

Antec ISK 300-65 Black Steel Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case 65W Power Supply
Antec ISK 300-65 Black Steel Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case 65W Power Supply

Pros: I'm always looking for ways to save some space. This tiny little case totally fit the bill. I coupled it with an Intel BOXD525MW Intel Atom D525@ 1.8GHz (Dual Core) BGA559 Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo and a Corsair Nova CSSD-V32GB2-BRKT 2.5" 32GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) to create a noiseless system that only pulls about 15 watts at idle. I totally removed the fan (and its associated mounting cage) built into the case as it is really not needed if you keep the case vertical given the low heat generation of the Atom D525. (You might not get away with that if you use it horizontally.) Everything was very nicely labeled and the build was pretty simple. Love the external power supply with no fan!

Cons: Yes, the plastic on the front does seem a little flimsy.

Overall Review: Smaller than my UPS! I might have to build a couple more!

Works with Wireless KB & mouse

LINKSYS KVM2KIT Integrated KVM Switch
LINKSYS KVM2KIT Integrated KVM Switch

Pros: I wanted a KVM that would work with my Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse combo. This one does.

Cons: Loss of scroll lock key (used to switch screens)? Who uses that anyhow?

Overall Review: It can get confused during boot (particularly of my Linux box) and refuse to switch. No big deal. Booting doesn't take long and then it works fine.