Joined on 01/16/12
Father's Day Gift
Pros: It is what it is. If you are looking for a low end graphics card it's hard to go wrong in terms of price. I bought it as a Father's Day gift after my Father's card kicked the bucket and needed to be replaced. Low power drain means it can be put into almost any computer with a free PCI-E slot and run fine. Mostly used for older FPS (Halo:CE, CoD: MW 1) and runs like a dream, never had an issue with the card. Even runs fine at 1024x768 with a dual monitor setup. The fact that it had VGA, DVI, and HDMI connectors is great meaning it will be able to easily connect to pretty much any monitor out there.
Cons: Would look better with a black PCB? Obviously could be more powerful but you get what you pay for. If you buy this thinking your going to take over the graphics world you'll only be fooling yourself.
Overall Review: Hard to go wrong with it unless you've massively underestimated the amount of graphical power you need.
Great, exactly what I hoped for.
Pros: This was exactly what I was hoping for. I grabbed these for my Dell Studio 1747 Laptop and they have worked out great. I had been running at 4GB (2x 2GB) previously so I effectively doubled the amount of RAM I could use. Was a great help running some virtual machines for a couple college courses. The price was great (I think they were $50 when I bought) and they haven't skipped a beat since I got them installed.
Cons: Nothing, everything was exactly as I was hoping for.
Overall Review: Great for a Studio 1747 (Can only go up to 8gigs on this model anyways). Very easy to install yourself so don't worry too much if you are considering the purchase for a 1747.
Good quality, pain to setup.
Pros: Fairly small device, could easily sit in a nook or on top of another device. The software that comes bundled to help you record is fairly simple and allows for simple capture of whatever it is you will require it to capture (gaming/TV/DVD/etc.). The quality of the video captured is certainly high when using the component cables and I have never noticed any desync between audio in video in any recording I have done.
Cons: Can be a royal pain to get running if your computer isn't cooperating and will be hard to track down the actual issue in most cases. It likes to overheat which will unfortunately negate it's size pro since the only solution I've found for this so far is to stand it on its side and point a fan at it to keep it from locking up the recording software when it eventually gives up. Which, thankfully, does effect the audio/video to the TV so you can game uninterrupted even if the recording side of things fails. Although the software is simple to use it doesn't have many options. You're going to have to use separate software to do any major video editing but thankfully there are many open source answers to this issue.
Overall Review: It took 3 months from the time I got it until I final got the PVR working in a stable condition which was a huge pain. Although to their credit customer support stuck with me through it and tried their best to help solve my issues. In the end it took an OS reinstall to get the software to even recognize the PVR was there (I should note the reinstall occurred due to a separate issue, not due to the PVR in any way). Having said that though and even it being that annoying to start up I can very happy with the quality of the video I am getting and would suggest this device if you are looking for a good way to record gameplay off any console. Definitely worth the price of admission, just be prepared for potential issues and long nights on google looking for potential answers.