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Advanced S.

Advanced S.

Joined on 09/25/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 37
Most Favorable Review

Powerful, quiet, Simple

Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC Pump Liquid Cooling System
Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC Pump Liquid Cooling System

Pros: This is super quiet, and very powerful. I had a previous Rio 120gph pump that served me well over the years, but simply could not handle the new tripple 120mm radiator and extra tubing, the flow rate was only about 1200 RPM according to the koolance flow meter adapter. After replacing that pump with this, and going from 1/4" tubing to 1/2" tubing I now get approx 4000 rpm at max speed, however I found that about setting 4 which gives me about 3200 RPM works just as well.

Cons: Its quite large, bigger than the picture makes it, plus the 1/2" tubing coming out of the top and side of it makes it seem even larger. I had to mount it on the outside back of my case as there was no room inside with all the tubing.

Overall Review: Swiftech Water Block, Swiftech Tripple 120mm Radiator, Swiftech MCP655 Pump, Koolance Flow Meter & Motherboard fan adapter along with Home Depot 1/2" tubing/Metal Hose Clamps and teflon tape/silicone glue to prevent leaks made a great combination for a relatively cheap price. Oh yah, and a gallon container of Walmart 50/50 pre-mixed green radiator fluid looks really cool and works well.

Most Critical Review

just and ok monitor

LG E2441V-BN  Black 24" 5ms Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 5,000,000:1
LG E2441V-BN Black 24" 5ms Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 5,000,000:1

Pros: No dead pixels and very lightweight and a decent price (180) for a 24 inch monitor. Super fast shipping.

Cons: A good bit of blacklight bleed. In comparison to my plasma or high end IPS LCD displays the blacks are not pure black. Not many options to adjust color, I find skintones while watching movies to be inaccurate.

Overall Review: It's not a bad monitor, but it's not great either. I think I'll sell it and spend the extra bucks and get the HP ZR24w instead.

Works great... with a bios update

Intel S1200BTL ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1155 Intel C204 DDR3 1066/1333 DIMM
Intel S1200BTL ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1155 Intel C204 DDR3 1066/1333 DIMM

Pros: Intel boards with intel processors seem to last forever with rock solid stability. This is the 3rd s1200BTL we have used in a server system and in 10 years of building systems we have only had 1 intel board fail for no reason.

Cons: lackluster documentation and support from intel on this particular board. A bios update before OS install is basically mandatory for this board. If you try to install server 2011 w/o the bios update it will fail.

Overall Review: To address other users issues This board DOES work fine with server 2011, it just needs a bios update which allows you to disable the 2nd onboard NIC. It is almost mandatory because during the bios update you can select whether or not you are using the proprietary Intel case or a 3rd party case. When you select 3rd party it then asks what fan speed settings you would like. To do a bios update is simple, download the file ( S1200BTS Firmware Update Package for EFI ) from Intel, extract it to a usb thumb drive and upon boot the bios will auto-detect it and boot from it, just simply follow the prompts from there. Using this with a Xeon E3-1230 and 16GB Kingston ram (Item #: N82E16820239134).

works great, no setup required

TRENDnet TPL-303E2K Powerline AV Adapter Kit Up to 200Mbps
TRENDnet TPL-303E2K Powerline AV Adapter Kit Up to 200Mbps

Pros: First time using powerline technology like this. Didn't insert the CD, didn't have to read the manual. Just plugged 1 powerline adapter into the router and plugged a computer into the other adapter and plugged them both into an electrical outlet and they immediately worked.

Cons: This is a very minor issue but I wish they had a power plug pass through so it didn't waste a power outlet on the wall. It says not to plug it into a surge protector, it must be plugged directly into the wall outlet and with so many electronics nowadays it's hard to find a free outlet sometimes.

Overall Review: If you need a good solid connection where you can't run ethernet wires and wireless is sketchy this is so simple and easy. Will definitely be ordering more of these. The manual says you can use up to 16 of these at a time, so every room in your office/house could be wired for a lot less than it costs for Cat5 cable drops.

slightly slower than dirt

Western Digital WD Green WD10EARX 1TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital WD Green WD10EARX 1TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: it works

Cons: After building several SOHO Corei7 servers with standard 7200 rpm drives from WD/Seagate the boss ordered these by accident. As soon as we booted Windows we noticed a difference in speed from the other systems, the HD Tune benchmarks go from ~100MB/sec to ~20MB/sec sporadically throughout the test and everything we run on them just seems sluggish.

Overall Review: As a side note, these drives do state they adjust from 5400 to 7200 rpm automatically, but they are clearly slower in benchmarks and everyday use in comparison to 7200 RPM drives. Order 7200 rpm drives and go plant a tree instead if you want to save the environment.

Great case, good price.

Cooler Master HAF 912 - Mid Tower Computer Case with High Airflow, Supporting up to Six 120mm Fans and USB 3.0
Cooler Master HAF 912 - Mid Tower Computer Case with High Airflow, Supporting up to Six 120mm Fans and USB 3.0

Pros: This case feels really solid, has great cable management abilities and tons of airflow, lots of room inside and lots of configuration options as the hd trays are removable. After building systems with $200 LianLi cases and cheap $39 cases I'd put this closer to LianLi in terms of overall thought and quality put into it.

Cons: No filters on the front covers, so dust will easily get in.

Overall Review: Only comes with 2 fans, 1 for the front HD's and 1 for the back vent. There is a large opening in the top for another huge 200mm fan that looks aesthetically displeasing without a fan in it and will allow lots of dust to settle in the PC. Make sure to grab a large 200mm fan to put in the top vent.