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Eric W.

Eric W.

Joined on 12/08/11

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Great deal!

Vizio 26" 1080p Razor LED-LCD HDTV  -E260MV
Vizio 26" 1080p Razor LED-LCD HDTV -E260MV

Pros: The overall condition was great. If it wasn't advertised as refurbished, I would have thought it was new. The design is good. It has none of those annoying, cheap-looking, gray plastic additions around the screen that many other TVs in this price range do. The picture is excellent. Colors are vibrant. Shapes are vivid and crisp. Motion is smooth. The viewing angle is great, much wider than I need it to be. All the different connection options in the back are a definite plus. Though that's the case with many TVs, I never find ones this cheap with all the connections I want. This has all the ones I want, and they are all right where I need them. The touch-sensitive buttons are quite responsive. Whereas many touch sensitive electronics might be a little stubborn in this area, this TV does fine, at least for me. Last, but definitely not least, the price is excellent. Unless you get a dud, you will be definitely be getting more than your money's worth.

Cons: As many other reviews mention, the sound is loud but rather tinny and hollow. If the TV were priced a lot higher, I would have dropped an egg off my rating because of the poor sound quality. However, at this price range, the speakers are there only because a TV without any sound capability just doesn't market well, even if it's really meant to be part of a larger theater system. So, unless you have a very high tolerance to low sound quality, I suggest you set this up with some speakers. Even a cheap (but decent) set of powered PC speakers plugged into the headphone jack will sound a great deal better. I plugged in a $30 pair I happened to have, and I am more than happy with the setup. (Newegg has plenty to offer of course so feel free to bundle.) The remote could be better designed. Some of the buttons are awkwardly placed, but it still easily does everything I need it to. The buttons also seem a little stiff, but that's true of many new remotes. They should soften up over time

Overall Review: I'm currently using this TV as both another PC monitor and for console gaming. It's great for both. I used regular UPS 3-day shipping and placed my order around midnight. It arrived in about 36 hours. That just made my day.

Most Critical Review

Failed after 1 year.

APEVIA ATX-CB700W 700 W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
APEVIA ATX-CB700W 700 W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply

Pros: - Inexpensive, especially for the given wattage. - Plenty of connections. - Blue LED looks good and matches the lighting in my case. - Quiet.

Cons: - Seems more prone to failure than most PSUs.

Overall Review: I purchased this PSU on July 4th of 2012, and it actually worked reliably for 13 months. In the last week however, its ability to supply power became sporadic until it lost that ability entirely. If you are still considering purchasing this PSU, I vehemently urge you to pay the extra money for something more reliable. You'll save a decent bit of money on power if you grab a unit that is more efficient. Avoiding damage to the more expensive components of your PC and saving time and money by not having to replace a dead unit down the road also can't be overlooked. I'm currently running my PC off a Corsair TX650W (made by Seasonic) that I grabbed from my home theater PC. That model has been working over 5 years now and, interestingly enough, actually supplies more wattage over the +12V rails (much more important than the other voltages) than this 700W does. If my browsing doesn't turn up a better fit, I figure I'll make the purchase I should have made a year ago and get another one of those. Minus 4 eggs for failing. Plus 1 egg for being inexpensive and supplying good power for a year without misbehaving.

Great fans but can be noisy.

Rosewill RFA-120-BL - 120mm Computer Case Cooling Fan with LP4 Adapter - Blue Frame & 4 Blue LED Lights, Sleeve Bearing, Silent Case Fan
Rosewill RFA-120-BL - 120mm Computer Case Cooling Fan with LP4 Adapter - Blue Frame & 4 Blue LED Lights, Sleeve Bearing, Silent Case Fan

Pros: Blue LEDs look nice. They definitely move a lot of air. Good price.

Cons: When run at full power, these things can be rather loud. Then again, I have 5 in a somewhat tinny case. I ended up disconnecting 2 of the fans and setting the remainder to the lowest possible speed. Fortunately, that still seems to put a lot of air through and the noise is about a tenth of what it was before.

Overall Review: These are great fans for the price, but if you're really adamant about having silent fans, you should probably avoid these.

Good product but don't abuse it.

SYBA CL-CAB31007 30 ft. Black HDMI Cable Male to Male
SYBA CL-CAB31007 30 ft. Black HDMI Cable Male to Male

Pros: Very long. Thick sturdy cable. Great for the price.

Cons: Beware signal degradation/interference. When running 1080p video at 60 Hz through the cable, the signal occasionally cut out. The problem was nonexistent when set to 1080i (fine for my purposes) or 720p. I haven't tried it, but lowering the Hz would probably also help. Beware the somewhat long connectors. My TV is mounted on 2 rails. When plugged in to the back of the TV, this HDMI cable sticks out past them (unlike the other 2 HDMI cables back there). We didn't realize this when we were putting the TV back up and the connector got wedged in between the TV and a rail. This ended up exposing the pins and bending them all pretty badly. Using the end of a ballpoint pen (retracted), a needle, and the holes within the connector sheath, I straightened all the pins out and within about 20 minutes had it working again.

Overall Review: Overall this is a very good cable. If you're looking for decent quality at a very low price, you've found it. Just don't abuse it like I did.

Despite a small setback, these are great speakers!

Logitech S-220 17 Watts 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System
Logitech S-220 17 Watts 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System

Pros: When it works like it's supposed to (see Other thoughts), this is an excellent set of speakers. They sound great. Though you can tell they aren't perfect, they are pretty high up there in quality, especially considering the price. The bass is also definitely up to par. The sleek black design look great. The volume pod with the power switch and mic and headphone jacks is definitely a nice touch. The cables are definitely long enough, unless your setup is really atypical. The price is excellent. You may have to triple what you spend on this to buy something superior, and even then, it's not likely to be superior by much.

Cons: Cheaply manufactured (see Other thoughts). Though you are most likely going to get a fully-functional, undamaged product (as attested by the numerous positive reviews), don't bet your life on it. Our subwoofer wouldn't make any sounds at all. It turns out the potentiometer used for the bass level was broken during assembly. Luckily, we found an easy workaround. For this reason, I can't give this product the 5 eggs it would otherwise deserve. However, since our problem was easily fixed, since the speakers still sounded good without the subwoofer, and since I gather this type of problem is rare, I'm gladly giving it 4. However, I suspect that if I had no technical knowledge, I would have rated it lower out of frustration...

Overall Review: When we first plugged everything in, there was no bass. After removing the panel and attached circuit board from the back of the subwoofer, we found that the potentiometer used to adjust bass volume had broken. It appears to have happened during assembly when someone pulled too strongly on the panel while the circuit board was stuck on something. I used a short wire (no solder) to bypass the broken potentiometer and since the TV we have it plugged into has an equalizer, it wasn't a problem to lose the volume dial for bass. I suppose we could have bought a replacement potentiometer for a few dollars, but there wasn't a real reason to. By bypassing the potentiometer, I feel we may actually have higher bass quality than if we'd had a working one. Products this cheap aren't really worth sending back if something doesn't work right. Instead, consider having a technically-minded friend have a look at it. In many cases, the fix is as simple as soldering down a wire that popped off.

Best Motion Controller on a Console

SONY PS3 Move Motion Controller
SONY PS3 Move Motion Controller

Pros: Overall, very sleek, great looking design. Very responsive and provides excellent 1-to-1 motion control. Great button placement. Great battery life. Sturdy structure. Neither too heavy nor too light. Comfortable wrist strap. The orb on the end is hollow, soft silicone. You are unlikely to hurt it or anything you hit with it. Initial setup is easy. Calibration is easy for the few games that require it. You generally just hold the controller where it tells you, press a button or keep it still a few seconds, and possibly repeat a couple times. It works in bright daylight to pitch black darkness just fine. Also, despite what some people might tell you, you can navigate the PS3 menus with the controller. Just hold the trigger and move the controller up, down, left, or right. It's not as precise as using the buttons on the regular controller, but it's definitely responsive enough. Great to know if your regular controllers are far away or out of charge.

Cons: The orb defaults to pink for player 1 and there is no way (at least conveniently) to manually change this outside of the very few games that support that function. This is really just a minor nitpick and probably would only matter to people with young children who might fight over who gets that color.

Overall Review: While the PS Move game selection might be a little lacking, it is growing all the time. Just having one good Move game (Sports Champions for example), makes having the controllers worth it. This will only really mean anything to you if you haven't picked out one of the big consoles yet: In my opinion, this is the best motion controller available on any console. It combines the best features of the other systems. The camera reads three-dimensional position accurately and allows the system to track your hand(s) with the orbs. By focusing on the orb(s) instead of trying to read the whole body (which can vary a lot from person to person), the system can avoid a lot of processing and reduces motion lag, a noticeable problem with the Xbox Kinect. The controller provides accurate mechanical measurements of acceleration, angle, rotation, etc. on par with if not surpassing that of the Wii Motion Plus and gives you buttons that provide options movement alone cannot.