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John C.

John C.

Joined on 09/20/01

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Awesome Little Guy

Kingston SSDNow S100 SS100S2/16G 2.5" SATA II Industrial Solid State Disk
Kingston SSDNow S100 SS100S2/16G 2.5" SATA II Industrial Solid State Disk

Pros: Price was great vs the competition. Standard SSD Pros: * Awesome Speed * Silent * Low power consumption * Runs very cool

Cons: None

Overall Review: I'm using this on a gentoo setup running XBMC on my media server. Since installing this drive, XBMC is much faster at doing everything (like updating it's library and accessing media lists). Since my gentoo install is only about 400mb and XBMC is only going to end up taking another gig or so for its library, 16G was more than enough.

Most Critical Review

Awesome Materials, Terrible Design

SilverStone FP55B Aluminum Front Panel 5.25" to 3.5" Drive Bay Bracket
SilverStone FP55B Aluminum Front Panel 5.25" to 3.5" Drive Bay Bracket

Pros: High quality materials were used for the front plate. It's higher quality than a lot of those plastic ones out there.

Cons: Where do I start... This is standard SilverStone... High quality materials but engineered like garbage. * It does not mount the 3.5" device (in this case a card reader) flush with it's front panel. Instead it is recessed leaving gaps. This is NOT the card-reader's fault as I've had it installed FLUSH in other cases prior to this. * Installation is a pain because the designers decided to leave miniscule holes by which to access the actual 3.5" mounting holes. You can't even see what you're doing. * For the expensive price (for just two pieces of metal) this thing should have been tool-less. * I mounted it in my tool-less case and since the mountings are not wide enough as a standard DVD drive, it required that I used screws to secure it. * To mount it, since I had to use screws, I had to take both sides of the case off which meant I had to do a lot more work than otherwise necessary. * If i ever need to remove the card reader, it will be a considerable amount of

Overall Review: Unfortunately my case (T600) did not come with either an adapter or 3.5" bay so I had to buy one of these adapters. IMPORTANT!!!!: Make sure you have a magnetic tipped screwdriver to hold the screw as you attempt to blindly guide it to the hole because there is NO way you're using your hands.

Wow

Corsair Graphite Series 600T Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Corsair Graphite Series 600T Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: I've built around 40 computers in the last 15 years and I have to say, this is by far the nicest case I've ever used. Corsair has thought of everything when designing this beautiful case. * The mesh before the intake fan is small enough to catch most dust but still allows air to flow easily. * The Large fans move a LOT of air at low speeds so they're quiet. * Being able to "click" remove the filters makes cleaning simple! * There is a TON of room behind the motherboard for cable management so the inside of my rig is the cleanest I've seen as EVERY single cable routes through the back. * I can easily mess with my CPU heatsink because of the ample access hole behind the mobo. * It looks clean and elegant, not like those gaudy gamer cases. * I have a Corsair H50 water cooler but my next build will be fully water cooled which this case fully supports, and it's fully INTERNAL! * Tons of space for those huge video cards. * Easiest HD mounting system I've ever used! (Supports 2.5

Cons: It's fracking huge! It's larger than my previous Antec 1200 case which was huge. There's no 3.5" external port or even a 5.25" to 3.5" adapter. What's up with that Corsair?? I had to buy an adapter for my card reader.

Overall Review: The more corsair products I buy the more I like them. My current build: Processor: Q6600 Core2 Quad @ 3.4Ghz (Stock 2.4Ghz) Memory: 4Gig 2x2GSkill Ripjaw DDR2 @ 1100 Mhz Video Card: EVGA 260 Core 219 GTX @ 740 (~30% overclock). Case: Corsair 600T Mobo: DFI Lanparty DK P35 CPU Cooler: Corsair H50 PSU: Corsair HX750 Primary HD: Intel 160G G2 SSD Secondary HD: WD Black 1TB x2 Raid 1 BD Drive: LG All purchased from Newegg! Yay newegg!

Nice Price, Wierd Color

AOC  e2343F  Black & White  23"  5ms  LED BackLight LCD Monitor Slim Design  250 cd/m2 50,000,000:1
AOC e2343F Black & White 23" 5ms LED BackLight LCD Monitor Slim Design 250 cd/m2 50,000,000:1

Pros: Lots of pros: * Cheap! * Low power usage * VERY slim * Love plugging in cables to the base * Touch base is kinda cool

Cons: Biggest Con: Coloration. Coloration is pretty weird. If this is your only monitor you may not be able to notice, but next to my other monitor from a different brand, the colors on the AOC just do not look very vibrant and are actually messed up. The blues tend to stray towards purple and the reds look washed out. For example, the default background for Windows 7 looks very purple when there should be no purple what so ever. Do not use any of the "color" boost features as they will create a terrible quality image and you will no longer be able to easily read text.

Overall Review: The issue that caused this monitor to ALMOST lose an egg is the color inadequacies. If you do not pair this monitor up against a higher quality one, or just do not care, then it is a very decent monitor for the price. NOTE: Read the directions ON THE BASE before trying to straighten the base. I can see someone damaging the monitor if not paying attention to those directions. Also, another commenter mentioned that the base is weak and the monitor wobbles. Well it seems to be about as strong as most non-adjustable monitor stands.

Well, it works!

XIGMATEK PTR-CN881 HDT Northbridge Aluminum alloy Heatsinks only
XIGMATEK PTR-CN881 HDT Northbridge Aluminum alloy Heatsinks only

Pros: My system is pushed to it's limits and that goes for the northbridge as well. My temps would run over 65C (that's when I would shutdown my system) until I got this puppy... now I top off at 42C running prime95 high-heat tests.

Cons: What a pain to install! It is designed generically to fit so many different types of chipsets that the included parts didn't fit so well on my P35. At first I tried to use the springs as the directions instructed but the heatsink wouldn't touch the chip with the included foam rubber spacer so I abandoned the spacer. The heatsink was tilting slightly off of the chipset making the temps worse with the Xigmatek. So I went back in and re-added the spacer and removed the springs. I tightened the bolts until I was positive the heatsink was touching the chip. I've been installing crazy cooling systems for years and this took me around 2 hours (mostly with the mobo out of the case and on my desk).

Overall Review: I have a Q6600 (2.4Ghz stock) running at 3.4Ghz with a FSB (stock 266 Mhz) running at 425 and my 260GTX running @ 700Mhz. I've overvolted my system to get it extreemly stable which should be causing a meltdown of some sort if it weren't for cooling products like this chipset cooler and my cpu water cooling (H50).

12/16/2010

Great for my CRAZY overlock

CORSAIR Hydro Series H50 120mm Quiet Edition Liquid CPU Cooler - Intel Only (CW-9060006-WW)
CORSAIR Hydro Series H50 120mm Quiet Edition Liquid CPU Cooler - Intel Only (CW-9060006-WW)

Pros: Amazing cooling. I have it setup with one fan pulling air and the one that came with it pushing. All of the heat directly exits my case. You can feel the hot air from that exhaust fan while the others produce cool air.

Cons: None so far. We will have to wait and see what the reliability is like. It takes some time for the temp to drop back down to idle temp... but no biggie as long as the top in the range is low.

Overall Review: I have my Q6600 (Core 2 Quad) overclocked from 2.4Ghz to 3.4Ghz (42% overclock). This is the performance difference of two coolers: Zalman 9500: Idle: 37-43c, Load: >90c (Computer would shutodwn) I couldn't go over 3.0Ghz with this cooler. Corsair H50: Idle: 26-28c, Load: 60-62c I use prime95 with high-heat setting to test heat production.

11/13/2010