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Mike B.

Mike B.

Joined on 01/31/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 3
Most Favorable Review

Overall, great product

Cooler Master COSMOS 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Black/ Silver Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Cooler Master COSMOS 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Black/ Silver Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: Extremely large case. When I read the specs, I thought i imagined a big case. When it came however I saw I was mistaken. Much bigger than I originally anticipated. Has very sturdy handles and feet to aid in moving. Though it is heavy, it is very easy to carry around. I just wouldnt recommend moving it up and down stairs several times a day. Might throw out your back. Lots of room for fans. If you get creative you can fit in several fans in different spaces that dont have screw holes. I have installed a fan in front of the hard drives and have the second directional fan case that came with it blowing into the HDD compartement. Helps circulate the air and has a 2nd fan blowing onto the graphics card. I have also installed another fan in the 5.25 inch drive bay areas easily. Lots of screws and a very fancy little screw case came with it. Mine came with several (about 9) cable routing tie downs, as well as a large amount of regular tie downs. Came with a 2nd directional fan mount as we

Cons: Some people were complaining that the 3.25 drive converter is difficult to remove but you just need the right tools. A cheap small screwdriver from the "evil empire (walmart)" was sufficient. One con i have noticed is that in my particular case, a high RPM or aftermarket fan in the bottom intake on full causes an annoying vibration in the case which I have only been able to eliminate by some creative vibration reduction on the case parts that connect. A couple layers of electrical tape (in areas that are never seen) solved this problem. Annoying none the less.

Overall Review: Overall a very excellent case. With 7 fans installed the case is very quiet. In an older antec case i had with these same fans installed the system was quite loud. The noise reduction worked quite effectively. Some people that complained about the hard drives getting to hot, but mine are hovering around a steady 32 degrees Celsius, several degrees cooler than my previous case. I have 4 HDDS installed with no problem. Other complaints were sharp parts, etc. I had no problem with this though. Some of the screws were loose in this case, had to go through and tighten up quite a bit, but thats just a minor little detail. You will want to replace the stock fans with a couple of higher flow ones to make the case more effective.

Most Critical Review

Deceptive router

Tenda W1800R Wireless AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit Router IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n
Tenda W1800R Wireless AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit Router IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n

Pros: Low price point (purchased for 80) when on sale. Dual band You can install Tomato on it. USB Ports

Cons: I have google fiber in my home and purchased this router hoping it would be able to keep up. My requirements were gigabit lan and wan ports and wireless AC. This fit all those requirements, but this router performs very poorly. The built in firmware is HORRIBLE so make sure you upgrade do decide to do it. You have to use the Asus 66r firmware package in order to do it. I hooked everything up completely stock and configured it and did a wired network and wireless network test on all my computers......horrible performance. Direct to my fiber modem I receive 950mbps up and 950mbps down on my computers with solid state drives and 500ish with hard drives. Going through this router I receive 150 down and 200 up.....not the performance that I expected. Wireless connected to either band results in 100mbps down and 80 up. I have not had a chance to hook up another router with gigabit wan due to cost but as soon as I do I will compare the wired speeds with another brand and update.

Overall Review: Overall this router will be fine for the user who doesnt mind flashing the firmware and who has internet speeds under 100mbps, but if you are in an area that offers fiber speeds or otherwise higher than 100 I would recommend looking at a different brand to avoid a bottleneck in your network. I ended up using this as a wireless AP and using my modem for everything else since it does a sufficient job and has the features I need right now. The modem only has wireless n300 so this is a better option as far as that goes.

Patriot Xporter XT Boost 8GB Flash Drive (USB 2.0 Portable) Model PEF8GUSB
Patriot Xporter XT Boost 8GB Flash Drive (USB 2.0 Portable) Model PEF8GUSB

Pros: Very tough. Fast transfer rates. Water resistant. Loads up drivers quickly when plugged in. I am a computer tech and use this USB drive to transfer lots of files, drivers, etc... between the bench and client computers. The drivers load up very quickly compared to other drives i have used in the past. Very sturdy as well. It fell off of my keychain which resulted in it being run over several times. I picked it up, plugged it in and it still worked perfectly fine. It was raining and nothing happened to it from sitting in standing water for about 50 minutes. 4 months later...still working great.

Cons: Very bulky. Is difficult to fit into USB port side by side with another device. Hardly a con though when a device is this tough.

Overall Review: Patriot does include a USB extension cord to compensate for its bulkiness, which allows it to fit into tighter areas and together with other devices. Overall, a great buy.