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Stuart A.

Stuart A.

Joined on 01/02/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 8
Most Favorable Review

good performance to heat / noise trade off

EVGA 02G-P4-3753-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 750 Ti Superclocked 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card
EVGA 02G-P4-3753-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 750 Ti Superclocked 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card

Pros: Silent, low power consumption, no external power connection required, and supports the latest Nvidia software and driver suite as of 2014. Plays most games on high...

Cons: 128bit memory bandwidth. Medium performance on the latest games Q2 2014. Newer FPS games are run on medium with this card. Do not buy if you want to play on ultra settings. This card is for people who want a lower energy footprint but still want a decent PC.

Overall Review: I had an AMD Radeon HD6850 from 2010. I bought the 750Ti to reduce heat and noise on my system. The 6850 had a 256bit memory bandwidth, but the 750ti has better driver support for the 2014 games. My room is no longer a microwave, and the upgrade is quite noticeable when I play newer games. Overall, performance gains aren't much, but I'm no longer sweating when I use my computer either. Great buy!

Most Critical Review

look before you leap

DYNAPOWER USA EJ-262 Black Steel 2U Rackmount Chassis only with Extended ATX
DYNAPOWER USA EJ-262 Black Steel 2U Rackmount Chassis only with Extended ATX

Pros: Spacious Interior, can hold large motherboard

Cons: make sure you look at the rear peripheral plate, and make sure you don't want to use PCI cards because this case will require you to do some drastic cutting. My ATX board doesn't fit right, so metal had to be removed to make way for PCI NICs and onboard sound. Ackward air flow, fans blow heat onto board, but there are no fans blowing heat out of the case.

Overall Review: Bad buy for newcomers, but work arounds exsist for experienced techs.

neat little package

MSI AM1I AM1 USB 3.0 HDMI Mini ITX AMD Motherboard
MSI AM1I AM1 USB 3.0 HDMI Mini ITX AMD Motherboard

Pros: this is a decent Mini ITX board. I was surprised about the features that came with it, USB3.0, SATAIII, etc. I picked this up on a combo offer with an AMD APU. Couldn't pass on the price.

Cons: This isn't a board for PC gaming enthusiasts. This board is great for someone building a casual PC that uses little power and will keep your computer experience relatively current with the times. Don't expect to overclock your processor or RAM and get great performance.

Overall Review: This board was perfect for my mother's casual PC. She had an old clunker PC that barely ran, so I surprised her with a nice quad core AMD APU and 8GB of DDR3 memory. This was a huge upgrade for an older person who doesn't play the latest and greatest blockbuster gaming titles. With an SSD, her system boots up in under 10 seconds and she has instant access to the internet.

decent price, average Mini ITX case

Rosewill RS-MI-01 BK - Mini ITX Tower / Desktop Computer Case - 250W Power Supply with Two (2) SATA Connectors and One (1) 20 + 4-Pin Connector
Rosewill RS-MI-01 BK - Mini ITX Tower / Desktop Computer Case - 250W Power Supply with Two (2) SATA Connectors and One (1) 20 + 4-Pin Connector

Pros: pretty good price on the combo package with Kaveri processor and micro ATX board. Looks nice.

Cons: Cable management was a pain. I had a hard time installing the disk drives. I made the mistake of not connecting my SSD hard drive under the DVD/RW drive and I had to completely un-mount the DVD/RW so I could get access to the rear of the SSD. Not a big deal, but tiny amount of space. Don't expect to add fans or mod this case, there is literally no room to do much of anything. Aftermarket heatsinks that are larger than stock AM1 or FM2 heat sinks probably won't fit. The PSU literally sits on top of the processor.

Overall Review: This was a good deal for my mother's casual PC because it was on a combo offer. If I was building a media PC for myself, me being the IT and PC gaming enthusiast, I would buy a better case. The combo parts fit (barely), and the case doesn't look to shabby. Overall, it was a great present for my mom.

great value

AMD Athlon 5350 - Athlon Kabini Quad-Core 2.05 GHz Socket AM1 25W AMD Radeon R3 Desktop Processor - AD5350JAHMBOX
AMD Athlon 5350 - Athlon Kabini Quad-Core 2.05 GHz Socket AM1 25W AMD Radeon R3 Desktop Processor - AD5350JAHMBOX

Pros: Low power consumption, low heat, low noise, great performance for a casual PC user, heat sink easily clears most small chassis. My nephew can play minecraft and my mother can play all of her web browser games with ease.

Cons: The heat sink is a little tricky to install. It is cheaply made, so be careful and ensure you know what you are doing before installing. This processor will not play modern block buster FPS titles on high, you will be lucky to get 30 frames on low.

Overall Review: This was an awesome value in a combo purchase for my family. My mother plays facebook games from time to time, and my nephews play minecraft when they visit. The system is small and uses little power and generates no heat! My mother loves her new computer using this chip! Great value if upgrading an older system on a tight budget for casual PC users.

Like it, setup was tricky

Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player (H2G2-42)
Google Chromecast HDMI Streaming Media Player (H2G2-42)

Pros: Plays netflix, youtube, and other streaming video from my web browser in 1080p.

Cons: It was a bit tricky installing this. I couldn't use the usb connection on my TV because it overloaded the HDMI port and I had to unplug my TV for a minute to restore usage on the port. After I got through the initial power bugs, wifi install was hit and miss, but the device was eventually added to my wifi network and I was able to control the chromecast from any networked device with a chrome browser in my house. It took a little bit of pain to get the wonderful gain. Just be patient and keep researching if you run into problems.

Overall Review: I've been in IT for a while, so I had the patience and wherewithal to find good resources and tips to get this device working with my TV and on my network. If you aren't tech savvy, I wouldn't recommend this product unless you have a tech savvy member in your family. The product should technically be easy to get online, but there are thousands of cases where people ran into issues with their televisions not working properly with this device. Be warned!