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Johnny T.

Johnny T.

Joined on 10/19/12

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 32
Most Favorable Review

Excellent Device

Newark Raspberry Pi Model B RASPBRRY-PCBA512  Motherboard/CPU/VGA Combo Broadcom BCM2835 700MHz ARM1176JZFS
Newark Raspberry Pi Model B RASPBRRY-PCBA512 Motherboard/CPU/VGA Combo Broadcom BCM2835 700MHz ARM1176JZFS

Pros: Best $40 blown. Got my device earlier and it is what it seems to be: fully functioning computer in a tiny package. Slap an OS on it and code around and this little slab can be anything from a PC to a home theater to a game console to a core component in a special application. Home surveillance, robotics, you name a function a computer can be and it does it, as long as you have a 5V 1A power brick to spare, a video cord, a keyboard and an 8 GB SD Card. Runs warm but not too warm, very versatile in what it supports. Best birthday gift ever.

Cons: No peripherals included, you just get the pi. No in-box instructions, you'll need to hit the website for them and flash the SD card yourself. ...that's it, that's all I've got. Even installing is easy if you follow instructions properly.

Overall Review: This sucker's my new home theater and emulation console for my man cave. And I am one happy man.

Most Critical Review

Just Doesn't Wanna Cooperate

EVGA DisplayPort Hub Model 200-DP-1301-RX
EVGA DisplayPort Hub Model 200-DP-1301-RX

Pros: Came in pretty sweet packaging and an antistatic bag within, no serious scratches or anything, and included a nice DP cable and ACAD.

Cons: The point of a refurb is to replace the broken parts within with correctly functioning parts, or to fix the existing problem. I am currently staring at the device hooked up between my work laptop and a monitor and just watching the monitor constantly reconnect, flickering all the way. I think it worked all of twice, but amidst several dozen failed reconnects and two BSODs. I unplug the cable and plug it directly into the laptop and it works perfectly fine, showing that it's not the cables, it's the hub. Going to play with it a little more, if it remains an issue this will be my first RMA with Newegg.

Overall Review: I really want to believe in this product, it looks great, it seems great, it's got a great company behind it, but it just doesn't want to cooperate.

Over two years and still strong!

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 (rev. 6.0) AM3+/AM3 AMD 760G USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 (rev. 6.0) AM3+/AM3 AMD 760G USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: The GA-78LMT-USB3 was my first board for a budget build. Years later, it still holds up well at most stuff I throw at it. - Processor overclocks fine with socket AM3. It is a 760G chipset, so don't be dumb and full throttle the poor board, but you can crank it a few cycles and even give it a little overvolt and it holds up. Haven't tested AM3+ on it yet. - Handles GPUs and other expansion cards fine. Built-in GPU runs fine if you're not gaming. - Good options for configuration, gives you decent control over your peripherals. Comparable with other boards. - USB 3.0 is convenient and works well. - Zero problems running Windows XP, 7, 8, 10, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora or CentOS. Plays well with Windows and the Debian/Fedora branches and drivers problems are usually non-existant. 10 even recognizes board and ALL HARDWARE out of the box, leaving no need to install drivers! - All functions still up and running without problem, with over 2 years as my daily driver! No blown caps or anything! -

Cons: - Had to flash the board to update it due to some power glitches/clock speed drops. Update solved the problem and worked fine ever since. - PCIe x1 placement, you will not be able to use the port if you have a 2-slot width card hooked up to the x16. - CPU power socket is nice, featuring the ability to use a 4-prong or 8-prong cord. It's placement, up next to the CPU, is not. You'll need a PSU with long cables. - Audio is spotty out of board directly, some hum. Would recommend audio card.

Overall Review: Not cons, but things to note. - 760G chipset. Overclocking a high end FX chip is either a straight no, or a bottleneck. If you want highest end AMD, go with a 990-type board. - Hang onto the manual, you'll need the pinout for the case panel hookups, not marked. - Only two USB 2.0 headers, plan your front panel devices properly.

Post-Year Review

APEVIA X-DREAMER4 Series X-DMR4-NW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
APEVIA X-DREAMER4 Series X-DMR4-NW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Lightweight design, cool looks, a hot swap bay, plenty of fan space, plenty of bays for everything and bottom-loaded PSU port. Holds basic lightweight components very well, and uses HDD rails, making swapping easy. Decent bang for buck.

Cons: Not durable, made of lightweight aluminum, easily put a dent in it with my fist once. Hot swap bay door sticks frequently and won't close on its own. Temperature gauge is almost unreadable due to being deep blue on black, and especially so at an angle. Will not hold heavy GPUs without support. Bad cable management, and the system cables are kind of all over the place. Useless manual. No means of securing thermostat wire to CPU included.

Overall Review: Was my case for my first build, and satisfied with it, but it has its issues.

Great Drive and Experience

WD Blue 1TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD10EZEX
WD Blue 1TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD10EZEX

Pros: This was a replacement drive for me of a failing 5400 RPM Seagate drive I yanked out of an external HDD. This is the first new drive I've purchased for my rig, and it's great... performs well, SMART data was clean on arrival, and dd'ing over my Win7 and Ubuntu partitions was easy, pain free, and errorless. My PC is not 33% faster and has 300% of the storage it had previously which is big for me as I do video making. All-in-all, it's a straightforward, solid upgrade that worked, is stable, and was only for sixty dollars -- icing on the cake, really.

Cons: I cannot think of a single one.

Overall Review: This is an OEM drive, thus you will receive the bare drive in an anti-static bag, within bubble wrap, in a box. What that basically means is you will need your own SATA cable to hook this up to the motherboard, so be sure to have one handy. You also won't receive any documentation but it's a simple storage device; plug it in, format it, and you're good to go.

Good Card

Rosewill RNX-N150PCe - Wireless N150 Wi-Fi Adapter - IEEE 802.11b/11g/11n, (1T1R), Up to 150 Mbps Data Rates, PCIe 2.0 Interface, WPS Supported
Rosewill RNX-N150PCe - Wireless N150 Wi-Fi Adapter - IEEE 802.11b/11g/11n, (1T1R), Up to 150 Mbps Data Rates, PCIe 2.0 Interface, WPS Supported

Pros: Card works great. Plugged into a GA-78LMT-USB3, booted Win7 HP, ran the driver mini-CD and it's been flawless since. Ubuntu and Debian recognize it as well. Works well with any security type, catches networks fine and speeds are average, no dropped connections. Handles heat well, sandwiched between a Radeon HD 6570 and ASUS sound card. Freed up my cables in the back. Quite happy with the purchase.

Cons: No low profile bracket, but I didn't need one.