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Andreas R.

Andreas R.

Joined on 10/13/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 26
Most Favorable Review

Chin hit desk

SONY 23" Active Matrix, TFT LCD WUXGA LCD Monitor 16 ms 1920 x 1200 D-Sub, DVI-D SDM-P234/B
SONY 23" Active Matrix, TFT LCD WUXGA LCD Monitor 16 ms 1920 x 1200 D-Sub, DVI-D SDM-P234/B

Pros: - Crystal clear picture. - Looks great. - Feels solid and of high quality. - My wife thinks it looks good. - Small footprint. - Haven't found any dead pixels. - Love the menu buttons. Bright when you need them, invisible when you don't. - Good cable management. Very neat. - Movies and games work very well.

Cons: - What's with the eyesearing Sony logo? Good thing you can turn it off. - Need new desk to match the monitor. My old one looks like ratty now.

Overall Review: I was considering the Dxll 24" Ultrasharp. I'm glad I got the Sony. An extra $xxx is totally worth it. The thing looks incredible even turned off. I went from one of the last and best IBM 21" CRTs. The visible picture is actually about the same size vertically, but of course much wider horizontally. The IBM is very very good, but it's a treat not to have to adjust the picture even when changing resolution. A couple of years ago, I would never have switched to LCD due to high latencies and high cost. Now it's worth it.

Works for me

Seagate BarraCuda 7200.12 ST3750528AS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Seagate BarraCuda 7200.12 ST3750528AS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: - No issues. - Nice and large.

Cons: - Not as fast as an SSD. ;)

Overall Review: To the guy who said: "windows 7 only sees it as a 698gb but thats ok" That's not a Windows 7 issue. Hard drive manufacturers consider a gig to be 1000k. The rest of the world, including operating systems, consider a gig to be 1024k. Hence the discrepancy.

Great replacement for P5B-E

ASUS P5Q Turbo LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASUS P5Q Turbo LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: - Looks great. Those flame shaped heatsinks are pretty neat. Almost makes me want to get a case window. But only almost. ;) - Easy peasy to install as usual with ASUS. - I was expecting to have to reinstall Windows but it picked up the RAID config from my P5B-E and booted up no problems. I couldn't believe my eyes. - Flies with Core 2 Duo 8400, Corsair Dominator memory and two drives in RAID 0. - Can handle my Scythe Ninja CPU cooler and my Thermalright GPU cooler. Lots of boards have issues with those.

Cons: - Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. - Expressgate. I guess not so much a con. I just find this feature a bit useless. - Confusing SATA port setup.

Overall Review: I bought this board because my new memory stopped my P5B-E from posting. Yes yes I know this is not totally unexpected. Those of you complaining about no floppy port: Time to wake up and smell the 21st century. The only times I've had to dig out ye olde floppie in the past 8 years of so has been to add RAID drivers to an XP initial install. And you can get around that by slipstreaming the drivers onto an XP install CD. In Vista (and 7) you can do all that with a CD or a USB key. No need for floppies at all. As for the IDE connector, I agree it's not in the best of places. But a SATA DVD is like 30 bucks so that seems an easy solution.

Oddly, it is better than the 1000

Logitech Harmony One Advanced Remote Control
Logitech Harmony One Advanced Remote Control

Pros: - Works fine. - Relatively easy to program. - Software is great. - Very easy to change from a 1000 to a One. Just tell the software you have a new remote and update.

Cons: - My receiver is still not cooperating 100%, but I think that's more the receiver's fault.

Overall Review: Having owned the 1000 for six months, I was frustrated with its form factor and the fact that I had to LOOK at the screen to find the right button. With the One, I can feel my way to the correct button in the dark with one hand. Not that there's anything wrong with the 1000, but it feels a bit more like a showpiece than a real usable item. Also I was nervous that my kids would drop it. ;) The functionality is the same as the 1000. The only real difference is the form factor.

It's Intel, and that means quality

Intel EXPI9300PTBLK Gigabit Desktop Adapter 10/100/1000Mbps PCI-Express 1 x RJ45
Intel EXPI9300PTBLK Gigabit Desktop Adapter 10/100/1000Mbps PCI-Express 1 x RJ45

Pros: - Works out of the box on Vista 32-bit. Including installation, I could use the connection faster than with a normal boot of my old Atheros embedded controller. - Drivers can be updated without issues. - Jumbo frame support. - No fuss. The Intel way. - PCI-E. I didn't have any PCI slots available due to my huuuuge GPU heatsink/fan. - Small, low profile card means less space taken up in the case.

Cons: - Ummmm...

Overall Review: I run Intel in all my desktop machines now. This one was the last holdout. The Atheros embedded is not bad but one day it just started glitching. It would lose the connection, and when that came back it would report 100mbit or even 10mbit! Very annoying.

Works as advertised

LOGISYS Computer HS102SL ALUMINIUM SILVER HARD DRIVE SILENCER
LOGISYS Computer HS102SL ALUMINIUM SILVER HARD DRIVE SILENCER

Pros: - Works. The noise is gone. - Easy to assemble and install hard drive. - Rubber mountings provided dampen vibration.

Cons: - Needs a 5 1/4 slot. No way around that but it is still a con. - Difficult/impossible to use with screwless drive cages.

Overall Review: A cheap noise fix. My drives are inaudible now. Coupled with some fancy heatsinks, PSU and fans (Scythe, SilenX, Thermalright, Coolmax) I literally cannot hear my machine power up.