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James A.

James A.

Joined on 02/19/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 10
Most Favorable Review

Incredible value

EVGA 025-P3-1579-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) HD 2560MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
EVGA 025-P3-1579-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) HD 2560MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Pros: Amazing card! I usually look for cards around the $200 range, but this was worth every penny. Plays Skyrim on ultra at 2560x1440 with the high res texture pack without breaking a sweat. Tops out at 80 degrees running furmark 15 minute burn in.

Cons: Fan gets a little loud at around 60%, but that's to be expected.

Overall Review: It's also worth mentioning how awesome eVGA customer service is. Once I botched the installation of an aftermarket cooler and fried my card. I didn't even have the original heatsink, and they took it back, paid for the shipping, and replaced it with a *better* card! I can't imagine any other manufacturer doing that.

Most Critical Review

Meh

SONY MDR-RF4000K Circumaural 2.4GHz Digital RF Wireless Headphones
SONY MDR-RF4000K Circumaural 2.4GHz Digital RF Wireless Headphones

Pros: Very comfortable, no signal degradation at other side of the house from the transmitter.

Cons: Sound is *okay*. The bass is a bit weak and muddy compared to the wired v900hd, but that's to be expected from wireless I guess. The included battery pack has an 8 hour discharge, but takes *15 hours* to recharge. You will need an extra pair of rechargeables to rotate if you are a heavy user. It wouldn't charge the first few times I put it in the dock. I almost RMAd it before it started working after trying several different sets of batteries. On top of that, the included battery pack came discharged. Getting a new gadget is always fun, but having to wait 15 hours to use it was a big disappointment.

Overall Review: I am trying to reduce wire clutter on my work desk, so these fit the bill, but I'm not terribly impressed with them. Minus 1 star for the mediocre sound, and another for the poor battery life.

High quality but struggles with heavy monitors

Ergotron 45-214-026 MX Desk Mount LCD Arm
Ergotron 45-214-026 MX Desk Mount LCD Arm

Pros: Extremely high quality, you can tell from handling it that it will probably outlast the monitor it's attached to. You can easily adjust the monitor to any position you prefer.

Cons: Has trouble holding up my 27" cinema display, so I'm glad I didn't buy the 30". I use the monitor in portrait mode while working, and landscape for movies and such, so I wanted to be able to transition between the two quickly. Using the clamp, the 27" monitor just barely sits straight in portrait mode, and scrapes the desk under it to the point that I was worried about scratching it. When in landscape mode, it is a bit wobbly as other reviewers have stated (even typing causes it to bounce a bit), but not enough to distract me from work.

Overall Review: One egg removed for being a bit unsteady when using a monitor under the stated max size and weight.

NEEDS THERMAL EPOXY

Swiftech MC14 Copper Heatsinks only
Swiftech MC14 Copper Heatsinks only

Pros: They conduct heat very well, and the copper looks nice.

Cons: You MUST buy thermal epoxy to get these to stick to your chips. Arctic Silver AATA-5G seems to do the trick, but once you put them on they aren't coming off.

Overall Review: I combination with a good thermal epoxy they work much better than the cheapo memory heatsinks that come with most GPU coolers.

Smokin!

SAPPHIRE Radeon X1900XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 VIVO Video Card 100168L
SAPPHIRE Radeon X1900XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 VIVO Video Card 100168L

Pros: This card really is your best bang for the buck if you're looking for a midrange card to hold you over until the DX10 cards come next year. Runs Oblivion on my OC'ed 805D at 1680x1050 with max settings without dropping below 20fps.

Cons: Does anybody smell burning plastic?

Overall Review: As repeated in other reviews, the stock heatsink/cooler is barely adequate. I popped a zalman cooler on instead and dropped the temp under load from 70C to 55C. And much quieter to boot.

great card

SAPPHIRE Radeon X1800XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card 100154SR
SAPPHIRE Radeon X1800XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card 100154SR

Pros: This thing is FAST! Paired with an overclocked 805D I can run oblivion at 1680x1050 with 8xAF and max settings and not drop below 20fps.

Cons: This thing is HOT! Running modern games at high resolutions gets this thing up to 85C even in a well ventilated case. Mine blue screened and fried itself, now POST is scrambled and video cuts out at windows login screen

Overall Review: DON'T make the same mistake I did and try to save a few bucks buying an open box item. A fair amount of these things ship with serious artifact issues, and you can't return open box. Now I'm out another $xxx bucks to replace the one that died.