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joseph s.

joseph s.

Joined on 12/20/01

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 12
Most Favorable Review

pretty good budget case

Cooler Master HAF 912 - Mid Tower Computer Case with High Airflow, Supporting up to Six 120mm Fans and USB 3.0
Cooler Master HAF 912 - Mid Tower Computer Case with High Airflow, Supporting up to Six 120mm Fans and USB 3.0

Pros: Best thing about this case is the amount of room it has on the inside....it seems like a ComputerCasus cavernosus compared to a few atx mid tower boxes I have used before. It's a little bigger on the outside than most but the amount of room to work with on the inside is well worth it. Room to spare....the hyper 212 evo looks positively small in there and it looks like there would be plenty of room for more fans if I ever go there. Not the thickest metal I've ever seen in a case but seems good enough. For an inexpensive case seems heavy. Nice understated server style look with mesh type front panel. Has the panel connector stuff near the top. Nice subdued red led for power and one red led for hdd. the most recent version has the usb 3 connector on the front along with a usb 2 and a mic and headphone jack. all of the included wires for these are more than long enough. it comes with lots of screws, ties, etc. so in all likelihood you will have lots left over. Instructions kind of sparse but I have built before it is pretty much self-explanatory. lots of tool free strips to install hdds, in fact had lots left over. the case has 2 ways to install ssd...a 2.5 inch cage at the bottom(which can be used to enclose excess psu connectors(example the legacy power connectors) or a plastic caddy that will go into a 3.5 bay. seems to have options for easy cable management. the cage with 3.5 bays in the middle can be easily removed for more room and air flow. I don't have one of the new really long video cards yet but it looks like it would easily fit. most of the edges inside are rolled. all in all it is about the easiest case to work with that I have seen so far.

Cons: inside not painted. many cases, even half the cost of this one, have black painted interiors. not entirely tool free...to securely attach dvd drive you need two screws as the included quick lock had only one, so the other side had to be screws. not that big a deal though. also had to uncsrew to remove the middle cage. the front fan connector was not long enough to reach motherboard header and so had to use the old style adapter molex thing.

Most Critical Review

so so

FarStone Technology, Inc. VirtualDrive Pro 14 - 3 users
FarStone Technology, Inc. VirtualDrive Pro 14 - 3 users

Pros: nice to run games from hdd, protect disks.

Cons: needs elevated privileges to run in win7, so the kid games, which this works well for , become a pain b/c have to supply password. inserting a vcd from file manager won't work even though the file association there. to get a support ticket you have to dig up your registration code, what a pain. some games, like the Lego series, did not work for me no matter what options I tried when making the vcd. but for the stuff it works for, it is a good way to protect disks and have some improved performace.

okay for linux

ASRock Z77 Pro4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASRock Z77 Pro4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: This all black pcb and black memory slots and heatsinks board looks good inside a source 210 case which is black inside also. It is the more narrow atx form. I had used a video card with a very large heatsink and I recalled that I did not have particular problems with that. I did not notice having any particulalr issue about malformed plastic ports or anything like that and so the build quality seems to be okay as far as I can tell. Had no particular issues with insetting cpu, memory, etc., except for psu cables being just barely long enough for the 12v sockets up top with bottom mount psu which I guess is common. The only problem that I had was figuring out that in order to boot a linux live cd, the optical drive has to be plugged into one of the sata ports grouped near the bottom, not the two asmedia type sata ports that are near the ram. would not boot from the cd until I changed. Had no issues other than that everything on the board(ie audio, etc.) seems to be picked up and working correctly on very recent linux kernel. The win7 setup went without a hitch and perfect, except the junk software on the disk that i installed by accident from being in a hurry(easily removed). cpu fan very loud for about a second on switching on but subsides quickly. No issues with sleep/suspend on either OS. Have not oc yet. board seems to be a fairly basic one, no led on it, etc., but I guess for the price to be expected. Has enough connectors for front audio, usb, etc., and enough port in the back for an office type PC. Happy enough with it for that. OK bios, no particular issue with it.

Cons: C***ware on driver disk. No indicator led or digital readout for feedback. Basically , a cheap board, but good for low budget build if one wanted to shunt money over to an ssd which is what I did.

12/18/2012

possible durability issue/too heavy handed?

Zippy BL-741 USB V.2.0 512 Color Gradation Illuminated Backlight Keyboard
Zippy BL-741 USB V.2.0 512 Color Gradation Illuminated Backlight Keyboard

Pros: Ability to change the LED colors, and gradations of intensity. Has a nice feel regarding the clickiness of the keys..hard to describe. Slim, felt pretty solid for the price. Inexpensive.

Cons: Somewhat abnormal layout described in other reviews. have been using for several months to play Skyrim and the "w" key( used very much to move forward in the game) is beginning to feel already sunk in a little and a little lacking in responsiveness now. Had not expected a kb to wear like this so quickly. Still usable but somewhat disappointed in this aspect.

ok, ubuntu lucid easy setup

EDIMAX EW-7128G Wireless Card IEEE 802.11b/g PCI Up to 54Mbps Wireless Data Rates
EDIMAX EW-7128G Wireless Card IEEE 802.11b/g PCI Up to 54Mbps Wireless Data Rates

Pros: cheap. has antenna wire that is several feet long which is good if pc back is low and not facing direction of router, can position for best reception. recognized by ubuntu 10.04. on booting the OS recognized card immediately, even connected quickly, on pre existing profile i was using with a usb adapter. if you use linux don't have much to lose trying this. narrow, will hopefully not cause too much obstruction of airflow if video card next to this.

Cons: g, not N, guess it has been around for awhile. like many others have noted that I had to bend the bracket in order to have the screw not cause the card to partially slip out of the pci slot. this is very poor quality control in the manuacture...really no excuse for this sort of thing. guess you can't have everything. once we sorted that out, seats well, had to bend a couple of millimeters to take care of this.

Overall Review: getting 50-55% strength, with Belkin N usb rt2870 of 80-90%. stainfulill good enough though and seems to be reliable connection. install into XP more painful than ubuntu on same dualboot machine and edimax utility doesn't seem to want to connect automatically.

wasn't worth it

EDIMAX EW-7318USG Wireless LAN Hi-Gain Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g USB 2.0 Up to 54Mbps Wireless Data Rates
EDIMAX EW-7318USG Wireless LAN Hi-Gain Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g USB 2.0 Up to 54Mbps Wireless Data Rates

Pros: none that I can think of, except maybe that it is cheap

Cons: did not work reliably, crashed computer, usb cord could be longer

Overall Review: bought this because I was having trouble connecting with my linksys wireless-b router...have to go through several walls and up one floor, and the linksys wireless-b receiver would get spotty, intermittent connections that would vary between "very good" and "no connection" and very unpredictable. got this based on the reviews here and another couple of reviews on the net. xp home sp2. the driver installation went ok and asked to plug in the device, and used the config utility that comes with it, and could not connect even though the right wep code was used. Similar luck with the windows config util. Was finally able to get it to connect sometimes, but the quality of the signal was no better than with the linksys adapter. It would not reliably stay connected. Went back to my old device. Maybe better try something different, like a new router, repeater, bigger antena on the router, or maybe best just to bite the bullet, screw the wireless, and fish some wire thru my attic.