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Nicholas M.

Nicholas M.

Joined on 03/04/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 72
Most Favorable Review

Works great.

Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 USB 2.0 720p HD widescreen video webcam
Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 USB 2.0 720p HD widescreen video webcam

Pros: Excellent video quality on Skype, cord is long enough to reach down under the desk to my tower with room to spare.

Cons: The little stand / clip / whatever you want to call that thing doesn't attach to my monitor very well. It moves around a little bit up there. Also, and this is a common problem with webcams these days, the microphone wants to be enabled by default, even though I prefer to use a headset.

11/16/2011
Most Critical Review

Delays, delays, delays.

NVIDIA Gift - BATMAN Arkham City Game Coupon
NVIDIA Gift - BATMAN Arkham City Game Coupon

Pros: Game looks awesome. Came free with my GPU, and with said GPU and the rest of my system I'll have no problems with playing it. However, I'm not a game reviewer and this review is solely based on my experience with the game coupon.

Cons: Have I mentioned delays? This game was originally supposed to come out back in October. Then the date got pushed back to early November, and now the PC release date is November 22, a full four days after the console release date.

Overall Review: Got this free with an EVGA SuperClocked GTX 560, rest of the system is an i7-960 with 12GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600.

11/16/2011

Basic little case

In Win BP671 mini ITX case with Haswell Ready 200W power supply, 8cm Fan, Black, TAC 2.0, Front USB 2.0X2, HD audio
In Win BP671 mini ITX case with Haswell Ready 200W power supply, 8cm Fan, Black, TAC 2.0, Front USB 2.0X2, HD audio

Pros: - Reliable, efficient power supply - Has all the basic things one might need in a computer - Put together well and logically thought out spaces

Cons: - No riser, only accepts low-profile cards in the expansion slot - No externally-accessable 3.5" drive bay - No place to mount a 2.5" drive

Overall Review: I got the BP761 case mostly to put together a small, inobtrusive server based around a Haswell Celeron and running Linux. As such, this has been running more-or-less 24/7 for the last two years plus. I have had zero problems with it in that time. That said, it has its limitations. With only a 5.25" drive bay externally-accessable, choice is limited with peripherals; you can just put in an optical drive, use a 5.25"-to-3.5" adapter and install a card reader, or leave it blank. There's no option for a slim optical drive. There is also no way to put in a 2.5" SSD without using a 3.5" adapter, and it will take up a 3.5" bay. It's possible to get around this by using a Mini-ITX mainboard with a M.2 port, but I really wish they would have included a 2.5" mounting point or bay. The rear of the BP761 is fairly basic. You get an I/O shield socket, the power supply connection, and a single low-profile expansion bracket. The fact that it has no riser means that you can only use low-profile expansion cards. This really isn't as huge an issue as it use to be, as a lot of makers of (for example) video capture and editing cards are now making them low-profile or at the very least low-profile capable, so this can still be used in the construction of a DIY DVR. As far as GPUs go, generally only low-end video cards come in low-profile, plus this only has a 200-watt power supply. So, if you're going to be gaming, this isn't the case for you. However, both AMD and Intel's built-in graphics offerings will suffice for casual gaming, office-type computer use, and media playback to HDTV. Putting a system together in this case was quick and easy and the interior is well thought-out The power supply and front-panel cables easily reach all parts of the case. There's no cable management system included, but In Win also didn't make the cables excessively long, so there's not tons of extra cable to manage. The mainboard connector is standard ATX 20+4 pin, and it has a 4-pin 12-volt CPU power connector. The power supply has 3 SATA power connectors but only one Molex connector, so if your motherboard lacks a case fan header, the included 80mm fan will limit the ability to connect legacy peripherals. The fan itself is relatively quiet. There is only the one fan mount, however the case has a grille on the side of the case where the ITX specification places the CPU socket. All in all, this case is not terrible for making a small-form-factor, inobtrusive PC. None of the fans make a particularly large amount of noise. As mentioned, I use mine as a server, but this could also serve as a bedroom PC or a media-center box. If you keep it on all night in a bedroom, the big blue power LED bar can function as a nightlight... or you could leave it disconnected if it's too bright. I only take off one egg due to the lack of native 2.5" drive support. Other than that, this case is rock solid for what I need it to do.

10/29/2016
ASUS DVD-Writer 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24F1ST  d/BLK/B/AS
ASUS DVD-Writer 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24F1ST d/BLK/B/AS

Pros: Works great. I put it to work right away installing Linux on the machine it's installed in, and it worked fine.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: This drive, or others almost identical to it, are sold under a variety of part numbers. I can't tell if they're actually different, or just different revisions of the same product. They all work great. I pretty much only buy ASUS burners now.

G.SKILL ECO Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3L 1600 (PC3L 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBECO
G.SKILL ECO Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3L 1600 (PC3L 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBECO

Pros: This ram works great, and looks great. I was really surprised when I opened up my Newegg shipping box to see these sticks-- they're packaged like something more high-end, and they have head spreaders too.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: 4GB isn't much for a Windows-based desktop computer these days, but it runs Linux just fine.

Intel Celeron G1610 - Celeron Ivy Bridge Dual-Core 2.6 GHz LGA 1155 55W Desktop Processor - BX80637G1610
Intel Celeron G1610 - Celeron Ivy Bridge Dual-Core 2.6 GHz LGA 1155 55W Desktop Processor - BX80637G1610

Pros: This chip is great. Good fast clockrate, low price, plus onboard video. Runs Ubuntu Linux like a champ, and the Ivy Bridge graphics make it even able to run all the silly eyecandy on the UI (even thought I turned it off...)

Cons: I have no problems with this chip. It does what I bought it for-- runs a small-form-factor, low-watt Linux server for serving media and webpages.

Overall Review: For some reason, I REALLY want to respond to the 3/7 review from "facer f.": Why in the heck are you trying to play high-end games and PS2 emulators on this thing without even getting a discrete video card? You do know this is a Celeron... right?