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Patricia S.

Patricia S.

Joined on 05/28/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 3
Most Favorable Review

good buy

ECS GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Video Card N8800GT-512MX+
ECS GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Video Card N8800GT-512MX+

Pros: Awesome price for what you get in this package. Option to run silent if you have good ventilation. Card installed easily and runs as advertised.

Cons: Despite huge heatsink, you'll still need to put the fans on it unless you have a case with a side fan or some other method to move air across the heatsink. Mine was overheating during gaming so I had to put the little fans on (which brought temps down significantly)

Overall Review: The Arctic cooler works well but I thought it was a bit cheaply made. Several fins were bent and one of the plastic clips that keeps the heatsink from moving around was already broken when I took it out of the box.

Most Critical Review

Great DDR2 800, Poor DDR2 1066

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK

Pros: Comparable price to many DDR2 800 modules with potential to run at 1066. I liked the heatspreaders as they matched the blue of my abit IP35 heatsinks (which by the way is on the compatibility list for this memory according to GSkill's pdf document)

Cons: Does not run at specified speed. Bought 2 sets - 1 module of the 4 was DOA. The other 3 produced memtest errors in every possible configuration (dual or single channel, 1 module, different pairs of 2 modules) while running at 1066. Tried them at 2.0 and 2.1 volts, set timings to 5-5-5-15 (set tRC to 48 according to another reviewers suggestion, also tried it on auto). Going to RMA and pray I get RAM that runs as advertised this time.

Overall Review: First tried to run the RAM with my default settings which put RAM at 1088. Produced errors within 1 minute of running memtest. Rebooted and manually set timings, changed voltage from 2.1 to 2.0 - memtest errors again. Rebooted and lowered my CPU multiplier below default, then increased FSB until RAM was running at 1066 (CPU was slightly underclocked at this point), memtest got to 99% coverage before producing errors this time. Lowered mem to 900mhz, no errors after several hours...great but I did not pay for 900mhz memory. If this RAM was advertised as high end DDR2 800 rather than 1066 it would probably have many more happy customers. Based on the performance I feel like I got suckered by false advertising though. I suspect many that are running this RAM did not thoroughly test it.

Nice gaming monitor for the price

LG 20" WSXGA+ LCD Monitor W/ f-Engine 2 ms 1680 x 1050 D-Sub, DVI-D L206WTY-BF
LG 20" WSXGA+ LCD Monitor W/ f-Engine 2 ms 1680 x 1050 D-Sub, DVI-D L206WTY-BF

Pros: Excellent contrast, color, and brightness. No detectable ghosting during games. Very light.

Cons: Edges of screen bleed slightly (brighter than rest of screen), flimsy stand with no height adjustment, set up can be difficult with some video cards due to the odd resolution.

Overall Review: Very happy with monitor overall. Edge bleed doesn't bother me, but it is definitely noticeable and may bother the very picky. The stand is junk - guess they had to cut costs somewhere. I'd rather pay for the screen than the stand so this is an ok compromise for me as well. Games have amazed me so far - monitor response time is excellent. I didn't want to get a widescreen initially since I don't watch movies on the computer, but after playing a few games on it I really like the wider view, despite losing a bit of vertical real estate.

10/16/2007