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John B.

John B.

Joined on 08/15/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 8
Most Favorable Review

Great

Antec Six Hundred Black Computer Case
Antec Six Hundred Black Computer Case

Pros: Fantastic well designed case. I love the fan control on the back so it doesn't always need to be at full blast

Cons: None yet

Overall Review: I've tried Cool master and Antec cases, and I've always had bad stuff to say about the cool master cases, but never anythign bad about the Antec cases

Most Critical Review

Unacceptable Range

ASUS PCE-N53 Dual-Band Wireless-N600 Adapter IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n PCI Express Up to 300Mbps downlink+300Mbps uplink Wireless Data Rates
ASUS PCE-N53 Dual-Band Wireless-N600 Adapter IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n PCI Express Up to 300Mbps downlink+300Mbps uplink Wireless Data Rates

Pros: Cheap, high throughput when co-located with wireless router

Cons: Unacceptable Range. When using 802.11n and the wireless router is in the same room as the computer, 7 feet away, card achieves 100% data throughput with no lost packets as advertised. However, when the router is moved to 15 feet away, through two drywall walls, card achieves a max of .6% advertised speed. That is to say with the lost packets, it was only able to achieve a max of 2Mbps throughput. No other devices were using wireless during this test. This test was highly repeatable with the same results on other days. Also of note, when this wireless card was achieving 2 Mbps, a cell phone was able to saturate 802.11n speeds with the router 15 feet away through 2 walls. Bottom line: If your router will be in the same room as the computer with this installed, this is a great buy. However, if the router is in another room, DON'T BUY THIS CARD. You would be better off using 802.11b on a 10 year-old wireless card than trying to use this card.

Cheap, but poor power output

Rosewill PHOTON Series 850W Full Modular Gaming Power Supply, 80 PLUS Gold Certified, Single +12V Rail, SLI & Crossfire Ready - Photon-850
Rosewill PHOTON Series 850W Full Modular Gaming Power Supply, 80 PLUS Gold Certified, Single +12V Rail, SLI & Crossfire Ready - Photon-850

Pros: Cheap

Cons: Doesn't provide reliable power. Used this on my NAS, and had a heck of a time troubleshooting intermittent loss of data. Tried new SAS cables, tried new SAS backplanes, tried new HDs. Over the course of two weeks, I finally tried a new power supply. Turns out this power supply provides power, but not consistent power. Randomly, it's poor power output would cause the SAS backplanes to not have sufficient power causing the RAID controller to exhibit bizarre behavior. Solution was to use a power supply from a different company. Everything is working great now.

DON'T BUY!!!

NETGEAR Wireless Router - N300 (WNR2000)
NETGEAR Wireless Router - N300 (WNR2000)

Pros: Cheap

Cons: Poorly made. ~50% lost packets using 802.11n at 20ft through one wall.

Overall Review: DON'T BUY THIS!!!! I had to return mine since I couldn't even browse youtube without pieces of the page missing and videos not being able to play

Ehh, not what I was hoping for

Cooler Master Storm Scout SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Cooler Master Storm Scout SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Good price. Has a convenient "light" button on the front

Cons: Only 3 fans, and whatever worker tried assemble my case failed with trying to bunch the wires together. They zip-tied the third fan power supply behind the case to a spot that wasn't accessable. Also, the case didn't provide sufficient screws so I needed to go back and uses screws provided with my last Antec case

Overall Review: Next time I'm just going to stick with Antec cases

Swell

ASUS PCE-N13 Wireless Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g/n PCI Express 150/300Mbps Transfer/Receive Rate 64-bit/128-bit WEP, TKIP, and AES WI-Fi alliance WPA, WPA2
ASUS PCE-N13 Wireless Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g/n PCI Express 150/300Mbps Transfer/Receive Rate 64-bit/128-bit WEP, TKIP, and AES WI-Fi alliance WPA, WPA2

Pros: Cheap, Uses the PCIE connection, no problems.

Cons: None at the moment

Overall Review: I've tried several cheap Chinese brands and they work fine at first, but are normally dead by 6-12 months :( So I'm trying to stick to known brands