Joined on 01/29/05
Resistance is Useless - I
Pros: Nice user interface. A plethera of drivers are now being developed to support this platform. I found this out when I installed it.
Cons: The installation is a little buggy, and Microsoft should work this out in subsequent releases. (See other thoughts)
Overall Review: > Don’t install more than 2 Gigs of RAM prior to loading Vista Ultimate 64 Bit. After you’ve downloaded all the updates, then you can install the rest of your RAM. > Your DVD/CD ROM drives may go missing after a few boots, or if you try to burn a CD or DVD on them. This also occurs with XP Pro x64. If that happens, you’ll have to go to “regedit” and pull the following maintenance: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} Apparently it seems that this is an age old fix for even XP systems. If you venture to the registry key above by doing the following steps: 1. Click on the start menu. 2. If this is a Vista machine in the search box type in “regedit” without the quotation marks. 3. Maximize the HKLM and then go ahead and browse until you reach the key listed above. 4. In the right panel you’ll see something along the lines of “UpperFilter” and “LowerFilter” you want to click on each “filter” key and hit delete. Click y
OK Card With An Odd Defect
Pros: -Easy to install -Runs quietly (no fan) -can be over clocked easily.
Cons: Annoying tendency to black out when I tried to wake up the computer after leaving it unattended for about 30 minutes.
Overall Review: The card was easy to install. However I had to remove it after a few days. After leaving the computer running unattended for a while and the screen saver would appear - When I'd shake the mouse to awake the computer, this card had an annoying habit of blacking out the screen. There was nothing to do except wait for about a half hour until the bottom tray appeared, so I could shut it down. Don't know if it's because of Vista or if it's just a malfunction of the card or what the problem is. When the card is not busy blacking out, it's a very nice video card - too bad I cannot put up with this annoying and persistent problem.
Foxconn Black Steel Micro ATX
Pros: A robust 300 watt PSU with 24 connectors, well-built and solid. Very small foot print. It's a beaut.
Cons: There is no “Reset” switch, but that wasn’t a problem for me. It’s rather difficult to place the cover on this little beast. I still don’t think I got it right after many tries.
Overall Review: Love this little case. The build is solid, sturdy and industrial strength which is what I needed. It was a cinch to build using SATA devices, which I highly recommend. There was plenty of room for the AMD stock fan. There is plenty of ventilation built-in, to include a fan on the top. Obviously you have to be very careful when routing your wires and cables, and be careful how you place the removable drive tray back in after you mount your drives. I severed the case speaker wire when I first put the drive tray back in.
WD Raptor 150
Pros: I’ve purchased several of these hard drives to run the OS & programs. It boots quickly, and runs reliably for a long time (5-year warranty.) Every program starts faster with this hard drive. With the advent of faster memory, multi-core cpu’s, and faster video cards, the most perceptible lag today is the speed of the hard drive. Installing a quick hard drive is one sure way to speed up a sluggish system. I’ve upgraded many a friend and family member’s system with it, and they’re all happy with the speed increase over their previous system hard drives. It’s a bargain at this price. Pair this HD with a 500-750 gig data drive and you’ve got the perfect Vista system!
Cons: It’s a bit pricey but Newegg takes the bite out of this “con.” At this price point, you can buy with confidence – you could buy it at a retail store for approximately $200.00 and you’d still be happy with it (trust me I did it when I was pressed for time.)
Overall Review: It's a no-brainer for your OS drive. You paid good money for that OS, install it on a fast & dependable HD.
Buffalo Chip
Pros: Nice looking, comes with a nice flat Cat 5 cable.
Cons: After one week (1) i.e. exactly 7 days, the radio signal died. Hasn't been seen since.
Overall Review: I bought this based on price & the positive feedback other reviewers gave it. Maybe I just got a lemon. But it's a pain in the neck. And I'm out 50 bucks.
Solid Switch
Pros: This switch has worked flawlessly since the day I installed it. I like the metal case – it tends to dissipate the heat much better than plastic. I’m running three PCs, a print server and a 108 mps WAP from this switch and have not noticed any congestion problems. Best of all I can move VERY LARGE files back and forth from these PCs and it’s almost as fast as saving a file to the hard drive. Get this switch and 1000 NICs for each of your computers and you won’t be disappointed.
Cons: Blinking lights may annoy some people – but not me because I don’t sit and stare at this switch.
Overall Review: More expensive than other 1000mps 8-port switches – however this one is a business grade switch and is built to be more robust (I would assume.)