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Gregory W.

Gregory W.

Joined on 04/26/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 13
Most Favorable Review

Very nice case

Rosewill FB-01 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, come with 1x 80mm Fan
Rosewill FB-01 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, come with 1x 80mm Fan

Pros: Seems solid. Looks very sleek, and there's lots of room to stuff extra cable. Can mount 3 fans total. The front 80mm is perfect for cooling the hard drives, while the side 120mm gives good cooling to the mobo components in general. The rear fan seems to do well for exhausting the hot air out. No problems with cooling thus far, despite some other reviews I've seen. Installation was a snap. Plenty of room for a mATX mobo, HDD, ODD, and a fan controller panel. Again, like some other reviewers, I had no problems with space with my particular hardware.

Cons: Pre-installed 80mm rear fan is a 4-pin Molex, so no fan control. Rectified by placing that fan in front (where I want it constantly blowing), and putting a 3-pin fan in back. Doesn't seem to be enough screws, but if you read below, maybe that's because I'm inexperienced with this kind of thing. Front panel was a bit of a pain to remove (to install the aforementioned front fan), but not too bad once I figured what went where. And, of course, the infamously squishy power button.

Overall Review: I'm an odd example in that I started off with poking around laptops before I moved on to a desktop. (Most people do this the other way around.) I did not have an problems with space. I could mount any of my HDDs or ODDS in any space I wanted. Then again, I'm using a mATX mobo with an IGP (so no room needed for a GPU). Maybe that's why some other owners are having problems. This case was what I used as a base for my parent's computer (which I honestly think I overpowered, but whatever). It doesn't pack the ventilation for a high-powered gaming rig, but for simple browsing, emailing, and maybe movie watching, it works like a charm.

Excellent Router

ASUS RT-N56U Wireless Router Dual Band N600 Multimedia Ultra Slim Gigabit 802.11a/b/g/n support USB Storage, Print and Media Server
ASUS RT-N56U Wireless Router Dual Band N600 Multimedia Ultra Slim Gigabit 802.11a/b/g/n support USB Storage, Print and Media Server

Pros: Excellent performance, both in 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless and gigabit wired. Set up is easy, as is the WebUI. Streaming to several machines via wireless (from a home server) runs without a hitch. Plus it's a very nice looking router.

Cons: None at this time.

Overall Review: It's been running for several months now without any need for a restart. Concerning it's appearance, I would not have been impressed if Asus had sacrificed performance for pwettiness. However, this router performs well, so it's pleasing appearance is just icing on the cake.

Not too bad

Rosewill R102-P-BK 120mm Fan MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Rosewill R102-P-BK 120mm Fan MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Compact, great ventilation for the form-factor. Easy to open up, and plenty of screws for the job. Classy, yet functional.

Cons: The front panel wires are short. I had to be... creative when I was plugging them into their respective mobo connectors. The USB plugs are awkward: if you have an oddly-shaped flash drive you won't be able to fit it beside a mouse.

Overall Review: This is housing an (overpowered) home server, and it's running very well. The case is a good size, not too big and not too large, and the ventilation gives excellent cooling. I wanted to give this five eggs, but the short front panel wires and badly-spaced USB front ports forced me to a four.

Great little package

AMD Athlon II X2 210e - Athlon II X2 Regor Dual-Core 2.6 GHz Socket AM3 45W Desktop Processor - AD210EHDK22GI
AMD Athlon II X2 210e - Athlon II X2 Regor Dual-Core 2.6 GHz Socket AM3 45W Desktop Processor - AD210EHDK22GI

Pros: It's not an Intel i7 of Phenom X6, but this little guy has got plenty of power for its 45W TDP. No problems with it so far. I haven't seen how well it overclocks, but that's because I'm focusing on low power-drain and heat rather than raw performance. Coupled with an Arctic Cooling ACALP64 Pro cooler and Tuniq TX-4 TIM, it hovers in the low 20s and high teens while idle. Plus, it's dang cheap.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: It will not, obviously, match Phenoms or i5s, but it's such a cool, low-power CPU that it shouldn't. It's powering a home server for me, but for those who want a low-energy-drain , low cost, general-purpose machine, this is a great CPU to use.

Very nice cooler

ARCTIC Alpine 64 Pro Rev. 2 CPU Cooler - AMD, Supports Multiple Sockets 92mm PWM Fan at 23dBA
ARCTIC Alpine 64 Pro Rev. 2 CPU Cooler - AMD, Supports Multiple Sockets 92mm PWM Fan at 23dBA

Pros: Easy to install. Very efficient cooling for an Phenom II X3. Normally idles in the sub-30C neighborhood. Great price.

Cons: The plastic parts--support struts? Dampers? Shock absorbers? Whatever--are a bit flimsy. Some of the curved parts on top of the fan snapped off when I turned if upside down to cleanse the heatsink area of the stock thermal paste.

Overall Review: The aforementioned breakage has not affected performance from what I've seen, so I'll just write it off as an unfortunate QC incident. No point in returning it because of that. All in all, a good buy.

10/12/2010

Nice

ASUS P5G41T-M LE LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
ASUS P5G41T-M LE LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Onboard graphics, built-in LAN and WLAN, built-in overclocking utility and Express Gate. Some of the other features I found I did not use much, if at all, but they looked they could be useful to other people. Oh, and DDR3 support. Item was packaged very well and installation was a snap. Considering this was for my parents' modest needs--email, basic work, maybe some youtube--they didn't need a powerhouse board with monster overclocking features. For the price point and its main purpose, it is perfect.

Cons: None at this time.

Overall Review: Runs my E7300 CPU at 15% overclock round the clock. Not bad at all. the BIOS splash screen modifier looks fun, but I'll leave that alone for now.