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Aaron H.

Aaron H.

Joined on 11/14/01

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 12
Most Favorable Review

Good. Gooood.

ASUS GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card ENGTX580 DCII/2DIS/1536MD5
ASUS GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card ENGTX580 DCII/2DIS/1536MD5

Pros: Fast, quiet, cool. Overclocks like a dream. About the same price as reference cards. I've done 925 stable so far with just Asus Smartdoctor and no modding which I don't plan on doing at all such as custom bios or voltmods. Your mileage may vary though, techpowerup only did 827 with theirs but it seems 900 is closer to the average.

Cons: 3 slots has it's disadvantages obviously. Harder to SLI since you need to choose your motherboard/case wisely. No way I could fit another one of these in my current case and i'd need an SLI motherboard anyway.

Overall Review: If you'll probably never run SLI, like me, get this monster. It's a no brainer if you have the room in your case and you want a quieter, cooler than reference GTX 580.

Most Critical Review

Not too pleased

GIGABYTE GA-H55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-H55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: USB3, lots of features, but about what you'd expect on a board at this price. Fast, works great when it worked.

Cons: Gigabyte doesn't do Advance RMA like Asus. I'm used to Asus service and having to buy another board like this just to get it replaced for a customer in a timely manner really stinks. For fast turn around on warranty service it just doesn't make sense to go with Gigabyte or anyone else that doesn't offer Advance RMA.

Overall Review: Probably my last Gigabyte board ever until they begin to offer Advance RMA service. I bought 2, 1 is still working fine but on the other isn't. The PC's are identical, literally identical specs down to t. One's PCIe NIC keeps disappearing from device manager and also the sound card (also built in PCI-express) craps out. INstalled a PCI NIC and it works fine but i'm leary about the computer and so is my customer. My only options for a timely replacement without any customer downtime is to order a replacement board and either RMA the dud myself and sell it, or simply return the dud back to the store I bought the new one from and omit to tell them it wasn't the same board I just purchased. I know places locally that will do that, but I don't want, but why a company as big as Gigabyte doesn't do advance RMA to help people like me willing to pay a small premium even is beyond me.

ASUS RS300-E8-PS4(ASMB7-iKVM) Server Barebone LGA 1150 Intel C224 DDR3 1600/1333
ASUS RS300-E8-PS4(ASMB7-iKVM) Server Barebone LGA 1150 Intel C224 DDR3 1600/1333

Pros: Works with ESXi 5.1u1 running off Sandisk USB drive. The upside is that ESXI runs off an internal USB and my OS's install on the internal 2.5" bays. The external 3.5" bays can be used for long-term non-OS storage. The iKVM is pre-installed and ready-to-use. Installation was fairly painless. Fairly quiet, but you will hear it if you're in the same room. Tons of features at a great price.

Cons: At this price, I can't think of any. It's an entry level server but for most SMB's this is more than adequate. There is a model with redundant PSU's for a cpl hundred more if up-time is more important.

Overall Review: Got it for development / hosting random VM's with ESXi. It's working great but the standard installation ISO from VMware doesn't have any drivers for the intel NIC's. To get it to install, I had to use ESXi Customizer to add the NIC drivers to the ISO. Google "ESXi - i217 and i210" for a simple solution.

Good drive overall

LG Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 10X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Super Multi WH12LS30 LightScribe Support
LG Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 10X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Super Multi WH12LS30 LightScribe Support

Pros: It works. Noise isnt' noticable enough to be a problem. Cheap.

Cons: I suspected the drive was bad when brand new Blu Ray movies like LOTR Extended Blu Ray which just came out would sometimes pause for 10 seconds with PowerDVD... it was extremely annoying and dissapointing. It happened about 15 times during the whole movie. After the first movie, I installed WinDVD instead and it plays flawlessly now, so not sure what was going on there. If you have this problem with PowerDVD, might wanna try WinDVD instead or something else, unless there's a fix for PowerDVD i wasn't aware of.

As expected

Kingston ValueRAM 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model KVR1333D3N9K2/4G
Kingston ValueRAM 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model KVR1333D3N9K2/4G

Pros: So far so good. Works great with a Gigabyte H55-USB3 board.

Cons: None.

Awesome case

LIAN LI PC-A05NB Black Aluminum ATX Mini Tower Computer Case
LIAN LI PC-A05NB Black Aluminum ATX Mini Tower Computer Case

Pros: Very, very nice case. The case layout is fantastic, even with the powersupply at the front. Very high quality construction. Very lightweight, which is possible by the thin (but not overly thin) aluminum sheets. I really love the layout. 100% worth all 5 eggs at this price. At first it reminded me of an Antec Lanboy i used to have, in how thin the aluminum was, but the construction quality of this versus that Antec isn't even close. For example, the side panels fit on much more securely and it just feels more solid.

Cons: - No power circuit switch in the back so you have to unplug the cord to cut power, or take the front bezel off to access the PSU's switch if it has one. Lian Li probably left it out for a good reason, ie long term reliability or extra electrical resistence inherit in the design. If however those can be overcome i'd like to see a switch on other future models though where the PSU is in the front.

Overall Review: I built 2 office workstations with this case using with Clarksdale CPU/Graphics so I can't comment too much on cooling, but it seems it would easily handle a high end graphics card. Worst case scenario you add a PCI slot cooler if you really need one. I absolutely love this case, i'll be using it for all my future builds for home/office/gaming systems if the price doesn't go up too much.