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Phil B.

Phil B.

Joined on 03/14/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 10
Most Favorable Review

Need More Fake Wood Headphones!

SONIC HP-259 3.5mm Connector Circumaural Stereo Headset
SONIC HP-259 3.5mm Connector Circumaural Stereo Headset

Pros: I have four kids who have beat up my expensive ones. I have been through two of these and they both have worked great. Comfortable and the mic works just fine in VOIP in multiplayer games. For the price, there is no other choice.

Cons: Not 100% fake wood pattern, some plain old black plastic used. Also, on my first pair the boom was only held in with a small dab of glue. My two year old was stronger than the glue. The second pair had a small screw to hold it in as well.

Overall Review: Don't think...just buy. For the cost, if you don't like them, they are cheaper than a pizza. Chances are you'll love what you get for the cost.

Most Critical Review

Avoid this RAM! Buy better quality.

Patriot Signature 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory Model PSD2G400KH
Patriot Signature 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory Model PSD2G400KH

Pros: Blue heat spreaders. Only had to open one package for 2 sticks instead of two packages.

Cons: Poor quality. First set I ordered had one bad stick. New Egg was great in sending a second set out. Second set will not run in dual channel mode even though a matched set.

Overall Review: Avoid this ram. Spend a few more dollars and get higher quality RAM.

Super Speedy

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ/ST500DM005 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ/ST500DM005 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Packaged pretty well for an OEM drive. Installed 2 in a Raid 0 and am getting 240 mb/s read. Fast enough for me. Recommended indeed.

Cons: none

Stutters with OTA HDTD

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 4350 512MB GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile Ready Graphics Card GV-R435OC-512I
GIGABYTE Radeon HD 4350 512MB GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile Ready Graphics Card GV-R435OC-512I

Pros: It's ATI! I love supporting their products. I find the image quality is just a little nicer than team green. Installed without a hitch and everything looked great running through HDMI to my Viewsonic 32inch HDTV...

Cons: ...until I started watching OTA broadcasts. This is in a dual core AMD system with 2 gig of ram. The broadcast would be clear for 20 seconds and then total blob out and stutter on the screen. Tried different driver versions. Tried Windows 7. Tried fresh Vista install with TV Pack. Nothing fixed it.

Overall Review: I eventually fixed the proplem. I threw a 9400gt in and all the stutters went away instantly. I SOO hate having to go to team green. It appears that it was the Video Card (or drivers) that was doing it.

Incredible Temp Improvements

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: HUGE improvement in cooling over my previous Antec Super Lanboy. Installation was very easy except for the power supply MB connection (was too short.) With all the fans on low, my Northbridge fan is the loudest fan in my rig.

Cons: Motherboard power supply connections were too short so I needed to purchase extenders, but this was really not an issue as I read most of the reviews and knew this was a potential issue. Just be prepared and buy the cheap adapters with the case so your build will not be held up due to this potential issue.

Overall Review: I moved my Lanboy from an open computer cart where there was no restriction of air flow. When I moved it to my new desk which is restricted from side to side but is open front to back, my Athlon 5000+ BE started crashing. I had to clock it back from 3 ghz to 2.6 to get stable. In either computer cart, the Lanboy (with 3 120 mm fans) was only able to keep the processor at ~ 55C under load (And that was with an Arctic Cooling Pro 64 HSF.) Switched everything over to the Three Hundred with two 120 mm fans added to the front. I don't even have the back one hooked up, only the large one on the top. Now, I'm able to run at 3 ghz again with the proc running at 36 C under full load with the system running at 26 C. That's almost a 20 C drop! Now, no more instabilities and it's Prime95 stable again. At idle, the system is around 22 C case temp and 16 C processor. Oh, and this is with all the fans on low so it's really quiet. I am thrilled. Thanks Antec for a great product.

Just what the doctor ordered

GIGABYTE GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Support Graphics Card GV-NX86T256D
GIGABYTE GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Support Graphics Card GV-NX86T256D

Pros: Runs cool. Using the included overclock utility, it was able to set a 620 / 750 overclock in Vista and topped out at 65 C during Battlefield 2142. It quickly drops to 50 C when idle. It is silent.

Cons: Not free... uhmmm....I had to dig out another back plate since this is a one slot card and it replaced a bigger two slot card...my kids are all over my computer playing the included Supreme Commander...

Overall Review: I was about to drop $40 on a second copy of Supreme Commander and buy an 8600 GT. I found this card and it was the best of both worlds. The card works great in Vista and XP and has tackled all the Games and applications I have thrown at it.