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John G.

John G.

Joined on 07/28/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 44
Most Favorable Review

Great Gaming/HTPC Buy at $75

Thermaltake Black SECC Japanese steel LANBOX Lite VF6000BWS Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
Thermaltake Black SECC Japanese steel LANBOX Lite VF6000BWS Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

Pros: - Fits modern components very well. I was able to fit two fully capable gaming/htpc computers in two of these cases. - Removable 3.5" hard drive bracket. This is really nice, in one of my builds my graphics card wasn't long enough to cause an issue (Radeon 3850), but in my second build (Radeon 5850) the clearance was just a bit too close for my comfort. Solution - Don't use the 3.5" bracket and install the HD in the front bay. Sure, it'll prevent you from doing a RAID setup unless you get a 5.25-3.5 bracket, but it's really not a big deal with SSDs and fast hard drives these days. -Adequate cooling. The built in fans seem to do a good job and are very quiet. -Fits a normal PSU. It fit both a Thermaltake 500W PurePower and a Corsair 750W TX for me. No problems at all. - Thumbscrews for case door - System looks BOSS in the window. Makes fellow gamers oogle at LAN parties. - If you don't use front 3.5" bay for a hard drive, consider putting in a media card reader. Great for

Cons: Not enough to reduce an egg, but- - PSU sits above CPU, so just about every aftermarket cooler I tried would not fit. Make sure to get a low-profile one if you do, otherwise use the stock cooler. I had no issue with either the newest AMD stock cooler nor the newest Intel one. I've heard the Scythe Shriuken is pretty good for this style of build, haven't tested it in this case yet. - Case edges are sharp, I've bled a few times working inside of it so just be careful. It's a small space, so it's not the easiest thing in the world to work in although they do give you adequate room for components. - No cable management areas, so it takes a while to fung shuei with this baby. - Bigger and heavier than I thought it would be, but I bought two so it's obviously won me over enough. Still fits in my entertainment center so I'm not complaining too much. The Silverstone Sugo with the handle and all aluminum body might be a better buy, but it's also double the price. - Order of build mat

Overall Review: I own two of these, one of them I've had for 3 years and gave to my brother, the other one resides in my entertainment center. Both of them are being used as combined HTPC/Gaming PCs, and both have been great cases. There are competitors out there, but for $75, this is truly a great deal from a reliable manufacturer and it combines a little elegance with some show-off material. The blue light for the power is a little distracting in some rooms, if it really bothers you just tape over it but I just have it out of the way. I'm really glad it fit all my components and cooled well, as that's a gamer's number 1 concern. Here are my two rigs- 1: Athlon X2 2350 @ 2.5 GHz|4GB Corsair DDR2-800|GeForce GT240|1TB Hitachi|22x Samsung DVDR|Logitech G5/G15|Asus 690G Mobo|Thermaltake 500W PSU|32" LCD 2. Intel i5-750 @ 3.5 GHz|4GB Patriot DDR3-1600|Radeon 5850|1TB WD Black|LG Blu-Ray|Logitech MX5500|MSI GD-45 Mobo|Corsair 750TX PSU|50" Plasma Oh, and newegg as usual rocks my socks off.

11/15/2010
Most Critical Review

Solid Budget Case, But Notable Flaws

Cooler Master N200 Micro-ATX Mini Tower with Front Mesh Ventilation, Minimal Design, 240mm Close-Loop AIO Support
Cooler Master N200 Micro-ATX Mini Tower with Front Mesh Ventilation, Minimal Design, 240mm Close-Loop AIO Support

Pros: - Great cable management for a budget case - Painted Black Interior, Sleek outside look for a budget case - Front USB 3.0 - Two quiet included fans - Bottom Mount PSU Bay - Compact

Cons: - Lip over top PCI-Express slot significantly intrudes on cabling - Standoffs wouldn't go all the way into case without using tools - Hard Drive Bay takes a ridiculous amount of screwing/unscrewing to get drives in - Side doors feel cheap, screw holes aren't terribly precise making the thumbscrews hit or miss

Overall Review: Just to give a background, I'm an IT administrator and have built many systems in my life, both professionally and for a hobby as a former gamer. I built this recent system for a friend who wanted a budget gaming rig and saw a deal for this Coolermaster NSE-200 case + 8 GB of RAM for very cheap. For a budget case I think it's a pretty sharp little guy, but the problem with the lip over the PCI bay is really a deal breaker. Someone mentioned it in a previous review and I figured we'd see for ourselves, as most of the time I don't trust other reviews. Sadly, he was spot on, we used a single slot video card with three connections on the back (VGA, HDMI, DVI), and only the VGA one has enough clearance to actually plug a cable in all the way. My friend wanted to use HDMI to his TV, but you can't get the cable all the way in with the protruding lip. We had to leave his video card unscrewed from the slot and slightly angled down from the slot to get the cable to plug in. It's not a big deal for him and I because he's not going to LAN parties often, but it's still a really big annoyance and not great for the parts. The screw holes in general weren't the right size, I really had to work to get both screws and standoffs to work with this board. The hard drive bay is held in place by four screws into the bottom and side of the tower and didn't let you get the drives in without unscrewing the entire bay, so we just ended up using the internal floppy drive bay instead to save time. I hope this review doesn't sound too negative, because this case is still better than many in this price range and is from a good company, but I've worked with several others in this ballpark that are better. The Antec Three-Hundred is fantastic, and even a lot of other Cooler Master selections. It'd be tough for me to recommend this one again after the trouble with the PCI slot.

Followup, Still Fantastic

Antec VP-450 450W ATX 12V v2.3 Power Supply - Intel Haswell Fully Compatible
Antec VP-450 450W ATX 12V v2.3 Power Supply - Intel Haswell Fully Compatible

Pros: - Very Quiet, Large Fan - Antec Quality and Reliability, and 80 Plus Certified on the unit even though Newegg doesn't list it - Handles a reasonably powerful system - INEXPENSIVE ($35 on newegg, such a hot price)

Cons: - Could use a few more 6-pin connectors, only comes with 1

Overall Review: I'm writing a followup review here now that I've had this power supply for a few months. I've used it in a LAN gaming machine that I have put in some heavy sessions at my house and at LAN parties as well as leaving it on for days downloading games and updates. This thing has been a champ, it's nice and quiet (not the quietest I've heard but very reasonable for $35. No electric hum or anything just the faint sound of a fan). It has also handled an overclock with no issues. It's received good professional reviews online; highly recommend. AMD FX 4100 Quad Core @ 4.2 GHz|ASUS M5A88-M Motherboard|EVGA Nvidia GTX 460 768MB Video Card|Samsung 830 128GB SSD|Western Digital 500GB AAKS Hard Drive|Lian Li V351A Case|Antec VP 450 Watt PSU|Dual 19" LCD Screens

Very nice for work

Silverstone AP121W-USB Air Penetractor USB Powered Desktop Fan, White
Silverstone AP121W-USB Air Penetractor USB Powered Desktop Fan, White

Pros: - Was Free (won it at a LAN gaming tournament) - Perfect airflow for a desktop work fan in a hot office - USB Powered (I had a similar one that was "D battery" powered. That was severely unfortunate and leaked battery acid) -Nice stand

Cons: - No adjustable speeds - Airflow might be too weak for some (it's fine to get a small breeze going on a desk, but otherwise it isn't anything to write home about) - Price (here on newegg it's like $25-30, that's a heck of a lot $$ for this, but it does work pretty well so I guess you are getting a good deal)

Overall Review: Won this in a Counter-Strike tournament at GeekKon (Madison, WI, every September), and have been using it as a replacement for my battery powered fan at work. It's fantastic for that application, the ladies in my office always crank our thermostat up to the high seventies and turn on their space heaters (even in summer) so rather than complain I use this fan. It does the job.

It's an SSD. . . Yes, It's Fast

SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7PC128B/WW
SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7PC128B/WW

Pros: - As fast as everyone and every review says it is. Very impressed with the responsiveness and transfer speeds. - Reliable Brand - Good Trim execution in comparison to Sandforce - Benchmarks from my rig - http://i.imgur.com/6K429.jpg

Cons: - This particular unit doesn't come with an adapter, I didn't realize this when I ordered but luckily I had a spare lying around - Doesn't boot quite as fast as my Crucial M4 but close

Overall Review: This is a very good product, and the 5th SSD I've purchased. Once you go SSD, you'll never go back or want to have a loud, slow mechanical hard drive in your system ever again. I've got 3 Mushkin Chronos SATA III SSDs, a Crucial M4, and now this Samsung. I'd say I like the M4 and the Samsung the best, but they're both pretty close on performance and feel. If this one came with a bracket (the $120 version does at the time of this writing) I'd be more apt to snag it up then say the OCZ Vertex 4 which does have a bracket included. Lian Li V351A Cube|Antec VP 450 Watt PSU|Samsung 830 128GB SSD|ASUS M5A88-M Mobo|8GB Kingston HyperX DDR3-1600|EVGA GTX 460 768MB|AMD FX 4100 @ 4.2 GHz

Failed, and nothing gaming about them

XPG 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600GB2G9-2G
XPG 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600GB2G9-2G

Pros: - Nice low profile heat spreaders

Cons: - Not Corsair, Kingston, or Crucial - Failed - Not any cheaper than other good brands - Not Cas 8

Overall Review: I know that every brand is susceptible to bad batches, but I figured I'd weigh in here and just let it be known that I actually have dealt with a failed kit of this. My friend had them in his gaming system, and he was getting nightmare BSODs. We replaced the RAM, all was well. Just to be sure, I put his RAM in a new system that I built a week ago, and sure enough I was getting blue screens. Swapped in some of my Kingston Hyper X (which is cheaper and looks nicer) and all is well. There's just no reason to buy this kit. It's currently $30 on Newegg, and while ADATA has been around forever they aren't one of the big dogs so they don't have as thorough a testing process, compatibility, or pull with the actual chip vendors. Other more reliable brands are just as cheap and a lot of them have better timings. Heck, Newegg has a sale going on Crucial Ballistix 8GB kit for $35 today, just get that.