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Matthew T.

Matthew T.

Joined on 12/12/10

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 8
Most Favorable Review

High Quality

Antec Three Hundred + BP430 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply
Antec Three Hundred + BP430 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply

Pros: Very Sturdy, high quality materials. The fans are silent on low, but get pretty loud (especially the top fan) on high. Though the fan speed controllers are on the inside of the case, you can put them on the outside by putting them where the handle to open the side panel is and then closing the side panel. They just barely reach, but the cables aren't stretched. The power supply powers an HD6770, plus the standard computer components just fine. Its 80+ Certified, even though its not advertised as such. It has plenty of length to attach to everything in the case, although I wasn't able to push all of the extra cabling into the space the case provides for the extra cables. I was able to put most of them in there, but some are still hanging around in the main chamber. The front fan holders aren't as visible in person as they are in the pictures, and they can be removed if you don't have any fans in them. I was worried about them, because they are grey and everything else is bla

Cons: Only has 3 SATA power connectors. The top fan is very loud on high, the back fan much less so. If you look at it directly at eye level, you can see inside the case, but at a normal angle (case on the floor, you sitting the a desk) the insides aren't visible.

Overall Review: Its not flashy, and still very high quality. The lights aren't too bright. I'm very impressed with the quality of the materials used in this case, nothing seems like it will break, and I expect this case to hold up for a very long time. It fits an HD6770 without coming close of blocking any of the hard drive ports. And I was able to route the CPU power plug underneath the card, so there's nothing running on top of it. The hard drives and 5.25in drives slide in the front, so you don't have to remove any internals to add new ones. It comes with lots of hand screws, and I believe that you can attach pretty much everything with them if you want to (I didn't, but the bag contains plenty of them). And there are more than enough screws than you'll need, so there's no fear of losing them.

Good Speakers

Cyber Acoustics CA-2014WB 1.5 watts 2.0 Desktop Speaker System - Black
Cyber Acoustics CA-2014WB 1.5 watts 2.0 Desktop Speaker System - Black

Pros: Good sound quality for the price. Its not super great quality, but for anyone thats not an audiophile, they work great, and theres no reason to buy a more expensive set. They can get louder than I want them to be. Clear sound, actually seems to have some bass even though I don't have a subwoofer. They look very good, much better in person than in the pictures.

Cons: The cords aren't very long, but they are just long enough to work for me, without being stretched tight.

Overall Review: Great price, though the shipping cost almost as much as the speakers themselves...

Great Motherboard

GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Lots of features, lots of ports, quality components. The positions of the fan connectors are well thought out, with one for a front fan, and one for a back fan. Its very good looking. The BIOS is well laid out, and has lots of options, all of the standard ones, plus overclocking ones, and ones for energy saving. It also allows you to create different profiles, so you can save different sets of settings and easily change them without having to change each one individually.

Cons: The northbridge heatsink is loose, as other reviewers have said, but I haven't noticed any issues related to this so it might not be a problem. It isn't a standard sized ATX board, and the far right screw holes don't line up, so the board will be a little bit loose, but not so loose that I'm afraid of breaking anything when plugging/unplugging things. The SATA3_4 and SATA3_5 (the 5th and 6th SATA3 ports) are considered seperate from the first four (0-4) SATA3 ports. I don't know if this will have any concequence if you want to use them for RAID, because I only have one hard drive attached, but thought I'd mention it. Despite these cons, which are all minor, it is definitly a 5 star board.

Overall Review: I had an issue where the Windows 7 installation wasn't recognizing my hard drive, but the BIOS was, and none of the drivers made any difference. I solved this by installing linux, and then after there was a partition on the hard drive, windows recognized it.

Very Comfortable

Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000

Pros: Its very comfortable. The wrist rest attached to the bottom is soft, but still supportive. Its a big upgrade from the original Microsoft Natural Ergonomic keyboard. All of the extra shortcut keys work in Linux. It seems like its built with quality, its not flimsy or thin, and it doesn't seem like it will break if it gets knocked around or dropped.

Cons: It takes a bit to get used to the positions of the keys when you're used to a regular keyboard, especially a netbook keyboard.

Overall Review: The space key is the only one that makes a sound when you press it, but it is almost as quiet as the other keys if you hit it in the center, but that's not a natural place to hit it given the separated keys.

Kingston 4GB DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model KVR1066D3N7/4G
Kingston 4GB DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model KVR1066D3N7/4G

Pros: It works like it should.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: Its much smaller than I thought it would be. But the last time I saw any RAM, it was probably about 10 years ago...

Very Fast

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition - Phenom II X4 Deneb Quad-Core 3.4 GHz Socket AM3 125W Processor - HDZ965FBGMBOX
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition - Phenom II X4 Deneb Quad-Core 3.4 GHz Socket AM3 125W Processor - HDZ965FBGMBOX

Pros: Extremely fast processor. I can't believe how fast my computer is. (and I didn't overclock. I don't even see the point)

Cons: None