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Gordon S.

Gordon S.

Joined on 03/29/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 20
Most Favorable Review

Just a Power Supply

ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT 500 W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT 500 W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: Did u ever wonder why some products have hundreds of review and some only have a few? Well guess what... quality generates interest. This is one awesome PSU. Slick smooth design, well fit, all the screws too. Someone said the cables are stiff, heck yeah they are, and you sure don't want em floppin around after you place and route em. The cables are well thought of, I like the cables with 2 of each type of power connect on each one, and 2 additional cables with a floppy power connect on the end. Talk about rock solid voltage... this baby has it. I loaded up my system and ran the voltage monitor for 2 hours of heavy gaming and it never changed. The fan is no louder than my stock 350watt psu, and in fact it may actually be a tiny bit quieter, but when the system stays up for hours on end without crashing... who really cares about the difference... If you're looking for a psu upgrade, this is a strong contender. Check out the specs and the other reviews, then see for you

Cons: Shiny black finish, it's heavy, big fan, it's heavy, long cables, it's heavy, auto voltage switching, and did I mention it's heavy? Oh is this supposed to be Cons ? ooooops..... ;)

Overall Review: Alright already, stop reading review and go buy this thing, the only way you're really gonna know is to see for yourself.

11/18/2006
Most Critical Review

DONT BUY IT

MOTOROLA High Performance Car Charger VC700 Black (SYN0847/98603H)
MOTOROLA High Performance Car Charger VC700 Black (SYN0847/98603H)

Pros: It was cheap

Cons: It's not a Motorola product, how anyone can represent this as one is beyond me. It died after 2 months.

Overall Review: If I worked for a company that sold this, I'd make sure my resume was up to date.

Shame on Seasonic

SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold (SS-650KM Active PFC F3) 650W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Hasw
SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold (SS-650KM Active PFC F3) 650W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Hasw

Pros: Seasonic, what can you say.... when it works, it's nice. Looks well built, nice assortment of modular cables, nice packaging, nice box. All the things that are purposed to "sell" are heavily invested in. Anything else.... well, judge for yourself.

Cons: Over the last year, this unit shut down without warning at least a dozen times. Sometimes I would simply pull the plug on the PSU and it would restart, other times it would take overnight, one time a week. Finally I prepared for a hot-swap test with a working PSU, and I was able to prove that it was a faulty PSU by connecting the standby PSU, starting the system, reconnecting the Seasonic PSU and it failed. Today I received a replacement PSU, no paperwork, no place online to check for status. In other words, the big bird of customer service.

Overall Review: This is the text of the email I just send Seasonic Customer service: To Whom It May Concern: On July 31st of this year I completed an RMA for my PSU and shipped the unit back to you. Today I received a PSU via Fedex Ground without any paperwork what-so-ever. Certainly when you REQUIRE that I include paperwork, you can do me the courtesy of some paperwork indicating what if any trouble was found and if the unit received was a replacement or not. You can do better, and since I'm the customer, (and a repeat customer), which means I PAID the money, I rather insist you do so. This is the United States of America, and in this country we expect a document of record when an item is replaced under warranty. We have the right to have documentation of that replacement for our records. Perhaps there was a place online that I could check on the status of my RMA, if there was, I didn't find it. So now I'm forced to dig out the original retail box (which I'm experienced enough to keep) and verify the serial numbers (which oddly enough do NOT print on the Seasonic Online RMA form. One might think that Seasonic management either doesn't care or is simply inept. I wonder which it is. This email is a demand for a receipt showing that that unit I was given was a replacement under warranty and a statement of policy from Seasonic indicating what rights I have going forward for warranty service on this unit. Shame on you Seasonic, is greed all that drives you ? Now I will have to consider other manufacturers when I purchase additional PSUs. Disappointed

Does the Job Nicely

LOGISYS Computer IC231PWM 100mm Hydro Bearing Theta 31 CPU Cooler
LOGISYS Computer IC231PWM 100mm Hydro Bearing Theta 31 CPU Cooler

Pros: This fan is a good replacement for random stock junk from Intel. I bought 2 Intel CPUs within a month and one has a nice little copper core on the HS, one does not (go Intel). This unit not only has a larger, more quiet fan, but it secures to the mobo with screws and a composite back plate. I liked the design and installation, There's nothing like having one of those nasty little clips on the stock cooler come undone after you deliver an expensive working system. No buzzing or vibration at any tested speeds. I like the sexy blue. I'd buy this again for any mild mannered Intel workstation (non-gaming).

Cons: It wasn't free and didn't come with dancing girls (or guys) in the box.

Overall Review: I have this on an Intel i3-4500 Haswell using the integrated video and it keeps the unit at 60c during the stress test from Intel.

11/27/2014

Don't be Shy

MSI B85M Eco LGA 1150 Intel B85 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
MSI B85M Eco LGA 1150 Intel B85 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: I just turned out the lights over my workbench and I had to write to say that this board is worth looking at. I was shy myself because of the lack of reviews but I like exploring so I'm in. So far I haven't been disappointed. Is the board perfect ? Not for this price. If you want perfection, expect to fork up $200 plus big ones. This is a good case for a small build where quality is job one.

Cons: The manual, could be better. There are several instances with pins protruding beyond the plastic guides, for example the USB 3.0 header. Gentlemen, if you make the pins protrude from the receptacle, we end up aligning the pins first and then contacting the receptacle when in fact the whole purpose of the receptacle is to GUIDE and ALIGN our plug over the pins so we don't bend any. Please spend an extra 10th of a penny and make those plastic guides capable of doing their job so we don't feel obligated to bend pins on our shiny new motherboards and get all up in your faces and all that.

Overall Review: I wasn't building this system for a gamer, it's just an old time interweb browser and email workstation. I don't know that the owner will ever use the Eco settings but it's a nice little feature in lieu of overclocking. Don't be shy, there's a review now, so belly up to the bar boys and girls and give this one a try. If I have any problems I'll update this review accordingly.

11/13/2014

A Keeper

Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 Black Window High-Airflow MATX Mini Tower Computer Case
Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 Black Window High-Airflow MATX Mini Tower Computer Case

Pros: The cases have sure come a long way since the days of sharp metal edges and do-it-yourself venting solutions (read drilling holes). This latest offering from Fractal Design is a sure winner and a definite keeper. It offers a wide variety of cooling configurations, so many that I sat and stared at it for 10 minutes before I decided on one. There are foam or seine air filters on the top, front and sides and all are easily removed for cleaning. I elected to go with a positive pressure configuration, leaving the 140mm fan up top to help with exhaust and moving the rear mounted 120mm fan to the front to help pressurize the system and relying on the most easily removed front air filter to do it's job. Watch the video, it will show you all these details up close and personal. One thing I did do was to remove the foam filter on the top of the case, since that's output and I didn't see the need for filtering outgoing air and I would rather not have the airflow restricted anyway. Hardware was generous and allowed me to have a fully blacked out kit put together in no time. The plastic "brushed finish" front bezel looks great and the front fan cable lengths give me confidence in mounting the front fans on the bezel instead of the frame (the more traditional location). I will definitely buy this case again.

Cons: Why only 4 eggs you say, well, here goes the room-for-improvement section: The cutout for the CPU mounting plane access port is about a half inch too far north. For you engineering types, there needs to be more room toward the bottom of the case. My motherboard, a brand new MSI B85M Eco LGA 1150 Intel B85 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX does not have enough clearance to mount a good cooling backplane without taking the mobo out of the case. And why do you ask, did you mount the motherboard in the case without the cooling backplane ? And he answers that he was foolish enough to believe the plastic mounts on the stock cooling would be fine and not break off while trying to remove them since the heat sink would not stay attached to the mobo on 1 side. Fool that I am. Gentlemen, read this and make the darned hole bigger.

Overall Review: Overall a very satisfying experience with this case. I felt I received a fair value for the price even though I missed out on the $20ish dollar sale that Newegg was having by a week or so. Good fit, finish and well thought out. I will definitely buy this case again.

11/13/2014