Joined on 10/12/04
Don't Fear the Widescreen
Pros: I recently went LCD from CRT and wasn't disappointed; again sticking with Viewsonic, this widescreen was the next step and it didn't have any of the issues I was afraid of having to face Auto-adjusting mode gets a decent picture almost everytime despite whether watching DVD, playing a game in non-native monitor resolution (while textures are stretched a little, not nearly as bad as one would think), etc. Extra speakers (though not powerful and shouldn't be the selling point) No noticable in-game ghosting No dead pixels Unbeatable price
Cons: Just make sure your video card (perhaps by updating driver) runs the 1440x900 native resolution @ 75Hz!
Overall Review: When first installing, I set the resolution to native resolution but got a bad refreshing artifact; I first thought it was the video card peaking out 5500FX, then noticed that refresh rate was 60Hz and not 75Hz native to LCDs (might save someone a headache)
Good, Not Magical
Pros: Unreproachable benchmark statistics: www.esreality.com/?a=longpost&id=1265679&page=21 Ability to swap between different resolutions, useful for slower-moving sniping vs. faster-moving fragging Nice grip; smaller, lighter, and more comfortable than an Intellimouse
Cons: Not a silver bullet for gaming Buttons to lower sensitivity and switch applications (just below the wheel) sometimes get in the way and I slow down my mouse inadvertently Software utilities that come with the mouse automatically change mouse sensitivity used by Windows (it took me a while to get my sensitivity back close to what it was and it still seems a bit off) Hole for light processing can capture dirt up inside the mouse making it difficult to blow out Logo near palm can attract dirt/grime over time
Overall Review: Before buying this mouse, I had a simple test in mind...I was stuck on original Unreal Tournament's Galleon map on highest difficulty. I was stuck ~1.5 months with average score of ~-5. I bought this mouse in hopes its superior gaming abilities would provide the edge I needed. Well, the mouse sensitivity was changed during installation and was hard to correctly recalibrate (based on feel). That combined with the fact that (perhaps since I'm not a tourney player) 1600 dpi is too fact/inaccurate for me resulted in me averaging closer to -10 over the past week or so. It's a good mouse and I don't regret the purchase (my last optical mouse was $75 vs $40), but don't buy into it thinking it'll give you magical abilities. In FPS, the human is the bottleneck, not the mouse.
Good Setup
Pros: Very easy setup with auto head-alignment print after cartridge installed, then scans to determine the best settings (very nice automation/image processing) I got this printer for my grandmother since it was so easy to make copies with, the buttons could be a bit bigger than all others for black/color copying but she still has had no problem with it
Cons: You should be aware that it doesn't come with a USB cable, making it altogether a little pricier than the cheapest functional model Supposedly eats ink faster than is expected of most printers but I haven't had this one long enough to see if it's bothersome, you can probably get around this expense if you buy a cartridge refill kit here at Newegg
Overall Review: Very easy installation process and no problems or confusions encountered during the installation
Good Drive
Pros: The 16MB cache allows slightly better performance than other 7200 RPM drives The drive is relatively silent compared to other HDs I've owned In fact, this is my 2nd one since I liked this particular drive so much
Cons: None noticed so far
Overall Review: I once had a western digital drive go out on me, but that was about a decade ago and their business/technology seems to have improved greatly since then. Now a solid company with great hard drives.
Great Card
Pros: Threw it in and worked flawlessly, cool yet un-toughted glowing XFX label on the black upper bar, great colors, definitely the sweet spot in performance for your dollar as of 12/05 (see Tom's Hardware), automatically adjusts performance based on power (so it doesn't screw up when you forget to attach power to the end of the card) with informative boot-up message
Cons: Requires power cable just like a HD would (pretty common these days though), a bit bulkier than necessary
Gamer's Mobo
Pros: The mobo most gaming websites do benchmarks on, lots of data and reviews available, easy setup and install, dual-BIOS, and easy backup/recover facility (though I use Ghost)
Cons: 1) Little finnicky at first, stopped booting after a few times until I re-seated memory and video card (though still got single/success post code). Might also want to change your boot order in BIOS the first time. 2) Windows wouldn't come up correctly once the mobo CD's IDE drivers were installed so I skipped that installation (2 sets of 4 SATA ports possibly confusing). 3) Manual table lists ways TO and NOT TO install memory, look at the smaller table. You should get dual-channel 128-bit message upon bootup. 4) North bridge gets really hot and is positioned mid-center underneath the main PCIe video card. This will likely reduce video card life so I put an extra fan on the bridge. I hadn't read this before so be warned.