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bradley m.

bradley m.

Joined on 01/30/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 4
Most Favorable Review

small(er) case good options

Antec Three Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded 2 x USB 3.0
Antec Three Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded 2 x USB 3.0

Pros: This is the second of two Antec Three Hundred Two Black Steel ATX mid tower computer cases I have picked up over the last two months. This computer case was easy to setup, good cable management for the price, cut out on tray for back access to CPU for folks installing oversize CPU coolers. The snap in / screw less mounting of the rails seems to work fine.

Cons: What was missing was the instruction guide. This did cause some issues dealing with the secondary support bracket for the motherboard PCI cards. Once I figured out I had to remove that plate to install the video card the rest of the build was easy.

Overall Review: I was not able to flip the case fans around to change the flow of air due to binding issues. Once I re-installed the fans back to factory default location they worked as designed. There could be a bit more room by offsetting the internal hard drive rails to allow a bit more room to fit power / SATA cables that have stiffer connectors.

Most Critical Review

double the fun - two doa

ASRock Z87 Extreme4 LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASRock Z87 Extreme4 LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: box looks nice, case adapter shield top notch. Only one of the two DOA was from NewEgg.

Cons: I bought one of the two AsRock motherboard from Newegg - the other during the road trip. The one received from NeweEgg ended up having one bent pin on the CPU. After reading comments about it being impossible to get a good RMA (out of the 30 day window) due to this issue I chucked it. The second board did work, I was able to boot into the bios setup. After updating the BIOS the motherboard would no longer take power. I moved the CPU to a different brand that I picked up in a local Mom & Pop store. Install worked out well. So two different vendors, same model motherboard; zero worked. However, I had very good luck with the older ASrock Z77. Other than a buzzy fan on the motherboard it has been rock solid.

Overall Review: When dealing with multiple parts it is often hard and time consuming to figure out what part was really bad. What thru me for a loop was two motherboards that were the failure point. Because I did not have all the parts on hand - I burned thru the "easy" RMA window.

finishing post - sometimes

ASUS M3N78-EM AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
ASUS M3N78-EM AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Good size - like the bios fast access to the internet - when booted works quite well. I do like the solid capacitors for long term use. I built this computer for a friend - however, by the time that I figured that there was an issue with the mother board it was too late to rma it back to new egg.

Cons: It often it takes a few times to power up mother board. I have replaced the ram, used a secondary video card, and installed a higher end power supply. I even flashed the bios to the current version (as of 25 July 09) Some times the computer will start up fine - others 3 - 4 times pulling the power connector and hitting the power button will resolve the problem. Once the computer finishes POST - I hear a beep and I know the computer will boot. Other times the fans, etc are on however no beep(ing) just a blank screen.

Overall Review: The built in video is "low" end - but will work well for a dedicated file / print server without any issues. Once I benched marked the video I decided to upgrade the video to run some limited games. I just found the best video card under 100 dollars that generated "low" heat and it works fine. If you are playing half-life 2 - or run vista you will need a better video card.

rock sold and flexable

Linksys WRT54GL 802.11b/g Wireless Broadband Router up to 54 Mbps/ Compatible with Open Source DD-WRT (not pre-load)
Linksys WRT54GL 802.11b/g Wireless Broadband Router up to 54 Mbps/ Compatible with Open Source DD-WRT (not pre-load)

Pros: Odd getting a router - to use it as a bridge - but within a few hours of opening the box - upgraded the s/w with with dd-wrt firmware upgrade. I have tried other linksys bridges and they left much to be desired. This is my second linksys route and it works well.

Cons: baseline linksys firmware - can be a bit flaky without the upgrade to dd-wrt.

Overall Review: I have two linksys wrt54gl routers - they work quite well both provide very good support. One is used as a bridge - the other - classical wireless router. If you continue to use the baseline linksys firmware and have issues - try the www.linksys.com/connect to help iron out those issues