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Dave K.

Dave K.

Joined on 11/07/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 9
Most Favorable Review

Does the job

PNY Quadro NVS 310 VCNVS310DP-PB 512MB 64-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile Graphics Card
PNY Quadro NVS 310 VCNVS310DP-PB 512MB 64-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile Graphics Card

Pros: I have a few dozen of these in our office computers, roughly ~30 NVS310s installed. All of them worked out of the box. None have given us any issues. No lines on the screen, no fuzziness or blurred aspects.

Cons: As the picture shows, they should come with adapters. Mine didn't. We have mostly HP monitors, so it wasn't that big of a deal, but anyone ordering these video cards needs to know that they really should have proprietary HP adapters for non-HP monitors.

Overall Review: They work. Easy to install, quick to recognize, no driver issues. Small factor form support for dual monitors, what else could you ask for?

Most Critical Review

Not worth the money, time, effort

ASRock Z97M OC Formula LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
ASRock Z97M OC Formula LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Looks cool. Nice GUI for the bios. That's it.

Cons: Mobo would randomly stop recognizing my other components, especially the SSDs after OS installation. I had a build, installed mobo, set up two SSDs in a raid 0. Installed the OS. Everything worked fine for a few days. Within a week the mobo would start giving me errors on one of the SSDs. Errors turned into the mobo not recognizing one of the SSDs entirely. Since this is a raid 0 I would have to reinstall everything. I have 10 SSDs, all same size and model. Removed bad one, installed a replacement. Again installed OS, ran fine for a few days. Again one of the SSDs would throw errors then would stop being recognized. I changed out the SSDs, cables, and SATA ports on the mobo. Applied bios update. Final time tried to get the mobo working. Again, setup raid 0 and OS install. Again, a few days later errors followed by drive recognition failure. At this point I rotated six SSDs which worked fine in my other systems. Now I had two choices, spin the wheel and hope that AS Rock's support could assist me or return to newegg. As the time frame for a refund was running out I returned it to newegg.

Overall Review: Really not worth it. Other reviews have stated the problems they have had. Given the frequency of negative reviews I'd recommend steering clear of this. I ended up going with a brand I'm more familiar with, MSI. No problems with the new board. Fifteen years of building PCs (and servers) and have never had a problem out of box. Thanks for breaking that cherry AS Rock.

Works

TP-Link TL-ANT2408C 2.4GHz 8dBi Indoor Desktop Omni-directional Antenna
TP-Link TL-ANT2408C 2.4GHz 8dBi Indoor Desktop Omni-directional Antenna

Pros: Bottom line, it works. If you must go over wifi and your current signal is weak this will boost it. It helps being able to move the antenna several feet away from your computer for optimal placement.

Cons: Can't complain with improved signal reception

Overall Review: I have two of these paired with two different model TS-link cards. One of these antennas is plugged directly into the wireless card. The other antenna is plugged into a wireless card via an extended 30' shielded cable. Cabling isn't an option but these wifi antennas definitely help to fill that gap. Wireless through a storey and two walls, strong reception.

Works great!

TP-LINK TL-WN751ND Wireless N150 PCI Adapter, 150Mbps, IEEE 802.11b/g/n, WEP, WPA/WPA2
TP-LINK TL-WN751ND Wireless N150 PCI Adapter, 150Mbps, IEEE 802.11b/g/n, WEP, WPA/WPA2

Pros: Ordered as a wireless card for a second workstation. I paired this with a TS-Link Antenna, TL-ANT2408C. I receive a better signal than my TS-Link card in my other computer with the same antenna attached. Router is on the other side of house. Through the second floor, two walls, still strong signal. Couldn't argue with the price of $20 on sale. Paired with the antenna it's still cheaper than most other wireless cards out there.

Cons: None as of yet

Overall Review: I didn't use the drivers on the disk, downloaded them from the website. Those from the web are perfectly. Didn't use any additional software apart from the drivers.

Works Well

GIGABYTE GV-N660OC-2GD G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
GIGABYTE GV-N660OC-2GD G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Pros: The card can run all of my games at max settings without frame loss. Runs cool, I haven't seen it above 130F. Very quiet, even under load. I have my computer in my room and I don't notice the fan noise, but perhaps I've been conditioned to ignore it by now.

Cons: Tends to overcook the eggs, poor at spreading jam on toast. Would not recommend for a kitchen utensil.

Overall Review: I don't play the most high-end games, so this card was ideal for my needs. Currently I have this in a five year old Dell T5400 workstation. Not a top of the line computer but it still holds its own. Regardless, my computer has PCI 2.0 slot, so this card is backwards compatible as advertised. I bought this card three months ago. At the time it was hovering around $150 - $160, so for performance versus price it was a great deal. By happenstance my friend purchased the same card two weeks after I did for the same reason. Now that the price is up to just shy of $200 you might be able to find a better bang for your buck in another card. I wanted a card which would last me several years; a card which would allow me to SLI should I chose to later. Hence the 3.0 card in a 2.0 slot. Perhaps in a year or so I'll get around to building a new computer, or obtaining another discarded workstation from work, then I'll buy a second and SLI away. I see no performance loss in the 2.0 slot, but then again that's not surprising as there's no card on the market which can exceed the 2.0 bus.

Quality doesn't fade

Intel Pentium 4 630 - Pentium 4 Prescott Single-Core 3.0 GHz LGA 775 EM64T Processor - BX80547PG3000F
Intel Pentium 4 630 - Pentium 4 Prescott Single-Core 3.0 GHz LGA 775 EM64T Processor - BX80547PG3000F

Pros: Performs well. Stable, reliable, can still pull its weight. Of course this chip is several years old, but how many programs actually take advantage of multiple cores? Count them on your hand. 64-bit obviously allows you to run XP or Vista based on 64-bit.

Cons: Some people lacking proper case ventilation will probably want to consider a third party heatsink/fan. This processor can run a little warm. I wouldn't want to spend any more than $60 on a chip such as this due to its age and cost/performance ration of anything newer. But Newegg needs to make money to provide outstanding service and quality products.

Overall Review: I didn't buy this processor from Newegg (still vibrantly recommend them though); rather used from e b a y. One reason I like this chip, and most from Intel, is that despite the age or usage it's still completely reliable. People need to stop comparing this to the Core 2 Duos and newer chips. Obviously the Core 2 Duos and subsequent chips are going to be faster, as newer chips always are. I do agree if you are doing anything other than upgrading an older computer with a specific chipset, go with a more up to date chip.