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Andrei B.

Andrei B.

Joined on 09/11/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 29
Most Favorable Review

Good Buy!

ASUS Vintage V2-AH2 AMD Socket AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Barebone
ASUS Vintage V2-AH2 AMD Socket AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Barebone

Pros: I bought two of these and they both worked fine. G.SKILL memory worked with no problems. 64-bit winxp pro installed without problems (I mean compatibility with this hardware; xp64 has MANY problems in general I wish I would have stuck to 32-bit. You just don't find drivers for anything - no driver for usb printer, no driver for usb cable modem, etc. Many things are subtly broken.). 64-bit CentOS (a linux distro) worked OK on this hardware, except for sound. I don't really use sound under linux so I haven't tried hard. It just doesn't work out of box; you can probably get it to work if you fidget enough. Onboard video is good enough for my purposes; it's quite a saving over getting a video card; plus, it's less hassle too. Great that it comes with a SATA data cable. Fans are REALLY QUIET.

Cons: Way too many legacy power cables in case and too few SATA. There are plenty of SATA data ports; just too few SATA power cables. But I guess most HDDs will suppport legacy power for quite some time into the future.

Overall Review: Dunno if the price is right for this. It was my first time putting together PCs, so I decided to get barebones. Next time I will probably try to buy case separate from mobo if it turns out to be cheaper. I don't think it is though, once you add the shipping. I guess that would just give you a wider selection of mobos. If you're worried about Linux compatibility, just stick to nVidia stuff and you can't mess up too badly.

Most Critical Review

Okay-ish

Sennheiser PMX40 3.5mm Connector Supra-aural Neckband Headphone
Sennheiser PMX40 3.5mm Connector Supra-aural Neckband Headphone

Pros: Small and solid construction - they don't look like they will break any time soon.

Cons: Sound quality is not up to what I expected from this brand; I'd say it's below average compared to others in its price range.

Overall Review: Like others have said they can get uncomfortable after a while. I guess they're OK for commuting and utility/backup use but "at home" you want circumaurals.

works great

BIOSTAR A68N-2100 AMD E1-2100 Dual-Core APU Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU / VGA Combo
BIOSTAR A68N-2100 AMD E1-2100 Dual-Core APU Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU / VGA Combo

Pros: low cost, fanless

Cons: none

Overall Review: As other reviewers have noted, this board won't give you blazing fast performance. But, if, like me, you value the peace and quiet of a fanless system, and you mainly plan to do work on the machine rather than gaming/youtube, you'll probably find that this is exactly what you're looking for.

Awesome

TP-Link TL-WA801ND 300 Mbps Wireless N Access Point
TP-Link TL-WA801ND 300 Mbps Wireless N Access Point

Pros: Flawless linux support without having to build a kernel module. Very fast compared to the smaller usb wireless adapters (naturally).

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I'm buying another one. With the Edimax "world's smallest" usb wireless adapter I was getting multi-second stalls regularily and pitiful average transfer speed, so this is vastly superior in comparison since it actually -works-.

nice auto soap

Rosewill RHSD-11001SS Automated Soap Dispenser
Rosewill RHSD-11001SS Automated Soap Dispenser

Pros: Dispenses soap automatically. Washing my hands hasn't been this fun in a while!

Cons: The motor isn't as fast as simply pumping a jot of soap by hand. The average automatic soap dispenser in a public restroom seems faster to me. But I'm still using it since it's more convenient and more aesthetically pleasing than a hand pump soap dispenser (they get messy quickly, don't they?) I'm not sure I would pay for a new dispenser if this one breaks (I got it free with another product) -- it's nice but I kind of feel like I don't really need my handwashing experience to be this high-tech ...

Overall Review: Contrary to the experience of other reviewers, my own experience is that the dispenser -does- work in well-lit areas also, not just in the dark. The sensor is more accurate in the dark, however. It takes a few tries to learn the correct hand trajectory that triggers the sensor when the lights are on. But with a bit of user experience, it works fine (at least for me -- granted, my bathroom isn't lit by a bank of HID lamps ...).

10/21/2012

Amazing!

ASUS C60M1-I AMD Fusion APU C-60 (1.0 GHz, dual core) AMD Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo
ASUS C60M1-I AMD Fusion APU C-60 (1.0 GHz, dual core) AMD Hudson M1 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo

Pros: Great price/performance ratio. Cheaper boards don't seem to have DVI, and Gigabit LAN is always nice; one less thing to upgrade in the future.

Cons: Ultra-cheap stock CPU fan. If you are going for low noise, definitely plan to replace the stock fan. No need to replace the heatsink; just the fan. The stock heatsink may not have heatpipes, but it's perfectly adequate for the included processor model.