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Eric M.

Eric M.

Joined on 08/20/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 23
Most Favorable Review

Good budget card

Rosewill RC-209-EX PCI 2.3, 32bit, 33/66Mhz SATA Controller Card
Rosewill RC-209-EX PCI 2.3, 32bit, 33/66Mhz SATA Controller Card

Pros: Easy setup, worked without issue on XP 64bit. Very cheap price for what you get.

Cons: As others have said, the jumpers are a bit confusing. Just use some common sense (or maybe just dumb luck with trying random combinations), it's really not as bad as people make it seem.

Overall Review: I haven't done testing to see how fast it is yet, but it doesn't seem any slower (judging by network transfer speeds over gigabit). Previously I've had problems with this chipset and 64bit, but this worked with the drivers that came on the cd. I would deffinatley buy again.

Most Critical Review

Flawed Product

Corsair Force 2.5" 115GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-F115GB2-BRKT-A
Corsair Force 2.5" 115GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-F115GB2-BRKT-A

Pros: Was very fast, and a good price for the speed. From now on I won't build another computer for myself that doesn't use an SSD for the boot drive, it is the future.

Cons: Died in 7 months. Locked up windows without warning, hung the BIOS. If you let it sit for 15 minutes it will run again, almost like it's overheating? It's cool to the touch and well ventilated in my case, so I doubt heat was the issue.

Overall Review: I can't trust that the replacement will not have the flaw that this drive does. I've had other Corsair products that were very high quality in the past, I'm very disappointed with this drive however. I'll be buying another drive for windows to sit on because I don't want to reinstall windows every 6 months.

Great card for the money

VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card 900244
VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card 900244

Pros: Plays every game I've thrown at it with completely maxed out settings at 1920x1080. I've only got a s939 A64X2 @ 2.8ghz with 2gb of DDR 400, so I would assume on a higher system it would run even better. L4D, TF2, UT3, Fuel, it doesn't matter, this thing runs like a champ.

Cons: I didn't notice till I read other reviews that the card pictured is not the card I received. The one I got works fine, but the cooler is loud when the fan spins up past 30% (which so far has not happened yet, it only goes up to full when I start up the computer). The cooler is more like the Arctic Cooling Arctic Silencer coolers of a few years ago (or the IceQ coolers).

Overall Review: I was able to drag both sliders for the clock and memory all the way up to the ATI CCC max (790x1100). I'll probably try using riv@tuner to get the clocks up higher, but for now I don't really need it because it runs fine.

Make your friends drool

Acer X233Hbid Black 23" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 40000:1 (ACM)
Acer X233Hbid Black 23" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 40000:1 (ACM)

Pros: Fairly high contrast for the money, great color, decent viewing angle (does not fade out at high angles like a lot of cheap panels do). This also comes with an HDMI cable, VGA, and DVI. Try finding that at Best Buy

Cons: I wish it had a piano black finish like many monitors do, but the dark matte grey is starting to grow on me. The base does feel a bit spindly, but there shouldn't ever be a situation where you'd need them to support a ton of weight. My only other complaint is that it's only 60hz at 1920x1080.

Overall Review: No dead/stuck pixels, which was my main concern. I also did not realize that the max refresh rate of 75hz was not at 1920x1080. 1080 has a max refresh of 60hz. That was my fault of not researching more, but I'm still a bit disappointed in this. Also, if you're worried that 5ms is too slow, I really haven't noticed any ghosting in games like older LCDs did. I played for a few hours today and noticed no issues with the speed of the panel.

Best Power Supply I've Ever Had

CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-650TX 650 W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply & New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-650TX 650 W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply & New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

Pros: Very stable voltages, even with heavy overclocking. The modular cables are awesome, and I don't know if I could ever go back to not having that (beside the fact it's expensive). I did my research, and read the reviews on professional sites, and I am glad I made the choice for this supply. Did I mention it's also quiet?

Cons: My old supply had a louder but faster spinning fan that reduced my case temps by quite a bit. This one has a temperature sensor to control the fan speed, which makes it quiet, but also means that unless it gets really warm in my case, it doesn't move much air.

Overall Review: All of my roomates were impressed with how heavy and aesthetically pleasing the supply is.I build lots of computers for friends, family, and buisnesses. I will deffinately be including this supply in the ones that require stability as a major requirement. The stability of my own computer has greatly improved since I bought this. Overclocking in the past gave me voltage fluctuations that would sometimes lead to crashes.

Does what it says

ADATA Speedy 1GB Secure Digital (SD) Flash Card Model SD-1G
ADATA Speedy 1GB Secure Digital (SD) Flash Card Model SD-1G

Pros: Works. Good size for the price.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: I bought 2 cards, and both work. I really haven't done the necessary speed testing to see if it's rated correctly, but it does seem to be fairly fast.