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Brandon M.

Brandon M.

Joined on 06/17/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 9
Most Favorable Review

Nice drive.

Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD6000HLHX 600GB 10000 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD6000HLHX 600GB 10000 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: I bought this to replace an old WD 250gb w/16 mb cache, 7200 rpm. The VR is definitely faster and surprisingly, more quiet. Drive does come with the Icepack heatsink. I'm pretty happy with it so far. Hopefully someone will remove some of the reviews below- personally, I want to read USER reviews, not hypothetical tech-rants.

Cons: None. For those ranting below that this is useless due to SSD's... umm, ok... send me 600 gigs worth of SSDs, please, because I sure can't afford it.

Overall Review: Took about half an hour to clone my old drive onto this one using the WD Acronis software (available on WD's site- kinda nice, saved me 50 bucks). Sooner or later I'll buy an SSD for the OS and a big drive for music/movies- the VR is for programs, games and whatnot.

Most Critical Review

Disgruntled

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Cheap. Supposedly fast.

Cons: Would not format- bad sector. Locked up computer. I was forced to restart the computer, at which point the bios would no longer recognize that there was a sata drive present.

Overall Review: Going to RMA. Ordered parts to build a new 'puter, and out of all the components, this was the only one I had a problem with. A big "Bah Humbug" to WD... although I suppose I'll give this model one more shot.

12/18/2006

Awesome

RAZER Vespula Dual-Sided Gaming Mouse Mat
RAZER Vespula Dual-Sided Gaming Mouse Mat

Pros: Works great. The difference between this and a regular foam/cloth mousepad was huge to me. The Vespula in combination with a G9(x) gives the mouse almost a frictionless feel; I amused myself for a while by tapping the mouse very gently and watching it go sliding across the pad. Well made, I've had zero issues with it staying together or wearing down... not sure if some of the other reviewers got poorly made batches or if Razer switched manufacturers, but I've had mine for years now with no problem. Wristpad works great, and the mat it's attached to does a pretty good job of keeping the Vespula in place (unlike mousepads I've used before which I had to constantly readjust while gaming).

Cons: Seems to wear down the pads on the bottom of the G9, but I can't say for sure it's the Vespula- for all I know it would happen with other mouse pads too, I've never used any others. The residue from the G9's bottom pads leaves kind of a black gunk on the Vespula that interferes with tracking. Not a huge issue, just needs to be wiped off every week or two.

Overall Review: It's expensive but worth it in my opinion. I've had this for 4 years or so, and I've been spared the usual parade of short-lived foam mats that obnoxiously slide around the desk and don't have anywhere near the same feel as this pad anyways. There's a little bit of sticker shock with this pad at first, but knowing what I know now I'd probably be willing to spend even a little more.

Best printer I've owned so far

HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web C309 CD734A Up to 33 ppm 9600 x 2400 dpi Wireless InkJet MFC / All-In-One Color Printer
HP Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web C309 CD734A Up to 33 ppm 9600 x 2400 dpi Wireless InkJet MFC / All-In-One Color Printer

Pros: Nice quality prints, quiet when printing, looks really nice- no more hiding our printer in the corner. The interface is pretty intuitive. The apps are amusing/fun. I've had a grand total of one (1) paper jam in the last 6 months. Also, it's very easy to set up the wireless on this thing. And you can print pics straight from your cell phone- nifty, just make sure your teen doesn't use up all your ink.

Cons: No feed tray for us lazy folk. Seriously though, at my last job I had to do quite a bit of copying at home and the lack of a feed tray would have been a deal-breaker. The price is steep... then again, the Touchsmart is so versatile it's hard to complain.

Overall Review: I had an HP 7200 series prior to the Touchsmart... it was nice, but the wireless was a nightmare and it growled and shook like it was possessed whenever it was printing. I'm glad to see that HP has refined their All-in-one series.

Works well

COOLER MASTER RR-B20-N620-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
COOLER MASTER RR-B20-N620-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

Pros: Works fairly well- my first non-stock heatsink, and while I wouldn't say it's noob-friendly, it wasn't too hard to install. I have a phenom 965 oc'd to 3.88, runs at 38 C during normal operation, about 5-10 C higher when gaming. I'm happy with it.

Cons: None yet.

Overall Review: Used arctic silver for thermal paste; stock stuff was like clay. Fits just fine on a Crosshair 3 mb, no memory issues- but if your memory comes with a fan, it won't fit completely over the memory due to the N620 (memory fan covers 3 out of 4 sticks).

To N/A below

ASUS 21.5" LCD Monitor 2ms(GTG) 1920 x 1080 D-Sub, HDMI MS Series MS228H
ASUS 21.5" LCD Monitor 2ms(GTG) 1920 x 1080 D-Sub, HDMI MS Series MS228H

Pros: About the black border, that's actually an issue with the ATI card. If you go into the Catalyst Center, go to Desktops and Displays, click on the monitor in the lower left hand corner, and choose Configure. Go to scaling, set overscan to 0 and check "use the scaling values" at the bottom. Your black border will be gone. Happens with more than just this monitor, I believe.

Cons: None.