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Chris B.

Chris B.

Joined on 08/11/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

Outstanding Value

Transcend 8GB microSDHC Flash Card Model TS8GUSDHC6
Transcend 8GB microSDHC Flash Card Model TS8GUSDHC6

Pros: Popped it in and it worked, no fuss. Great bang for the buck.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Installed in Motorola v750m Adventure. Tested via video recording and mp3 transfers. The phone has no issues with the card. Good product.

11/24/2008
Most Critical Review

Does Not Solve the Problem

Sony SS-CR3000 Three Speaker Package
Sony SS-CR3000 Three Speaker Package

Pros: Cute little speakers that provide mid-range frequencies for the partially deaf.

Cons: Incorrect specifications given. The center channel contains only two drivers, both are 2.75"; there is no tweeter. The satellites each have only one driver, being 2.75".

Overall Review: For acceptable frequency response, you need to add both a subwoofer and a center channel tweeter.

Solid Performer

DELL Desktop PC XPS 8500 (X8500-4726BK) Intel Core i7-3770 12GB DDR3 2TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 1GB GDDR5 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
DELL Desktop PC XPS 8500 (X8500-4726BK) Intel Core i7-3770 12GB DDR3 2TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 1GB GDDR5 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

Pros: Great configuration: i7 Kepler GPU wt 1 GB GDDR5 12 GB RAM 2 TB HDD Front and back USB 3 Memory card reader WiFi Bluetooth Win7-64 Runs fairly quiet and cool. Good performance all around. Dell is good about keeping drivers and BIOS available for update.

Cons: Has only 1 SATA III (6 gbps) port. Does not include drive rails for adding another HDD. "Front" headphone jack is actually on top of the machine towards the back (need long headphone cable). GPU is not as powerful as you might expect from a Kepler-based board. Does not have an LED to indicate when the PC is sleeping. You may want a better keyboard.

Overall Review: Adding an SSD as you primary drive, the included 2 TB drive will need to move to an SATA II port (or you can add an SATA III controller card to the machine). This PC is such a solid deal, I purchased two of them.

Just Needs Some Explanation

SYBA USB 3.0 PCI-e Card with HDD Power Connector (3 + 1 Ports) Model SD-PEX20080
SYBA USB 3.0 PCI-e Card with HDD Power Connector (3 + 1 Ports) Model SD-PEX20080

Pros: Provides 3 external USB 3 ports, 1 internal USB port.

Cons: Needs 5V power to be supplied via Molex connector. This is not optional as might be implied by the included instructions; the card will not function at all without it. Works fine with this power connection.

Overall Review: Uses a x1 PCI Express 2.0 slot. The included instructions point you to a third party website for the drivers (VIA). The drivers found there are newer than those found on SYBA's website. SYBA's website does not mention the third party website. Performance of the card is fine; I deducted a star due to the sketchy documentation. OptiPlex 790, i7, Q65 chipset, Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

Sweet Mobile Drive

HGST 500GB Touro Mobile Pro External Hard Drive USB 3.0 Model 0S03105 Black
HGST 500GB Touro Mobile Pro External Hard Drive USB 3.0 Model 0S03105 Black

Pros: USB 3 speeds. USB 3 cable included (can be plugged into USB 2 port if need be). Requires no additional power (just that which is delivered via a single USB 2 or USB 3 port). Compact, lightweight, and stylish, with a nice blue LED access indicator (not too bright). Runs cool and silent. Included software for Hitachi Backup is surprisingly good (slick and simple). I was offered a plan for 250 GB of on-line storage for 3 years at $110 total (that's only $3 per month, breakthrough pricing for cloud storage). This allows me to back-up data from any number of computers (not just the data that is on this Hitachi drive).

Cons: The included USB 3 cable is short (like, 18"), so it is just barely long enough to be usable if your ports are located behind a desktop computer.

Overall Review: Rarely am I so pleased with a purchase. Very smart design. The on-line storage deal solves my ultimate problem by securing my most important files off-site.

Did the Trick

ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro - Compact Multi-Compatible Tower CPU Cooler | 92 mm PWM Fan | for AMD AM4 and Intel 115x CPU | Recommended up to 115 W TDP
ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro - Compact Multi-Compatible Tower CPU Cooler | 92 mm PWM Fan | for AMD AM4 and Intel 115x CPU | Recommended up to 115 W TDP

Pros: Dropped the idle temp of my 3.4 GHz (not overclocked) P4 550 by 5C, but load temperature dropped by over 15C, now never exceeding high 50s (using integrated TIM). Reasonably quiet. Newegg rocks.

Cons: Documentation sucks.

Overall Review: Despite large size, worked very well in Antec Sonata case with Intel D915GEV motherboard. Play with the retention pegs before installing to fully understand how they operate.