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Igor P.

Igor P.

Joined on 02/26/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

Great HTPC

Giada MI-R880G-01 AM3 AMD 880G ATI 4250 HDMI+VGA eSATA ITX Motherboard
Giada MI-R880G-01 AM3 AMD 880G ATI 4250 HDMI+VGA eSATA ITX Motherboard

Pros: Cheap Small NB + SB are one of the best available for mini mb, even compared to other mini MB sold on newegg ATI Radeon HD 4250 with HDMI out 1GB LAN

Cons: Sound through HDMI is set through BIOS. Took me a few hours of driver installs to finally figure it out.

Overall Review: Perfect for a small client HTPC. Runs Ceton infinitv 4 with no issues (2 tuners through 1GB lan). Runs 1080 bluray with no issues. One of the best buys for the money. Board ($75) AMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor 3.2GHz ($63) G.SKILL NS 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ($20) HD from an old laptop($0) Old Case ($0) Total $170 after taxes + shipping.

Most Critical Review

Nomore seagate

Seagate BarraCuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Seagate BarraCuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: It worked for 31 days,

Cons: - 1st one failed after 1 day. - 2nd one failed after 31 days. (about 100 hours of write use and 10 hours of read use)

Overall Review: I have used Seagate hard drive in ever pc i ever built. I will never buy another drive from Seagate. The first drive failed within 24 hours. Second drive lasted long enough where it is no longer covered under neweggs warranty. This drive was used in a HTPC set up. I was able to copy 250 movies from my DVD collection to the drive. I watched 3 movies before the clicking started and the drive stopped working. Both drives had updated firmware. I'm completely shocked by Seagate. I have come to expect more. This has cost me = Original Sales price + Return Shipping + 100 hours of wasted time. And i got 10 hours of use out of it.

12/31/2008

Good

ASUS M4A78LT-M AM3 AMD 760G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
ASUS M4A78LT-M AM3 AMD 760G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Price HDMI out without any issues. Small enough for HTPC with rooms to add extras.

Cons: First board was DOA

Overall Review: Great for cheap HTPC. Throw 2 GB of RAM and cheap CPU (AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz). Running win7. HD no problem

Good Drive

SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 ST2000DL004 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 ST2000DL004 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Great Price. Low Heat/Noise Great for HTPC.

Cons: None

Smallest micro case on the market

COOLER MASTER Elite 100 RC-100-KKP3-GP Black Steel / Plastic MITX/MATX Slim Case Computer Case Flex ATX 150W, Active PFC Power Supply
COOLER MASTER Elite 100 RC-100-KKP3-GP Black Steel / Plastic MITX/MATX Slim Case Computer Case Flex ATX 150W, Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: - Fits MicroATX - Very small - Pretty good price - Enough room to fit everything you need for a good HTPC build

Cons: - PSU fan is a bit noisy. (I only notice it when the TV is muted) - Doesn't fit a 3.5 hardrive when using a micro board. It clearly says that on their site, but i thought i would be able to fit it (i was not).

Overall Review: For the money this is a great case. Perfect for an HTPC build. I bought this because I had an old Mirco board lying around. (ASUS M3N78-EMH HDMI). The board fit with only little modification. I had to break of the little handle from the PCI Express X16 slot for the Power Supply to fit. I’m really impressed by the design, no space is wasted. The airflow is very good for a case this small. The system runs only about 2-4 deg hotter than it did in a full case.

Must have for HTPC house

LINKSYS DMA2100 Media Center Extender
LINKSYS DMA2100 Media Center Extender

Pros: Fast/Easy set up. Quick menu navigation. Quick start up (~20 sec). No access noise. No access heat. Very small profile.

Cons: Some video files have to be converter to a different format. (VOB).

Overall Review: WOW. - This is a must have for a Vista MCE HTPC house. The menu navigation and overall response is the same as on the main HTPC. Video quality is the same as on the main HTPC. - HTPC Specs; 2.3 AMD (AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400) 2 GB Ram. - I have the main HTPC in the living room and this in the master bedroom. I will buying another one for the basement gym. - The remote looks cheap but it gets the job done, no complains from me.

12/29/2008