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Brian A.

Brian A.

Joined on 10/06/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 21
Most Favorable Review

Nice Refrigerator

XCLIO Windtunnel Fully Black Finish 1.0 mm SECC Chassis ATX Full Tower Computer Case
XCLIO Windtunnel Fully Black Finish 1.0 mm SECC Chassis ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: I bought this case because of the two 250mm fans and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of cooling they provide. This is the best cooling case I have yet tried and I have tried many. I am running an E6850 overclocked to 3.6 ghz and using Zalman 9500 I am getting idle temps of 29 degrees and two fanless 8600 video cards idle at 40 and 44 degrees. ... Awesome cooling. It's like an air conditioned room for your computer. This case makes water cooling a joke. And it is quiet...did i mention that I am running the fans on low. I also have one 120 mm intake in front of the hard drives and one 120 mm exhause behind the CPU cooler. (Cooler Master fans)

Cons: None

Overall Review: Evga 680i, E6850 @ 3.6ghz, PNY DDR2 @1200mhz, Xclio Wind Tunnell, 2 Samsung 500GB

Most Critical Review

Not Worth the Bother

Acronis True Image Home - 2009
Acronis True Image Home - 2009

Pros: It might work for some applications

Cons: It didn't work for me, just a waste of my money. I am very disappointed with this crapware. Would not recognise my G.Skill Solid State Drive even though Windows and bios did recognise it. After hours of aggravation I downloaded a freeware clone program which worked the first try.

The best

GARMIN Mobile PC (software only) North America
GARMIN Mobile PC (software only) North America

Pros: This is the best GPS software I have ever used... It is simple and it just works. It is suited very well to a small screen, my 7" Viliv EX70 is very easy to read even without my glasses. I have another program by a major software publisher which was just too cumbersome to use and it doesn't have half the features of this. We used it recently to navigate to the New England Air Museum. I never looked at a map and I deliberately went off course and it automatically recalculated my route from where I was. The other program I had would just keep saying "off route" without ever guiding me back until I stopped and gave it the command to recalculate. When we left the museum I just clicked the icon with my finger for food KFC and it told me exactly where it was.

Cons: none

Overall Review: This makes GPS navigation painless

10/19/2009

Absolutely Awesome

ZALMAN VNF100 High Performance Fanless VGA Cooler
ZALMAN VNF100 High Performance Fanless VGA Cooler

Pros: NewEgg had it delivered in 2 days This awesome heat sink lowered my temps by 20C Even was able to make it fit my Nvidia 9400GT with minor mod. Replaced the fanless heatsink with this and I am now getting 20c lower temps and this is before the AC 5 has not had chance so set yet Haven't seen my temp go over 49c after watching video over 1 hour. Right now it is 40c

Cons: None... this thing is worth every penny

Overall Review: Had to break off some aluminium fins on the underside to clear some high capacitors on my 9400GT but my card isn't listed as compatible. The only fan on my computer is the Zalman CNPS 8700 CPU cooler and I am loving the cool silence. The CNPS 8700 cools the 3.0ghz E8400 and the overflow cools my video card now.

Big Disappointment

GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: I works as good as any basic board NewEgg and UPS shipping is fantastic...super-fast shipping and delivery.

Cons: Does not recognise Solid State Drives while my $40 other brand board has no problem with the same drive. Sound with HDMI doesn't work. While my 3 year old Tablet PC has no problem.

Overall Review: This is the second time I have been disappointed by a Gigabyte board...I will not buy this brand again. A motherboard aimed at the HTPC segment should be able to do both sound and HDMI together and it should be able to read Solid State Drives. Not worth the hassle or money I paid.

Best Windows Yet

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit for System Builders
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit for System Builders

Pros: I am impressed with Vista I have resisted Vista since it first came out because of all the negative reviews but I finally gave in because I wanted to be able to go 64bit and XP 64 is orphaned already. If people would only take the time to learn how to adjust to the settings that best suit them they would be much happier with Vista. The same thing happened with the first release of Windows when we were using DOS and then it happened again with Windows 95 and Windows XP... people resist change but this change has proven to be good

Cons: None with this Operating System

Overall Review: Lubic Aerocool Case (Open Frame) no fans Intel Core i7 920 OC @ 4.2ghz Cooler Master V8 Cooler 6GB (2 x 2GB) Corsair Dominator 1600mhz Nvidia 9800GTX+ 2 Intel Solid State HD in RAID 0 Corsair TX750W PSU Vista Ultamate 64 bit