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Webjogger P.

Webjogger P.

Joined on 10/12/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 9
Most Favorable Review

everything and chips

GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: every connector you need internal and external. period. hdmi works great for vid and audio out. CPU and Case fan control is very versatile and a kicken feature for HTPCs. No need for the hard knobs or controls to slow fan speed.

Cons: memory is little close to processor. I used a wider cooler and it blocks use of mem slot 1. ZALMAN CNPS7000C I noticed some video artifacts over the hdmi but they stopped after bios update.

Overall Review: without additional graphics this will give you a 4.x on the win7 experience rating. Perfect for media center but if its your serious gaming rig as well get an additional card.

Most Critical Review

sending back defect tomorrow

IOGEAR GKM561R Black 2.4GHz Wireless HTPC Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel
IOGEAR GKM561R Black 2.4GHz Wireless HTPC Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel

Pros: Right size, trackball included, rf wireless and not IR

Cons: defective. when you click the mouse buttons it makes the mouse move erratically.

Overall Review: keyboard types fine and trackball works fine but the buttons are bad. Contacted IOGear support hoping there was some simple fix but they immediately came back with the information that it was defective ... rather then having me try anything to fix issue. And based on their comments on here its quite apparent they made a bad batch ... or hopefully for them its not bad design period. The price and integration mean I wanted meant I went for a replacement ... we will have to see if it works when it gets here. Maybe IOGear will pick up the shipping charge for the return ... we can all dream.

fast, reliable.

HP Officejet Pro 8500 CB022A Up to 35 ppm Black Print Speed 4800 x 1200 dpi Color Print Quality Ethernet (RJ-45) / USB InkJet MFC / All-In-One Color Printer
HP Officejet Pro 8500 CB022A Up to 35 ppm Black Print Speed 4800 x 1200 dpi Color Print Quality Ethernet (RJ-45) / USB InkJet MFC / All-In-One Color Printer

Pros: Fast, Reliable, the built in scanning features are great for small business/home. Does multi page scanning no problem. Copies cleanly should you want to copy stuff ...

Cons: Size? Well it is big but for the features its expected. Scanner is not crazy fast like some of these next gen scanners out now but it does the job. Faster with simple pages (text) and it can tell whats what.

Overall Review: I have used mine for a year, have installed for customers who also love them. Software for full features is bulky for old systems (single core, low memory types) but not a problem for even low end new systems.

BEST $ HTPC Do it RIGHT!

Acer Desktop PC AspireRevo AR1600-U910H Intel Atom 230 1GB DDR2 160GB HDD Windows XP Home
Acer Desktop PC AspireRevo AR1600-U910H Intel Atom 230 1GB DDR2 160GB HDD Windows XP Home

Pros: Price, Size, ION chipset!, HDMI out, Low Noise, Plenty of USB for such a small box. Somewhat stylish key and mouse.

Cons: bloatware. I'd recommend OS reinstall and tweaking to get the most out of it. 1/8th audio jacks should be on back with the rest make them hard to use if you want to tie them into older audio system. Fine for headphones. Key and mouse are not wireless ... not that you expect it for the price but you really need it for HTPC.

Overall Review: If your not playing HD video 720p+ smoothly your - NOT DOING IT RIGHT - . You need the new drivers AND the new Codec Packs that support ION decoding. This thing plays 720p with 6% CPU. FLASH NOTE!: For some strange reason the newest Flash 10.1 beta (beta 3) doesn't work as well with the revo 1600. Search the tubes and get Beta release 1 from someones archive. With beta 1 HULU plays HD no problem. With BETA 3 Flash is jerky.

3 smart benjamins

Sceptre 32" 720p LCD HDTV
Sceptre 32" 720p LCD HDTV

Pros: Price. Good amount of inputs for price range. Arrived 48hours after order (newegg!) Includes 1 hdmi cable. Despite being 720p the decoder supports 1080p so it will downscale 1080p if you have a device outputting to it. Remote has a couple nice quick access buttons like for 'aspect' ratio which older systems you had to fight menus to change. hit 5 egg, while this might not stand up to high end brands, for the price it gets the job done and then some.

Cons: Out of current norm resolution (see thoughts below) Remote does feel lite and cheap but works. TV has strange reaction to remote, like you can't change volume and immediately change channel until the volume slider goes off the screen. Minor but annoying. Sound, as others said, is fine but lacks bass and most of the premade quick settings sound like junk. You really need to set the sound settings yourself. Only has optical audio out so unless you have a spare optical in on your stereo your out of luck.

Overall Review: Had $500 for a TV in spare room ... got this and an aspire revo 1600 ... great combo. You have to fight a little to make it look right though.... Any computer with HDMI out will think this thing wants either 1080p or 720p and both look like garbage because the computer will output real 1280x720 resolution and this tv will scale it to fit its native resolution. You need to create a custom resolution so the hdmi spits out 1366x768 exactly ... then it looks great. With nvidia cards you need newest drivers PLUS the system update pack to enable creation of custom resolutions.

Junk Bad Manufacturing

Rosewill RV300 300 W ATX12V Power Supply
Rosewill RV300 300 W ATX12V Power Supply

Pros: Your only throwing away a little amount of money.

Cons: Bought 2 just for quick cheap spares. First one died after 5 months. Took it apart ... the ground cable inside the supply was not attached and fell on hot wire and shorted the whole supply. Blew fuse. Fuse is soldered on an not worth replacing. .... took apart unused 2nd one ... wires were OK but 2 capacitors and another item were not properly attached to PCB.

Overall Review: Its worth noting that I bought 2 at the same time and despite that, the interior layout and wiring were different so they had switched manufacturing process already and still had problems with both. ... avoid unless you really can't afford better. RD400 is a clean nice build for only a few bucks more.