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James F.

James F.

Joined on 01/08/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 46
Most Favorable Review

Before buying...

ASUS L1N64-SLI WS NVIDIA nForce 680a SLI MCP SSI CEB AMD Motherboard
ASUS L1N64-SLI WS NVIDIA nForce 680a SLI MCP SSI CEB AMD Motherboard

Pros: Bought this motherboard in March of 2007. Overall satisified with the performance and features as well as the potential of the motherboard. Its crammed with tons of features for gamers on of the more notable ones is the 4 PCI express card slots and the obvious advantage of being able to put in either 2 Barcelona quad cores (for servers) or the Phenom FX quad cores(for gamers/desktop users) which comes out on F (1207) socket in 2008. Oh and the 7.1 built in audio is a nice addon.

Cons: The size is an inevitable con. You give some to get some in this case and its a good trade off for all the features but expect to get a full size case (reccomend cooler master stacker)and possibly a larger power supply especially if your considering getting 8800s. Make sure it has both a 4 pin and a 24 pin connector. On a side note: if you do plan to get a PSU get a modular one! Your case will be a little tight with the motherboard with the video cards last thing you need is having tons of power cords dangling everywhere(even with a full size case), so to avoid cable management and bad air flow go modular.

Overall Review: Sound was also an issue with this motherboard, the 2 CPUs come with fans that are incredibly loud (air conditioner loud) which is annoying for extended use such as gaming or web surfing. If your looking for aftermarkets there arent many compatible with F-socket but I found out that F-socket 1207 which is completely different from the original F-socket is compatible with AM2 socket because the processors are based off of the FX-62 Windsor. Confirmed this by buying 2 Zalman CNPS9500 cpu coolers and they work just fine (Now the computer is near silent). Overall I woul highly reccomend this motherboard, F socket and AM2 socket are the future sockets of AMD and this motherboard was built for both performance and potential.

Most Critical Review

Disappointing

LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache E-IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology
LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache E-IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology

Pros: It worked for a couple months and its price is decent.

Cons: It DID work for a couple months but most of the time (6/8 months) I would have problems with it. It would take 2-4 tries to burn a DVD with windows DVD maker. It would stop reading disks randomly. Half the time it wouldnt even detect the disks. It finally gave out on me after I installed Crysis. The thing is a piece of junk and I will never buy a lite-on product if they have as many problems as this one had.

Overall Review: Owned it since March, initial review was good but this burner has had so many problems with doing the tasks its SUPPOSED to do that I cant even give it an average rating.

12/10/2007

Very mediocre

Acer GD235HZbid Black / Orange 23.6" HDMI Widescreen 1080p NVIDIA LCD 120Hz 3D Monitor 300 cd/m2 ACM 80000:1
Acer GD235HZbid Black / Orange 23.6" HDMI Widescreen 1080p NVIDIA LCD 120Hz 3D Monitor 300 cd/m2 ACM 80000:1

Pros: -Colors are nice - 120hz 3d capable for a decent price - Nice design

Cons: - Bought 3..all 3 have problems - 1 has a buzzing noise every time I use 120hz; returned it. - 1 has two dead pixels - 1 came with a bad DVI port/Cable that makes the image freak out occasionally (I haven't diagnosed which one it is yet.) - Backlight bleeding at the top and bottom is very evident - 120hz is not apparent without 3D - Not LED; would've been more expensive but it would've been brighter and work better with 3D glasses which dim the image when turned on.

Overall Review: Honestly I would've rated these monitors much higher if their quality control was higher. I shouldn't of had problems with all 3 monitors, I shouldn't even have problems with 1 monitor. The monitors themselves are actually quite nice and the orange finish and sharp design look great, only wish the bezel was a bit smaller for a trimonitor setup which works wonderfully with Nvidia Surround 3D. Some side notes: 1. 120hz is only over a Dual Link DVI cable 2. There is only 1 card capable of 3d surround by itself (GTX 590) if you plan on using 3 monitors in surround with 3D you need to do SLI. 3. Power requirements are high to run 3 monitors at 120hz in games just make sure your 12V rail amperage rating is 30+A on your PSU and capable of running your video cards.

Perfect fit

Intel X25-M 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDSA2MH120G2K5
Intel X25-M 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDSA2MH120G2K5

Pros: Fast. Very Fast. Operating system loads < 15s after post. Computer ready to use <5s after login. Office products and Google Chrome <1s to launch Adobe products (Photoshop, After Effects) <3s to launch Indexing is near instant. Basically everything comes up almost instantly thanks to this drive.

Cons: None. Absolutely nothing.

Overall Review: Windows installs the boot manager on the first mechanical drive in the boot order. If you have multiple drives besides this SSD unplug them before installing windows onto the SSD or else you wont be able to load windows without that mechanical drive plugged in. Also the timings are based on an i7-920 OC to 3.6 w/ GTX 295 GPU.

What i've been waiting for.

Logitech G700 Black 13 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB RF Wireless Laser 5700 dpi Gaming Mouse
Logitech G700 Black 13 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB RF Wireless Laser 5700 dpi Gaming Mouse

Pros: I've been waiting for a wireless gaming mouse since the G7 came out and this is finally it. After going through several mice such as the G7, G9, Razer Mamba, and Performance MX I finally found the mix of looks, performance, and functionality i've been looking for. Something that's always bugged me with mice is cords. I absolutely hate them when they tug on the mouse but one thing I hate worse than cords on a mouse is lag or jumping which I've gotten on just about every wireless mouse i've owned. Until now i've sucked it up with the G9, but its corded, and the problem with the performance MX is their lack of higher DPI settings. The Mamba looked like a winner but the glowing blue color and the feel of the mouse just wasn't for me. Finally I went through 3 G7s and they all jumped around like crazy I finally got this mouse and i'm 100% happy with it!. No Jumping, No replacing batteries, Higher DPI, WIRELESS & Wired, Frictionless Wheel, Customizable Buttons & Macros, Smooth, well Priced.

Cons: None as of yet.

Overall Review: The feel of a G9, the looks of a Performance MX, and the Performance of a Razer Mamba. Perfect.

Absolutely Wonderful Picture

Samsung 40" 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Samsung 40" 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV

Pros: This TV is amazing for viewing HD movies, absolutely perfect picture quality and sound make for a great experience. Not only that but this TV packs a lot of features but my favorite one in particular is being able to play .MKV files directly from a portable hard drive. Works well with a PC hooked up to it as well.

Cons: No included HDMI or DVI cables/adapters. Be sure to buy some with the TV.