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John B.

John B.

Joined on 07/31/10

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 11
Most Favorable Review

Decent

Cooler Master Elite 430 - Mid Tower Computer Case with All-Black Interior and Windowed Side Panel
Cooler Master Elite 430 - Mid Tower Computer Case with All-Black Interior and Windowed Side Panel

Pros: The size makes it easy to transport 4 well placed fans Low price

Cons: The front of the top 2 fans can interfere (or not be installable) if you're using an aftermarket heatsink.

Overall Review: I bought this to move my PC out of a Rosewell Thor V2. I did this because given my current situation I was constantly moving between my home and my mother's. I don't like using laptops for extended periods so this simply made the most sense to me. The most noticeable difference between this tower and the Thor V2 is it doesn't keep the components as cool. The second is that the front top fan may not be useable. With the aftermarket heat sink I installed (92mm) I was forced to take it back out because the two interfered with each other. Given the price difference between this tower and the Thor V2 (not to mention the large size difference) it's understandable that it wouldn't run as cool. My temps are usually 35-55c and the GPU might hit 65c under heavy load. In the Thor V2 they ran 30-45c all the time, whether under load or not. I can only remember it hitting 50c once and that was when I had 2 graphically intense games running on two different screens. lol

Most Critical Review

So-so

WD Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive Bare Drive
WD Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: It works Was cheap at the time

Cons: Slow, even for a 3.0Gb/s

Overall Review: Picked this up for my mom who simply needed a hard drive to replace hers that killed over. Was on sale and I was short on cash, so picked it up. Had it since May and it's still working, so that much is a bonus. Installing things on it or running an program that reads the disk a lot will see slow down, at least on the one I had gotten her. That made installing the OS, drivers and the like a slow process. This wouldn't have been too bad as a second hard drive, but for her boot drive it's a PITA. So, I do intend to replace it later on... but as it's been running steadily for 6 months with no major issues, saw no reason to give it below 3 eggs.

Good for the most part

MSI GeForce GTX 680 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card N680GTX-PM2D2GD5
MSI GeForce GTX 680 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card N680GTX-PM2D2GD5

Pros: Solid GPU Runs quiet

Cons: Seems weak for the specs/price

Overall Review: I had went from an AMD 7850 to this card in March. Honestly not all that impressed by it as it seems to struggle with some games that the 7850 could push on Ultra High 1920x1080. My brother is still running a 7850 and with both of us having up to date drivers, identical CPU & Ram, it out performs this card most of the time. Even so, it works well enough to still deserve a 4 egg rating, especially since it isn't much stress to over-clock it some to help with the FPS drops it has in some games.

Works excellently

WD Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
WD Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Reads quickly Nice space for the price (got it on sale)

Cons: None

Overall Review: When testing it for a video recording software it was running around 89-95 MB/s write speed. Not the fastest, but for the price and size of the hard drive, I'm happy. I've had no issues out of it since purchasing it in March.

Not that good.

EDIMAX EW-7722UTn N300 USB 2.0 Mini-size Wireless Adapter
EDIMAX EW-7722UTn N300 USB 2.0 Mini-size Wireless Adapter

Pros: Cheap Software installed easily.

Cons: It would constantly drop connection to the net. Whether it was hooking up through the router or directly from the modem wirelessly.

Overall Review: I had bought this hoping to keep from having to run a wire across the middle of my living room just to have net access on my second PC. That didn't pan out as the device will not keep internet access for more than five minutes before cutting out. It could be the routers/modem I tried, but it was the same result with 2 modems and 3 different routers of varying combinations. On a small plus, it doesn't block any additional USB slots if you use the extender that comes with it. This wire wasn't a part of the issue though as the device dropped regardless of how it was plugged up.

Works wonderfully

Thermaltake CLP0598 92mm Contact 16 CPU Cooler
Thermaltake CLP0598 92mm Contact 16 CPU Cooler

Pros: Quiet Runs cool Nice price

Cons: I had some issues getting the back plate on. Still, not enough of a 'con' to knock off an egg.

Overall Review: I've put together a few PCs and helped build/upgrade several others over the years. The back plate was different compared to the previous 4 heat sinks I attached and so, I had a few issues with it. Still, it's a minor thing in the long term and it has worked well (quiet and cool) to not deserve to lose and egg over the back plate.