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Brian B.

Brian B.

Joined on 12/04/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

2 Years and Counting

Klipsch PROMEDIA ULTRA 5.1 470 watts 5.1 Speaker
Klipsch PROMEDIA ULTRA 5.1 470 watts 5.1 Speaker

Comments: I had the 4.1 predecessors which now sit in a closet. These speakers are very high quality. Rich, full sound, no hiss, deep bass. If you blow the fuse you can replace it (located inside the sub enclosure - just take out the screws) which is about the only thing you'll ever do to these things. Rock solid, can't go wrong.

11/12/2005
Most Critical Review

Quality Issues

Seagate BarraCuda Green ST1500DL003 1.5TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Seagate BarraCuda Green ST1500DL003 1.5TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: - none with a 50% failure rate. Where's there a pro in that kind of performance?

Cons: - One out of two drives has failed within the first two weeks of use. Unfortunately it's more than 30 days since purchase so I have to RMA with Seagate which means I get a remanufactured drive instead of a brand new drive which means, based on experience, a higher chance of a second failure.

Overall Review: I'm rather disgusted with the low quality of hard drives these days. Although they seem less expensive, the reality is they are only cheaper in quality because you have to buy two and mirror them to get any kind of reliability. For years we never mirrored drives and only occasionally backed them up. Now it's a required ritual.

Realtek issues and no solutions

MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Extreme OC High Performance Triple CFX/ SLI  Intel Motherboard
MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Extreme OC High Performance Triple CFX/ SLI Intel Motherboard

Pros: Board is well laid out, feature rich and even attractive

Cons: Realtek audio doesn't work. Contacted MSI Tech Support and was told it must be the motherboard and not driver because "No users have reported an issue with the drivers online". I found a post on Toms Hardware after 10min of searching indicating others having the same issues with MSI Z87 boards (realtek drivers break windows audio). Interestingly the default Windows 7 driver from Microsoft works just fine.

Overall Review: I could use the default driver or my soundblaster card, but I'm concerned there's a motherboard defect which will manifest itself in other ways. Newegg graciously agreed to cover the shipping, but I'm not keen on taking the risk of pulling everything apart, having it lay around for a week, then putting it all back together without anything else being damaged.

Guaranteed failures...

Western Digital AV-GP WD20EURS 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital AV-GP WD20EURS 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: - none because of unreliability

Cons: - purchase multiple drives and make sure you are in some type of failure recovery mode (RAID 1, RAID10, RAID5) because at least one drive you buy WILL fail

Overall Review: I bought these knowing how often all drives over 1TB fail. And now after three months of moderate use, in the mode for which they were designed as media server drives, the first has failed. When buying drives over 1TB the only thing to look at is how long the warranty period is because that's all that matters.

What a joke!

CTA Inflatable Racing Kart for Wii
CTA Inflatable Racing Kart for Wii

Pros: None

Cons: It's supposed to support 300lbs, right? Well it couldn't support my 52.9lb son without the seat ripping at each side away from the bottom. What horrible engineering! Haven't they ever heard of a stress point? It lasted about an hour. Note: the site won't let me give it 0 eggs

Overall Review: With the thousands of dollars I've spent at NewEgg this is the first time I've ever commented on a product. I can't rate this <insert expletive of choice here> piece of garbage low enough!

Awesome Case!

Cooler Master Centurion 532 RC-532-SKN1 Black Aluminum bezel, SECC chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Cooler Master Centurion 532 RC-532-SKN1 Black Aluminum bezel, SECC chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Comments: I always buy Antec, Cooler Master, and Koolance cases and this one is the sexiest. Great tool-less design, easy access, parallel HD bays, plenty of air space. Comes with one 120mm fan which is enough for most applications. Oh - I removed those crazy looking silver caps - looks better with out them!

11/12/2005