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Albert R.

Albert R.

Joined on 03/28/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 8
Most Favorable Review

Great Card

PowerColor Radeon HD 5770 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card AX5770 512MD5-H
PowerColor Radeon HD 5770 512MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card AX5770 512MD5-H

Pros: Very easy install. Removed old drivers, installed card, and booted right up. Really like that the card is smaller than most - very easily fits in case. Fan is also very quiet. (I'm not a gamer so I haven't really put the card through it's paces though.)

Cons: None.

Overall Review: Liked the card so much, I'm buying another.

Most Critical Review

Lots of Issues!

DANE-ELEC DA-SDM25-80G-N-T-MK 1.8" with 2.5" adapter SSD Migration Kit
DANE-ELEC DA-SDM25-80G-N-T-MK 1.8" with 2.5" adapter SSD Migration Kit

Pros: Included USB 2.5" enclosure works great and is of good quality. Cons: (starting here since there are so many of them.) The included SW (Acronis Easy Migrate 7) would not install after many attempts on several PC's. After SW is 99% installed - it rolls back and says install interrupted. Product support page had same issue identified and it was unresolved there as well.

Cons: Installed SSD in HP Pavilion tx2500 laptop and windows install would not recognize HD. Tried loading AMD Raid drivers and that didn't work either. (And when I go to load the drivers it shows the SSD disk that it can't find to install the OS on!) Tried another SSD I had (OCZ Vertex) and it recognized the HD right away without the drivers. Installed the SSD in another computer and formated it. Installed back in laptop - still wasn't recognized by windows vista install. Updated the firmware on the laptop. Still no go. Checked firmware on SSD - it was up to date. Still no go. Tried HP recovery disks - didn't work. Found on HP site that recovery disks had issue and need to get new ones. Hopefully the install issue is specific to my laptop and this won't impact other laptop installs.

Overall Review: I've spent at least 10 hours trying to install this SSD which included reasearching SW install issues, vista install issues, SSD firmware updates, and the time unsuccessfully attempting the various SW & HW installs. Don't know if I am going to send it back or try to install in one of my desktops....

1/2 advertised speed

ADATA S596 Turbo AS596TB-64GM-C 2.5" 64GB USB 2.0 & SATAII Internal / External Solid State Drive (SSD)
ADATA S596 Turbo AS596TB-64GM-C 2.5" 64GB USB 2.0 & SATAII Internal / External Solid State Drive (SSD)

Pros: Got 2 of these on sale at Newegg at a good price. Installed one disk using intel RAID contoller - easy Win 7 64 install.

Cons: You buy SSD's for speed. First disk had 1/2 the advertised speeds - sequential reads were coming in at 140 - 150 MB/s vs 260 advertised, writes were around 90 MB/s vs 130 indicated. Added a second disk to make a RAID 0 array, and speeds almost doubled - about 260 MB/s reads and about 190 MB/s writes. Still about 1/2 what they should be.

Overall Review: I've gotten much better results with other SSDs.

Recert didn't go so well ...

Samsung Captivate SGH-i897 Black 3G 16GB GSM Smart Phone for AT&T Only
Samsung Captivate SGH-i897 Black 3G 16GB GSM Smart Phone for AT&T Only

Pros: Phone reportedly has lots of features.

Cons: I got the phone and battery would not fit inside the phone. When they did the recertification, they must have put another outer shell on it and it wasn't correctly aligned. In addition, the back cover would not fit either. Didn't want to mess with it myself so I sent it back.

Overall Review: I've RMA'ed the phone and am deciding if I want to go with this phone or the Vibrant in its place.

BEWARE - Print to PDF

H&R BLOCK At Home 2009 Deluxe Federal + eFile (Non-State) formerly TaxCut
H&R BLOCK At Home 2009 Deluxe Federal + eFile (Non-State) formerly TaxCut

Pros: I've been using this brand for over 10 years. Has good user interface. Have not had any issues with taxes filed using the program.

Cons: About 1.5 years ago my computer died. Retrieved tax files but not older versions of the program. Unfortunately, I needed to look at my 2007 file and only the 2007 version (which I don't have any more) will open the file! H&R wants full price to get the 2007 version so I can review my 2007 return. (Or full price for any other year that I want to review older tax files.) MAKE SURE YOU SAVE A PDF VERSION of your tax file every year or you will regret it!

Overall Review: Tech support tried to be helpful on this issue but without proof of purchase (which I'm hoping I can dig up) you are out of luck. I'm sure that the only reason they do this is becasue they make a lot of money on all of the individuals like myself who are forced to buy the older versions again.

Overclock Dream

Intel Core i3-540 - Core i3 Clarkdale Dual-Core 3.06 GHz LGA 1156 73W Intel HD Graphics Desktop Processor - BX80616I3540
Intel Core i3-540 - Core i3 Clarkdale Dual-Core 3.06 GHz LGA 1156 73W Intel HD Graphics Desktop Processor - BX80616I3540

Pros: Modified a few BIOS settings and took BCLK to 167. Booted right up! Took it to 200 BCLK and adjusted multiplier to 19X (3.8GHz)!! Booted right up. Adjusted multiplier to 21X (4.2 GHz) Booted right up!!! Adjusted mulitplier to 22X (4.4GHz). Booted but crashed on windows load. :( Easiest and fastest overclock I've done! Maybe I'm lucky and just got a great chip. Stock heat sink is very quiet and does the job. (Although not quite enough for 4.2GHz at full loads - temps go to 75 C.)

Cons: Would have liked to pay closer to $100 or $125.

Overall Review: Very impressed with this chip. Was considering going with the i3 -530 but I'm glad that I went with the 540 instead.