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Neil F.

Neil F.

Joined on 08/25/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 11
Most Favorable Review
PNY GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card VCG88512GXEB-FLB
PNY GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card VCG88512GXEB-FLB

Pros: Nothing this good out there for the price, I'm running TF2 1280x1024 highest settings at a solid 120FPS. Also has a free game

Cons: Not perfect, it can run rather hot (not as hot as something like the 4850). Also, I'm tired of Nvidia's inferior drivers, that is not a problem with this specific product, I just wish Nvidia would make drivers that don't suck.

Overall Review: Love this card, go buy it. specs: Asus M3A78 Pro Antec 300 case PNY 8800 GT Antec 550W 2 GB of G.Skill 800 320 GB 7200 RPM Seagate AMD 6000+ 3.0 Ghz

Most Critical Review

Defective card

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 100314VXSR
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 100314VXSR

Pros: When I had this card it ran: -nearly silent -pretty darn cool, wouldn't heat over 60C no matter what I threw at it Newegg's return service is absolutely amazing, despite getting a defective card, I would buy again from this retailer and even this manufacturer because of my experience with Newegg's RMA service I also humorously received two copies of Dirt 3 (One as a Sapphire gift and the other shipping as a promo from Newegg)

Cons: Unfortunately, I got a defective card, because as soon as I installed it I would get artifacting, game crashes, black screens, etc. The most noticeable problem was framerate slowdowns, performing almost 20 frames slower on avg. over my old Radeon 4850 that it was to replace. tweaked my drivers a dozen times no avail, So I went to Sapphire's website for support, but you have to register your product to their Sapphire Select Club, apparently some snafu happened with the registering process, where I spent over 3 days with no contact waiting for a verification e-mail, only for Sapphire to contact me to tell me my e-mail was never in their system, even though the SSC registering site said that it was and that my card was already registered to that account. Annoying, but at least the Techs were eventually able to try to help me. RMA'd the card and got my refund from Newegg promptly.

Overall Review: I'm sure this is a good card, I just had a bad experience with it, although, Sapphire was at times a really frustrating company to deal with. I would buy from them again (my Sapphire Radeon 4850 has held out through the last 3 years like a shining battleship), but just be aware that their technical service seems slightly undermanned.

Review for AMD's offer - I never asked for this

AMD Gift - Deus Ex game coupon
AMD Gift - Deus Ex game coupon

Pros: Newegg has absolutely the best customer service on the planet, 5/5 eggs for them, but this is not a review for newegg or this game, sadly I am forced to do a review my experience with a promotion.

Cons: The site in which you redeem your coupon, AMD4U.com is an awful mess. I tried to redeem my coupon through their website only for something to go wrong and for me not to receive my Steam code through my email. The website said it was already sent, and that the code couldn't be re-entered, so I emailed their support line FOUR times, it's been 2 weeks and I still haven't gotten an email back from them, not even an auto-response. I then played the phone game with AMD and newegg, AMD was absolutely no help at all, the AMD support went as far as to tell me it was Square Enix's responsibility (which is utter malarkey). Eventually the helpful and friendly staff of Newegg's support helped me out immensely by shipping out a new coupon code (even though it was not directly their responsibility in the least, they just want to please their customers as much as they can).

Overall Review: AMD4U, the site used to register the game to get the actual Steam game code is a mess, and from what I've from other reviewers on Newegg and from around the AMD support forums, this problem isn't that isolated. Something goes wrong during registration, whether it be bad code, wrong browser, or unsupported email, and your coupon code is suddenly worthless. This is not limited to Deus Ex codes, earlier this week, an exploit in the AMD4U's DiRT3 promotion page allowed hackers to glean over 3 million coupon codes from Codemasters. According to the AMD support tech I talked to, AMD4U is a third-party affiliate not run by AMD, so be careful of what information you put into this site if you register. In the future I would hope that AMD would choose a tighter operation in which to redeem game codes. I was eventually able to get my copy of Deus Ex, but only because of the generosity of Newegg.

$60 for a quad-core with a 6mb cache?

AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition - Phenom II X3 Heka Triple-Core 2.8 GHz Socket AM3 95W Processor - HDZ720WFK3DGI
AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition - Phenom II X3 Heka Triple-Core 2.8 GHz Socket AM3 95W Processor - HDZ720WFK3DGI

Pros: I was more interested in getting a Phenom X4, or just wait for AMD's upcoming bulldozer processors, until I saw this on sale for the unbelievable price of 60$, and learned that this particular proc offers about just as much game performance as any quadcore in similar pricing brackets. Well, I've owned it for about 4 weeks and I'm quite satisfied with it's performance, OC'd to 3.3 with a multiplier change, it's offered a HUGE FPS boost over my aging Semperon 3000+ and makes a great placeholder until AMD's new line comes out this fall.

Cons: It's OEM, so comes in a tiny plastic package that could easily be damaged during shipping, without a heatsink or thermal paste, and only a 30 day warranty. But obviously these are the risks you take with buying an OEM product at a discounted rate.

Overall Review: Also apparently this is a just Deneb with one of the cores locked as other reviewers have said, unfortunately I could not take advantage of this due to my motherboard. Overall, SUPERB value for the price, would recommend as a superior budget CPU

All I can say is WOW

Cooler Master HAF 912 - Mid Tower Computer Case with High Airflow, Supporting up to Six 120mm Fans and USB 3.0
Cooler Master HAF 912 - Mid Tower Computer Case with High Airflow, Supporting up to Six 120mm Fans and USB 3.0

Pros: I got this case to replace by beat-up Antec 300, and I can say that it was certainly a solid investment, that case was nice but it holds no contest when paired next to this thing. The HAF 912 has: -It's Large without being too bulky or cumbersome -Room, lots and lots of space, you will be able to put EVERY thing you want in here easier and the case is designed well enough where cable management is effortless -Some nice features (toolless drive bays, removable hard drive cage, plenty of fan options) that are normally found on cases that cost much more -It's solidly built, BUT much lighter than I had expected -Airflow is much better than my previous case, as is sound (case fans are fairly quiet) -The design is very eye-catching and unique, but not overly gawdy or tacky, a trap many mid-tower cases fall in. I have to take my hat off to Cooler master for the aesthetic designs of their cases, I think they really are the top of the game when it comes to making unique designs

Cons: As great as this case is, it is not without it's flaws: -It comes with only two 120mm fans, one on the front and one on the rear, for a case with so many fan options it's kind of disappointing to see so many empty fan slots right out of the box -Only one toolless external 5.25" bay -CM was pretty scant on the screws, whereas by Antec 300 came with THUMBSCREWS GALORE, the HAF 912 only came with a handful of nondescript screws, in addition to be short on screws for my ATX board, overall it wasn't a huge problem, just an annoyance. -The manual is almost all pictorial, if you know what your doing you will have no problem, newbies may be disheartened by the brief instructions. -Not a huge fan of the HAF logo decal'd on the side, purely a matter of preference.

Overall Review: All in all, I believe that this is the absolute monarch when it comes to bargain-mid tower cases, I am still in awe that this case only cost 50 bones. I keep looking at my invoice and then back to my HAF912 wondering "WHY WAS THIS SO LOW" This case offers incredible value but at the same time displays incredible craftsmanship that few companies besides CM can match, I highly recommend this case.

budget case

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: There are fancier cases out there for the same price, but if you are looking for a large, solid, no-frills case, this is really one of your best choices. The Best thing about it is it's structure, the moment you see this, you can feel how solidly it's built, I've dropped this cases at least dozen times with everything inside remaining fine and the case staying as sturdy as it's ever been. Its also very roomy on the inside, able to fit all my components without a problem, the only thing I would worry about is a video card over 10', otherwise you convert this into a bomb shelter for your Chihuahua

Cons: It doesn't really come with any bells or whistles, but that is what I expected when buying this, as I find the flashy 'gamer-centric' LED-laden plastic spaceship cases to be gawdy. But despite that, it still has it's flaws. but reset button on my does not work and never has, one of the USB headers on the front is burnt out along with the microphone jack, despite being large and roomy doesn't really conduct heat in my system very well.

Overall Review: This thing has taken a lot of beatings in the 3 years I've owned it, and still stands as a tall and sturdy as a black monolith