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John M.

John M.

Joined on 11/28/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 3
Most Favorable Review
MSI 880G-E45 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
MSI 880G-E45 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: VERY inexpensive in combo deal from another vendor. Has legacy floppy & PATA support for recycling parts. On-board video is plenty adequate for non-gamers. Easy to overclock for newbies like me. Runs very cool even under Prime95 stress. Problem free, outstanding value.

Cons: Not cutting edge if you're so inclined.

Overall Review: Only $20 after rebate and combo with Phenom 2 X2-560BE. Not able to unlock but I think AMD has pretty much stopped that game. Still, most software for most people can't use the extra cores. Set on-board dip switches to 20% increase in FSB and set multiplier to 16x for a cool 3.8GHZ without much knowledge or effort. Rock stable at this level. I'm sure you could push more but this is plenty fast enough for us. With the stock AMD fan/heatsink it all runs super cool and does not rise above 50c even under extended Prime95. Cheap upgrade with extra savings by not having to buy new video, floppy, HDD, DVD, PS, CPU cooler, etc. The most expensive part of the upgrade was from XP to Windows 7 (Thank You Micro$oft).

Most Critical Review

Cheaply Made

SIGMA LAVIE LAVIE-LSWS Leather Silver SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
SIGMA LAVIE LAVIE-LSWS Leather Silver SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Cheaply Priced at about $30 after discount, rebate and shipping to front door. Nice looking and good size. Has real plastic feet. Not stamped metal llike some others.

Cons: Cheaply Made and barely worth the total price paid.

Overall Review: I've built 5-6 computers previously and the metal guage used here is ultra thin and flimsy. In fact the various factory-provided dents/mistakes were easily re-bent into place with finger pressure only (tool-less-ly). Speaking of tool-less, the plastic tool-less clips are a cute gimmick but not very secure. Fortunately, they can be removed and substituted with real screws using little effort. Why have them at all? They should put the $$ into a heavier guage material. If I don't get my $40 rebate and end up paying a total of $70 on this I'll feel very ripped-off. BTW, this is no reflection on NewEgg (which is great).

Top value and support.

Foxconn M7PMX-S LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7100 / nForce 630i HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Foxconn M7PMX-S LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7100 / nForce 630i HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Price. Foxconn email support. Great value here at about $50 delivered to doorstep with free shipping from NewEgg.

Cons: A little "lightweight" in the look/feel department compared to (more expensive) others but, once installed, who cares. It was inexpensive and worked precisely as advertised.

Overall Review: Foxconn e-support was quick, helpfull, and relentless in pursuit of solving a problem that turned out to be not-theirs but a Vista installation quirk. Great support for noobies or semi-geeks like myself. Will use again.