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John S.

John S.

Joined on 10/24/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 3
Most Favorable Review

Basic and Functional

SilverStone SST-SDP08 3.5" to 2x 2.5" Bay Converter (Nickel-coated)
SilverStone SST-SDP08 3.5" to 2x 2.5" Bay Converter (Nickel-coated)

Pros: Sturdy (decent metal construction). Accommodates 2 2.5" SDD devices, with air gap for cooling.

Cons: Outer screw holes (i.e., for 3.5" mounting) were too small for drive mounting pins of tool-free HD mounting sled of Cooler Master HAF 922; needed to be bored out a touch to fit. Stamped metal construction had a couple of nearly-sharp edges.

Overall Review: If you're willing to bore out the screw holes in the outer frame, you can use this with no-screw (pin-based) HD mounting. And be careful handling it until you're sure there aren't any sharp edges, or give the edges a quick swipe with emery cloth before using.

Most Critical Review

Fair but flimsy and fussy

APEVIA X-QPACK2-AL/500 Black/ Silver Aluminum Body/ Front Mask Micro ATX Desktop Computer Case 500W Power Supply
APEVIA X-QPACK2-AL/500 Black/ Silver Aluminum Body/ Front Mask Micro ATX Desktop Computer Case 500W Power Supply

Pros: Nice looks, compact, decent internal layout. Dual thermometers with front-panel readout. Fairly sturdy when all put together, as long as you don't put pressure on any of the plastic windows. Airflow looks ok, but I put a low-power MB and CPU in it, so I'm not challenging airflow by any means. Your mileage may vary.

Cons: Flimsy until completely assembled. Cable management nonexistent; you'll be on your own in that department. (The case does come with some 2" fine-gauge cable ties, but that's not enough and I couldn't find any way to anchor the bundled cables to the internal chassis.) Don't try to use the front handle for anything--it'll fail under almost no load. Assume it's decorative and you'll be OK.

Overall Review: I am using this case to building a household server, so I'm not trying to wedge a whole bunch of components into the case. I could forsee some challenges if I were trying to go full SLI with dual 2-wide vid cards, for instance, or a tall CPU cooler. Still, it's a compact case; you have to expect some of that.

Love this thing

Intel X25-M Mainstream 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDSA2M080G2GC
Intel X25-M Mainstream 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDSA2M080G2GC

Pros: Amazing boot speed and application load speed. Windows 7 Pro boots to login within 7 seconds of power-up, and about 1/3 of that is BIOS time. World of Warcraft zones load in 1/2 the time of 10,000 RPM WD hard drive.

Cons: Smallish, so good space management and tidiness are necessary. Pricey, but worth it

Overall Review: If I had the money I'd have splurged on the 160GB X25-M. But the 80 GB is more than enough for Win7 Pro 64-bit and selected applications, if managed carefully. Couple it what a good SATA2 rotary hard drive for other apps and you're in good shape.