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CHRIS M.

CHRIS M.

Joined on 11/21/01

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 11
Most Favorable Review

Make note about HDMI

Flip UltraHD Camcorder - Black & Chrome, 120 Minutes
Flip UltraHD Camcorder - Black & Chrome, 120 Minutes

Pros: I've only had it one day, but it seems awesome so far.

Cons: Be aware (I wasn't paying enough attention) that the HDMI port on this is NOT a full size standard HDMI port. It is a mini-HDMI port, so you need a special cable (which you can buy from the manufacturer or elsewhere.)

Most Critical Review
BELKIN WaveRest F8E262-SLV Gel Mouse Pad - Silver
BELKIN WaveRest F8E262-SLV Gel Mouse Pad - Silver

Pros: decent mouse surface and fast shipping as always.

Cons: Like other reviewers have mentioned, this has two LARGE cons. -horrible chemical smell that is making me physically ill -the wrist rest is very stiff and uncomfortable.

Overall Review: I had a previous Belkin Waverest and the wrist rest was very comfortable. This one is not. That is the only reason I purchased it.

50% DOA rate

Western Digital WD Green WD20EARS 2TB 5400 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital WD Green WD20EARS 2TB 5400 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Quick shipping is the only positive thing I can say about these.

Cons: I ordered two of these drives. One was DOA and I had to RMA it. The other drives has not yet been thoroughly tested. While waiting on that RMA, I ordered two more. One has massive amounts of bad sectors. The other drives has not yet been thoroughly tested. I'm seeing at least 50% failure rate out of the box and it may be much worse than that.

Overall Review: I've had a larger than usual number of bad drives from Western Digital's Green series in the past couple years (I buy nearly 100 drives a year). I will not be ordering any more Western Digital Green drives and I've heard nothing but bad things about their Blue series.

Do NOT buy!

Intel S3420GPRX ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1156 Intel 3420 DDR3 1333/1066
Intel S3420GPRX ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1156 Intel 3420 DDR3 1333/1066

Pros: none

Cons: The board does not ship with an I/O plate. Intel will not send you one. They won't even sell you one. I had to pay $20 to get one from another online store. Secondly, Intel's site won't tell you what memory has been confirmed to work or in what configuration. As it turns out (several thousand dollars later) you can't run 6 unbuffered DIMMS on this board. It would have been nice to know that beforehand but their site won't tell you.

Overall Review: Intel's support is the worst I have ever experienced and I say this as a 15 year veteran sysadmin.

Great cheap computer!

MSI Wind PC Intel 945GC Barebone
MSI Wind PC Intel 945GC Barebone

Pros: Great little cheap computers. I have about 10 of them. Using one as a Linux backup server with a 1 TB drive. All of the others have Windows XP on them (though I tried Windows 7, just for fun.)

Cons: Make sure you update the BIOS, first thing. I think some negative experiences may be the result of using the older BIOSes.

HTPC recommended

MSI K8NGM2-FID 939 NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
MSI K8NGM2-FID 939 NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Runs stable, shipped with latest BIOS, limited fan control in BIOS. Vmem control in BIOS. This is a great motherboard for an HTPC, since the 6150 video is HDTV capable and delivers.

Cons: No Vcore control in BIOS, but you can use RMClock from Windows to change Vcore and multiplier. Speedfan cannot read temps or fan speeds, but MSI Live Monitor can.

Overall Review: Newest version comes with VGA, DVI, S-Video, component video outputs AND digital audio output header (contrary to older photographs).