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Lucas C.

Lucas C.

Joined on 07/21/01

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 9
Most Favorable Review

Good PSU

hec Zephyr 1000 1000W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
hec Zephyr 1000 1000W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: Attractive, stable, quiet.

Cons: Somewhat expensive for a PSU (though not for units in the 1000W range). 1x6-pin and 1x6+2-pin PCI-E cable are non-modular, as are the 4-/8-pin 12V CPU & main 24-pin connector.

Overall Review: Took a bit of a gamble purchasing this unit, but glad I did. It seems to be of very good build quality and has been highly reliable while powering my Q6600 & dual GTX260s. I was even impressed with the very heavy gage of the included external power cord. It's worth noting that the PCI-E connectors are actually 3x6-pin & 3x6+2-pin. I've attempted to notify NewEgg that their product page is inaccurate (or at least inconsistent with similar listings from other manufacturers), but they don't seem to have any interest in updating the listing. Hopefully people looking to run tri-SLI or Crossfire setups which require 4 or more 6-pin plugs aren't missing out on this PSU due to this oversight. :-/

Most Critical Review

No Logitech G110 support

IOGEAR GCS932UB 2-Port USB DVI KVM with Audio and Mic.
IOGEAR GCS932UB 2-Port USB DVI KVM with Audio and Mic.

Pros: Nice box, nice looking product. Cables seem sturdy & I didn't have any issues connecting audio, USB, and DVI cables to a couple of different set-ups (discrete sound card vs. onboard audio, both fine).

Cons: Simply doesn't work with my Logitech G110 keyboard--not a single keystroke is recognized. Called IOGear customer service number and sat on hold for 15 minutes to talk to someone in a country known for being home to Mumbai, loving cricket, and being banned by name from appearing in Newegg product reviews. After I told him the problem was a compatibility issue with my keyboard he told me the problem was probably a compatibility issue with my keyboard, and that was too bad. I asked if I could get any help resolving the issue, and spent another 15 minutes on hold. Got to talk to his Indian supervisor who said "we'll refer this matter to the engineers."

Overall Review: I didn't spend this much on a KVM switch to get sub-par compatibility and even worse customer service. Oh, by the way, your instructions on flashing the firmware don't work at all with Windows 7--all they managed to do was cause me to blue screen the system twice by shorting from the metal around the USB port to the connection itself because of your hackneyed "press and hold" demand.

Decent case

Rosewill R220-P-BK Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Rosewill R220-P-BK Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Functional, reasonably well designed. Has rear mount for 120mm fan and 80/92/120/140mm front mount well located in front of hard drives. The front ventilations slots come with silver plastic inserts pre-installed, but black ones are included if you prefer a solid look. Personally, I like the silver.

Cons: 3.5" drive cage is poorly designed, the external slots lack appropriate holes for mounting hard drives instead. Can still be done, but requires one to bend the mounting tabs on the cage, and then drive is not 100% stable. Only a problem if you plan to mount more than 4 HDDs, though.

Overall Review: For a low-cost case this is a good starting place. Includes decent connectivity on the front panel, a simple but attractive design, and relatively well thought out--albeit basic--case fan mounting options.

Good purchase for some

ASUS GeForce GTX 260 896MB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card ENGTX260 MATRIX/HTDI/896MD3
ASUS GeForce GTX 260 896MB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card ENGTX260 MATRIX/HTDI/896MD3

Pros: As expected this is a quality product from Asus, and everything about the card and packaging make that apparent from the very first moment. The included "iTracker" software is okay, and has the advantage of giving you an easy interface to adjust the GPU & memory voltages. You can also configure both fan speeds independently, and set up a four-stage cooling solution. Speaking of wich, the cooler is (situationally) very effective. Of course, the best thing about this card is that the components are top notch: I'm running mine with a 1742 shader clock right now. I haven't pushed the core or memory speeds to their limits, but I have exceeded the stock rates for "superclocked" cards from other manufacturers.

Cons: The "iTracker" software (apart from having a silly name) doesn't allow you to key in all values directly, and in general tries too hard to be visually impressive rather than functional. The cooling solution on this card is worse than the reference design if you don't have good airflow inside your case. I moved from a Cosmos to a HAF and it had a huge impact on the temps for this card, but a minimal impact on the reference style card I own.

Overall Review: The PCB on this card is exactly the same length as the reference GTX260. In the future I hope Asus considers offering both "pretty" and "functional" interfaces for their tuning software. It's quite annoying to not be able to directly key in clock speeds and voltages but have the option to do so for fan speeds. I also find that, on the whole, the software is slow and not as reliable as other options for configuring speeds.

Decent bang for the buck

BIOSTAR TA790GX XE AM3/AM2+ AMD 790GX HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
BIOSTAR TA790GX XE AM3/AM2+ AMD 790GX HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: 790GX Northbridge SB750 Southbridge 4 memory slots Very low cost compared to other microATX 790GX boards Onboard power & reset switches Onboard power / HD activity LEDs Very clearly labeled front panel connectors saved me a trip to the manual

Cons: Only one (1!) PCI-Express slot (x1 in this case) besides the x16 video card slot No motherboard Firewire header No back-panel eSATA plug The back-plate didn't fit correctly over the audio ports, had several punch-outs that had to be removed manually. Eventually got the audio ports shoved through, with some scratching

Overall Review: If you really *need* a Firewire header or a back-panel eSATA connector, look at 780G motherboards. With better fit & finish on the back-plate and an additional PCI express expansion slot, I'd happily give this board 5 eggs. Question for mobo makers: why do you have the same number of PCI slots on a microATX as you do on a full size ATX? Anyways, low cost & clear front panel connector labels save it from 3 eggs.

It's Windows XP... what'dya want?

Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 for System Builders
Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 for System Builders

Pros: Comes with that really sweet rolling-hills background!

Cons: Certificate of Authenticity had strange wear marks, literally clear through the sticker at places.