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Santos B.

Santos B.

Joined on 08/08/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 10
Most Favorable Review
Sceptre 32" 3-D Ready 1080p 60Hz 3D LED HDTV E320BV-FHDD
Sceptre 32" 3-D Ready 1080p 60Hz 3D LED HDTV E320BV-FHDD

Pros: Excellent 3D TV at a price which is a steal! HD programming looks stellar and 3D programming is fantastic. The LED backlit display is bright and crisp! I primarily use it with DirecTV and a PlayStation 3, and 3D works great on both. Uses passive circular polarized glasses which are light weight and easily replaced. In fact the Real D glasses from the movie theaters work with the TV so replacements are dirt cheap ;-D As far as I can tell they work just as well as the ones shipped with the TV.

Cons: Viewing angle isn't that great. Too far to the side or standing above the height of the TV colors are washed out. Also as some have stated takes a couple presses of the power button to power on the TV (although using a Harmony remote I just programmed it to automatically send the Power On command a second time whilst starting everything up). Discrete remote commands, while they exists in the TV, do not work properly. You can have the remote change the input on the TV without going through the onscreen display, but the input doesn't actually switch so you are stuck with being on the proper input but displaying a No Signal message on screen despite the device being on. SD programming also looks like garbage.

Overall Review: I've had Sceptre LCD monitors for years and they are all still going strong and look fantastic! Here is to hoping that their TVs do as well! I have an iZ3D monitor for my PC and when you get used to being able to adjust the 3D depth on a PC so that you get pop where things are just inches from your face, 3D programming from television, Bluray 3D and console games seem lackluster since you rarely get pop and its primarily just going into the screen or just floating slightly in front of the screen (though My Bloody Valentine was great with the bullet flying in front of your face ha ha). On that note, the 2D to 3D conversion didn't impress me in the least bit.

Most Critical Review

Active DisplayPort to DVI

Nippon Labs DP-DVI-6 6 ft. DP DisplayPort Male to DVI-D Male Adapter Cable, Black
Nippon Labs DP-DVI-6 6 ft. DP DisplayPort Male to DVI-D Male Adapter Cable, Black

Pros: •Price •Active cable so will work if you don't have a DP++

Cons: •Prevents some monitors from going to sleep •Active cable so adds an extra single point of failure

Overall Review: This cable is a convenient way to connect older monitors without a DisplayPort input if your GPU only has a limited number of DVI ports, but it causes some headaches. If your monitor freaks out about having something connected to the DVI input yet there are no signs of life, this cable will prevent your monitor from going to sleep (e.g. when you turn off the computer or power management attempts to turn off the monitors). Then in my experience, 4 months after purchase the cable died resulting in the monitor constantly waking and going back to sleep every second or so (well it finally went to sleep with this cable).

Reliable RGB RAM for less than most competitors

Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB 3000 MHz DDR4 DRAM Desktop Gaming Memory Single 8GB CL16 BLT8G4D30BET4K
Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB 3000 MHz DDR4 DRAM Desktop Gaming Memory Single 8GB CL16 BLT8G4D30BET4K

Pros: •Highly reliable (my previous DDR3 sticks lasted nearly a decade always passing MemTest86 and were only retired due to upgrading) •Price •Quick •RGB •Some Aura Sync support

Cons: •Lighting profile is not retained over power cycles like previous generation •High pitched tone with high LED current draw •No RGB Linux support

Overall Review: I have used the DDR3 Ballixtix Tactical Tracer ram in the past so thought I would give the DDR4 a try when moving to Ryzen. This is great quick memory, although my motherboard detects that they report the speed as 2400 so had to be set manually, but they still run stable (I don't bother with any sort of fine tweaking). The only reason I knock an egg off is due to the lighting. I primarily use Linux which of course there is no official software (and the majority of options are still experimental), and with the DDR3 the lighting profile was stored on the stick of RAM itself and was persistent, so once you picked a profile it would always use that setting. With the DDR4, while you may set one of the on board lighting effects in Windows, then boot into Linux and it will continue displaying it, upon power loss the lighting profile is lost and it goes back to the default green. This will not be an issue to the majority of users as they will be able to control it via software. These sticks do support being controlled by Aura Sync as well, although only via the software controlled effects and not the on board effects (like breathing or color cycle effects, choosing one will result in the LEDs turning off). There is also a high pitched tone emitted depending on how many and how bright the LEDs are, although this could be somewhat mitigated by lowering the brightness or picking a lighting profile where not as many LEDs are lit at full brightness at the same time. Overall I can't complain about the default green as it does looks neat, I believe they were going for the tritium night sight glow, and the high pitch screech is absent in this setting. I do have a suspicion that they may possibly save the setting or at least that was the original intention, as that is the impression that I get using the official MOD utility, and potentially Aura Sync is causing it to loose the saved setting, but when I turn off Aura Sync completely from the motherboard the lighting profile was still lost. The motherboard in question is the Asus TUF B450M-Plus which has limited on board Aura Sync support.

Nice low profile heat sink.

RAIJINTEK JUNO X BLUE led CPU cooler
RAIJINTEK JUNO X BLUE led CPU cooler

Pros: The Juno X is a great cooler for the price. • Lightweight. • Sleek low profile design. • Bright blue LEDs, but not enough to blind you. • Provides adequate cooling. • Clamps down tight with existing AMD heat sink mounts.

Cons: The only con is how wide it is. Depending where your RAM and CPU are situated on the motherboard, there is a chance it will extend over the DIMM socket.

Overall Review: This heat sink replaced the old heat sink I was using on a 3.0GHz AMD Phenom II x4 945. Under load it usually keeps it around 60°C, occasionally hitting 61°C under load for extended periods of time and dropping to 57°C fairly quickly on loading screens. The RAM is a set of Ballistic Tactical Tracer DDR3 (the LEDs don't extend past the heat spreader) and the Juno X just barely clears the fin sitting above it.

Ballistix Tactical Tracer 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (with Orange/Blue Light) Model BLT2KIT4G3D1608DT2TXOB
Ballistix Tactical Tracer 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (with Orange/Blue Light) Model BLT2KIT4G3D1608DT2TXOB

Pros: Amazing Blue and Orange lighting effects. Very solid memory, first two sticks still running stong with no problems or errors! Heat spreaders have a great design and work great at keeping the memory at reasonable temperatures. Lowering brightness on activity lights doesn't lower running lights as much as it did with the original sticks. Solid LEDs used as well, the original sticks are just as bright as the new sticks all at same brightness level.

Cons: None other than having your face melted by the brightness the first time you power up ;)

Overall Review: I bought two sticks when these first came out and I absolutly loved them. My other two DIMM slots were feeling lonely so when these went on sale I had to buy some more! Lights are even more mesmorizing with 4 sticks :3

11/12/2012
Ballistix Tactical Tracer 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (with Orange/Blue Light) Model BLT4G3D1608DT2TXOB
Ballistix Tactical Tracer 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (with Orange/Blue Light) Model BLT4G3D1608DT2TXOB

Pros: Stylish looking heatsinks, and customizable lights look amazing! Fun to watch during down times within games :) Oh yes, and serves its intended purpose very well.

Cons: Activity lights are so bright they will melt your face, and when you turn the brightness slightly down to sane levels, the running lights (along the bottom) are dim. But that's not so much a con as were here for the activity lights!

Overall Review: I already had an orange and blue light color scheme going inside my case, and these orange / blue sticks compliment it very well. And as others have said, had to manually set to 1600 in bios as well.