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JAMES M.

JAMES M.

Joined on 08/27/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 4
Most Favorable Review

Good Jack of all trades

ASUS P5QL/EPU LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASUS P5QL/EPU LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Good price, decent manual. Installed without incident and up and running no problem. Onboard NIC, video and audio for a budget build. Plenty of room to grow for a mid level gaming rig, HTPC, etc.

Cons: Not many. Little dissapointed there's only 2 case fan connectors (in addition to the CPU fan). I don't know if this is standard? Had to go order a splitter for my third fan and will likely go back for another splitter to add a 4th fan as I pile on drives and cards.

Overall Review: This seems to be a good "all around" board to build on. A nice jack of all trades board. But if you demand high end crack open your wallet and go elsewhere. I.E. In a HTPC application 6 SATA connections may not be enough for a large blu-ray library ripped to disk. Some will want DDR3 RAM and the biggest baddest Intel processors. Just understand it's designed to be a good all around board that will do most everything well while never being "the very best" at any one particular thing. I only left off the 5th egg b/c I haven't had it up and running very long. Durability is required to get the 5th imho.

Does its job

TRIPP LITE N002-010-BL 10 ft. Cat 5E Blue 350MHz Molded Patch Cable
TRIPP LITE N002-010-BL 10 ft. Cat 5E Blue 350MHz Molded Patch Cable

Pros: I bought 2 and cabled in a PS3 and Xbox360. The terminations appear to be done well. The cord should do it's job just fine over the long haul.

Cons: None

Overall Review: It is blue so if this cable is exposed and you don't want its presence to be obvious ... consider white or black. Other than that, great cable.

Does its job

Link Depot Model POW-6 6 ft. Computer AC Power Cable
Link Depot Model POW-6 6 ft. Computer AC Power Cable

Pros: It's black and has 3 prongs as advertised. Sturdy cable, ends seem attached well, and doesn't run hot. Appears well insulated.

Cons: None, but I haven't ben running it very long.

Overall Review: It's a power cord, it's cheap, it supplies power. What more do you need?

Not a bad deal

Rosewill Stallion Series RD600N-2DB-SL-BK 600W ATX Form Factor 12V V2.2 / SSI standard EPS 12V SLI Ready  Active PFC Active PFC Power Supply - SLI Ready
Rosewill Stallion Series RD600N-2DB-SL-BK 600W ATX Form Factor 12V V2.2 / SSI standard EPS 12V SLI Ready Active PFC Active PFC Power Supply - SLI Ready

Pros: It's got a slew of connectors. 4 pin molex, SATA, 2 floppy, etc etc. Good hunk of power at 600 watts. Dual fans move a decent amount of air and while not "whisper quiet" they are close enough. This is powering a HTPC rig and even at night viewing I have no conern about fan noise. My very unscientific "how hot does it feel" test reveals a box just above room temperature so no heat concerns from the unit itself. Cables are terminated well and look sleek with a see through mesh covering.

Cons: Mesh cable cover is easily marred with even the slightest snag. And it seems to snag quite a bit unless you really pay attention during install. Only 4 SATA connectors. Not a huge deal as you can always connect 4 pin molex to SATA converters but it's something to be aware of if you're trying to run 5+ internal drives. Both of these are very minor.

Overall Review: Cables seem "average" in length. Not much extra to play with but not tons of extra all over the place either. Has Blue LEDS on the fans. If you are a "no light" person or going for a different color this may be important to you. I'm not exactly driving this PSU very hard at the moment. 1 Gig of RAM, 1 hard drive, 1 - 2 hour power cycles. I won't know how it holds up until all the new cards are in and it's going for hours on end, day in and day out.