cover
Milorad O.

Milorad O.

Joined on 03/16/03

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 10
Most Favorable Review

Great Lightscribe Burner

Sony Optiarc 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black PATA Model AD-7191A LightScribe Support
Sony Optiarc 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black PATA Model AD-7191A LightScribe Support

Pros: 20X DVD burning, DVD-RAM 12X and Lightscribe, affordable. This is Ultra DMA mode 4 drive, it supports transfers up to 66MB/sec.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: This is 2 sheep drive and it will burn SD 2.51 discs with no problem. SD 3 and higher is not currently supported by any burner. 16X DL burning would be nice but at this moment there is no media. The same goes for 12X DVD-RAM that is not available anywhere. I bought one Panasonic dual 5X DVD-RAM 9.4GB disc and everything went smooth. DVD-RAM rewritable discs are of much better quality than regular rewritable media. You can rewrite up to 100,000 times DVD-RAM disc but only 1,000 times regular RW. I also tried Verbatim 16X DVD+R, TDK 48X CD-R and Verbatim 8x DVD+RW. No problems with this burner and Nero 8 software.

Most Critical Review
GECUBE Radeon X1950XT 256MB GDDR3 AGP 8X Graphics Card HX195XTGA3-D3 (R)
GECUBE Radeon X1950XT 256MB GDDR3 AGP 8X Graphics Card HX195XTGA3-D3 (R)

Pros: Fastest AGP card available, reasonable price, excellent pipe cooler.

Cons: The card I bought is defective. ATI Overdrive and ATI Tray Tools show 500MHz core clock with 594MHz memory clock speed. Core clock speed should be 648MHz and memory 702MHz. Card is returned for replacement.

Overall Review: This card requires 550W power supply with 38A on 12V rail. I found this in user manual addendum. This requirement is the same as the one for ATI SLI Crossfire products. Fans are not noisy but going for 655MHz speed will produce 70C. Card is huge and although I have large case it barely fit on top of SATA connectors. I have 1 AGP slot and 3 PCI slots and after installing this card I can use only one PCI slot. You need one 6-pin PCI Express power connector for GPU and one regular molex for two large fans. Included setup CD is ATI made for all ATI products since 8500 series and includes all ATI drivers with manuals for all chipsets. Printed manual is good and useful. HDTV video output cable is included.

Sapphire is the best

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 3850 512MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Graphics Card 100228L
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 3850 512MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Graphics Card 100228L

Pros: As advertised, fastest AGP card. Good price.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I previously bought 2 HIS IceQ 3850 AGP cards and they were both DOA. Sapphire card works flawlessly with low profile heatsink and takes only one slot. I used 8.6 drivers from ATI web site and card was detected as Radeon HD 3800. No need to install fix drivers or edit inf file. With stock speed I have 9500 3DMark05 score (7000 3DMark06) and it gets easily overclocked to 710/940 with ATI Overdrive utility. I have performed some tests with DMC 4 PC demo and Sapphire card gets A rating. This card is exactly the same size as Sapphire 1950 Pro card with which I obtained B rating previously. test 1: 64.28 (1950) 89.90 (3850) test 2: 48.75 (1950) 84.83 (3850) test 3: 80.99 (1950) 105.76 (3850) test 4: 39.62 (1950) 51.42 (3850) As you can see improvement is significant and you should upgrade your 1950 card. I have P4 670 running at 4.2GHz with 2GB of OCZ Titanium RAM@220MHz. MB is Asus SIS 661FX. Both Oblvion at Ultra High setting and STALKER at Maximum run at 40-60fps at 720p.

What Firmware?

D-Link EBR-2310 Ethernet Broadband Router 1 x 10/100Mbps WAN Ports 4 x 10/100Mbps LAN Ports
D-Link EBR-2310 Ethernet Broadband Router 1 x 10/100Mbps WAN Ports 4 x 10/100Mbps LAN Ports

Pros: Automatic setup, small. Far better than Linksys BFSX41 that simply stopped working recently for me. Linksys doesn't have automatic setup and you have to waste hours on turning it off and on to detect network properly. For over a month I never lost network connection once. Adding devices is a breeze, they are all properly detected and working outright.

Cons: Firmware versions less than 2.00 do not support Vista. I have deducted one star for this reason.

Overall Review: Newegg doesn't list which firmware you are buying. I received firmware version 1.05 that is not upgradeable to 2.00. I can't even return it because there is a good chance that I would get another 1.05. I checked my local Best Buy store and they sure have version 2.00.

The best USB flash drive

CORSAIR Flash Voyager 4GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) CMFUSB2.0-4GB
CORSAIR Flash Voyager 4GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) CMFUSB2.0-4GB

Pros: 4GB flash drive with ten year warranty at less than $30 with free shipping from Newegg.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I tested this drive on my least accessible USB ports and connector went all the way in. I also have Sandisk Cruzer Titanium and I guarantee you that if you can plug that one in your USB port you will plug this one as well. I can't comment on durability of rubber cap because it takes long time to wear it off but ten year warranty will do the trick. Voyager is as fast as Cruzer Titanium but keep on your mind that larger the drive the slower it transfers data. 250MB file writing took 21 seconds with Cruzer Titanium 500MB drive, 27 seconds with 1GB Cruzer Titanium and 35 seconds with Voyager. I wouldn't recommend larger than 4GB flash drives because their writing time is slower than burning DVD-RW not to mention that you can buy for $80 Seagate 250GB external HD while 8GB flash drives start at $60. I do not have Vista but I believe that Voyager can be used to boost cache and reduce boot time. there is GT version of Voyager that is certified for this but this one may work as well.

Just to make things clear

GECUBE Radeon X1950XT 256MB GDDR3 AGP 8X Graphics Card HX195XTGA3-D3 (R)
GECUBE Radeon X1950XT 256MB GDDR3 AGP 8X Graphics Card HX195XTGA3-D3 (R)

Pros: read my previous review

Cons: read my previous review

Overall Review: This is in response to user CPU. 550W requirement is printed in the addendum of the manual. If you ever bothered to read it you would find out that I was telling the truth. Second, there is no lower CPU speed with 2D as you claim. That was not mentioned in the manual nor does it make any sense. I did measure 3DMark05 and Aquamark tests. Comparing with my old X800XT running at 500/500MHz all the time, new Gecube card scored: 70fps average in Aquamark compared to 67fps with X800XT, 8,000 points in 3DMark05 compared to 6,000 with X800XT. I think that this speaks clearly that Gecube card retains 500MHz speed even in 3D applications. Card is obviously defective.