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Steven N.

Steven N.

Joined on 08/03/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

Quiet and good stability

Rosewill Green Series RG430-2 430W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.3 & EPS12V v2.91,Active PFC "Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply
Rosewill Green Series RG430-2 430W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.3 & EPS12V v2.91,Active PFC "Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply

Pros: Very quiet and good overall cable lengths. Voltage monitoring has shown very good and stable voltages. Efficiency is fantastic for the price.

Cons: A little more individual bundling on the wiring would be good and the SATA power connectors aren't terminated in the style I prefer (they are using vampire terminals rather than crimp terminals)

Overall Review: for the price, to get a 80% or better power supply is fantastic. The stability of the voltages was great and I'm very happy with the overall product!

11/21/2008

Great Case Runs cool

RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WB Black / Silver 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case
RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WB Black / Silver 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case

Pros: The toolkit is fantastic, the case overall is laid out very well and very impressive. Super happy with the drop down sides and the overall fit and finish of the case is impressive. The LED lighting on the front and hard drive indicator light are a nice touch.

Cons: 80 mm fans are pretty loud. 120mm fans didn't blow as much as the scythe 120's I replaced them with but they were very quiet. No power button or USB on outside, have to open front door

Overall Review: Overall a really fantastic case especially for the price. It's nicer than the last Antec case I had actually. Built well with good sturdy materials. The swing out bay for the hard drives is a little finicky to get in and out but once you've done it a couple times it is a cakewalk. The rest of the tool-less design was fantastic. All the drives go in easily and hold in place well. Just overall a really really nice setup. I'm impressed!

11/21/2008

Nice board

ASUS M3A-H/HDMI <GREEN> AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
ASUS M3A-H/HDMI <GREEN> AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Great set of options, low cost, good performance, express Gate Lite works decent, good accessories package with board

Cons: ATX 12V 4 pin connector is in the middle of the board and makes wire routing a bit weird having to go up and over the CPU.

Overall Review: Overall very happy with the board. Runs rather cool in my system (peaked out at about 38C so far) even though it is passive. The insulated backplate is also very nice as is the cable set and so forth included. Generally a nice board. I had trouble with Express Gate Lite hanging a lot on me using the one on the driver DVD. I downloaded the newest version from Asus and had no problem then. Works rather impressively, I'm on the internet in about 17 seconds from power on. Not shabby!

11/21/2008
EVGA GeForce 9500 GT 512MB DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card 512-P3-N954-TR
EVGA GeForce 9500 GT 512MB DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card 512-P3-N954-TR

Pros: Small size, dual DVI, quiet fan

Cons: none so far

Overall Review: Haven't gamed with it, and don't really plan to, but I'm happy with the overall installation and small size. None of the dual slot hogging of some of the bigger cards. Was really surprised by how small it was when I opened it up. The fan is quiet and unobtrusive on it which is also nice.

11/21/2008

Great MP3 player, lots of pros a few weaknesses

Creative ZEN STONE PLUS Black 2GB MP3 Player
Creative ZEN STONE PLUS Black 2GB MP3 Player

Pros: The Stone Plus is a very nice compact MP3 player. The battery life is pretty good overall, with it lasting through any listening period I can put to it. The sound quality is probably one of the most impressive traits. Clean sound, no hissing or popping, and the built in EQ and Bass Boost featuers do a great job of allowing you customize the sound. The capacity and style and build of the unit are also fantastic. I've really been very satisfied and impressed with the player and like it much better than the Shuffle and Sansa players I've messed with.

Cons: The unit does seem to lose charge when left to sit for days, so it needs to be charged before use, but that is easy with the USB cable and can be charged anywhere. The display is REALLY slow when you have a song playing and then try to move through menu's. Pausing the song and then making your changes or menu selections will greatly improve the performance there. My player also scuffed up pretty quickly, but the display is still in great shape.

Overall Review: Overall a considerably superior player to others in the form factor and size and capacity range. At the price of the Stone Plus it's worth it. I can't say enough about the overall sound quality and number of features. The FM Tuner also works fantasic even on some weak stations in my area. Overall very satisfied, only solid gripe I have is I wish it didn't bog down so much in the menu's when you are playing a song.

Western Digital Blue WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital Blue WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Comments: If you are installing XP you need a SATA 3rd party floppy (silicon Images or the like) to allow XP to properly recognize... then everything else is gravy! Great drive.

10/14/2005