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Nathan L.

Nathan L.

Joined on 10/04/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

Incredible!

Corsair M65 Vengeance USB Wired Laser Gaming Mouse
Corsair M65 Vengeance USB Wired Laser Gaming Mouse

Pros: I play a couple video games, but my main focus is getting a durable, corded mouse with precise control for graphics workstation. Gaming mice are well suited for this purpose. The Corsair products I have purchase over the years have all been well designed and constructed. This product is no exception. It's everything they promised. Nice grip, smooth, fast, precise, light, durable. I used a M$ Sidewinder X5 for a couple years and it was very durable, nice features, but large and hard to grip even though I have large hands. The M$ software was buggy, too. Finally one of the button went bad so I got this one and a great change!

Cons: It's so fast and light it takes a little to time adjust, but that's not really a negative, is it? My old Rocketfish pad has been the best mouse pad I've owned but it's a couple of years old, so I may get Corsairs their mouse to gain a tad bit of control.

Overall Review: I just checked and you can get replacement PTFE Glide pads directly from Corsair for $4.95. Given the construction of this mouse and availability of replacement glide pads means I'll be using this mouse for a few years. Really the only downside was Newegg's poor service. Last time I deal with them. Enough said.

Most Critical Review

Bitterseet experience

ASUS Z97-WS Intel LGA1150 HDMI/DisplayPort /Mini DisplayPort Dual server-grade Intel LAN ATX Server Workstation Motherboard for Quad-strength Graphic Power
ASUS Z97-WS Intel LGA1150 HDMI/DisplayPort /Mini DisplayPort Dual server-grade Intel LAN ATX Server Workstation Motherboard for Quad-strength Graphic Power

Pros: I can say cautiously (see Cons, below) this board is a killer workstation mb and lives up to expectations. The board I'm using now deserves 5 eggs, but the best I can rate is a 3 because of my previous experience with ASUS (1 egg) and the 1st Z97-WS I returned on RMA. I'm looking forward to installing a PCIe SSD RAID array to see what this killer can do in SLI. Read the epic feature list. If you are accustomed to the previous ASUS UEFI BIOS, this one is a little different but worth the transitional learning curve.

Cons: I got one of these mb's within a week of release and am using it with the Intel Core i7 4770K cpu's. I had major issues with my 1st ASUS Z97-WS and I'm on my 2nd board now. The 2nd one seems rock solid at this point and really fast. Newegg was fantastic - I was transitioning from another pc system and built a new system with this mb. I struggled all night to get it running and the next morning called Newegg in a panic because of a project deadline. They immediately RMA'd my 1st board for refund upon receipt of the returned mb. I couldn't wait for the refund and live close to Newegg, so I purchased the 2nd board outright and will called the pickup that same afternoon. The new system was running smoothly within a couple of hours. The 1st board functioned, would boot, the TPU would BSOD and after much hassle could get my Win 7 installation to work but only marginally. Four out of five times couldn't get into UEFI BIOS on reboot. The mb initially wouldn't recognize my SSD's or HDD's. I thought I solved the problem when I provided the 2nd 12v CPU power connection, it was short lived. I believe there are issues with ASUS software, too. The 1st time I installed everything but not the 2nd time - only the essentials - LAN, USB, SATA support and audio. And so far I haven't installed ASUS Win 7 apps suite due to issues the 1st time, not to mention some of the drivers and apps are 3rd party bloat ware (e.g., not essential ASUS, Intel, Realtek, Marvell, etc. drivers or apps).

Overall Review: BTW - if you have system trouble down the road (which will inevitably happen with any mb) don't get your hopes up with ASUS' Advanced RMA (ARMA) program. The ASUS WS system I had leading up this took almost 2 months because they claimed they didn't have a replacement WS in stock. Then after 5 weeks of phone calls and ear bending they "found" one, but then they took almost 2 weeks to get it to me. That time was not just shipping either, it was ASUS in-house snail pace bureaucracy. Those people have no concept of the meaning of customer service. Last and kind of trivial - not a complaint but a heads up - I thought the M.2 slot was a dual spec and I could use my existing 240gb mSATA SSD boot drive, but it's not the case. The mSATA card and mPCIE (NGFF) SSD are two different specs. I got a new m.2 SSD and used my mSATA as a cache drive with a SATA III adapter.

Nice design - horible to use

Logitech MX Master 3 – Advanced Wireless Mouse for Mac, Ultrafast Scrolling, Ergonomic Design, 4000 DPI, Customisation, USB-C, Bluetooth, MacBook Pro,Macbook Air,iMac, iPad Compatible
Logitech MX Master 3 – Advanced Wireless Mouse for Mac, Ultrafast Scrolling, Ergonomic Design, 4000 DPI, Customisation, USB-C, Bluetooth, MacBook Pro,Macbook Air,iMac, iPad Compatible

Pros: Nice design. The ergonomic design takes a bit of time, even though I own other Logitech mice. But it was comfortable to my rather large hands.

Cons: I've been using Logitech mice for years. I've worn out 3 hardwired G502's doing 2D/3D CAD, 3D architectural renderings, graphics design, video editing, etc. Maybe it's a transition/adaptation issue, but I have to say this mouse is really lousy. Mouse movement locks up all the time. I used the dedicated dongle transceiver that came with the unit. There may have been some radio interference which could account for the unit's stalling movement and lock ups. One thing Logitech really brags about is the fancy wheel/mouse button. It's very smooth but I hated the thing. The pressure is very light, I mean really light like a feather. Maybe I could used to it, but found that I avoided using it as a third button because the pressure/wheel friction threshold is extremely low - 75% of the time pushing the wheel button caused it to spin instead, totally screwing up my work. This is a killer 'feature' for me. Even if everything else was great, and this was the only problem, I'd have to return it. I use the 3rd mouse button a LOT. In fact wearing out the 3rd button on my G502 is the only reason I bought this mouse. I would have liked Logitech to use this mouse's really nice ergonomic design, but make the high tech mouse wheel pressure/wheel rotational friction threshold like the G502. This mouse is touted as CAD/graphic design user's dream come true, but they hacked back all the bells and whistles - it's almost primitive like my original MacPlus' one button mouse. For instance. sometimes I need to switch the mouse DPI on the fly. The app software is extremely simplistic - are CAD/graphic design professionals a bunch of simpletons? Lastly the little side-side roller thingy is just too awkward to use - it's too high and I think there's a little ridge your thumb has to get over.

Overall Review: As a CAD/graphic design professional, I've been reading about this line of mice for a couple of years and really wanted to get one. I read some people complaint's about Logitech kept refining the design 'till they messed it up - sort of went sideways. I have to say this may be true. Maybe the MX Master 2 may be the best in the line. I game and such, but my primary focus is CAD/graphic design. It's interesting that I keep buying gaming mice because of their many features - precision, adaptability, and, like lot of gamers, I prefer wired mice as every foray into the wireless world has been less than satisfactory. As far as gaming mice go, I buy Logitech's G502 for its ergonomic design and feature set. I've tried many other mice but have used used Logitech products for many years. I thought the MX Master 3 was the natural evolution for me, like my Logitech G710+ mechanical (brown) keyboard, I'd hoped the MX Master 3 was no toy. It's not a toy but I can't figure out Logitech's target market for this product because it doesn't work at all for me which is a big surprise.

Very workable "mid-tower" design

Cooler Master HAF XB EVO - High Air Flow Test Bench and LAN Box Desktop Computer Case with ATX Motherboard Support
Cooler Master HAF XB EVO - High Air Flow Test Bench and LAN Box Desktop Computer Case with ATX Motherboard Support

Pros: Love the form factor. Easily takes an ATX motherboard (ASUS Z97-WS) with plenty of room all-around the board to access connectors, run cables, etc. The beefy frame quality is nice too. I became fascinated with the cube layout when Apple introduced it many years ago. Ventilation and cable management in the upper section is better than I hoped for in case this size.

Cons: In what I would otherwise call a perfect ATX small form factor case, I have to deduct at least 1 egg - the lower section is very crowded. The HDD cage come right out but I have 3 HDD's and 1 SDD, so that's not an option for me. Part of this is my fault for not buying a fully modular PSU. I'm half temped to cut off (or shorten) an unused power cable with molex connectors on my Corsair 750 watt unit. The other issue and was tempted to deduct 1 additional egg is my CPU temps in this case climbed 4 degrees C. I don't overclock much and use rather large (158mm) cpu heat sink. Cooler Master's claims about separating the heat generating vs non-heat generating components is not really applicable. Again I can't fault the case per se as I should have anticipated this given the HDD/SDD's are directly under the mb/cpu with very little room to spare (a few cm's at most). I'm adding a 200mm top fan and 2ea 80mm fans below. The cable problem I mentioned exacerbates this issue. The best I can hope for is the small fans to dissipate some of the HDD heat. The other consideration is to apply a thin reflective, heat absorbing layer of insulation between the mb and the HDD cages. Lastly, I'll install a water cooling system.

Overall Review: Used mid-tower cases for years and consider picking up a full tower, but this cube test bench design is fantastic and I'll gladly live with its limitations.

Great Board - Don't Be Afraid to Buy it.

EVGA 132-CK-NF78-TR LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
EVGA 132-CK-NF78-TR LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: This is a great deal on a great board. Mine has worked flawlessly since day one. Like another reviewer, I too had an ASUS motherboard and dumped it in favor of this one. EVGA support and BIOS updates have been great, which is more than I can say for ASUS. This board has been great for mild overclocking (routinely 1800 FSB w/ q9300).

Cons: I don't like the noisy northbridge fan but there are some simple and cheap work around for it on the EVGA forum. I also don't like the horizontal sata connection ports, but everyone uses them nowadays. The are a little flimsy and don't have the same nice click as the vertical ones. Regardless, everything has worked fine.

Overall Review: Don't surprised is your northbridge chipset get hot - that's normal. Also, don't expect extreme performance, but if you want a solid, reliable board for mild overclocking and games, this will work for you. If you have any issues or questions check out the great evga forum. There's a lot of folks there that answer any questions you may have.

Sweet Drive - Fast

Western Digital Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Totally awesome drive; nice drive for running applications. Fast - 2nd in line after WD VelociRaptor (see techreport.com). Ran Seagate 640Gb 7200.11 before and this drive shaved a minute off my Vista 64 load time. It has very snappy performance in Vista. The drive is quiet and installs easy - no problems at all. Great price, too, $149 for 1tb – wow. Can’t say enough good things about it.

Cons: Doesn't wash my clothes or respond to voice commands; quite stupid in that regard.

Overall Review: I was going to save some money and got a Seagate 640Gb 7200.11 thinking my system is not bleeding edge extreme and it wouldn’t make much difference, but I was wrong – the diff is noticeable when loading OS, apps, etc. It’s worth spending a little more on this drive, and you get a TB of storage. My system spec: q9300 @ 3.375GHz, 4GB RAM, EVGA 780i A1, and EVGA 8800GT AKIMBO OC’d.

10/26/2008