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Ryan B.

Ryan B.

Joined on 01/10/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 18
Most Favorable Review

For small hands

Logitech M310 910-001917 Peacock Blue 3 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB RF Wireless Optical Mouse
Logitech M310 910-001917 Peacock Blue 3 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB RF Wireless Optical Mouse

Pros: Wireless is perfect and super responsive, superior Logitech quality, feels great in the hand, nice minimal and clean design, no excessive buttons

Cons: It was smaller than I expected -- I would say it's 3/4 the size of what I would call an average mouse. It worked fine for me but if you have big hands or like to palm your mouse, you might want to step up to a premium Logitech instead of this one

Overall Review: Logitech is always good, no exception here

Buy It

G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model F3-8500CL7S-4GBSQ
G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model F3-8500CL7S-4GBSQ

Pros: Works first time, no problems

Cons: No cons. Just buy it.

ASUS has impressed me. I usually buy Samsung.

ASUS VK228H-CSM Black 21.5" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LED Monitor 250 cd/m2 ASCR 80,000,000:1 Built-in Speakers Built in Webcam
ASUS VK228H-CSM Black 21.5" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LED Monitor 250 cd/m2 ASCR 80,000,000:1 Built-in Speakers Built in Webcam

Pros: Really nice screen -- hooked up to a GeForce 520M over HDMI. Very clear, bright, good viewing angle, nice minimal styling, matte black screen (no gloss!!). Built in webcam is decent, built in speakers are a nice plus but are not high quality at all, lots of ways to connect (HDMI, DVI, VGA). Lots of included cables!! My past four LCD screens have all been Samsung -- IMO, their image quality is always mind blowing for a really good price. For $150, I took a chance on this ASUS and I was glad I did. I don't think the image is still quite as good as a Samsung, but I also paid over $100 less. If you're on a budget and need a built in webcam and speakers, I would absolutely go for this monitor.

Cons: When trying to calibrate the screen, the image was just a bit too bright or colors were too subdued -- I wasn't able to strike a balance between the two. I ended up using the built in enhancement mode along with some tweaks to the color on the GeForce card to get it as close as I could to optimal. Sided with being a little too bright instead of having the colors too dull. This is being pretty nitpicky -- the image is great -- but like I said before, my 4 other Samsungs were just superior and this doesn't quite match up in quality.

Overall Review: Used this monitor to build a kiosk system with a Zotac ZBox ID80. The back of the monitor is VESA 75/100 compliant and worked really well with the mount for the Zbox. Some monitors are really curvy in the back and the ZBox won't sit flush, but this monitor worked really well for this application. Plus, the built in webcam and speakers, along with the HDMI + audio really minimzed the cables needed in the back for a super clean look. I would highly recommend this for a kiosk build.

Great Wireless Keyboard

Logitech K270 Wireless Keyboard for Windows, 2.4 GHz Wireless, Full-Size, Number Pad, 8 Multimedia Keys, 2-Year Battery Life, Compatible with PC, Laptop
Logitech K270 Wireless Keyboard for Windows, 2.4 GHz Wireless, Full-Size, Number Pad, 8 Multimedia Keys, 2-Year Battery Life, Compatible with PC, Laptop

Pros: Super responsive wireless, clean minimal design, good bounce on the keys for a keyboard in this price range, supposedly one year of use on two AA batteries (we'll see!)

Cons: Plastic, really light. It's good quality for a $30 keyboard, but it's still a $30 keyboard. Just know what you're getting.

Overall Review: Logitech is always superior quality, this is no exception.

Awesome box once I tweaked it

Zotac ZBOX-ID80-U Intel NM10 Black Mini / Booksize Barebone System
Zotac ZBOX-ID80-U Intel NM10 Black Mini / Booksize Barebone System

Pros: Very compact (smaller than a Wii), silent on default settings, lots of new tech built in (802.11n, USB 3.0, card reader, GeForce520M, UEFI motherboard), super easy to open and install hardware, VESA mount for a very clean installation on the back of a LCD. Paired with a wireless keyboard and mouse it made a brilliant kiosk system.

Cons: Random hardware hangs and crashes for the first few days. My add-on components were tested separately and were fine (GSkill 4GB SO-DIMM and OCZ Vertex3 SSD), so I started to question the mobo. Even though the temps looked fine for the system, CPU, and GPU, the initial smart fan settings were 30% min and 80% max and I never heard the fan kick in at all (see pros). Raised the min to 60% and the max to 100% and the hangs stopped completely. Even ran Prime95 torture test to verify with no problems -- a huge step up from just the BIOS setup screen overheating the computer (actually happened). Zotac forums were filled with complaints about similiar issues, especially hanging on S3 sleep mode, but Zotac has issued a BIOS update that seems to have fixed these as well. I didn't bother installing since my fan speed changes worked for me (my philosophy has always been don't update the BIOS unless you REALLY have to....) but it's good to know there's a confirmed BIOS fix waiting as well.

Overall Review: 3.8 Windows Experience Index due to the Intel Atom. Everything else was a 5.8 or above (SSD rates 7.8 on disk throughput!). While normal, everyday tasks are super responsive and breezy (web browsing, e-mail, full screen video, netflix, etc.), this is not the core of a gaming machine or any other high performance build. But if you're looking to build a super slick kiosk type system, this is perfect and seemed to be the best option among all the miniPC boxes I researched. It would have been nice to have the mobo working a bit better out of the box, but overall I'm really happy and will be looking at Zotac products again.

Surprisingly good

Spyborgs Wii Game
Spyborgs Wii Game

Pros: Action packed. Lots of scripted and dynamic level events to move the game along, great graphics, smart use of motion controls, fun co-op gameplay, three different characters to learn.

Cons: Short and simplistic. It's still just a beat 'em game, like Final Fight.

Overall Review: It's a steal for $7. Just buy it. There aren't many good co-op games for the Wii.