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Josh W.

Josh W.

Joined on 12/09/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Awesome Card

Hauppauge Low Profile TV Tuner Card WINTV-PVR 150MCE-LP PCI Interface
Hauppauge Low Profile TV Tuner Card WINTV-PVR 150MCE-LP PCI Interface

Pros: Great picture quality. Easy to install with Windows MCE 2005. Hardware MPEG2 encoding.

Cons: Will only fit in certain cases.

Overall Review: I bought this card mainly to fit in my low-profile case used as a DVR. Anyone with a full size ATX case should not buy this card because you'll have to break off a piece of the hardware to get it to fit (this is what I had to do when I transferred to another computer).

Great for a budget vista HTPC

GIGABYTE GA-M61SME-S2 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-M61SME-S2 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: I sought out to build the cheapest vista HTPC, and I believe this board helped me out a lot. I love the dual channel memory (I put in 2 gigs of PC25300), the onboard video is stellar compared to most cheap boards (3.0 experience index in vista). If you want to build a cheap vista HTPC, this mobo is perfect.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: This mobo, 2 gigs RAM, using the onboard video & audio (can be 8 channel w/ optional adapter), SATA 160GB HD, AMD X2 4000+ Brisbane Core 2.1ghz - Works flawlessly w/ Vista home premium

Great for a vista HTPC

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ - Athlon 64 X2 Brisbane Dual-Core 2.1 GHz Socket AM2 65W Processor - ADO4000DDBOX
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ - Athlon 64 X2 Brisbane Dual-Core 2.1 GHz Socket AM2 65W Processor - ADO4000DDBOX

Pros: Heatsink was the simplest installation ever (also very quiet). The processor flies in vista with a 5.8 experience index. All I wanted this for was to run vista home premium so I could use media center, and it did exactly that.

Cons: None at all

Overall Review: You can overclock this thing if you want (sometimes up to 2.6 and very stable), but I wouldn't do so with the included heatsink unless you use some electronic "lubricant"

Awesome Drive

Seagate BarraCuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Seagate BarraCuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: This hard drive so far is flawless. When I first got it, I pulled off the 1.5 Gbps-limiting jumper because I figured I wouldn't have needed it. To my dismay, my mobo didn't support 3.0 Gbps so I had to put the jumper back on. The drive is tiny compared to my others and is quiet as can be.

Cons: None thus far.

Overall Review: Sweet 5 year warranty.

Sweet Card For a PVR

Hauppauge Low Profile TV Tuner Card WINTV-PVR 150MCE-LP PCI Interface
Hauppauge Low Profile TV Tuner Card WINTV-PVR 150MCE-LP PCI Interface

Pros: Extremely good picture quality. I'm using it with a Home-Built Windows Media Center 2005 PC. I specifically bought this card because I knew the picture quality would be stellar, and it's also low profile so it fits my small Asus-Pundit AE-3 case. When recording I run about 15% CPU usage. Not bad.

Cons: Software that comes with it is drag. I would use nothing but Media Center 2005 for the quality and ease of use.

Awesome Deal, But not for PVRs

ASUS PUNDIT-AE3 AMD Socket 754 SiS 760GX Barebone
ASUS PUNDIT-AE3 AMD Socket 754 SiS 760GX Barebone

Comments: When I received this Barebone system I was so excited because I was going to set it up with my PVR. The case looked gorgeous, installation was dandy. Then I go to install my PCI cards and AGP card. Yeah, you need low profile cards. Maybe I'm stupid, but I don't remember anything saying "LOW PROFILE PCI SLOT". I have searched and searched and searched and have found one low-profile Tuner Card, and it's made by Radeon, so that idea is out. *Sigh*. I guess I'll start over.