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Eric H.

Eric H.

Joined on 02/13/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 4
Most Favorable Review

Best monitor on the market

Gateway XHD3000 Black 30" 6ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor w/ 6-port USB Hub and Swivel Adjustment 400 cd/m2 1000:1 Built in Speakers
Gateway XHD3000 Black 30" 6ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor w/ 6-port USB Hub and Swivel Adjustment 400 cd/m2 1000:1 Built in Speakers

Pros: Awesome amount of screen space. Almost double that of the 1080P screens. The input scaling is incredible and as far as I know, the only 30 inch monitor with the scaling feature. OSD is well laid out and works with the remote or via the side pane. Tons of inputs. I got three computers hooked up to it :) Finally, no one else has mentioned it, but the stand is really a nice piece. Solid metal and looks awesome.

Cons: 1 dead pixel. Not bad though considering how many there are total. No height adjustment, but with this size it doesn't seem to matter. The speakers have no bass, so plan on a separate sub or speakers. I wish it had a second Dual Link DVI input so that you could run 2 computers at full resolution (Get the HP if you need more than 1 imput at full resolution). Without a DVI switch, other monitors max out at 1080P over hdmi.

Overall Review: I may have the blackout issue, but I think that may have been caused by my video card overheating. I switched my ATI 1950X out for a 8600 GTS and haven't seen the problem since. I am having some issues with the HDMI input, but that may be a cable or my laptop. I have to do some more testing before I can determine where the problem is.

12/22/2007
Most Critical Review

eSATA is useless

Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750GB USB 2.0 / eSATA 3.5" External Hard Drive ST307504FPA1E2-RK
Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750GB USB 2.0 / eSATA 3.5" External Hard Drive ST307504FPA1E2-RK

Pros: Great storage space, low power consumption. Auto spin-down is nice also.

Cons: Pretty much turns into an orange glow emitting brick if you try to use eSATA with solaris. Works fine with a usb connection however.

Overall Review: If you plan on using usb only and need a ton of storage, this may be the drive for you. If you want the speed of eSATA, look elsewhere.

10/23/2007

Purchased for HTPC setup

Toshiba 40" 1080p 120Hz LED-LCD HDTV 40UL605U
Toshiba 40" 1080p 120Hz LED-LCD HDTV 40UL605U

Pros: Low power usage. High contrast, bright display. The netflix app worked flawlessly (better than windows media center). VUDU had near bluray quality image but the rental prices are a bit steep. This TV has proper power management, so it can be used with a PC. This tv will power down after 15 minutes of no signal unlike the Vizio i had originally purchased. It will not power up when a PC does however. It is super light and extremely thin.

Cons: Some spotlighting in the corners. Only really noticeable in a very dark room with a dark picture. Not enough to be annoying. When used as a PC monitor, dark text has a white halo around it. It was really bad until I turned the 'sharpness' setting to 0. After that it was still present, but not awful anymore. The sensor for the remote is a bit narrow in sensor angle. This isn't really a con, but the mount holes for wall mounting are 400mm x 400mm. Make sure you get a mount that supports that size. I had to rig up some extra long mount bars for the bracket that I had already. The bolts are 8mm with 1.25mm thread.

Overall Review: I purchased this to be hooked up to my Atom based PC in my bedroom. The screen is great for movies and TV, but only OK for viewing text and web pages. There is a white haloing effect around black text which makes some reading difficult up close. One big surprise was that netflix directly using the TV's widget is much much better than netflix using windows media center. The picture quality was wonderful when not used for text. I watched one movie (you get one free) via VUDU and the picture on that (1080p) blew me away. It hung up once and I had to restart the movie, so there are bugs, but it was a great movie experience. A bit steep at 6 bucks for a 1080p movie, but in a pinch as an occasional thing I don't think it is too bad. I had originally purchased a Vizio 37" edge lit Led/lcd. That definitely had a better picture for use with a PC, but it had one fatal flaw - when the PC went to sleep, the Vizio would stay powered on. This toshiba powers down after 15 minutes of no signal

Quality Control Lacking

ENERMAX Galaxy EGX850EWL 850 W ATX12V/ EPS12V/ BTX SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
ENERMAX Galaxy EGX850EWL 850 W ATX12V/ EPS12V/ BTX SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: Runs cool, great options for hooking up any components or MB.

Cons: Power supply started beeping when booting new system. After checking the manual, it informed me that it was beeping because a fan was out. Checked and the rear fan was seized up. This should not have made it out the door. Unfortunately I now have to RMA this and wait weeks for them to give me a replacement.