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IAN G.

IAN G.

Joined on 05/10/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 17
Most Favorable Review

Impressive... Most impressive...

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBHZ
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBHZ

Pros: Rock solid at specified timings (1600 MHz, 7-7-7-18, 1.9V) on an eVGA 790i board with CPU (QX9650) overclocked to 3.66 GHz. If it's within your budget, a great addition to any performance -oriented PC build, for gaming or anything else.

Cons: Doesn't default to correct timings because it's not EPP 2 compliant, but if you're buying this memory you should probably know how to set the timings yourself.

Overall Review: If you *don't* know how to set the memory timings in your BIOS, this memory isn't for you, especially at the price (March '08) of five Benjamins. Let's face it, you could buy a whole computer for that. Also, don't forget, it's DDR3 which not all boards support!

Most Critical Review

Great design, love the case, but inadequate packaging

Cooler Master Stacker 830 Evolution RC-830-SSR3-GP Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case Real Power Pro 1000W Power Supply
Cooler Master Stacker 830 Evolution RC-830-SSR3-GP Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case Real Power Pro 1000W Power Supply

Pros: Really wonderful design, it's great to have a real all-metal case as opposed to others which are metal and plastic. The case is roomy and the PSU is very good, maybe the perfect triple-SLI setup (although I'm not sure 3 x 8800 GTX would fit under the 1000W limit, I'm sure the next gen 98xx cards will). The mobo slide-out feature is great. The door is great.

Cons: Really wanted to give this 5 stars but the accessories (in my experience, the wheels) which are bundled inside the case for shipping are not well packed. I could hear things rattling when I unboxed it and I found that of 16 wheel-mount screws, only 8 were left in their bag and the rest were loose as the bag was torn. Of the 8 missing ones I could only find 7. This may sound petty but the fact is that the loose ones I found were all wedged into odd places in the case, and maybe the last one is inside the PSU. Maybe one day it will cause a short or fall out into my $3000+ gaming machine and fry my eVGA 790i mobo or something. I almost wish I'd RMA'd it without opening it to avoid this worry. So that costs CoolerMaster two stars, sorry guys, this is unacceptable.

Overall Review: I do love the door, but I would have liked a lock or latch on it, and also a cover for the on/off switch. I have a son who loves to open doors and press buttons...

Very satisfied so far for remote working and game development

DELL Laptop XPS 15-9570 Intel Core i7 8th Gen 8750H (2.20 GHz) 8 GB Memory 256 GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 15.6" InfinityEdge IPS Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Newegg Exclusive
DELL Laptop XPS 15-9570 Intel Core i7 8th Gen 8750H (2.20 GHz) 8 GB Memory 256 GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 15.6" InfinityEdge IPS Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Newegg Exclusive

Pros: - Beautiful screen, well engineered keyboard and touchpad, compatible with Microsoft multi-touch and swipe trickery - No number keys (I never use them and consider them a waste of space & plastic) - The design with the Aluminium and carbon fibre is great and feels really nice to the touch - Reasonable GPU, Good CPU and workable RAM/SSD which I can upgrade later at lower cost - Not a touch screen, which I specifically didn't want because of the super-shiny look they seem to need

Cons: - Official "docking stations" are crazy expensive! I bought a 3rd-party one for a reasonable price though. - The speakers are not wonderful for music but that's not a big deal for me.

Overall Review: My two main use cases are remote working via a Cisco web interface (basically streaming graphics, no local processing) which could be done on anything with a good screen, and Unity game development which requires a good CPU/GPU combo and can be demanding. I've been doing both for a week and this laptop has been very good; I'm very happy with my choice. I use this laptop a lot on the train. I almost bought the Dell XPS Gaming laptop but it's almost twice as heavy and more of a "desktop replacement" so this is a good fit for me. The 15" screen is about the right size. Dell didn't load it up with too much bloatware either.

Cool and Quiet, Modular, (but mine failed)

CORSAIR CX-M series CX600M 600W 80 PLUS BRONZE Active PFC ATX12V & EPS12V Modular Power Supply
CORSAIR CX-M series CX600M 600W 80 PLUS BRONZE Active PFC ATX12V & EPS12V Modular Power Supply

Pros: Modular design is so nice, I never want to go back to a regular messy one. Power is nice and clean according to Asus A88X-Pro tools. Has all the cables you need AND a bag of cable ties. Classy. Got it at a discount and (in theory) with mail-in rebate.

Cons: Mine failed after 5 weeks so I have to return it to Corsair. The discount price doesn't sit so well when return shipping is $16 (outside newegg's return 30-day window) and I have to deal with the downtime and hassle of swapping out a PSU. I'm only knocking off one star - I only have one data point. Mail-in rebates are not that great. In fact, they're annoying. Just make it cheaper.

Overall Review: I wish newegg or someone would publish RMA rates (for failure only) along with reviews. They're just as important. People writing one star reviews because they're angry after theirs failed is misleading. This is probably a good product but I'd like to know how many are failing. Admittedly if it fails after 30 days, newegg probably won't know.

Almost perfect

Wenger SwissGear VALVE 16" Laptop Notebook Computer & iPad Ready Backpack - Red
Wenger SwissGear VALVE 16" Laptop Notebook Computer & iPad Ready Backpack - Red

Pros: Very well made backpack with lots of pockets and options. When not full it squishes down quite well if you have limited storage space (e.g. in the trunk of a small car). Of the three zips, two have double-zipper format and the third only has one zipper. The side pockets are good for drinks and the carry handle is strong and comfortable, as are the straps. I am 5'10" and 190 lbs if you want a reference for body size.

Cons: Only criticism I have is that the small pocket has only one zipper slider (the small piece which moves). I like to have two sliders on each so that the opening can be at the top. That way if it is not perfectly closed, or you're careless, your stuff won't fall out so easily. I would have liked to have a double zipper zip on the front pocket too, where I keep e.g. keys and a phone, so they would be less likely to fall out. But still five stars.

Overall Review: I have travelled a lot with this and the main "notebook ready" feature where you unzip it and lay it flat doesn't seem that useful and I have never used it. TSA always asked me to take the laptop completely out of the bag (and neoprene case) for security.

Great value, faster than Class 6

Patriot Signature 64GB  MicroSD Extended Capacity (Micro SDXC) Flash Card
Patriot Signature 64GB MicroSD Extended Capacity (Micro SDXC) Flash Card

Pros: Faster than my Class 6 cards, as it should be. No data issues in initial testing. Formatted to 63GB on a netbook running ubuntu 12.10 using fat32 and then ext4 as an experiment. For use as a file transfer medium, I am getting 8-10 MB/sec sustainted write speed.

Cons: No cons. I do wish it was faster - it still takes 1 to 2 hrs to fill with 64 GB of data - but it is an SD card, not an SSD.

Overall Review: Bought this to upgrade the 8GB class 6 card I had in an always-on car dash cam ("E-PRANCE New Mini 0801 with Ambarella A2S60 Chip"). Unfortunately it only works there if you format it down (using the camera) to 32 GB which is about 8 hrs of video. But this is not a criticism of the card, and for the price I paid, it is still great value and only slightly more expensive than a 32 GB card. Eventually I'll want to use the card for soemthing else and then I will reformat it back to 64 GB.