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John E.

John E.

Joined on 05/24/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 9
Most Favorable Review

Easy Set Up - Part 2

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Stable once you set it up right.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Update on coolers - the rear copper cooler can be removed so you can even use easy coolers that have a backplate. Further, the Scythe Ninja is practically made for the motherboard. It has no backplate, so the huge copper Gigabyte backplate can remain in place. It clears just fine (1/16th of an inch at closest). And it supports huge overclocking for me to 3.55GHz+. If anyone complains about room for a fancy cooler, it's because they didn't get the Ninja, or it's because they didn't get watercooling. And I forgot - to get 3.56GHz, I put in a FSB of 445. No problems.

Most Critical Review

1 bad one good

Western Digital Blue WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Manufacture Recertified Bare Drive
Western Digital Blue WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Manufacture Recertified Bare Drive

Pros: Second one worked

Cons: Had to return, including pay for shipping of a DOA unit. What a crazy return policy, (I mean pay, to ship back what was DOA???), but that's what we sign up for I guess. Total of two weeks before finally had the 2nd unit, which worked fine.

10/28/2013

Well designed, great cooling

JONSBO D30 BLACK Mini Micro ATX Computer Case, Aluminum/Steel/Tempered Glass-1 Side, Simple High Compatibility MATX Case, Support 240 Water & 168mm Air Cooling, 355mm GPU Support,Interchangeable Side
JONSBO D30 BLACK Mini Micro ATX Computer Case, Aluminum/Steel/Tempered Glass-1 Side, Simple High Compatibility MATX Case, Support 240 Water & 168mm Air Cooling, 355mm GPU Support,Interchangeable Side

Pros: - Compact; roughly the minimum size possible for a huge air cooler (Noctua NH-D15 chromax.Black) and a Gigabyte Aero 4080 - Great airflow and cooling when done right - Room for 3x 2.5" drive or 1x3.5" and 2x 2.5" - I did air cooling, but it even has room for water cooling at top! - I used a Mini ITX, but it even supports a Micro ATX

Cons: - It was a very tight squeeze to get the 4080 in, and I had to pry the back in place to get the GPU screws in, but it made it!

Overall Review: I reversed the CPU cooling fans to pull in fresh air from the back, so that the CPU doesn't breath hot air from inside the case from the GPU. I installed two fans on top, and everything is cool as a cucumber when gaming. Overall system draws 500W at the outlet, and hours of gaming at 144Hz 4K is flawless.

Nice, BUT had to modify it

ZOTAC ZONE Edition GeForce GT 640 2GB DDR3 PCI Express 3.0 x16 Graphics Card ZT-60204-20L
ZOTAC ZONE Edition GeForce GT 640 2GB DDR3 PCI Express 3.0 x16 Graphics Card ZT-60204-20L

Pros: After I fixed it, it runs well, low power, fanless, and beats my 8800GTX by 2x on HalfLife at 2560x1600. My PC now takes 82W at idle (vs. 132W) and at full bore on the Halflife video stress test, it takes only 150W (vs. 223W), while delivering twice the FPS. And I LOVE the fanless quietness. Since the rest of my PC is cooler, I went ahead and disconnected two other fans too, so it's way quieter now. So now, I do love the card.

Cons: Wow! When I first installed it, it was fine, but if I fired up a video game, my computer FROZE (I let this happen like 4 times to make sure it wasn't drivers, which I updated). I took the heat sink off, and reseated it after moving around the heat compound, (it is only held on loosely by spring loaded nuts; it is NOT a held down in an overly secure manner!!!), and it's been fine since. Clearly, a user should not have to do this, and I am now worried that it will happen again. Like usual, only my computer in the family has "issues".

10/28/2013

Works great...now

TRENDnet TEW-621PC 300Mbps Wireless N-Draft PC Card
TRENDnet TEW-621PC 300Mbps Wireless N-Draft PC Card

Pros: Works well now, but it was a major pain until I figured it out. Fast speed, WPA2-PSK security works well and smoothly.

Cons: DON'T USE THEIR WIRELESS CONNECTION MANAGER! Let Windows XP manage the connection. Not only was the connection made in 1-2 seconds instead of 3-8 seconds, but it also never, ever drops now. When I installed the connection manager that comes with the card, it has a nice interface, but it was the cause of all the frustration. The drivers are not a problem.

Overall Review: The version 2.0 card doesn't stick out very far and is the reasons I bought this card. Very nice size!

Works well

TRENDnet TEW-637AP Wireless Easy-N-Upgrader 802.11b/g/n and 802.11e up to 300 Mbps
TRENDnet TEW-637AP Wireless Easy-N-Upgrader 802.11b/g/n and 802.11e up to 300 Mbps

Pros: Works well, solid connection. Web interface functional.

Cons: None really