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John C.

John C.

Joined on 04/10/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 17
Most Favorable Review

For Those Wanting Maximum Immersion

BenQ  W710ST  1280 x 720  2500 Lumens  DLP  HD Short-Throw Projector
BenQ W710ST 1280 x 720 2500 Lumens DLP HD Short-Throw Projector

Pros: - 8' 5" (101") throw distance gives me 11' 10" (142") 16:9 image. - Absolutely Ghost-less 3D with nVidia 3D Vision. - Great contrast ratio in dark environments (your blacks are only as good as your screen, after all). No more fearing dark areas in games! - Fairly even focus and square image (quite challenging for short-throw projectors). - Lightweight, but well constructed. - Comes with bag. Lens cover is attached to the projector with elastic string. - 2xHDMI inputs with 120Hz refresh rate for nVidia 3D Vision users. - Built-in speaker. - Handles 1080p. - Optical (rather than digital) zoom tweaking. - Quiet in "Economy" mode. My computer is louder! - Filter-free cooling design makes it low-maintenance. - Back-lit remote! - Bright enough for daytime use (but not stellar).

Cons: - Have to change "3D Sync" menu option to "nVidia 3D Vision" EVERY TIME you want to use the glasses. It forgets this setting when you change display modes (e.g. go back to the desktop and/or switch games). Only takes a few seconds and far from a deal-breaker, but you'd think they could have made the projector remember the setting. - Infrared remote can have difficulty working with the projector. - Not native 1080p, but 720p with 4-8x Anti-Aliasing works quite well. - Not as "short throw" as I was hoping. The original plan was to set it on the floor, but it isn't as "short throw" as I was hoping. I tried bouncing it off a mirror, which worked well but took up half my floor space (it's a small room). I ended up getting some ClosetMaid Stackables to hold the projector high up behind me while also giving me some much-needed shelf space. It works great! With an over-the-bed table to act as a desk for my mouse and keyboard, this is now a pretty sweet setup!

Overall Review: This thing is awesome! Newegg gave me an unbeatable price and it's everything I wanted out of a gaming projector except 720p instead of 1080p...I'll get over it! I use it a lot for 3D gaming using nVidia 3D Vision, and it is a huge step up from my Viewsonic LCD display, both in size and in 3D quality. I've been following/using stereoscopic imaging for over 10 years. I have never seen 100% ghost-free 3D using a single display until this device, probably due to the DLP tech. It is beautiful! Using 3D on a monitor, you feel like you're looking through a window into a 3D picture. With a near-12' 3D screen, the display melts away and you are FINALLY a part of the action. Virtual objects actually have presence in the room! Oblivion is stunningly beautiful, Sonic Generations is exhilarating, and Left 4 Dead is downright scary! As a hint, I found lining the image up with the floor maximizes immersion--it feels like there is no boundary between your room and the virtual world.

Most Critical Review

Avoid If You're An Advanced User

ARRIS SurfBoard Extreme SBG6782-AC DOCSIS 3.0 AC1750 Cable Modem WiFi Router with build in MoCA (SBG6782-AC)
ARRIS SurfBoard Extreme SBG6782-AC DOCSIS 3.0 AC1750 Cable Modem WiFi Router with build in MoCA (SBG6782-AC)

Pros: - A fully-featured home network hub in one attractive white box! - Easily fits under a desk! - MoCA is awesome! It's a shame it's not more popular!

Cons: - FIRMWARE IS MANAGED BY THE CABLE CO., NOT YOU! - Limited configurability for advanced routing functions.

Overall Review: I bought this as a cumulative update to my home network. I wanted 802.11ac, MoCA, a gigabit switch near the modem, and of course the modem itself. This thing has it all in one pretty package and it functions well. For the standard use case, this product is a fine piece of work. However, I find nothing but disappointment when I want to do advanced tasks: - Add a new route to a subnet in my home office? Nope! After scouring through all the menus and even telnet'ing in to see what the command prompt had to offer, I had to resort to an Ethernet switch instead. - Turn on IPv6 and see if I can get an address from my ISP? Nope! This shipped with IPv6 support as I recall seeing the config option and deciding to wait to tackle that another day (the whole no-NAT thing caught me off guard). However, at some point my ISP decided to reconfigure my modem and now IPv6 is no longer an option. Chances are it's not supported by my ISP, but how do I know someone at the C.O. didn't just configure it incorrectly? They don't usually deal with gateways, so it is quite possible they just went with a default profile that only runs IPv4. I usually avoid all-in-one solutions like the plague because they almost always sacrifice configurability and as parts go out of date space efficiency goes out the window. However, this one was just too perfect. If I had known that I was relinquishing control of the firmware and low-level settings to my cable company I would have avoided this product like a plague. Oh well, consider this lesson learned. I'll still keep it around as it does serve its purpose, but I won't be willingly buying another gateway for the foreseeable future.

10/23/2014

FANTASTIC Monitor Arm!

ERGOTRON 45-295-026 LX Desk Mount LCD Arm with Tall Pole, Mounting Kit for LCD Display, Aluminum
ERGOTRON 45-295-026 LX Desk Mount LCD Arm with Tall Pole, Mounting Kit for LCD Display, Aluminum

Pros: - Super-easy to adjust--up, down, left, right, forward, and back--with very little play to ensure you can get it in that perfect spot and keep it there. Also, full and continuous 360 rotation of the screen (limited only by your monitor cables wrapping around the arm), but if you'd rather you can also put in a screw to lock it to a particular orientation. The extra-tall pole is a must for future-proofing. - Super-solid metal construction! Holds the monitor rock steady even at full extension and will undoubtedly last for years. Seriously, you could drive nails with this thing and/or use it as a club in a zombie apocalypse. There's a tiny bit of plastic on this thing, but it is purely aesthetic. - Super-easy tool-less assembly for edge mount! Even comes with thumb screws for the VESA mount! Grommet mount mode is a tad annoying as you have to swap parts on the mount, but this is a matter of removing one screw, swapping a part, and then putting the screw back in. The hard part is you have to look at the instructions to figure out what to do. - Gentle on the desk! There are rubber pads on the bottom of the top portion of the mount that ensure it won't move and/or scratch the desk surface. The bottom portion is a smoothed piece of metal that the mounting screw runs through to form a clamp; not padded, but since it's tightened with a wingnut it shouldn't do much damage even on the underside of the desk.

Cons: - The arms offer height adjustment of course, but if you want to adjust the height on the pole you need to use a small hex key to loosen/tighten the clamp. I understand they wanted the clamp flush for aesthetics, but I would have preferred a tool-less option. - The VESA mounting screws that came with the stand are too long for my monitors (QNIX QX2710). Of course, I blame the monitor designer more than ERGOTRON. I just used some washers to fill the extra space and ensure a solid mount.

Overall Review: I bought one of these for a second monitor (QNIX QX2710) after enjoying the monitor arm that I bought with my desk. I've now upgraded to 3 monitors (all QNIX QX2710s), and this was so infinitely better than my first monitor's arm that I went ahead and bought 2 more: one for the 3rd monitor and one to replace the 1st monitor's arm. Love having my monitors on arms! There's so much desk space you lose when using a stand. True, this thing costs half as much as the monitor itself, but it is well worth the investment IMO.

Incredible SSD!

SAMSUNG 840 EVO 2.5" 1TB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7TE1T0BW
SAMSUNG 840 EVO 2.5" 1TB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7TE1T0BW

Pros: The space! Just a few years ago I was buying a brand new 1TB HDD, and SSDs have finally caught up while still delivering on high speeds. Installed this as my VST/samples drive in my new composing/gaming rig with a Samsung XP941 (M.2 drive) as my boot drive. Moving a couple GBs of small files from the XP941 to this drive, I clocked a consistent 650 MBps (yes, bytes) write speed! On large numbers of small files! The highest read speed I've seen is 500 MBps when moving files to an OCZ Vertex 4, but this has just been during standard usage file transfers. I haven't tried using a utility to clock performance just yet.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: It works, it is reasonably priced, freakin' huge and and really freakin' fast! Ecstatic with the speed of my file system! Highly recommended!

Great Cable!

Link Depot DVI-15-DD Black Male to Male DVI-D Male to DVI-D Male Dual Link Cable
Link Depot DVI-15-DD Black Male to Male DVI-D Male to DVI-D Male Dual Link Cable

Pros: Runs my 2560x1440p monitors at 60Hz, and with plenty of cable to reach them on long monitor arms. Solid construction!

Cons: Doesn't have LEDs built into the insulation.

Fantastic Case!

Thermaltake Level 10 GT Snow Edition (VN10006W2N) White and Black SECC / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case with Four Fans - 1 x 200mm side, 1 x 200mm top, 1 x 200mm front, 1 x 140mm rear
Thermaltake Level 10 GT Snow Edition (VN10006W2N) White and Black SECC / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case with Four Fans - 1 x 200mm side, 1 x 200mm top, 1 x 200mm front, 1 x 140mm rear

Pros: Sexy, quality case! Plenty of ventilation and air filters. Love the freakin' huge multi-color fans and the simple yet effective fan controller. Even at low, my video card's cooler (480 GTX) doesn't have to work nearly as hard under full load as it did in my previous case, which was quite well ventilated on its own! The hot swap bays make for easy installation, and plenty of grommet holes to route your cables. I've never EVER had such a clean build before! Also love the shared power for the SATA drives, further reducing the amount of cabling that has to run around the case. And the removable fan door! So easy to work in this case! And the handle! It's waaaay easier to move than my handle-less mid-tower case! And the locks to keep intruders out! So much love for this case!

Cons: Not enough room behind the mobo plate! Be prepared to get rough with the rear panel trying to get those thumbscrews back on while compressing the cables routed behind the mobo!

Overall Review: BUY THIS CASE! You won't regret it!