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Margaret D.

Margaret D.

Joined on 11/12/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 16
Most Favorable Review

Great Pricepoint for Decent Performance

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4650 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 100253DDR3L
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4650 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card 100253DDR3L

Pros: 512MB GDDR3, HDCP Compliant card for the cheap. Runs most of my games at 1440x900 mid-high settings with 50= FPS, others low-mid, such as Crysis, but what can one expect at that resolution for the cheap? Runs fairly cool, uses far less power than the Radeon x1900GT it replaced, and outperforms it by 2-3 times as much. Fan is at 60%, and can't even hear it over the 8cm exhaust fan, or the fan on the processor heatsink.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: I've gotten a bit paranoid of heat, as that's what killed my older Radeon, so I've got a high-powered 22cm metal bladed fan blowing into the case whenever I'm gaming. Side panel is off, and PCI blanks are removed. I never once seen the GPU heat go past 28c, even after multi-hour gaming sessions.

Most Critical Review

Buyer beware

Corsair Nova Series 2 2.5" 60GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-V60GB2A
Corsair Nova Series 2 2.5" 60GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-V60GB2A

Pros: Easy to install

Cons: Extremely slow write speeds, died after 2 1/2 months.

Overall Review: Never buying Corsair products again.

Great drive

Western Digital WD Green WD8000AARS 800GB 5400 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital WD Green WD8000AARS 800GB 5400 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Quiet, great price, decent amount of storage.

Cons: None that I can think of.

Overall Review: I purchased this drive knowing full well it was a Green drive, and would be a bit slower than my other drives. I didn't need another Black drive, and purchased this primarily for storage. If you need a storage drive, and don't care about speed, this, as well as other Green drives should serve your needs perfectly.

10/22/2010

Blazing

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - Phenom II X2 Callisto Dual-Core 3.1 GHz Socket AM3 80W None Integrated Graphics Processor - HDZ550WFGIBOX
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - Phenom II X2 Callisto Dual-Core 3.1 GHz Socket AM3 80W None Integrated Graphics Processor - HDZ550WFGIBOX

Pros: Quick, best price:performance CPU out there currently, runs fairly cool.

Cons: It can't make me a sandwich.

Overall Review: I managed to unlock the disabled cores, and I've got this overclocked to 3.5ghz on air. It's running 35C Idle, and I've never seen it go above mid 40s. Haven't had the chance to really push it, and I don't see myself pushing it very far in the near future. Great buy, highly recommended.

12/11/2009

Pretty nice

eDimensional AudioFX2 EDI-150 Circumaural Headset
eDimensional AudioFX2 EDI-150 Circumaural Headset

Pros: heavy, built like a tank. Really nicely padded, very comfortable. Better sound quality than most headsets in the same price range. Force feedback is pretty nice with a lot of my rap and electronica, but not so much with my metal and jazz tracks (I just dial it down a bit for those, no biggy). The option to power the subwoofer through either USB or batteries (2 triple As).

Cons: Mic quality isn't as good as that of a few others in the price range. It's not bad, it's actually pretty good, but there are headsets with slightly better. Quite a lot of cords. You got at least 2 going into the PC (Mic/headphones), and even if you're not using the USB to power the subwoofer, you'll still have the battery pack hanging. Given the short cord on the pack, and where the connection for it is, it'll be hanging near the USB port on the PC, or on the floor. Clam shell packaging. Watch out when opening it, else risk a few cuts and stabs (more my fault for not paying attention than the product's, though).

Overall Review: Just wondering how long this one will last me. Had to order this the other day to replace a GameCom1 that shorted out after 14 months.

Great Keyboard

Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard
Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard

Pros: Great tactile feel, not very loud, and actually pretty "clickey". Nice backlighting, media keys/volume dial work nicely, and are placed in a good spot. The G-Keys, while not all spaced out and placed in the best possible spot, are mostly placed where they'd be useful in most games I play (middle row gets most use), and all are used in a few apps.

Cons: If you're used to a standard keyboard, it might take a little while to get used to it. Just starting to get the hang of it, myself, but it's just really a bit of nitpicking.

Overall Review: Coming from a 10 yr old PS/2 keyboard, the G11 is leaps and bounds above what I had previously had. No longer do I get lockups when pressing more than 2 simultaneous keys. I had a slight issue at first with the media keys not working with Winamp or Foobar, but those were easily fixed, as I had the functions mapped elsewhere on my ol keyboard.

12/30/2008