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Cory D.

Cory D.

Joined on 05/04/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Excellent -overkill for my old rig

XFX HD-487A-ZHDC Radeon HD 4870 1GB XXX 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
XFX HD-487A-ZHDC Radeon HD 4870 1GB XXX 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

Pros: I picked this up for my old rig (AMD X2 4800, ASUS A8N Premium, 2 GB OCZ PC3200 2-2-2-5, BFG 7800GTX) to see if I could speed up the games I play a bit (Fallout 3, BF2, NWN2). I knew I would be CPU limited, and my 600W PSU was just barely rated high enough to power this beast (and I mean beast - huge as they say it is!) and it totally blew away all of my expectations. I know this is overkill, especially since I have a 19 in Viewsonic VP191b, but I put it in and everything worked flawlessly. I was worried about the viewsonic flashing bug, but the July 2, 2009 drivers either fixed this or else my display isn't effected by this issue. I have smooth as silk graphics with fallout3 with every slider turned all the way up and 8X, 15X filtering. BF2, also flawless with full out maxed sliders and AA/AS. Very happy for the price.

Cons: I got the XXX version for a few bucks more, and it didn't register as overclocked according to catalyst control panel or to GPU-z, but I am running a e-PCI2 board on a PCI1.1 slot and everything else in my system is slower than this thing anyway so I don't think it will be an issue. I'll play with setting the overclock to what it should be factory shipped if I run into any slow down on anything...

Overall Review: Excellent card, easy transition from nVidia drivers. Just uninstalled the old drivers and installed the ATI ones - easy as pie. I was expecting the red clear plastic case to have an LED in it, but not a big deal. I have enough flashing lights in my case already to blind me if I look at it.

Update to 3 Egg review

XFX Double D Radeon R9 280 3GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card R9-280A-TDFD
XFX Double D Radeon R9 280 3GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card R9-280A-TDFD

Pros: With the new card t hey sent to replace the one having issues, I am having 0 problems. I didn't realize it at the time, but checking the logs I made with the old card it was running at 60C at idle so there was a hardware problem evidently. Now I am running Dragon Age Inquisition on all ultra, and all the AA options maxed out with 30+ FPS. BF4 - same thing, all maxed out. Amazing card. Running perfectly now.

Cons: I was not happy about having to pay $20 for an RMA for a card that didn't work right straight out of the box, but I am happy with the RMA service itself. I was worried at first honestly, but evidently I didn't need to be as XFX took care of me nicely.

Overall Review: Unbelievable price to performance comparison. Awesome buy!

Works fine for a newer Mac Laptop with drive

ASUS USB 2.0 White External Slim CD / DVD Re-Writer Mac OS Compatible Model SDRW-08D2S-U
ASUS USB 2.0 White External Slim CD / DVD Re-Writer Mac OS Compatible Model SDRW-08D2S-U

Pros: Just needed an external CD drive to be able to use with my wife's MacBook that didn't have one built in. Wanted white to match the computer. Works really well and no problems. Comes with two USB cords to get more power but I have never need more than one connected.

Cons: None really. It works, its sturdy. You have to have it connected to open it, but that isn't item specific as far as I can determine.

Overall Review: A good purchase especially since the Apple people wanted way more for their version.

Works like a champ

Rosewill 6-Foot High Speed HDMI Cable (RC-6-HDM-MM-BK)
Rosewill 6-Foot High Speed HDMI Cable (RC-6-HDM-MM-BK)

Pros: Worked like a champ. Connected my new upconverting DVD player to my Samsung 720p 32" TV and got the expected HD signal from standard DVDs. Compared it to the standard AV cables and it was a huge improvment - showing it works as a HDMI cable. Would highly recommend.

Cons: None that I can find

Wow-Cheap and works great!

Labtec PC Mic 333 980184-0403 Silver 3.5mm Connector Microphone
Labtec PC Mic 333 980184-0403 Silver 3.5mm Connector Microphone

Pros: You have to make sure your options are set so that it is turned up and not muted, but once you do that you are set. Set it at the back of my desk and it picks up my speaking voice clearly and loudly from 3 feet. If I crank it up it picks up sounds from accross the room. Best mic I have ever owned for computer.

Cons: None that I have seen yet.

Overall Review: None

Good case - 3 issues

APEVIA X-QPACK2-AL/500 Black/ Silver Aluminum Body/ Front Mask Micro ATX Desktop Computer Case 500W Power Supply
APEVIA X-QPACK2-AL/500 Black/ Silver Aluminum Body/ Front Mask Micro ATX Desktop Computer Case 500W Power Supply

Pros: Good spacing to fit normal size drives in with the power supply. The bars and plates in the case have some nice places to tuck cables away into. Everything work well. The manual left some things out, and you need to install things in a fairly precise order to make sure you can access screws (DVD-rom drives can only be screw-ed in with the hard-drive cage out), but this is probably a standard uATX thing. Overall good!

Cons: Two issues combined to take a star away a star from my rating. 1. The case's front fan is blue, but no LEDs. The pictures don't make that obvious and I thought the LEd was just out until I called Tech Support. I got through to Tech support, but the (he, the person answering the phone said that there was one tech support person) tech support said "Nope, non-led in that position." 2. No thermal tape for the temp sensors. That is just cheap. Tech support confirmed this isn't an oversite and suggested "Duct Tape" - I kid you not. 3. As stated previously, the case is a bit hard to manuver back onto the frame. With the three windows you can at least see where you are missing the tracks. The back case lid screws didn't line up well either, which was weird.

Overall Review: Almost forgot - the metal of the inside case is soft - be careful not to strip screws! Overall great case though. My 1st uATX build. AMD X2 6000+, BFG 8600GT, LIte-On DVD ROM- all fits great.