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Brian L.

Brian L.

Joined on 11/13/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

A Beast but a Quiet One

Corsair Graphite Series 600T Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Corsair Graphite Series 600T Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Great, huge cooling fans. Low-key lighting. Great interior spacing. Nice setup to keep cords under control.

Cons: Nonexistent manual. Vague-to-no identification of front panel connectors. I had to read a system assembly blog (linked to by Corsair's website) to figure out the fan control config.

Overall Review: One of the best cases I have purchased over the years. It's bigger than I expected, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It was really easy installing components and working my way in/around the case. I'm not a big LED fan but I liked the soft, white lighting I can see through the metal mesh in front. It's really quiet and seems to be doing an excellent job keeping the system and my Raedon HD 6950 cool (though I haven't tried to pushing it yet). Fans even at max speed are quiet and move a lot of air. A great value.

Hey! These things DO exist!

GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC 8GB Video Card, GV-N306TGAMING OC-8GD
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC 8GB Video Card, GV-N306TGAMING OC-8GD

Pros: Actually made it into my shopping cart and all the way through checkout. Truly a Christmas miracle.

Cons: The 30 times I tried to get one of these cards. Had to buy a power supply I didn’t need in order to get my hands on one.

Overall Review: If you can get one, the I recommend it! It’s fast, quiet and, unlike my 1080 Ti, it actually works!

12/20/2020

Great card at a good price point

SAPPHIRE 100312-3SR Radeon HD 6950 Dirt3 Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
SAPPHIRE 100312-3SR Radeon HD 6950 Dirt3 Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Pros: Great performance. Good price. Nice addition of the Dirt 3 game.

Cons: I wish they'd enclosed a Display Port to DVI adapter with the card instead of making me pay an additional $27 for the privilege of running 3 DVI monitors with Eyefinity.

Overall Review: I've been running a 3-monitor Eyefinity setup through this and it's been rendering like a champ. I haven't tried to run it through anything too taxing yet but the Left 4 Dead 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 sessions have been a blast. Nice, clean calibration interface through The Catalyst Control Panel. Very nice.

Good Quality for the Price

Acer S231HLbid Black 23" 5ms HDMI  LED-Backlight LCD monitor  Slim Design  250 cd/m2 ACM 12,000,000:1 (1000:1)
Acer S231HLbid Black 23" 5ms HDMI LED-Backlight LCD monitor Slim Design 250 cd/m2 ACM 12,000,000:1 (1000:1)

Pros: Couldn't resist adding 3 of these to my system when they went on sale. Great brightness. Responsive. Monitor stand is simple but not as flimsy as many I've seen/used.

Cons: Although it is VESA compliant, I wish that the monitors had the ability to be set up in portrait view out of the box.

Overall Review: The bezel isn't to large for the Eyefinity setup I'm running. I've mostly used them for gaming and they work really well and I haven't even tried to calibrate them yet.

Does what it says

SAPPHIRE 100924 Active DisplayPort to DVI-I Adapter
SAPPHIRE 100924 Active DisplayPort to DVI-I Adapter

Pros: I had 3 DVI-based monitors and wanted to take advantage of my Raedon HD 6950's Eyefinity capability and this made it happen.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: It's unfortunate that my Sapphire card didn't have one of these adapters already in it but that's a comment for the card's review.

Very nice.

MADCATZ Xbox 360 Rock Band 3 Wireless Pro Drums and Cymbal Pack
MADCATZ Xbox 360 Rock Band 3 Wireless Pro Drums and Cymbal Pack

Pros: Better constructed than the standard Rock Band drum kit I had. It's great to have the cymbals now.

Cons: Nearly everything is plastic, including the screw clips for the cymbals. I'm not sure the cymbals are going to hold up so well over time.

Overall Review: Be careful when you set up the cymbals and make sure the cords are secured and not touching any of the drum pads below. It took me a few bad drumming sessions to discover that one of the cymbal cables was tapping the drum pad below it every time I hit the cymbal.