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MARTIN K.

MARTIN K.

Joined on 11/21/05

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Product Reviews
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  • 82
Most Favorable Review

Quick Suggestion

SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum / Steel Lascala Series LC13B-E ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum / Steel Lascala Series LC13B-E ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

Pros: Nice case.

Cons: My vid card prevented use of middle HDD cage with fan blowing on HDD's but no big whoop. I did not find wire routing to be easy. Things got crowded pretty quick mainly because I had to leave in the center cage just to have the front fan mounted. If no front fan, you can remove middle cage alltogether and have some extra room to play with.

Overall Review: I am mainly reviewing this right now to tell people that your 4 pin cpu power plug wire from your power supply may not reach the MB plug. Newegg sells an extension wire by Athena Power (CABLE-AD09) that fixes this problem. I would order one with the case for $2.99 just in case and not have to wait a week like I did.

12/18/2008
Most Critical Review

Second the rebate warning.

Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Intel Haswell Fully Compatible
Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Intel Haswell Fully Compatible

Pros: A good quality product so far.

Cons: I also feel the fan is a bit loud when running at 200 watts or so. At idle wattage it is quiet.

Overall Review: Also have not received rebate after ten weeks. Google antec rebate problem and find that their rebate provider company went bankrupt. Not our problem Antec. JEEZ. Go find the paperwork you saved (I hope) and submit it again via email. Instructions at: www.antec.com/rebate.html

Ah, the push pins

Rosewill ROCC-12001 AIOLOS - 120mm CPU Cooler with Long Life Sleeve - Compatible with Intel Core i5 & i7
Rosewill ROCC-12001 AIOLOS - 120mm CPU Cooler with Long Life Sleeve - Compatible with Intel Core i5 & i7

Pros: Cooler is fine. Nice quiet PWM fan but must have cool case for overclocking.

Cons: Heard a funny noise on my desk. Did not know what it was. Thought something fell off the edge? Was one push pin breaking I figured out later. Unrelated I thought, computer started acting funny. Checked my temps. 99C. Nough said. They don't always shut down like their supposed to.

Overall Review: Anyway, ordered new pins from China for $1.61 on e bay. We'll see how that goes. Tried to steal pins from an old intel cooler but there is one undefeatable tab to prevent separating the black and white parts. That's AFTER the defeatable ones. Do NOT want to pull motherboard for this b s.

Comcast/Xfinity

ARRIS SurfBoard SB6121 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem
ARRIS SurfBoard SB6121 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem

Pros: Cannot determine. See cons.

Cons: This modem may very well be okay but if you are considering becoming a Comcast customer, please think again if you have any choice.

Overall Review: Comcast spent two hours on the phone with me. Set up an appointment for a technician and no one called or showed up. When I called them, they denied everything. Completely unacceptable. Just don't do it..

Impressed

Apotop 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MASS3C128GBR
Apotop 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MASS3C128GBR

Pros: Seems very fast and got 7.9 on Win 7 64 experience rating.

Cons: None for me.

Peppy

Intel Core i3-4160 - Core i3 4th Gen Haswell Dual-Core 3.6 GHz LGA 1150 54W Intel HD Graphics 4400 Desktop Processor - BX80646I34160
Intel Core i3-4160 - Core i3 4th Gen Haswell Dual-Core 3.6 GHz LGA 1150 54W Intel HD Graphics 4400 Desktop Processor - BX80646I34160

Pros: Runs cool enough to use the stock fan if you have good bios control of the fan. The asrock ITX MB I used had a "quiet" mode which runs the fan at 1100 rpm even under normal loads. Temp tops out about 62 c and idles at 33 c. You cannot hear anything because I was also able to disconnect the noisy case fan without any ill effect. And this on a small form factor build. 5 watts at idle and I never saw more than 40 watts in normal use (not stressing or gaming).

Cons: I would rather have paid $70. for it.

Overall Review: Oh, and the graphics are fine if you're not gaming. I think graphics were 5.1 and 6.4. and the cpu rated 7.3 on Win 7 64.