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Aaron L.

Aaron L.

Joined on 01/10/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

Silent or Loud

Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E 120mm Case Fan
Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E 120mm Case Fan

Pros: Silent, fairly cheap for what you get. Comes with lots of connection adapters. It actually pushes more air then I was expecting. Have 2 fans on the case and 1 on the processor cooling fins.

Cons: When you run the fans at 100% or 12volts they are almost impossible to hear. However if you tweek down the voltage to run at slower speed through BIOS or even with a fan controller, the blades do slow down but you are left with an annoying little tick. I can even hear this tick when the case is sealed up and under my desk. So I just run all three fans at 100% and I can't hear them. This happens on all three fans that I ordered.

Overall Review: Do not use these fans with an automatic fan controller. ONLY run these fans at 100% or 12volts all the time or nothing at all. Would definately be 5 eggs if it wasn't for this tick. They push just as much air as cheaper fans but get these ones for the lack of blade noise.

excellent TV

32" 1080p LCD HDTV
32" 1080p LCD HDTV

Pros: Wow is this BIG, fast enough for any gameing. This TV is wicked thin. Did I mention it is BIG. Especially on a desk. Don't get a 24" or 27" spend only a few extra bucks and get this 32". You won't regret it. The bezel on the 4U series is very thin. Much better then the 2U or 3U series. Not to metion the increased contrast ratio.

Cons: The only thing I can think of how to improve this is make the box it comes in out of chocolate, so I can eat the box while I set it up.

Overall Review: To the last reviewer on this TV about not refreshing when computer is already on. I'm assuming you have an nVidia chipset which inadvertanly has a problem with refreshing on any HDTVs. If you launch services.msc from your run line and disable your Nvidia Desktop Manager you will not have that problem anymore. I noticed this problem on Sony, Sharp, and Panasonic HDTV's. however, this refresh issue will only be a problem if you interupt your signal with something such as a KVM switch and only with nVidia graphics. If that doesn't apply to you then don't worry about it. This LCD rocks.

Better then expected

SPARKLE SPI350PFB2 350 W ATX12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
SPARKLE SPI350PFB2 350 W ATX12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: Over 80% efficient. Because of the large 120mm fan it stays very cool and is almost completely silent. I cannot hear it with my case closed. Has all the connectors and adapters you would need for any HTPC. Don't forget the price. This is cheap for the efficiency factor alone.

Cons: It would be nice if the cables were sheathed or were modularized for removal, but not really a negative, just a wish.

Overall Review: I currently running an evga 630i motherboard with onboard video, e2140, 2Gb mem, 4 500Gb HD's and 2 case fans. The entire system only draws 71 watts at idle which equates to only $62 per year if left on 24/7. Because of the efficiency, cooling, and noise reduction, this is the perfect HTPC power supply.

11/27/2007

Better then expected

EVGA 112-CK-NF77-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce e-7150/630i HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
EVGA 112-CK-NF77-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce e-7150/630i HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Has VGA,DVI,HDMI w/ audio, Toslink, SPDIF, and 7.1 analog audio. HTPC DREAM! Very powerful video processor for being onboard. Can play Oblivion, Hellgate London, and Bioshock with onboard video, but only with DirectX 9 and not 10. Suppports all the current and even the new 45nm intel chipsets. HDCP complient for HD-DVD and Blueray. Very easy to overclock any processor.

Cons: Had to install the driver disk before the network port was enabled. **If you want to use the DVI port you must disable the HDMI and HDMI audio in BIOS (default is enabled) before the port is enabled. Not really a negative be keep in mind. As of now the nVidia nTune software doesn't work quite right. It reports incorrect or missing information such as saying I'm 1600 FSB instead of 800 and currently 3.2Ghz instead of 1.6Ghz. The CPU, GPU temps and all the voltages as of now dont even report. I'm sure this will be fixed with a future nTune version just like the 680i chipset did when that first came out.

Overall Review: I'm running an 87% efficient PS, e2140 (not overclocked), 2Gb mem, 1 optical drive, 4 500Gb HD's, and 2 silent case fans. Currently drawing only 71 watts at idle, which equates to only $62 per year for me. Very power efficient if you plan on leaving it on all the time like me. Best HTPC motherboard for the money as far as I'm concerned.

11/27/2007
D-Link DIR-450 3G Mobile Router for EV-DO Networks IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g
D-Link DIR-450 3G Mobile Router for EV-DO Networks IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g

Pros: Wireless Router that shares your EVDO high speed connection!!!Fairly small footprint compared to other routers. You can move the router to any location you need to so you can get the best signal possible. Port Forwarding, Firewall settings, encription is all strait forward.

Cons: Came with firmware 1.01 and had to upgrade to 1.02 to work with my Pantech PX500 card. Every time you make a setting change the router takes about 90 seconds to reboot. When my card is in this router I sometimes get a non steady connection and lag. This is a problem when I'm connected to a server and it times me out because of the lag. This doesn't happen when I have the card just pluged into the computer. Only giving it a 4 egg because of this.

Overall Review: ONLY UPGRADE THE FIRMWARE WITH A LAN CONNECTION AND NOT WIRELESSLY. Even if you do pooch up the firmware upgrade there is a crash recovery procedure on D-Links website, so it doesn't turn into a brick. Unlike the previous posts, firmware version 1.01 did give me a status bar while upgrading the firmware and rebooted and told me when it was done. Took about 4 minutes. Becasue of the flakey connection I sometimes experience I would not recommend this in an work enviroment. Excellent for home EVDO shareing.

11/12/2007

Better then expected

Rosewill RCX-Z100 - CPU Cooler - One Ball Bearing for Over 45,000 Hours of Service Life
Rosewill RCX-Z100 - CPU Cooler - One Ball Bearing for Over 45,000 Hours of Service Life

Pros: Large 80mm fan on heatsink. The fan blows a lot of air and incredibaly silent for a Socket A cooler. Mounting spring wasn't as hard as some other coolers I know of. It installed very easy and is a solid fit.

Cons: It is larger then a normal stock heatsink/fan for this chipset but that is only because of the 80mm fan. I would still recommend cleaning off the paste and using some good qualitly ceramic paste.

Overall Review: For the huge reduction in noise and better cooling you cant beat this for the price. Highly recommend.

11/12/2007