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Joseph D.

Joseph D.

Joined on 07/31/11

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

BayTrail Celeron is amazing

ASUS Chromebook Intel Celeron N2830 2 GB DDR3 Memory 16 GB eMMC SSD 11.6" Chrome OS C200MA-DS01
ASUS Chromebook Intel Celeron N2830 2 GB DDR3 Memory 16 GB eMMC SSD 11.6" Chrome OS C200MA-DS01

Pros: I'm easily getting 12 hours of battery life and generally charge it every other day. It only takes about 1.5 hours to charge from a dead battery. At 2.5lbs it's lightweight, no fan, no noise and great for general ChromeOS tasks. I personally purchased this for the low price and long battery life. Due to it's light weight I take it to work daily use it in meetings and even coding as there are some great web based apps and services like codepen that make traditional applications unnecessary. As a web designer I spend 100% of my day on the web so A Chromebook is a perfect companion. It handles HD video on YouTube and Google Movies without any stutter or buffering.

Cons: Javascript intensive sites tend to strain the CPU a little upon page load. Otherwise it's not an issue.

Overall Review: If you're looking for all day battery life and a fanless design this is for you. If you want a little more CPU muscle consider a Haswell Celeron or an i3 model.

Silent, efficient, modular

Seasonic FOCUS PX-550, 550W 80+ Platinum Full-Modular, Fan Control in Fanless, Silent, and Cooling Mode, 10 Year Warranty, Perfect Power Supply for Gaming and Various Application, SSR-550PX.
Seasonic FOCUS PX-550, 550W 80+ Platinum Full-Modular, Fan Control in Fanless, Silent, and Cooling Mode, 10 Year Warranty, Perfect Power Supply for Gaming and Various Application, SSR-550PX.

Pros: Silent Modular Well made

Cons: None so far

Overall Review: I've only been using this for a few days but it's apparent that the old saying you get what you pay for holds up. Sure cheaper power supplies exist, but why cut corners and risk your system to save a few bucks?

Linux Works

Rosewill RNWD-N1501UB USB Wireless Mini Adapter N150 Wi-Fi Adapter
Rosewill RNWD-N1501UB USB Wireless Mini Adapter N150 Wi-Fi Adapter

Pros: Works in Linux Mint Debian Edition Works in Lubuntu 13.10 Works in Xubuntu 13.10 (however my laptop had issues turning off the on board wifi card) Handled HD Video on YouTube, Pandora radio playback, my benchmarks say it's capable of 54mb/s far faster than my 30mb/s connection. It's a delightful inexpensive usb adapter.

Cons: Range is limited to perhaps a few hundred feet. I have it sitting under my desk below the router and am receiving 69-75% Does not work with Libre-Linux kernels. However I didn't expect it would.

Overall Review: A good backup to have around if your dedicated wifi card goes dead or you don't have an extra ethernet cable or connection.

12/23/2013

Great SSD

Seagate 600 Series 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ST240HM000
Seagate 600 Series 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ST240HM000

Pros: Super Fast. Tested this SSD on 3 separate computers. A i5 desktop I built, my System76 Laptop and an old Toshiba NB505. It worked perfectly each time. It's very versatile.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: The enclosure looks great even though my setups don't allow it to be seen.

12/10/2013

Amazing Value

ASUS VE247H 24" (Actual size 23.6") Full HD 1920 x 1080 VGA DVI-D HDMI Built-in Speakers LED Backlit LCD Monitor
ASUS VE247H 24" (Actual size 23.6") Full HD 1920 x 1080 VGA DVI-D HDMI Built-in Speakers LED Backlit LCD Monitor

Pros: Full HD 1920x1080 Vibrant color and super bright LED back light. Comes with a DVI cable and an audio cable which is a bonus in my opinion.

Cons: Audio speaker is in the back of the monitor and is okay but nothing special.

Overall Review: I was lucky to pick this up on black Friday but after using it for several days would say it's worth the retail price.

Efficient, Fast, Perfect

Intel Core i5-2500K - Core i5 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Intel HD Graphics 3000 Desktop Processor - BX80623I52500K
Intel Core i5-2500K - Core i5 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge Quad-Core 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Intel HD Graphics 3000 Desktop Processor - BX80623I52500K

Pros: Fast, Efficient, Runs cool with stock fan. I haven't seen the temperature range appears to be 34-38C on all of the cores. I wouldn't hesitate to buy this processor again. Note that the stock fan is low profile and already contains thermal paste :)

Cons: None yet, I've owned it for 2-3 weeks at time of this posting

Overall Review: Running Ubuntu 11.04 Paired with ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 motherboard and Corsair Vengeance 2x4Gb ram. CASE: Using a Coolermaster HAF 912 PSU: COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS500 Power ranges from 40W - 120W and generally idle's around 60W Super easy to install probably the easiest part of the build process.