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Robert K.

Robert K.

Joined on 07/06/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Good board with LAN problems

GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: It's a nice board. Easy install and setup. I haven't tried tweaking it for overclocking but it seemed fairly straight forward. I did notice that you have to take the cmos battery out to reset the bios, it would be nice if there was an actual reset button.

Cons: WARNING: The realtek LAN drivers that come on the disk and the ones from microsoft updates do not work with this board. I was able to download stuff but not upload which is a problem I've never seen before. Here is the real working driver - http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=4&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true Or google realtek 8169 8111d driver

Overall Review: Good luck ;)

Most Critical Review

Sigh... Seemed like a great deal

Seagate Central STCG3000100 3TB Cloud Storage System
Seagate Central STCG3000100 3TB Cloud Storage System

Pros: Great Price

Cons: Software is slow, horribly clunky, doesn't work very well, and doesn't have nearly enough options.

Overall Review: Live and learn

11/26/2013

Update

GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: I've had good luck with this board mainly. I wanted to repost with an update about the onboard LAN.

Cons: I tried the drivers from the disk, windows updates, and realtek's site (I post the link on my previous review on 3/12). I thought they were working at first but I've since realized that they are extremely quirky. This is a fairly common problem it seems.

Overall Review: The board is pretty good with lots of options in the bios. I would suggest ordering a cheap ethernet card to go with this when you buy it.

I'm no audiophile

Creative 70SB073A00000 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
Creative 70SB073A00000 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer

Pros: Install was a breeze, the included software works well. It was a little hard to get completely seated on my motherboard (it's strange shape makes it a bit hard to seat) but that was fixed in 2 seconds. Sounds great to me and nearly made me pee in my pants when listened to the intro screen for Left4Dead. Thank goodness i wasn't wearing any pants at the time ;)

Cons: None

SAMSUNG 2243BWX High Gloss Piano Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with Height/Pivot Adjustments and 2-port USB Hub 300 cd/m2 DC 8000:1
SAMSUNG 2243BWX High Gloss Piano Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with Height/Pivot Adjustments and 2-port USB Hub 300 cd/m2 DC 8000:1

Pros: Nice monitor. I only had one bad pixel and it's only noticeable on a completely black screen (it stays blue). The stand is decent and it has nice movement up and down. The color is pretty good but it takes a little calibration from its original settings.

Cons: I think the even cheaper Acer monitors have a bit better picture but for a few dollars more it is nice to have the usb and heighth adjustment.

Nice

Western Digital Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Fast, quiet and the price is right. Very nice drive for the money.

Cons: None