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Sean M.

Sean M.

Joined on 09/18/07

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Most Favorable Review

Cheap and effective.

Nippon Labs 2.5" SATA to USB 2.0 External Enclosure  for SATA I and SATA II Hard Drive Model EN-25SATA
Nippon Labs 2.5" SATA to USB 2.0 External Enclosure for SATA I and SATA II Hard Drive Model EN-25SATA

Pros: Incredibly inexpensive, instructions (should you need them) are in understandable english, cables and Hawaiian vacation included. Works just fine - I'm formatting it as I type.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Made from aluminum. Feels kinda cheap, but for $7 it's an excellent deal.

Most Critical Review

piece of trash

XIGMATEK CAC-D9HH3-U01 90mm Hydraumatic Bearing CPU Cooler
XIGMATEK CAC-D9HH3-U01 90mm Hydraumatic Bearing CPU Cooler

Pros: none

Cons: Fan bearing failed and brought my 20TB storage server to its knees. Buy something name brand and quality instead. I wish I did. I will never give this company another dollar.

Runs hot, make sure you have cooling. STUPID FAST.

Team Group T-FORCE GC PRO M.2 2280 4TB PCIe Gen 5.0x4 with DRAM CACHE with NVMe 2.0 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) TM8FFL004T0C129
Team Group T-FORCE GC PRO M.2 2280 4TB PCIe Gen 5.0x4 with DRAM CACHE with NVMe 2.0 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) TM8FFL004T0C129

Pros: Stupid fast. Easily the best speed I've ever used in a build. Price is decent. Build quality looks good.

Cons: As the others have said, runs very hot. I have a watercooling loop in this build, and I actually had to get a waterblock for this drive. I'm not joking or exaggerating. Without it, drive would thermal throttle down to the point where it made the computer unusable. WIth the waterblock, I'm running 30C at idle and 49C gaming.

Overall Review: IF you take cooling this thing seriously, I highly recommend it. If you know you buy the cheapest stuff available and/or don't want to bother working on things (perfectly understandable), you should look into other drives.

Piece of Trash

COUGAR CMX 1000 COUGAR-1000CMX 1000 W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Yes, flexible cable management Active PFC Power Supply Haswell ready
COUGAR CMX 1000 COUGAR-1000CMX 1000 W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Yes, flexible cable management Active PFC Power Supply Haswell ready

Pros: It worked for 8 months.

Cons: After 8 months, this PSU failed in my system. I had it plugged into a pretty pricey UPS as well. I got an RMA from HEC (the parent company), and that new PSU died within two months. Piece of junk. Do what I should've done: pony up and pay good money for a good product.

10/22/2013

Excellent Value!

Acer TimelineU M5-481TG-6814 14" Ultrabook
Acer TimelineU M5-481TG-6814 14" Ultrabook

Pros: I was searching for an ultrabook for a while now, and had narrowed it down to the Aspire M5 or some variant of the Envy 4. I'm so glad I chose the Acer. When I looked at the specs, four pounds of weight scared me - fear not, its (light) heft is well managed. It's not a con at all. Four gigs of ram makes this thing run very well, although I think 6GB would do it proper justice. The trackpad is good, as are its multitouch gestures. Even the webcam is good, although there are better 3rd party options available. Also, the GeForce 640M LE does make a huge difference while gaming. I can almost max out Diablo III and it plays no problem. Although this was never meant to be a gaming heavy hitter, it can play Guild Wars 2 on medium - and that was exactly what I wanted.

Cons: The battery life is good, but not great. I have no idea where the 8 hour benchmark came from, but that must NOT be under normal use. To get 8 hours, I have to have wifi off and screen brightness at minimum. I can't think of a scenario in which I'll use this computer in such a way. I really enjoy the backlit keyboard, but it's a shame I cannot adjust the brightness levels. Also, sometimes when starting up, the backlight will turn on by itself - whether I want it to or not. No ambient light sensor either. I would have also liked to see a resolution higher than 1366 x 768, but that would be beyond a $770 price point. Wish it came with an mSata drive larger than 20GB, but again, price. All these cons are nothing major; I'm just nitpicking.

Overall Review: The pros far, far outweigh the cons on this ultrabook. I was somewhat skeptical when I forked over several hundred dollars, but I am incredibly glad I did. If you want an ultrabook than can do a lot of things well, this is your choice.

PSP Goodness

SanDisk 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo (MS Pro Duo) Flash Card Model SDMSPD-2048-A11
SanDisk 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo (MS Pro Duo) Flash Card Model SDMSPD-2048-A11

Pros: 2GB for a good price. Works just fine; I think I only lost 10MB to formatting which is pretty good. My PSP is now up and running!

Cons: None

Overall Review: I know every company needs to make money, but I wish the psp could've used sd cards, or micro sd instead. MUCH more bang for your buck.