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Daniel W.

Daniel W.

Joined on 06/11/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 16
Most Favorable Review

Great PC for the Price

Lenovo Desktop Computer M92P Intel Core i5-3470 8 GB 250GB HDD Windows 10 Pro
Lenovo Desktop Computer M92P Intel Core i5-3470 8 GB 250GB HDD Windows 10 Pro

Pros: -Cheap, works well, great condition, I'm not sure it has ever even been used the one I received. It still has the plastic film stuff on it. - Windows 10 Pro with key label on the top so you can reload if needed. -Clean OS install, no bloatware with exception to a 365 2016 thing that you can uninstall. -Quiet -Has a TPM, rare for a desktop but very nice if you need encryption and want to use BitLocker

Cons: -The 250GB HDD sucks but you should know that and isn't really a con for the price -Biggest real con was the BIOS had a password on it and I had to move the CMOS jumper to reset it. For some people that might be a little bit much but then again they probably won't be in the BIOS to begin with. -BIOS is default to PXE boot first, which would be ok if the admin password didn't exist, making the change for that a little more adventurous -The PSU in it doesn't allow for any real upgrades, but again for the price, I wouldn't expect better -The keyboard that came with it sucks but again for the price...not bad. Buy yourself a nice one.

Overall Review: -Win10 Pro alone is worth $140. I bought this for $220 with shipping so you are only investing $80 for a computer. That isn't bad at all. -Replace the keyboard, swap the HDD for an SSD and for an office computer single monitor it is fine. -I plan to put an aftermarket GPU in it...we will see how that goes. Unless you plan to replace the power supply (PSU) you need to buy a very low power GPU, as there are no AUX power connectors. Hopefully something modern will work like a 1050 Ti...I'll repost when I find out.

Most Critical Review

IR issues with Xbox360

Hauppauge PCTV Systems 22165 MCE Remote Kit w/ IR blaster Certified for Vista
Hauppauge PCTV Systems 22165 MCE Remote Kit w/ IR blaster Certified for Vista

Pros: The remote works however I declined to give it a 5 star due to a small range for the IR and one other detail you will see below in the Cons.

Cons: My big grip with this remote is that the "windows media button" (the green one) powers on my Xbox360 which is sitting just above my computer. So, if you have your IR recv for this device anywhere close to your Xbox360, plan to have some undesirable things occur.

Overall Review: I hate aiming remotes and I dislike remotes that control other devices they were not designed to control. Something to keep in mind. But assuming you don't have a 360 and you aren't lazy like myself and are willing to lift your arm to aim before firing...this product should suite you fine.

Interface Testing

HighPoint RU1144A (RocketU 1144A) PCI-Express 2.0 x4 USB 3.0 Controller Card
HighPoint RU1144A (RocketU 1144A) PCI-Express 2.0 x4 USB 3.0 Controller Card

Pros: This beats the pants off my integrated (very disappointing) USB 3.0 controller on my motherboard. This is the fastest USB add-in card I've used to date (Used a few SIIG's and several integrated setups on motherboards).

Cons: None so far

Overall Review: I have a Shuttle SH61R4, with integrated USB 3.0 (2 ports). Well, I was using this setup as a TV server with a Ceton card & a Seagate GoFlex USB 3.0 1.5GB drive attached for my recorded TV target. Sadly this did not work due to a performance issue with the USB 3.0 ports on the MB. It was fine if I was just watching a show or just recording a show to it in HD, but doing both was not working. I benchmarked the drive and saw a very disappointing 45MB/sec max throughput on the drive. I knew the drive was faster than that and suspected the interface was the issue. So I said...I'm going all out and spending $100 on a card. My Seagate now hits 90+ MB/sec RW speeds (Using default settings ATTO Disk Benchmark). I was pretty happy with that and it is inline with the drives capabilities. I decided to do one more benchmark using an external 2.5" 3.0 SIIG enclosure with a 256GB VERTEX 3 SSD. I couldn't really break 200MB/sec. O well, it is an improvement.

Intel Pentium D 945 - Pentium D Presler Dual-Core 3.4 GHz LGA 775 Desktop Processor - CPU-PD945-R
Intel Pentium D 945 - Pentium D Presler Dual-Core 3.4 GHz LGA 775 Desktop Processor - CPU-PD945-R

Pros: Fairly inexpensive, easy drop-in performance upgrade for an older system losing its abilities.

Cons: power consumption

Overall Review: I upgraded a Dell Dimension 9100 from a 3.0 GHz single core P4 to this chip. I replaced the XP load with Fedora 16 hoping to bring some new life in both look and feel. The Fedora ran ok with the single core but you could see its age even when surfing heavy media webpages. This dual-core really brought some new life to this old system. I still can't play 1080p video's off youtube jitter free, but overall a nice improvement for $40. I don't regret it at all. I didn't even have to upgrade the BIOS (running A02).

D-Link Xtreme Gigabit Router (DIR-655) Wireless N300, USB SharePort, Gigabit
D-Link Xtreme Gigabit Router (DIR-655) Wireless N300, USB SharePort, Gigabit

Pros: It works

Cons: I've never seen it get anywhere near the advertised speeds but then again none of the others do either in real world scenarios.

Overall Review: This router provides both functionality in the basic sense that it is reliable. I have two of these, one being 2 years old and I never reboot it...have issues..etc. There are also all the normal advanced settings for port forwarding...etc etc.

11/22/2011

It works

Intel EXPI9301CTBLK Network Adapter 10/100/1000Mbps PCI-Express 1 x RJ45
Intel EXPI9301CTBLK Network Adapter 10/100/1000Mbps PCI-Express 1 x RJ45

Pros: It works

Cons: None

Overall Review: I had trouble after upgrading my system to Windows 7 with the integrated NIC, so I decided to replace it with this card as an alternative. Never have had an issue since, does exactly what it is suppose to...works!

12/26/2010