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Matthew S.

Matthew S.

Joined on 12/07/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 9
Most Favorable Review

A followup.

ADESSO EL-9805PB Blue 105 Normal Keys 18 Function Keys PS/2 Standard Illuminated media Keyboard
ADESSO EL-9805PB Blue 105 Normal Keys 18 Function Keys PS/2 Standard Illuminated media Keyboard

Pros: Owned this for six months now. Keys are not sticking. It's as bright as day one. I'm totally used to the keyboard layout now. Regular boards feel a bit weird at this point.

Cons: I have yet to find an electroluminescent mouse to go with it.

Overall Review: I'm the guy who's brother said "Your keyboard is AWESOME." It totally is. While the machine I built is my current trophy in terms of technical stuff, it just wouldn't be the same without this keyboard. The computer is beautiful - but this is the crown jewel in the entire computing setup I have. It brings the aesthetics together VERY nicely.

Most Critical Review

Pretty good case.

XCLIO Blackhawk Advanced Black Finish 0.8 mm SECC / ABS Plastic ATX Full Tower Extreme Cooling Computer Case
XCLIO Blackhawk Advanced Black Finish 0.8 mm SECC / ABS Plastic ATX Full Tower Extreme Cooling Computer Case

Pros: After a year and a half of working with this case, it's time to start looking for a new one. Not that there's anything particularly bad about this one - it's done its job quite well. Incredible amount of space to work with, looks good, and the first time those fans start spinning just sounds cathartic. As for cooling, this case has no problems whatsoever. Mine kept everything under 30C, even under pretty heavy load.

Cons: Trouble is, I kept the fans in mine running at max speed with LED's on almost nonstop for eighteen months. So if you're dumb enough to do that, I suppose there's a con - you'll want to replace it after about a year or two. Again, not a flaw with the case, just the user!

Sunbeam Transformer IC-TR-US-BA-WOPSU Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Sunbeam Transformer IC-TR-US-BA-WOPSU Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: Big case, good airflow. Positioning of fans is very good. Plenty of space for hard drives, 5.25" drives. Also, it looks really good.

Cons: As stated in other reviews, the faceplate should NOT be used as a handle when lifting this! One of the connector pins securing it to the rest of the case snapped. Additionally, the screw-less rails used to secure the 5.25" drives are a bit hard to get positioned correctly in place.

Overall Review: Building my sister a computer and one of her requirements was "it has to look pretty with all those flashy lights and stuff". Well, this case fits the bill quite well! Plus it gives her the cooling she'll need for all the other stuff I've stuck in this machine.

12/10/2009

I'm jealous.

XFX GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card PVT98WYDFU
XFX GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card PVT98WYDFU

Pros: My mom needed a new card for The Sims 3. I convinced her to buy this. My current card - XFX 9800 GT - cowers at the sight of this thing. Easy to install, gets the job done for mom (and then some). Won't need to worry about upgrading her graphics for a while.

Cons: As I said in my review on my card, it's big, but that's to be expected. Only reason this is a problem here is that it actually covers up half the SATA slots on the mobo as well as a good portion of the IDE slot. That's what mom gets for using a stock HP and asking me to upgrade instead of having something custom built... should've measured and planned ahead on this, but oh well. She doesn't mind, and customer satisfaction is the important part.

Overall Review: If the only reason you're getting this card is The Sims 3, shame on you. Unless you're related to me. Love ya, mom. Seriously, this thing has great potential, put it to good use!

Back in Black!

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition - Phenom II X4 Deneb Quad-Core 3.0 GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Processor - HDZ940XCGIBOX
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition - Phenom II X4 Deneb Quad-Core 3.0 GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Processor - HDZ940XCGIBOX

Pros: 3.0ghz, and it hasn't melted my mobo. I'm using the stock cooling fan, as I haven't needed to overclock this thing. Does everything I want it to do. Definitely suggest this item for gamers.

Cons: Cons... umm. I'll get back to you on those. Once I find them.

Overall Review: What's all this stuff about AMD being "bacK"? Where'd they go? Must've been some super secret bunker where they built this. Anyway enough about that. This thing is definitely worth the money! Tricod 8068 case (upgrading to XCLIO Blackhawk soon) XFX GeForce 9800 GTX+ Video card XFX MIA78S8209 mobo 2x2gb Corsair DDR2 800mhz memory

This card scares me.

XFX GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card PVT98GYDLU
XFX GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card PVT98GYDLU

Pros: Great card. Graphical capabilities are incredible. I just wish I could afford a better monitor to use this thing to its fullest...

Cons: It's big. That's to be expected in a high-end card, of course, but it's coming right up next to the HD bays, making it hard to work with those. Going to upgrade to a larger case to fix this.

Overall Review: Haven't had to worry about airflow... runs a bit high, but as stated above, case is a bit crowded. My setup: XFX MIA78S8209 mobo This video card AMD Phenom II X4 3.0ghz black edition CPU 2x2GB Corsair DDR2 800 Tricod 8068 case (upgrading soon to XCLIO Blackhawk)