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Kevin P.

Kevin P.

Joined on 12/02/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 49
Most Favorable Review

Pretty Case

Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000SNA Silver 0.8 mm All aluminum made ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000SNA Silver 0.8 mm All aluminum made ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Shiny case with screwless quick-install drive rails that work well enough. Removable hard drive Aluminum cage that permits you to point your HDDs in one of two directions. Large, roomy, easy to work inside of.

Cons: The front lock has two positions, one unlocks the front door to give you access to the DVD drive and flash memory reader. The second position unlocks the front panel so that you can install above referenced items. It's flimsy, might as well not even have a lock. It's not going to keep anyone out of the case. When installing the DVD drive, the top slot is tough to get the plastic cover off. The hinge for the front cover blocks the place where the cover has to come out. I had to unscrew the hinge to get the plastic cover off. Not a big deal but it looks like someone at Thermaltake designed a notch into the hinge to accomodate but it's too small.

Overall Review: I don't care about the flimsy locking mechanism and once I got the DVD drive installed, I ceased caring about the cover hinge but I'm taking an egg off for poor quality assurance. If I designed a computer program like this, my customers would make me fix it.

Most Critical Review

Weak Clips for Facia

Thermaltake Eureka VC8000BWA Black Chassis Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Thermaltake Eureka VC8000BWA Black Chassis Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: No sharp edges. Slide-out motherboard tray is always appreciated. Slide trays for HDDs and DVD drives work well. Plenty of room for the power supply and ventilation.

Cons: 5 HHD drive RAID server, 1 DVD, Quad Core, passive heatsink video card. I chose this case because of its roominess and aluminum construction and past success with Thermaltake. To install the DVD drive, it's necessary to remove the front facia to get the aluminum shield off. The facia is heavy, I'm guessing about 30% - 40% of the weight of the entire case. It's held on with six small plastic tab-clips and, like one of the other reviewers here, I snapped one off trying to remove it; even after reading his review and being aware of how flimsy it is. Now I have an annoying gap at the top of the case where the clip is broken. Thermaltake provided many screws for attaching the HDDs to the slide-in trays. Just not enough for a 5 disk RAID. I used two per drive instead of four. I'm sure it'll be fine. It's the gap at the top of the case that annoys me. The front fan doesn't seem to provide much airflow at all. I can barely sense any airflow across the 5 HDD RAID.

Overall Review: I won't return this case but that's only because the client is expecting their server next week and I don't have the time to go through the RMA process. I've used Thermaltake cases before and have been very happy with them. I think that they didn't quite think this one through completely before it left the drawing board. Those clips were not meant to hold that much weight.

10x Faster

PowerColor Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card AX5770 1GBD5-H
PowerColor Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card AX5770 1GBD5-H

Pros: It's not a double-wide. Fits comfortably into one slot.

Cons: Can't overclock.

Overall Review: Replaced an ATI HD3870 Radeon with this card. I can get 10 times better frame rate in video games than I used to. I tried to use the overclock tool in the ATI Radeon software suite and discovered that was a very bad move. The card comes overclocked so don't mess with it.

Solved Some Problems

Kingston ValueRAM 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model KVR1333D3K2/4GR
Kingston ValueRAM 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model KVR1333D3K2/4GR

Pros: Made all of my spontaneously rebooting and computer freezing problems disappear as soon as I snapped them in.

Cons: Their chips don't have as much sparkle as OCZ so I didn't try them first.

Overall Review: I sure wish I had purchased the Kingston memory first. It would have saved me a year of useless memory tuning and near infinite frustration trying to get the OCZ memory to work. Kingston offers stability right out of the packaging.

Solved Some Problems

Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664BA1067
Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664BA1067

Pros: This memory stick snaps into the slot and then you never have to think about it again.

Cons: How am I going to maintain my high tech knowledge rating if I never have to think about how the memory works?

Overall Review: I replaced 4 gigs of OCZ memory with 4 gigs of this Crucial memory. All of my spontaneously rebooting and computer freezing issues went away. I never had to visit a support forum, I never had to deal with customer support. I'm never buying the shiny memory sticks ever again.

Gorgeous

OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G10664GK
OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G10664GK

Pros: These memory sticks look great sitting on your desk with their awesome silvery heat sinks and slashy Zorro looking Zee logo.

Cons: Too bad they don't work in a computer.

Overall Review: I installed this memory into a Foxconn G41MXE motherboard. The customer complained that their computer spontaneously rebooted several times a day or it would simply freeze up. I thought it might be the power so I added a UPS, then I tried updating all drivers. Once I replaced the memory with Crucial, all problems went away. I'm now replacing all OCZ memory with something other than OCZ in all of my previous builds. So far, my hardware customer service calls have fallen off quite a bit but now I have all of these $50 paperweights.