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Brent U.

Brent U.

Joined on 02/15/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 8
Most Favorable Review

Does the job, and does it well

Seagate FreeAgent Theater Media Player Only Model STCEA101-RK
Seagate FreeAgent Theater Media Player Only Model STCEA101-RK

Pros: Very easy to use!!! Plays all of the formats I need it to (see product description). Upscales video to 720p or 1080i. Able to zoom up to 8x on pictures/video. Adjustable brightness, contrast, and volume. Did I mention it is easy to use? Nice looking, shiny black, very easy and clean user interface. Extra USB port on the front for other drives besides a Free Agent Go. By the way, it's easy to use. It works BETTER than connecting my Laptop or Computer to my TV.

Cons: Very small load times (due to 5400 rpm drives) and every once in a while I have noticed a very slight stutter (most people watching haven't noticed it though). No HDMI thus no 1080p.

Overall Review: When it is all said and done I would buy this again. It has a slick interface with tons of features that far outway the cons. I haven't had any problems with the Seagate drives like others have stated. When I get them I delete all of the software that comes on them. I have been using the Seagate Free Agent Go Drives with this, one 250G and the other is 320G. I plan on getting several of the 500G drives to convert all of my movies onto. NO MORE SCRATCHED DISCS!!! I have seen the WD version of this as well. The WD has HDMI and does do 1080p. It also seems to support more file formats. I got the Seagate because of the interface with the drives, and it still plays all of the formats I need (I also already had the Free Agent Go drives). The WD drives connect through a USB cable/cradle, not as slick as the Seagate in my opinion (where it slides directly into the unit).

Most Critical Review

Put an X through Power

hec Orion XPOWER585 585W max. ATX12V 2.01 Power Supply
hec Orion XPOWER585 585W max. ATX12V 2.01 Power Supply

Pros: It's shiny-ish black. It didn't smell like burned rubber when I attempted to turned it on. It's Cheap

Cons: DOA. Outer shell could use another screw or two in my opinion (its a little loose). It's Cheap

Overall Review: Can't say much for it. It came DOA. It does seem to be pretty light for 585W (same weight as the 160W it was supposed to replace). I am getting a different PSU of higher quality. I would not order this again based off of its slight flimsy-ness and low weight. Barely worth the RMA.

Zotac GTX 760 4GB

ZOTAC ZT-70406-10P G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 760 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
ZOTAC ZT-70406-10P G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 760 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Pros: Upgraded from Zotac's GTX 280 AMP! edition. Newer games see a noticeable improvement, especially with the newer DirectX 11 features and such. Anything that needs lots of shader power is much better now. Screen Resolution: 1680 X 1050 Battlefield 3- Maxed out plays smooth Battlefield 4- Med-Max settings, plays smooth but FPS dips to around 2 every so often (probably a fault of my system RAM though, see other) Pretty much all other games I have are now maxed out if they weren't before (a testament to the mighty GTX 280!)- Skyrim, Metro 2033, Tomb Raider...

Cons: Coming from a GTX 280 is not that big of a leap in some games. Mostly DirectX 9 games fall in this category.

Overall Review: My Rig: XFX 780i MoBo Intel Core2Quad 9650 4GB DDR2 800 (needs more!) Geforce GTX 760 4GB (graphics) Geforce GTX 280 1GB OC (physix) Thermaltake Toughpower 1200A - (overkill now, but the system started with 3 SLI'd 8800 GTX's)

Graphics Turbo for AGP!!!

PowerColor Radeon HD 3850 512MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Graphics Card AG3850 512MD3
PowerColor Radeon HD 3850 512MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Graphics Card AG3850 512MD3

Pros: Excellent frame rates in newer games like Crysis, L4D, COD W@W, and GRID. 2-D gaming performance is top notch. Nice Custom Cooler. Runs cool. Definite improvement in gaming over a Geforce 7800gs.

Cons: FINDING the drivers can be a pain. I have always gotten the latest hotfix drivers from ATI/AMD and have had no problems installing/using them. Had to upgrade my PSU to use the card. CCC. Screen flashes when windows first starts up (just annoying really, but I have to wait for it to flash before I do anything or it resets to the desktop like I haven't done anything yet).

Overall Review: This was the best AGP card out when I bought it. I think that the AGP bus has a hard time feeding enough information to this card. I do believe that a 3650 would perform very similarly to this on an AGP bus. My system: P4 @ 3.2Ghz, 2GB DDR400 RAM, Radeon 3850, 160GB HDD @ 7200rpm, XP Pro.

More Like GTX280 lite edition

GIGABYTE GeForce 9800 GT 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card GV-N98TOC-1GI Rev 2.0
GIGABYTE GeForce 9800 GT 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card GV-N98TOC-1GI Rev 2.0

Pros: Mid level price for extreme graphics capabilities. Very nice cooler, looks good and functions extremely well. It's not loud, even when the fan is full speed.

Cons: Power Hungry little beast. It doesn't blow hot air out of the case. Cooler takes up the next slot.

Overall Review: An amazing buy! Hard to beat the Price/Performance ratio that this little beasty provides. I also have a Zotac GTX 280 AMP! Edition and this is almost as good in Crysis!!! I was only getting around a 5fps difference between the two cards @ 1280 x 800, very high, 8x fsaa. Also it's a much smaller card than the GTX 280.

Gaming Heaven

XFX GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Support Graphics Card PVT80FSHF9
XFX GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Support Graphics Card PVT80FSHF9

Pros: Tri - SLI!!! Overclocks like a dream! Eats games for lunch and begs for more.

Cons: This card is long, make sure you have enough room.

Overall Review: XFX 780i SLI mobo, Intel q6600, 8GB Mushkin DDR2 800, 3x XFX GeForce 8800GTX, WD Raptor 150GB, XClio Windtunnel Case