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Austin K.

Austin K.

Joined on 01/23/10

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 5
Most Favorable Review
Antec Three Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded 2 x USB 3.0
Antec Three Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded 2 x USB 3.0

Pros: This is a big case with plenty of room. The side panels came off easily and slid back into place without using a lot of force or having to spend a lot of time lining them up. The two included case fans are a nice touch and they have external controls. This was my first case with tool-less drive mounting, so I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I could mount all my drives in place. The USB ports are located at the very top of the case, which is a subtle, but nice touch. My previous case had them about midway down, which basically meant the USB cables needed some extra length.

Cons: My earliest annoyance was that it didn't come with a manual. It's not a huge deal, but I had to pull it up on my smart phone and as I worked on this case. If you're familiar with this case, or others like it, then this is a non-issue, but this was my first build with it, so it would have been nice to have a paper copy included. I was kind of hoping this thing was going to have a 100% metal exterior, but the front bezel is actually plastic. It's still high quality and durable feeling, but plastic nonetheless. This might have been a design decision to make it easier to snap the bezel in and out without tools. The case has two additional holes on the top near the back, presumably to run additional wires from the outside to the inside. I'm not using them, so I just have some half-open holes in my computer. It would have been nice if the case included some plugs to close those up if you didn't plan on using them. The power supply mounting was easy, but I felt like it could have used an additional metal brace to hold it upright. The included case fans are a little louder than what I would have wanted. That said, it is easy to turn them off when I'm not doing things that generate a lot of heat.

Overall Review: Previous to this case, I never spent a lot of money in a high quality case. It never made a lot of sense to spend an extra 20-30 bucks on something that wasn't going to give me better performance directly. For my latest build, I decided to actually invest in a good solid case. I was not disappointed with the Three Hundred Two. As I was moving components from an older case into this one, I couldn't believe how much more room was in this thing. Almost all the wires can run behind the motherboard, so you can have nice cable management if you're concerned with airflow (or you're just a perfectionist).

A large drive at a cheap price

ADATA 32GB UV128 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Flash Drive (AUV128-32G-RBY)
ADATA 32GB UV128 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Flash Drive (AUV128-32G-RBY)

Pros: This is a basic USB thumb drive with USB 3.0 speeds. I plugged it in to a Linux machine and did a dd if=/dev/zero to zero out the entire drive and check its capacity. The results came back clean, so if you're worried about fake USB drives, these are the correct size. Honestly though, you probably don't need to worry too much about fakes since I'm sure NewEgg's customer service department tries to keep those suppliers away. It also comes with a lifetime warranty.

Cons: There isn't an activity light, which I would prefer. Also it doesn't have a dust cover. I tend to lose those things anyway, but they are good if you are concerned with junk ruining the connector. If this thing is going to be indoors most of the time, then you probably don't need to worry about that.

Overall Review: I received this drive as part of a promotional offer from NewEgg when I purchased another product. I can't offer much of a perspective on price, but it seems to be a good value. Write speed averaged 21.2 MB/s on a USB 2.0 port.

A good compromise between price and speed

Seagate ST1000LM014 1TB 5400 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Laptop SSHD Bare Drive
Seagate ST1000LM014 1TB 5400 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Laptop SSHD Bare Drive

Pros: This drive is fast and worked as a good replacement in my laptop. While the requirements say it works for both Windows and Mac, I was able to install Mint Linux on it with no issue. I'm using it in a 5-year-old laptop and it has provided a nice life extension to a comptuer I didn't want to throw out. My current boot up time is about 15 seconds to go from bootloader to login screen. I was hoping it would be a little faster, but this is good considering it used to be about a minute. Other reviews indicate that it will speed up as I use it more (I'm writing this review within a week of installing it). It's also very quiet. My previous drive was failing and was pretty loud so I appreciate the contrast.

Cons: I would probably appreciate a larger SSD portion. 8 gigs is pretty good, but that's not going to work well for dual boot system.

Overall Review: My ideal setup would be to have two drives; a solid state drive for operating system files and a hard disk for everything else. For laptops, however, this is not going to happen, so this was a good compromise. Be sure you check our your laptop specs to make sure this drive will fit. This should fit most laptops, but if you're not sure, you should look it up. If you can't find your drive dimensions online, go ahead and pop our your current drive and measure it (or just check the drive's model number).

Cheap and it works

KINGWIN DVIC-01 Black DVI Male to DVI Male Cable
KINGWIN DVIC-01 Black DVI Male to DVI Male Cable

Pros: The cable was cheap and the package was easy to open (none of those stupid plastic clamshell designs).

Cons: None.

Overall Review: Think about the length before you buy. 6 feet sounds like a lot of slack, but you also have to realize that you're probably going to snake it behind your desk and then up vertically.

I needed some more power!

CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-750TX 750 W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Compatible with New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-750TX 750 W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Compatible with New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

Pros: I bought a new graphics card and forgot to check to see if my PSU could handle it. About half an hour into a game of Borderlands, I noticed a strange burning smell coming from my computer case. This was accompanied by some general protection faults from Borderlands, so I knew something was up. I checked my PSU and I was 50 watts below the minimum for the new video card. A friend recommended Corsair brand PSUs as good replacements, so I bought the 750 watt model. I only really needed to get a 450 watt model for the card, but I decided it's good to have some watts available in case I decide to do SLI in the future. Installation was easy. There were more than enough cords for all my hardware. The new power supply actually fixed the general protection faults I was having.

Cons: A little louder than my previous PSU, but not by much.

Overall Review: The power supply unit is typically the piece of hardware I've had to replace the most often in other computers because they've died on me. This, however, is the first time I've actually invested some good money into a quality unit, so I expect it will outlive its predecessors. Additionally, Corsair provides a 5 year warranty, so I should be set if that does happen.