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Luke M.

Luke M.

Joined on 05/17/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review
Intel Core2 Quad Glitter Lamp – Quad-Core Gift
Intel Core2 Quad Glitter Lamp – Quad-Core Gift

Pros: Well it looks cool and it's free.

Cons: Not as big as I thought it would be, and even though it's free the price rating on it is insane. Also the twist switch didn't work so I had to take it apart and mount the copper bridge 180 degrees so it was facing the contacts. No big deal though.

Most Critical Review

Bad design.

PLANTRONICS Xbox 360 headset (premium under-ear style)
PLANTRONICS Xbox 360 headset (premium under-ear style)

Pros: Sound quality is good on the mic and the speaker. Works well under a pair of headphones. Plantronics sent me another for free because of the lousy pickup on the microphone. Inline volume and mute.

Cons: #1 Mic boom is way too short. Half the time the 360 wouldn't pick up normal talking volume. #2 The rubber behind the ear meant to hold this in position is not enough. #3 The cable just seems too thin and a crimp, knot, bend could lead to the wires grounding almost anywhere. #4 The ear bud just doesn't fit in your ear easily.

Overall Review: Don't buy this if you want a decent headset. I bought it originally to fit under my AX360 headset because only the microphone on it connected to the controller and playing voice through speakers has always been too quiet on the 360. I did however take this apart and remove their boom and placed the AX360 flexible mic boom in its place and it works just like I wanted it to originally. Although unless I am wearing my headphones there isn't enough to keep it on my ear or from tipping because of the new mic boom is much heavier. Glad I only had to recently hack this thing to work because after the free one didn't work any better I found a 2.5mm cell headset at Radio Shack on sale for $10 that was perfect for my needs. Two years later the wires inside are grounding out though.

Perfect attributes for my needs.

ADATA 32GB S102 Pro Advanced USB 3.0 Flash Drive, Speed Up to 100MB/s (AS102P-32G-RGY)
ADATA 32GB S102 Pro Advanced USB 3.0 Flash Drive, Speed Up to 100MB/s (AS102P-32G-RGY)

Pros: Got this both for it's high posted speed benchmarks using USB 3.0 and 2.0. Got it for use with an Xbox 360 Slim and when not needed for that I would have a fast USB 3.0 drive. Has worked great in the 360 Slim actively used for 100+ hours. In the console powered on, but not being used at least 500 hours. Aluminum body gives it a quality feel plus keeps it cool. During initial testing it also worked well with my Nexus 10 using a OTG usb cable and Stickmount. Now that GTAV is coming out on Next Gen Consoles I will probably start using it to backup or transfer files. Possibly as a bootable OS, diagnostic drive, or for installing pre-updated OS when I need to.

Cons: Really only con I can think of is the cap might be easily lost. Luckily for my purposes I keep it plugged in and the cap in a draw with my other USB drives and cables.

Overall Review: Bought this for my Xbox 360 Slim for the sole intention of installing Grand Theft Auto 5's play disc onto it. Game installs one disc of content onto the HDD and then has a play disc so assets can be loaded from the internal HDD and the disc at the same time to speed up load times. Anyways game loaded slowly and content pop in was really noticeable plus the disc drive was running constantly. Bottom line after installing the Play disc onto this drive content pop in was reduced from being very obvious to practically gone except in rare cases, load times were 4x 5x better, and the disc drive wasn't always running while playing the game.

Quiet and well built case.

Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Quiet with plenty of noise reducing features and cooling solutions. Large 120mm pre-installed fans with external speed switches. Low setting is barely audible while medium and high can be thrown on during or after gaming to dump extra heat very fast. After exiting and switching them to max my case temp drops 20*F and my CPU 30*F in around 30 seconds. Insulated case walls dampen noise and reduce overall case vibration and resonance. Rubber hard drive mounts reduce vibrations and also keep vibrations from effecting them. Side intake area around the front panel diffuses internal noise while still providing a large intake area. Removable filters and their locking gates also muffle sounds and work great at keep dust and hair out. Very easy to clean. Power routing on the underside of the motherboard plate make it easy to keep the inside of the case clear of cables allowing great air flow.

Cons: Routing power cables on the underside of the case can be tricky. You have to make sure they follow enough paths so they don't bulge out to far which can make it impossible to mount the side panel. Broke a plastic retainer on the panel before I spent more time routing them so they weren't bunched up and were laying flat. Before you get started you have to undock the lower chamber fan cowling so you can install your power supply and determine the best path for power cables. Luckily the fan is just held in with for plastic tabs that slide to lock the fan. After your done routing cables you simply put it back in. Largest case I have used. Always used Mid or Micro towers before. Don't go to Lan parties anymore so weight doesn't concern me. Without a doubt it's the heaviest system I have built though. Dragging it out to clean it is a chore. I have had these or similar problems on every case I have ever used though.

Overall Review: Quietest computer I have ever built. An old incandescent light was generating more noise than my computer, had to stick a fluorescent bulb in to restore my peace. Has a great style, that is simplistic, but also shows it's a very powerful machine without windows and lights that I have gotten so very tired of. When I turn on my old systems I can't believe I used to put up with the amount of sound they put out. I always put off keeping my other system up to date because I can't stand the noise. Also beyond being the quietest it's by far the cleanest looking computer I have built. Power cables nearly come out from hiding and directly to where they are needed. SATA connectors keep clutter down considerably compared to IDE ribbons. Any non used power outlets are neatly tucked away down in the lower power supply compartment. My two large HD3870 cards fit well within the case not looking the least bit cramped with space to spare.

Great except for a big defect.

TRITTON AX360 Coaxial & Fiber Optic Connector Circumaural True 5.1 Digital Audio Gaming Headset
TRITTON AX360 Coaxial & Fiber Optic Connector Circumaural True 5.1 Digital Audio Gaming Headset

Pros: It's a Digital decoder and amp. You can hook up two Trittron headsets to it and still have the analog ports for an actual surround sound system that doesn't decode digital.

Cons: The con I found the most annoying is the rumble/subwoofer driver on the Left side seems to get blown or loosen up after extended use. You still get the rumble, but it develops an audible resonance that makes it extremely distracting. It's a buzzing type of sound. It annoyed the hell out of me playing GTAIV on the 360 because every time you pull up the map the game makes a low tone that sets of the sub driver off while everything else is quiet. Same thing in Assasin's Creed as well. I bought another headset directly from Tritton and it developed the same symptom in the left sub/rumble driver. I had to put a bit of foam between it and the outer shell. Removed the buzzing, but also cut down the whole rumble effect by about a 3rd.

Overall Review: Overall it's a good product, but the rumble/bass driver seems to develop that really annoying resonance. I also own a Medusa Pro Gamer V2, that looks identical to the Tritton AX-51 and it developed the same resonance in the left ear. One cheap piece that ruins the entire experience. By the time you pay for RMA shipping and that whole hassle, you might as well just purchase another headset and use the old one for parts, or a spare for friends.

Good prodcut.

SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black PATA Model SH-S202G
SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black PATA Model SH-S202G

Pros: An excellent DVD/CD drive and burner. I haven't had any issues with it. Read speeds are as advertised unless windows drops the controller to PIO mode which only a few programs will cause.

Cons: I can't really thing faulty about this drive.

Overall Review: It takes around 5 minutes to burn a complete DVD at 8X although I don't use 16X even though the media supports it because most DVD-R discs will produce errors. At 8x with Verbatim 16x DVD-R I have never had Nero produce an error when I make it compare the disc to the source material. Extracting RAW, but encrypted DVD from a dual layer discs takes around 20 minutes. Extracting files from a full single layer DVD takes around 3-5 minutes. Created a backup image from a very old Jedi Knight 2 CD I let a friend borrow that scratched the heck out of it. Was the only drive that would make an error free image.