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Michael M.

Michael M.

Joined on 04/02/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 10
Most Favorable Review

Nice little box

Shuttle KPC K45-Black Intel Socket T(LGA775) Intel 945GC KPC Barebone
Shuttle KPC K45-Black Intel Socket T(LGA775) Intel 945GC KPC Barebone

Pros: Rock solid construction. Surprisingly roomy for the size of the case. Easy to assemble. Good reputation. The front face plate is a cute idea.

Cons: No ICE Genie colling solution. Airflow isn't the best, so components run warm. No easy way to install an optical drive, but that's by design.

Overall Review: Without a doubt, add a case fan if you build one of these. At idle, my E2160 sits at 46c and the drive at 50c. I've picked up a 92mm case fan to install tonight, so we'll see how that goes. I wish it would have had a PCIe slot and the ability to install a standard optical drive, but the lack of the ICE cooling system is a big disappointment.

Most Critical Review

Great until I needed RMA

Galaxy GeForce GT 520 (Fermi) 1GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card 52GGS4HX2HXZ
Galaxy GeForce GT 520 (Fermi) 1GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card 52GGS4HX2HXZ

Pros: Great graphics card for what I was looking for. Pretty quiet fan for several months.

Cons: Tech support is very weak. The bearing in the fan is failing, so it's loud. It's still under warranty but the tech support folks informed me that the fan is supposed to make noise when it's running. Really?

Overall Review: I just hope that this isn't going to be one of those games were they stall and run me around in the hopes that I just give up. So far I'm not impressed.

I've had it with the startup problem!

Intel BOXD525MW Intel Atom D525@ 1.8GHz (Dual Core) BGA559 Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo
Intel BOXD525MW Intel Atom D525@ 1.8GHz (Dual Core) BGA559 Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo

Pros: Fine as long as you don't lose power ever.

Cons: I'm tired of these boards failing to start after a power failure! Lost power this morning and I've already lost hours trying to get them started and they're not going. My weekend is shot now. First thing Monday morning I'm replacing them.

Nice board, but know what you're getting into

Intel BOXD525MW Intel Atom D525@ 1.8GHz (Dual Core) BGA559 Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo
Intel BOXD525MW Intel Atom D525@ 1.8GHz (Dual Core) BGA559 Intel NM10 Mini ITX Motherboard / CPU Combo

Pros: Small form factor, low power consumption, silent

Cons: None really, wish it did RAID but not that big of a deal.

Overall Review: It's a really good product, but I got over-zealous and picked a case that doesn't have the needed airflow. I had to jimmy a 120mm fan to keep the CPU temps around 45c. Without it the CPU was idling at 56c. If you go with this board, think carefully about what case you're going to put this into. If you are smart about selecting the case you'll be happy. Make sure the case has good airflow.

Pretty Good, One Annoying Issue

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ35 Black 12.1 MP 18X Optical Zoom 27mm Wide Angle Digital Camera
Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ35 Black 12.1 MP 18X Optical Zoom 27mm Wide Angle Digital Camera

Pros: I really like this camera. It has a nice set of features and has been a good upgrade for the family's older Kodak.

Cons: Does not work with the built in "camera wizard" in Windows XP or 7. Per the manual you have to drag & drop your pictures from the camera (which shows up as an external drive) to your folders. My family has been used to using the wizard for years with their original Kodak. I guess I'll just write a small program that will mimic the wizard.

Overall Review: Has a bit of a steep learning curve simply because there is no physical manual, only a PDF. So, you can't take the camera out with you and try things out unless you also take either a copy of the PDF that you printed or a laptop.

8 Months and Frustrated

Shuttle KPC K45-Black Intel Socket T(LGA775) Intel 945GC KPC Barebone
Shuttle KPC K45-Black Intel Socket T(LGA775) Intel 945GC KPC Barebone

Pros: Cheap and small.

Cons: Small and loud. I've owned this K45 for about 8 months and it's just been frustrating. I had held onto the hope that Shuttle would in fact come through with the ICE cooler but they never did. It's small, but with that comes so little room inside to work with. My CPU would idle around 45c and the stock CPU fan would be screaming. I added a case fan but after trying half a dozen fans the added noise wasn't worth the 6-7c drop in temps. Trying to find an after market CPU fan that would fit was a pain and I finally settled on a XIGMATEK HDT-SD964. But, since there is so little room inside I had to jimmy the hard drive to make it all fit. I have some nice low CPU temps, but the fan is still too loud. I give up. It's a $100 lesson for me.

Overall Review: I probably shouldn't have bought into the hype on this model and either spent the extra money to get one of the better Shuttle models or just plain bought a decent case and simple motherboard. Oh well, live and learn.