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Merrick E.

Merrick E.

Joined on 06/08/13

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 4
Most Favorable Review

Exceptional build quality

Corsair Air Series AF120 LED 120mm Quiet Edition High Airflow Fan Twin Pack - Blue (CO-9050016-BLED)
Corsair Air Series AF120 LED 120mm Quiet Edition High Airflow Fan Twin Pack - Blue (CO-9050016-BLED)

Pros: This is quite simply the best built fan I've ever held in my hands. I could spout a lot of hyperbole, but put in few words, it's weighty, flexibly stiff, with decently thick plastic and no easily bendable plastic. This thing is a tank, but no part of it is over-large and actually the look is quite spare and smooth. Lights are bright and strong blue. Might edge on too bright but I'm not sure yet. The cable is of excellent quality. Pretty quiet when set below 100%. See cons about running it at max. They move a lot of air. A lot a lot. My GFX card has so far dropped 4c at idle, and the motherboard has dropped 2c. My CPU doesn't get much air from it so no change on that.

Cons: The main annoyance is the lack of a molex adapter. My motherboard only has two fan headers so I actually haven't installed the second one yet. I need to purchase a splitter, but I wouldn't have to if it had a molex connector or adapter somewhere. This is a fairly minor annoyance and the only reason to dock an egg; splitters are incredibly cheap but I will have to wait before I can get one. The other gripe is the noise it produces on maximum. It's quite loud at 100% but you shouldn't need it at 100%; I quickly set it to 50% in the BIOS and the noise is almost indiscernible from the rest of my fans although maybe slightly louder than them. However, it moves far more air than them.

Overall Review: Overall highly recommend. I can't recall a Corsair product that I've ever really regretted. They're usually a minor 10%+ more pricey over other things, sometimes a little more than that, but they're really really worth it as far as I've seen.

Great find

UtechSmart US-D4000-GM High Precision Optical Gaming Mouse - 4000 DPI, 6 Programmable Buttons, Omron Micro Switches, 5 Profiles for PC, AVAGO ADNS-3050 Chipset
UtechSmart US-D4000-GM High Precision Optical Gaming Mouse - 4000 DPI, 6 Programmable Buttons, Omron Micro Switches, 5 Profiles for PC, AVAGO ADNS-3050 Chipset

Pros: Extremely responsive, maximum DPI setting (pink) is amazing. The lights are pretty bright but not blinding. The build quality is way better than I expected, particularly the cable which is weaved material instead of rubber/plastic. The USB connector is fantastically sturdy, although it has a strange shape. The mouse itself is bigger than I thought it would be. If you're used to small mouses it might take a while to get accustomed. Switching DPI modes based on your needs (Red<Blue<Green<Pink) takes a bit of learning and memory on the fly, but it's incredibly useful, particularly for games and visual software. Red mode can even stand in for a graphic tablet in how slow and precise it is in a pinch, which can save you a few minutes in your work flow.

Cons: The weight is a little light for my tastes. The plastic on the sides doesn't look and feel as nice as it could. The side buttons aren't as accessible. Clicking at first is a little hard, and even after 5 months of use it still isn't as light as it should be, although that means the mechanism is incredibly durable, so that's good and bad.

Overall Review: Overall an incredible mouse for the price. I took it more as an experiment when I got it and was extremely surprised to find it useful in so many ways.

Finicky install

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heatpipes
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heatpipes

Pros: It's extremely cool- 9c drop from stock AMD FX-4100 cooler. Has strong and sturdy construction for the HSF itself. The accompanying fan moves a lot of air. The fan attachment element is removable so you can use your own fans if you want an LED one, or one that moves more air.

Cons: Over-complicated install. Really really finicky and fragile until you get all the screws in, then it's incredibly stable. I don't like the backplate being made of metal, although the part that comes in contact with the motherboard is shielded. The HSF is really heavy so it takes a lot of force to get it stably attached. For cheaper mobos this means you might very slightly bend your board. I may have bent mine so slightly it's not noticeable, but that can still cause problems down the road. I don't know how good the accompanying thermal paste is. I have my own Arctic but I couldn't find it so I used theirs in a pinch. The lapping on the contact for the heatpipes is bare-bones. If you have your own tools to do so, I'd highly highly recommend it.

Overall Review: A lot of complaints but I still give it four eggs for how much air it moves and how cool it keeps my system. It would easily be a 5 egg item with better install. I believe this is an outdated product and the EVO is the next version, which may or may not have a better installation. You might be better off spending the $5 for that one instead, but if you are dexterous and want to save those few dollars, this will easily work.

A Worthy Addition

Acer 21.5" 60 Hz TN FHD LCD Monitor 5 ms D-Sub, DVI S0 Series S220HQL ET.WS0HP.A01
Acer 21.5" 60 Hz TN FHD LCD Monitor 5 ms D-Sub, DVI S0 Series S220HQL ET.WS0HP.A01

Pros: Cheap as hell. Absolutely great price for what they do. Calibrated correctly, the colors are excellent. Brightness is extremely strong for high-light environments. They're light and incredibly thin. The build quality is pretty strong, especially in the tilting joint. The picture is overall excellent with adjustment. They were shipped outstandingly fast. I got them 2 days after they were shipped, even though the shipping on packages this size is normally slightly longer. That's legendary Newegg for you, though.

Cons: As many others have said, the factory settings are absolutely disgustingly wrong. It will take a good bit of calibration on both the monitor settings and your GFX driver settings to get them right. Max color true-ness is something around 85-90%, which is a bit low for an LED backlit screen. Brightness can be adjusted but backlight can't? Probably the most grating frustration, especially considering that it's LED backlit. Brightness is way too strong. Footprint is a little steep. Bezels are very wide. Not good for multi-setup monitors like mine if you can afford better. Slightly confusing menu. No HDMI. I have one dead pixel, but it's almost invisible.

Overall Review: I complain a lot, but most of these- aside from the bad factory settings and brightness- are nitpicking. At the price point, these are probably the best you can get at true 1080p. I would only dock an egg if they were at a higher pricepoint. Anymore than +15% of their current price and the drawbacks would definitely knock off an egg. Still, though, an overall excellent product. A dual monitor setup, even with the wide bezels, is definitely serviceable with these, and even one alone would be a very great choice. I fully recommend.