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Simon L.

Simon L.

Joined on 01/26/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 30
Most Favorable Review

Buy it on sale so price is good!

Rosewill RCR-IC001 - 3.5" Internal 40-in-1 Card Reader with USB 2.0 Port & Extra Silver Face Plate
Rosewill RCR-IC001 - 3.5" Internal 40-in-1 Card Reader with USB 2.0 Port & Extra Silver Face Plate

Pros: Price, so far it didn't fail me. I used only SD, Micro SD, and Sony memory stick slots so I can't tell you the other are working or not. Easy to install; 2 faces (silver and black) and it's easy to switch.

Cons: In this price not that I can think of.

Overall Review: You need to have one multi-reader for daily use!

10/15/2008
Most Critical Review

As a long time Ghost user I'm disappointed

Symantec Norton Ghost 15.0 - 1 PC
Symantec Norton Ghost 15.0 - 1 PC

Pros: None so far because Win 7 Back up and restore can do the exact same thing without extra bucks. I got this as a NIS 2010 bundle so my loss is miminal (only paid CA sales tax about $7 after rebate). Maybe a little bit faster than Win7 Backup, but I didn't really count the time.

Cons: My system is using RAID 1 so both Ghost and Win 7 (64bit) Backup need me to load additional RAID drivers by create a recovery disc. Ghost accept only 32 bit RAID driver, Win 7 take 64-bit RAID driver. The "Help" is ot so helpful. I'm a long time Ghost user but still can't get it work at the first few times. Previous version (12 and 14) work under WinXP without this problem.

Overall Review: Good if you still using XP or Vista. Don't bother if you are using Win 7 (mine is Professional 64-bit and actually bought 3 copies in very sweet $30 price) coz Backup & Restore can do the exact same thing without much trouble.

Good charger

Original OEM Samsung ETA-U90JWE High Power 2 A Amp USB Sync Data Cable + Home Wall Travel Charger For Samsung Galaxy Note II / 2 T889 I605 N7100, Galaxy Note I /1 T879 I717, Galaxy S4 Active, Stellar
Original OEM Samsung ETA-U90JWE High Power 2 A Amp USB Sync Data Cable + Home Wall Travel Charger For Samsung Galaxy Note II / 2 T889 I605 N7100, Galaxy Note I /1 T879 I717, Galaxy S4 Active, Stellar

Pros: Mine is a 6900 mAh battery. This charger filled 52% after 1 hour 22 minutes. Although no actual figure but i believe this is as good as my original Samsung charger.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: There are many fake Samsung chargers in the market. This charger came with no original packing but chargers and cable were in 2 separate plastic bags. Printing in the charge with Samsung logo and looks OK to me. I cannot tell if it's OEM, but the charging time is pretty close to my original Samsung charger. BTW this item became out of stock after i placed the order so made me feel I was lucky. :-)

Look around to get the best deal

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition - Phenom II X4 Deneb Quad-Core 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 125W Processor - HDZ955FBGMBOX
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition - Phenom II X4 Deneb Quad-Core 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 125W Processor - HDZ955FBGMBOX

Pros: Price - I bought this CPU as a combo (w/ MSI 890GXM-G65 MB) in local store for total cost $186.56. These days you really need to shop around so to get the best deal. Performance - It's fast even in stock speed. Sorry no fully tested yet but data already available for long time out there. Will OC of course otherwise why spent such money? Temperature - idle at 32 C, ran Prime95 for several hours jump to 52 C (immediately but stable afterward) with stock heat sink.

Cons: Speed - Win 7 show CPU score as 7.5 (stock speed), my Athlon II x 4 620 score 7.2. Not a huge immprovement so for budget users an Athlon II may be good enough for daily use... Stock fan - First time to use AMD stock heat sink (CM Hyper 212+ not arrived yet). It's very loud at first night (idle) that I must turned off the PC before sleep. It's acceptable during second night and afterward (even running Prime95). Maybe the fan need break in too? LOL

Overall Review: All my PCs built with AMD CPU for the past 15+ years. None DOA yet, only fired one up by myself and blamed the retailer for exchange (first built, ha ha) Nothing against Intel but it's the price prevent me to adopt them. Raw speed or spec is not "very" important, it's better look for real life applications performance to see if a PC is suit your need or not. Stock heat sink is OK to use if no OC (idle at 32 C). (OCZ OCZTVEND Vendetta use in Athlon II x 4 620 is 26 C). However, I still prefer to use 3rd party cooloer to achieve lowest possible temp. I don't even have enough time to play my PS3, XBox 360 & WiII games. why I wanna spent $300+ for a six core CPU (BE) plus other $$$ expensive hardware so can play games in my PC? IMO America need faster Internet and (much) better software to utilize the hardware we already had.

A good bet

Western Digital Black WD7501AALS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital Black WD7501AALS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Built 5 PCs for friends and myself between last year and now, all using WD drives (2 x 500GB and 4 x 750GB - Black) without problem. One set up as RAID 1 (750 GB Black primary & 750 GB Green 2nd), Windows 7 64-bit Pro, use for BT 24 x 7 for several months now so far so good. Many recommended use identical pair but so far no problem at all. However, Black as primary is logical. Right?

Cons: None if you know what hard drive is for what purpose. Gaming or Fast OS loading? Use SSD drive. Daily use (watch HD movies, surf Internet, etc)? WD Black series. Storage? RAID? WD green series.

Overall Review: I owned many WD drives and as I remember so far only 2 failed (1 x 160GB internal and 1 x 250GB external). 160 GB sometimes OS fail to recongize it, 250 GB completely fail (reformat may make it work again). I used to use Ghost to back up my drive/data. Not anymore because RAID 1 is a better option, coz I have to buy drives for backup anyway. Why bother to deal with back up in a routine basis? I will use Ghost if I own any SSD because if so RAID is too expensive as an option. Buy HD only if needed because price is dropping pretty fast. My sis bought the WD 1.5 TB green not too long ago and it's half price now...

You get what you paid for

EVGA GeForce GT 220 1GB DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Graphics Card 01G-P3-1225-LR
EVGA GeForce GT 220 1GB DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Graphics Card 01G-P3-1225-LR

Pros: Price - bought it with eVGA 9800GT bundle so cost less than $50 after rebate and Bing cash back. Downloaded and installed the latest driver from Nvidia for Windows 7 64-bit Pro and work flawlessly.

Cons: Saw 1GB DDR3 version after ordered this card... Don't complain the performance coz you get what you paid for. This card is working as described, fan is not loud, and running flawlessly.

Overall Review: Similiar priced ($46) Crossfire HD4550 (x2) score 4.8 vs this card 5.3 so consider better bang for the buck. This card is not for gamer, regular user watching HD movies should be OK.