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Jonathan L.

Jonathan L.

Joined on 11/26/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 20
Most Favorable Review

Beefy

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 4GB G1 GAMING OC EDITION, GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 4GB G1 GAMING OC EDITION, GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD

Pros: Runs everything I've been throwing at it flawlessly Quiet Looks great in case with the lit up "Windforce" logo

Cons: The moment I read that the card is actually 3.5g, all of my games suddenly looked like they were running on Commodore 64 graphics. I am infuriated, and all of the smooth gameplay and crispness I was granted when I was FALSELY lead to believe that it was a 4g card went out the window. Everyone grab your torches and pitchforks right now, and let us march to Nvidia... ----Are they gone?--- Great! In all seriousness, I have no cons for this card. The only thing is my CPU, which is causing a serious bottleneck in certain games, but that's not the card's fault.

Overall Review: For those dealt a serious blow and are crushed by the 3.5 fiasco, put some peel and stick flames on the case. It'll really help.

Most Critical Review

Died after a month

Corsair Certified CP-9020065-NA GS series GS800 800W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
Corsair Certified CP-9020065-NA GS series GS800 800W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

Pros: LED color and change option was cool The intermittent fan was nice and quiet Had enough juice for what I needed

Cons: Died after a month of use. It first started cutting off after several hours, then fewer hours, then eventually about 10 minutes. Had to RMA it, and I'm still waiting for the "new" one to return.

Overall Review: Currently using my, now antique, Thermaltake 430w PSU as a backup, which has been in 4 rigs through it's life. I would rate a bit higher because the RMA process was fairly simple, but my problem is that not only was the original PSU deemed "defective", then returned and "refurbished", but it is now being returned a third time to the factory for more issues. What does it take to get a functioning PSU?

Just a good keyboard

Logitech K120 Wired Keyboard for Windows, Plug and Play, Full-Size, Spill-Resistant, Curved Space Bar, Compatible with PC, Laptop - Black
Logitech K120 Wired Keyboard for Windows, Plug and Play, Full-Size, Spill-Resistant, Curved Space Bar, Compatible with PC, Laptop - Black

Pros: Nice feel for a membrane keyboard Not too loud, but not silent Keys actually respond when pressed (read other thoughts on this) Spill resistant Very thin and light, but not too flimsy This is my third K120, and I cannot use any other keyboard now. (The death of my two previous ones were a result of my own errors and clumsiness). I do some mild gaming, and really like this keyboard. It's very thin, and I don't like to actuate my wrist and fingers very high to type. The K120 sits low on my desk and feels nice.

Cons: Media keys would be cool, but it's a keyboard under $20.

Overall Review: After the recent death of my second K120, I wanted to try some other keyboards. I tried a Logitech 510+, a 710+ mechanical keyboard, a Razer Blackwidow Chroma, and a few others I can't even remember. I ended up getting yet another K120, because it felt so much better to me. I mentioned in pros about the keys actually responding when pressed. What I mean by that, is when you press a key down on a K120 and feel that "bump", it actually responds and sends the signal. The 510 keyboard didn't do this. You would press a key, it would "bump", but not respond unless you pressed it further. The mechanical keyboards didn't have this problem, though. I do like how a mechanical keyboard feels and clicks, but I don't like how "fat" they are to accommodate the tall switches. The keys themselves are taller too, and I feel like my fingers are jumping a chasm to reach the next key. The K120 is nice and thin, and the keys are the perfect size and are spaced well.

Fantastic sound quality... with a catch...

PLANTRONICS GameCom 85750-01 3.5mm Connector Circumaural 307 Stereo Gaming Headsets
PLANTRONICS GameCom 85750-01 3.5mm Connector Circumaural 307 Stereo Gaming Headsets

Pros: -As title says, fantastic sound quality with great bass -Comfortable -Good mic

Cons: -The wire build quality, and volume control box -Above ^ x100

Overall Review: Just a heads up, the Plantronics .audio 355 is the exact same model as this, and is about $12 cheaper. Only difference is this one has cloth ear cushions, and the red trim pieces. Over the past 8 years, I've owned and went through about 6 or 7 of these headsets. I'm not hard on them, but I'm not really easy on them either, and they certainly get used. Normally one would give up and perhaps get a better quality one, right? But no, because I still cannot find a better sounding headset. After my second one broke (right speaker on both just died), I tried the more expensive brands (turtle beach, steel series, etc), but they didn't come even close to the sound quality of these cheap little things. I even bought the big brother of this model (gamecom 780), but they didn't pack the punch the 307 delivers. I don't know what the manufacture uses for the speakers, but they're doing it right. I ONLY wish they put the same amount of effort into the wire and volume control box. Every pair I get usually gets me about a year of use, and they all either die from the volume box shorting out, or the right speaker starts to cut out....and it's ALWAYS the right speaker. I'm guessing the left speaker gets jealous of the right one for some reason, and assassinates it at some point.

So far so good

Huion 580 8'' x 5'' Graphic Drawing Tablet (Pen Pressure 2048) - Black
Huion 580 8'' x 5'' Graphic Drawing Tablet (Pen Pressure 2048) - Black

Pros: -Good starter tablet -Nice build quality for how little you actually pay -Great pressure sensitivity -Lightweight -Comes with USB cable, extra pen tips, and a little stand to place the pen on -Tablet software/driver (once you finally get it going) has some great features and settings you can adjust. I use multiple monitors and liked how I could bind the drawing surface to a specific monitor, or stretch it to work on both of them. It also has "hot cells", which are small square sections on the tablet you can bind within the software to do certain actions/commands.

Cons: -Pen feels a just a tad bit large for my hands -Drivers were tricky to get going. Also had a strange issue with the pen only working while testing the pressure sensitivity, but it seemed to correct itself. -Though not really a con, it came in a plain, unmarked cardboard box. Doesn't really bother me (especially if it keeps the cost down), but some find that as a "con".

Overall Review: Since this is my first graphic tablet purchase, it's really hard to me to compare this to another brand, but so far I'm loving it. The tracking and pressure sensitivity are spot on, and there's no lagging from what I can see. I was really hesitant to buy from a company I've never even heard of, but I was really wanting to get into digital art, and couldn't pass up the price on this. There were other familiar brand tablets within this price range, but they were significantly smaller, and I wanted a larger drawing surface, so I went with this one. Like a fool, I actually dropped this hard on the ground not even 10 minutes out of the box, and then my cat caught hold of the USB cable and dropped it again a few hours later... Fortunately it worked perfectly fine after both of those incidents, so hats off to Huion for durability.

Loving it so far

HP 2311gt Black 23" 5ms HDMI  Widescreen LED 3D Monitor 250 cd/m2 DC 3,000,000:1 with 3D glasses
HP 2311gt Black 23" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LED 3D Monitor 250 cd/m2 DC 3,000,000:1 with 3D glasses

Pros: Great 2D quality Amazing 3D quality Comes with 2 glasses Cheap as heck right now Comes with own HDMI cable (read below in cons before using it though) Slimmer and lighter than my older Acer 20" flat screen Stand easy to assemble and sturdy enough

Cons: The Tridef software included is dated and getting it to function properly took me some time. I tried to directly install the update from their site, but I kept getting errors and couldn't get it to function properly. A user below has a guide on how to update it properly (which I managed to find out through trial and error), so read that before getting it all set up. I could not get the HDMI to work properly on this monitor. It looked like it was stuck in a smaller resolution (but didn't stretch with the screen), and the general image quality was really messed up along with the 3D. Eventually I tried the DVI input and that made a world of difference.

Overall Review: After some minor software issues, I'd say I'm quite happy with this purchase. For $130 (with promo code), this is a major steal for a 3D monitor, and I'd totally grab one while you can. I mainly bought this to play WoW on, and I'm very happy with the 3D. It puts a whole new perspective in the game (flying around certain zones is absolutely beautiful). The Tridef software has a "Power 3D" feature you can enable, which puts an even greater depth and effect on the 3D, which really makes certain games sing. Of course, enabling this takes more umpfh from your graphics card, so you'll likely have a performance drop. Skyrim looked the best with this enabled, but was also the choppiest in FPS, so I had to use the standard setting. This brings me to my last comment, which is: you NEED a rig and decent graphics card that's capable of handling one of these monitors if you intend to game with it.