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JD W.

JD W.

Joined on 07/12/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 9
Most Favorable Review

Fast and stable

Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDCL120GB-DX
Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDCL120GB-DX

Pros: I have two of these running two identical computers and they are awesome. 7.7 WEI. No hesitation, just smooth reliable performance. This size is big enough to hold everything I need after moving my libraries (documents, music, photos) and temp folders to my secondary 1TB 7200rmp drive so I can use this drive for my OS, Office, and games. I have read about hesitations and low performance issues from different manufacturers. The Mushkins just work.

Cons: Price.

Overall Review: The first of my two drives has been running solid for three months and the other for two months. Booting into Windows and being able to immediately start using my computer has been a godsend. Also, on every computer I've ever used, fast or slow (at work or at home), MS Word takes 30 seconds to open up. On this drive it takes 2 seconds the first time and less than a second after that. Outlook is also just as fast. The Sims 3 used to take over six seconds to load all of the textures in a scene, now it's down to fractions of a second. This makes it hard going to work and remembering to be patient with the computers there. Highly recommended.

Most Critical Review

66% reliable

HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3K2/8G
HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3K2/8G

Pros: A good price for 8GB. Runs fast. Great when it works.

Cons: Only two of the three pairs I've tried have worked at 1600. The defective one only worked at 1333.

Overall Review: I have put together two identical computers in the last two and half months. The very first thing I do with a new PC is set the memory timing (1600 9-9-9-27) and run memtest86+ These are recognized as 1333, so you have to set the speed and the timing in the bios manually. The first computer has run flawlessly and been solid for over two months. The second computer locked up memtest86+ on test 5. Setting the memory down to 1333 made it stable, but that's not what I paid for. So, RMA'd the faulty pair for a new pair and they ran perfectly at 1600 9-9-9-27. So, always test before tring to install your OS, and though this memory is great when it works, I had to knock it down to 3 eggs for poor quality control.

Reliable

Western Digital WD Green WD20EARS 2TB 5400 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital WD Green WD20EARS 2TB 5400 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Quiet Cool Reliable

Cons: None

Overall Review: I'm running six of these in enclosures connected via eSATA to my server. They have performed flawlessly. They make no noise and they run cool. I have no complaints. At six successes and no failures I have to give it five eggs.

Unreliable

COUGAR CMX 700 COUGAR-700CMX 700 W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Yes, flexible cable management Active PFC Power Supply
COUGAR CMX 700 COUGAR-700CMX 700 W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Yes, flexible cable management Active PFC Power Supply

Pros: Two seperate 12 volt rails at 30a each to support my GTX 560 Ti.

Cons: Unreliable. One works fine and the other locked up my computer. It's good when it works but a real pain when it doesn't. 50% reliability forces me to rate this at 3 eggs, though with all the hastle (because I thought it was the video card) I'd rather give it 2.5

Overall Review: Over the last two and a half months I've put together two identical computers. One worked flawlessly and the other gave me no end of troubles. I thought it was the video card because the computer wouldn't reboot, it would just freeze completely. My older GTX 8800 Ultra, which required one PCI-E connection worked great in the computer. Turns out, either the 560 Ti was pulling more wattage or amperage than this PSU was up to (and it should have been able to do it easily on paper) or maybe the 560Ti was more sensative to the fluctuations of this power supply. Either way I got no end of lockups. Swapping plugs around helped a little bit and for a little while. Seemed like it was getting worse as time passed. I picked up a TX750v2 from newegg, installed it yesterday, and all of my problems disappeared.

Fast and Reliable

SPARKLE GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card SX560T1024D5MH
SPARKLE GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card SX560T1024D5MH

Pros: Price is great, it's the least expensive GTX 560 Ti on the market, first with regular price and now with rebate. Performance is stellar. Though not overclocked it's getting 7.8 in WEI. All my games run smoothly at 1920x1200 and maximum detail, from Crysis 2 to Witcher 2 (see below). Reliability is great. I'm 2 for 2 after two and a half months.

Cons: It's not overclocked, but that just adds to the reliability. That's it.

Overall Review: I have put together two computers over the last two and half months. Both of these cards have performed flawlessly. It's not specific to this card but a word of advice. When installing the nvidia video drivers, if you don't have 3D hardware, run a custom install and unselect the 3D drivers. In Witcher 2 I get 1 FPS with the 3D drivers installed and super-smooth performance without them.

Great WAP

D-Link DWL-G700AP High Speed Wireless Access Point
D-Link DWL-G700AP High Speed Wireless Access Point

Pros: Plug and play. Good signal strength.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Came with the latest BIOS installed. Plugged it in and in iPhone had wireless immediately. All I had to do was set up an admin password and a WPA passphrase to lock it down. It supports WPA2, but my old laptop doesn't. DHCP is disabled by default (which is perfect for me) but it has that capability.