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Robert T.

Robert T.

Joined on 11/13/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

Great motherboard with new and antiquated features

GIGABYTE GA-B75M-D3V LGA 1155 Intel B75 USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-B75M-D3V LGA 1155 Intel B75 USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Works great, intended to make this a Ubuntu box and it works fine running that. But was so impressed by its performance that I've made it my main desk computer running Windows 7x64. Using the on-board Intel graphics and that's very solid.

Cons: Would have been nice if the board came with HDMI out. Instead the engineer thought it was important enough to include a parallel port???? Even an analog VGA out is rather dated.

Overall Review: The BIOS is real nice and easy to navigate. Flashed up from F6 to F10 without a hitch. Best to download the Intel video drivers direct from Intel as what's on the Gigabyte website aren't up to date.

Most Critical Review

keep looking, not good camera

TOSHIBA IK-WB16A RJ45 Network Camera
TOSHIBA IK-WB16A RJ45 Network Camera

Pros: Takes high resolution still pictures and video. The pan and tilt does work well. Ceiling mount was easy enough if not limited in design.

Cons: Very confusing and buggy firmware last updated in late 2010. Internet Explorer with an activex plug-in is really the only way to use the camera. But even then many menu and dropdown features aren't displayed correctly on IE9 or IE10. Was unable to edit or delete certain media and server settings once set. Motion detection which was the main feature wanted was very poor, problematic, and unpredictable as to what would cause a trigger. Image color very off and overall image had a distorted fisheye look. Looking for low-light or auto iris auto-shutter speed camera? Not this camera, once the sun goes down the image is totally black. Overall the UI was very confusing, documentation not much better, when I was able to trigger an event, this was sent as an email: "There is an event been triggered, please note"

Overall Review: I've owned an IK-WB11A purchased in 2004. Was hoping Toshiba had made improvements on a good but showing its age design. Nope, Toshiba basically broke, ruined, or eliminated certain key features. Like being able to define an irregular shaped motion detection field, having a clean resizeable live monitoring window, give good low light images, and even though Java is sometimes a pain and may have security flaws, it does greatly increase browser and platform use.

doesn't work with PowerDVD playing Blu-ray

SAPPHIRE Ultimate  Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready  Video Card (100326UL)
SAPPHIRE Ultimate Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card (100326UL)

Pros: It's silent, not a monster of a card so fits nice in cramped cases, like the full size HDMI output, doesn't require a PCI-E power cord. Drivers seems well polished and easy to find.

Cons: Finally got around to using the card in a HTPC configuration. CyberLink PowerDVD refuses to play Blu-ray movies with this card saying the graphics driver and hardware is incompatible or just not qualified. I even ran the CyberLink Blu-ray advisor where it returned the same results. DVDs will play but not Blu-ray. This card will not play Blu-ray files

Overall Review: I've used AMD graphics chipsets to play Blu-ray, the last one being a 4670. But this 6670 card just doesn't work playing Blu-ray with PowerDVD. Exhausted all options, pulled the card, popped in an nvidia-based card and all worked well. If your goal is to have a silent fanless card in your HTPC playing Blu-rays with PowerDVD, the HD 6670 is not the one to buy. OTOH, if you want a silent card in your desktop machine it's a perfect choice.

Fast processor, noisy HSF, adequate video performance

Intel Core i3-2130 - Core i3 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge Dual-Core 3.4 GHz LGA 1155 65W Intel HD Graphics 2000 Desktop Processor - BX80623I32130
Intel Core i3-2130 - Core i3 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge Dual-Core 3.4 GHz LGA 1155 65W Intel HD Graphics 2000 Desktop Processor - BX80623I32130

Pros: It does what it's supposed to do. Was the fastest i3 processor available.

Cons: Heatsink fan not the quietest. Might be shopping for something aftermarket very soon. Graphics performance is rather low but not a surprise. Windows Experience Index is 4.5.

Overall Review: Overall happy with my choice of this processor.

Forget the rest and buy THE BEST

KINGWIN STR-500 500 W ATX 12V v2.2, EPS 12V v2.91 and SSI EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Ready 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Modular Active PFC Stryker Fanless Power Supply
KINGWIN STR-500 500 W ATX 12V v2.2, EPS 12V v2.91 and SSI EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Ready 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Modular Active PFC Stryker Fanless Power Supply

Pros: Totally silent, designed beautiful, nice box and package, it's silent, runs cool as a cucumber, no fan to suck in dust. Nice silicone covers are used to cover the unused modular ports.

Cons: Not totally modular as the PCI-E cable is hard wired. Guess they figured most people use it so there's no reason to make it a separate cable.

Overall Review: They include thumb screws to mount the power supply to the case. Seemed a bit silly to use them, standard case screws are fine, it's not like I'm going to remove the thing on a regular basis.

great case with large loud front fan

SilverStone Temjin Series TJ08B-E Black Aluminum front panel, steel body Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case
SilverStone Temjin Series TJ08B-E Black Aluminum front panel, steel body Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Case

Pros: I totally love this case, this is my first build using a micro-atx board. Having a motherboard tray is great for assembly. I installed a huge KingWin silent power supply and there was still plenty of room for an optical drive. Everything fits together real nice the quality if excellent. Even the power switch is quality metal, not the cheap plastic junk that break over time.

Cons: OK, the front fan sucks. It's really loud even at the lowest switched speed setting and just don't see the point. I unplugged it and installed a super quiet 120mm fan in the back to exhaust. I'm not running some monster heat generating system so the front fan is just not required.