Joined on 06/22/08
Sweet Little Speakers

Pros: I gotta say, I really didn't expect much from these speakers, after all, they're only 12 bucks. Boy, was I wrong. These speakers won't blow the doors off, (or rattle windows), and let's face it, if you're in it for floor shaking bass, it's just dumb to buy $12 speakers, but if you want decent sound at a nominal price, this is for you. I was truly surprised at the quality of sound from these little gems, and the "normal" plug, (vice a clunky transformer), all combine to make these my choice of Budget Customer Build speakers, for as long as they're available here. They don't take a lot of volume without starting to distort, but they'll take enough volume and EQ, in the right mix of course, to provide an acceptable listening experience.
Cons: The only con that I see is the power cord could be 6' instead of 5' but hey, that's a personal preference.
Overall Review: I bought these to test sound card/driver installations on repairs and builds, but I'll definitely be including these in Budget Builds, and recommending them to my customers who are interested in basic sound. As always, Newegg is tops for quality and speed of shipping
Shame on you, Netgear

Pros: For the product: None For Newegg's RMA: 10 eggs. I liked Newegg before, but my respect for this organization just became etched in stone. For them to do such a fast turnaround, (7 days total from the day I mailed it out till the day it returned to my doorstep), on a product which only cost $10.00 to begin, and to not charge anything to ship the replacement, is absolutely amazing. My hat's off to all the folks at Newegg. You have an organization and a level of customer support that is second to none.
Cons: Received first product, bad, and RMA'd. Received second product which is also faulty. Basically, I just paid out $15.00 for a USB extension cable, because I have no intention of fooling around with this any longer. As I noted above, I don't blame Newegg. This is Netgear's screwup and falls squarely on their shoulders. After searching various forums, I've come to the conclusion that this particular adapter is worthless, new, so that means that a refurbished adapter is doubly worthless. Had I known that to start, I'd have gone with the adapter I plan on getting now. It's an off-brand but it's new and has decent reviews so I figure it will meet my needs quite well. Sad too, because I'm sending this review on a comp that utilizes a Netger WG311v2 adapter that has been through the wringer and which still works like a champ. Granted, I knew the risks going in, but there is no excuse for two products having nearly the exact same problem, refurbished or not.
Overall Review: I was attracted to this product for two reasons. 1) It was only $9.99 2) It is a Netgear product and I've become used to quality from them. No quality to be found with this product, so I wouldn't even advise buying this new, let alone refurbished. Stay away from this. It just isn't worth it, at ANY price.
ZOTAC GAMING GeForce GTX 1650 OC 4GB GDDR6 128-bit Gaming Graphics Card

Pros: Standard size card so it will fit in nearly any case. Powered exclusively from the slot so no need for external power. And the most obvious Pro is the price point.
Cons: The only con I have is the fact that, like most advanced graphics cards, this card takes up 2 slots. For someone utilizing a more recent, (last 3 to 5 years), Main Board, that's no big deal because the recent boards make allowance for that by not placing a slot directly adjacent to the main PCie video slot. For folks like me, (with an older MB), it means that I lost the use of a PCie x1 slot. Not a deal breaker, I planned for it and everything worked out quite well, but definitely an annoyance.
Overall Review: I bought this card because I bought a game that my old Graphics card simply could not handle. I'm not a Gamer so please, don't take my assertions at face value nor as Gospel. That said, I installed this card, downloaded and installed the latest drivers, loaded my game and was happily shooting everything in sight in mere moments. If you're operating on a budget, and don't necessarily need the extreme performance of the more expensive cards, It is my opinion that this card will fit the bill quite nicely. It's too soon to say how long this card will last but, so far, I am pleased with the performance.
SAMSUNG 860 EVO Series mSATA 500GB SATA III 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) AA083935

Pros: This is a great way to extend the life of an older laptop. While the price may seem a bit much compared to 2.5" SSDs, it is well worth the price IMHO.
Cons: So far, there are no cons that I can see.
Overall Review: I installed this SSD in a Dell Precision M4600 along with a 1TB 2.5" Evo 860. The combination has boosted this workstation's performance tremendously. The install was simple, (you'll need screws; the chip doesn't come with them), and the cloning process was flawless. I didn't bother with the cloning software provided by Samsung. Instead, I used Macrium Reflect and had zero problems. The only thing I can see as a problem, (and it really isn't because I did my homework here), is that the mSATA interface only operates at 3Gb/s whereas the 2.5 SSD is running at the full 6Gb/s. With Rapid mode enabled on the mSATA, I'm really not seeing much of a difference between the two. A word of caution to any who are thinking of adding one of these to their system: You have to remove the ability to boot from the 2.5 disk in the BIOS, in order for the OS to see both disks. I had a problem with my system not seeing the 1Tb disk when I had both installed but when I went back in to the BIOS and took the 1Tb disk off the Bootable Devices list, the disk showed up with no problems. As always, kudos to Newegg for fast shipping
Crucial MX300 750GB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive

Pros: Price Point, (I got it on sale just before Black Friday), makes this a good buy. Add in Capacity, (250Gb more for the same price) and Crucial's known compatibility with Mac, and this is a great deal.
Cons: The only con that I can see is that this drive is TLC rather than MLC but I don't expect that to be very much of a problem, in all honesty.
Overall Review: I installed this drive in a Late 2011 MacBook Pro and the process was incredibly smooth. The cloning process went a bit more slowly than I expected but I put that down to the speed of the external enclosure I was using. I used El Capitan's Disk Utility to clone the drive over and, after about 2 hours the process was complete. I booted from the SSD in the external enclosure and things were still a bit slow but the drive booted with no problem and showed the correct capacity. Once I installed the drive in the laptop, I knew there would be a difference but I was truly amazed at what I got. This drive is faster than I expected in every way. Booting takes about 10 seconds from start to login, applications open quicker, Web Pages load quicker, even Malware scans and Virus scans are quicker. I do a lot of Video editing; IMovie and Lightworks open(s) almost instantaneously and there is no lag applying edits. Also, I test a LOT of software and so run several Virtual Machines. Boot time on my VM's has fallen to nearly no time. Even the Windows 10 VM only takes about 20 seconds to load and that is even with using 99% of my memory. Using 75% or less of memory, boot time for Windows 10 is about 12 seconds. Because I do an insane amount of multitasking, I am nearly always running at between 90-99 percent of available RAM used. Before I installed this disk, I would regularly get the beachball or the machine would stutter, (and sometimes freeze to the point where I had to hard restart), while trying to swap to disk. No such happenings since I installed this disk. After buying this disk, I maxed out my RAM, (8Gb -> 16Gb), and I rarely see the beachball any more. Obviously, longevity is an issue, (as with any SSD), but this is a good start. If you own an early model MacBook, this is a great way to extend the life, and usefulness, of your computer. I won't try to speak for all, but in my case, Crucial's Price Point + their known compatibility with Mac = one very happy MacBook owner.
SanDisk Mobile Ultra 32GB Micro SDHC Flash Card

Pros: Snappy Response (R/W) and a decent price point. I have the 16Gb model in my phone and I bought this one for my tablet. I'll be getting another as a spare. 32Gb of storage fun AND it's a SanDisk. Great stuff, this.
Cons: None.
Overall Review: As always, Kudos to Newegg for fast, reliable, shipping.