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Derek A.

Derek A.

Joined on 03/12/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 19
Most Favorable Review

Second time was the charm

Rosewill BRONZE Series, RBR1000-MS, 1000W Semi-Modular Power Supply, 80 PLUS BRONZE, Blue LED Dual-Ball-Bearing Fan, ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V, SLI & CrossFire Ready, Black
Rosewill BRONZE Series, RBR1000-MS, 1000W Semi-Modular Power Supply, 80 PLUS BRONZE, Blue LED Dual-Ball-Bearing Fan, ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V, SLI & CrossFire Ready, Black

Pros: Modular design allows for a nice clean case. However, two PCIe power cables and one SATA chain cable are fixed (ie not modular). So for a simple system like mine with one hard drive and one optical drive, and one graphics card, I dont actually need any of the modular cables, but allows for expansion later. Comes with a nice carrying case to keep extra cables together. Comes with a few zip-style cable ties too. Overall great value for the money.

Cons: First one was a bit flaky and didn't want to start the system from power off when warm, RMA'd through Newegg and new one works great. I would still recommend this PSU. Does not have a fan RPM sensor cable to hook to the motherboard. CPU and ATX power cables are a bit of a stretch in my case (Cooler Master Cosmos 1000), but in my case the PSU is on the bottom and the connectors are on top of the motherboard, so I can't complain too much, but bottom mounted PSU cases are becoming more popular.

Overall Review: Why does this thing have a CPU 8-pin power as well as a CPU 4+4 pin? The extra 4+4 pin is fixed so its just coiled up in the case in my way. Also note that the fan's LED stays on all the time (at least in my system) and its a bit bright so you may want to not put it in your bedroom.

Most Critical Review

Works, but tests poorly.

Seagate BarraCuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Seagate BarraCuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Drive is inexpensive, standard drive. Gets the job done and works at the high level.

Cons: Low level testing using SpinRite reveals a lot of seek and ECC errors. Slows down the drive and makes me afraid to use it in critical applications.

Overall Review: I got two of these in a row that tested poorly under SpinRite level 4 test. Lots of ECC events and seek errors. The test also takes several days. A new 2TB drive I have tests with almost zero errors in 24 hours.

12/17/2010

Works for a week, then dies. Twice.

ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Works fine for a while.

Cons: Dead after about a week

Overall Review: This board appears to be rather hit or miss. I have already had two fail in a week's worth of use within the last month. Already replaced other potential failure points like power supply, etc. I will likely RMA one more time and if the third one fails as well I am going to something else. Apparently my glowing review of this thing was a bit premature. I will keep my fingers crossed and hope the third time is the charm

Great value

Acer 21.5" LCD Monitor 5 ms 1920 x 1080 D-Sub, DVI, HDMI X213Hbid
Acer 21.5" LCD Monitor 5 ms 1920 x 1080 D-Sub, DVI, HDMI X213Hbid

Pros: Beautiful monitor, full 1080p, great price.

Cons: The power button is in an awkward position, not a deal breaker though. You have to push kind of up and toward the back of the monitor, but not directly from the front. Anyway, you'll understand when you get it.

Overall Review: Not a single dead pixel. Go Newegg!

They work

Patriot Viper 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model PVT36G1333LLK
Patriot Viper 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model PVT36G1333LLK

Pros: Any decent motherboard can recognize the auto-config data on these things.

Cons: heat spreader is a bit cheesy.

Overall Review: I put these in an ASRock X58 Extreme mobo and it recognized the timing settings needed automatically. If you have anything other than a Core i7 processor, you probably shouldn't bother with DDR3. Even the Core 2 still relies on the old Frontside Bus, which cannot take advantage of the bandwidth of a lot of DDR2, let alone DDR3. So for Core i7, go for these, Core 2, stick to DDR2 and save some money.

Does what is intended

ZALMAN ZM-CS4A Socket 1366 Clip Support Kit for CNPS9500/9700
ZALMAN ZM-CS4A Socket 1366 Clip Support Kit for CNPS9500/9700

Pros: Attaches a Zalman CNPS9500 heatsink as intended.

Cons: tiny plastic washers for the screws are too easy to lose. Does not have a backing plate type clip like the one that comes with the heatsink/fan

Overall Review: Excellent job to Zalman for being able to adapt their older products to still be usable and not leave users in the lurch waiting for the "new" Core i7 ready products