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Phillip B.

Phillip B.

Joined on 07/13/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 11
Most Favorable Review

Decent

HEC 7106BB Black 1.0mm Thickness ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
HEC 7106BB Black 1.0mm Thickness ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Solid case for the price. Plenty of room/bays. Good Construction.

Cons: No front USB, Fans are not included. The provided fan cutouts on the rear are for dual 60mm fans, I would have preferred 80mm. The hard drive cage is hard to slide into place when the motherboard is in place as it slides into the components of the motherboard.

Overall Review: This was purchased as a temporary HTPC case until I could find or build a more suitable/attractive case.

Most Critical Review

Great Audio out - Poor Mic

Belkin Bluetooth Car Hands-Free Kit, Belkin AirCast Auto
Belkin Bluetooth Car Hands-Free Kit, Belkin AirCast Auto

Pros: 1. Promising solution for those without OEM built in Bluetooth 2. Great audio clarity for music playback (as good as bluetooth can be) 3. Great audio clarity of other caller

Cons: 1. Poor Microphone performance (everyone complains that they can't hear me. 2. Doesn't auto-pair (you have to initiate pairing each time you return to the car by pressing the button)

Overall Review: Other reviews of this device claim that they get great microphone performance, others seem to have the same experience as I do. I've experimented with different placement of the button (microphone is integrated into the button) and my wife still complains that she can't understand anything that I'm saying. If you're mainly going to use this for music playback, and the occasional phone call, then this should work fine. If your primary concern is making phone calls, then beware.

Gets the job done

Belkin Bluetooth Car Hands-Free Kit, Belkin AirCast Auto
Belkin Bluetooth Car Hands-Free Kit, Belkin AirCast Auto

Pros: Pairs quickly & answers - before your call goes to voicemail great sound quality for music playback and caller's voice doesn't look ugly

Cons: Callers complain that they can't hear me that well. The microphone is on my dash directly in front of me, and should work. If I hold the "puck" directly in front of my face, it works better. But this is impractical. The single button interface is horrible. One tap to answer/hangup/pause/unpause, 2 taps to skip, 2 second hold for voice activation, and 3 seconds or so for shutoff. Individual buttons would be much more useful. Secondly, it seems that all button presses are not compatible with my AT&T Galaxy SIII. Specifically, next track.

10/30/2012

6 months and 595 bad sectors later

Western Digital AV-GP WD15EVDS 1.5TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal AV Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital AV-GP WD15EVDS 1.5TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal AV Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Great size : price ratio. Developed specifically for HTPC storage. Great speed performance.

Cons: Failed after 6 months. The HTPC started becoming unresponsive during recording and playback, checked the logs and low and behold the drive is riddled with bad sectors.

Overall Review: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, 6.3Gb root partition, 2Gb swap & 1.4 Tb xfs media partition. Now with 595 bad sectors.

Inexpensive way to get up and running

Beatles: Rock band Special Value Bundle Playstation3 Game
Beatles: Rock band Special Value Bundle Playstation3 Game

Pros: If you've never invested in the rock band game before and/or were holding out for the beatles version of rockband, this is an inexpensive way to get up and running, as the Beatles special edition pack is more expensive.

Cons: You get the wired drums, wired mic and original wireless stratocaster guitar from the rock band 1 bundle, instead of the updated instruments from the rockband 2 bundle or the stylized instruments from the Beatles bundle.

Overall Review: For me, the drums are fine, I don't mind the wire and I won't have to deal with another set of batteries. The guitar is a bit disappointing as the fret keys are quite loud as compared to the remodeled rock band 2 guitar. As well the tilt sensor in this guitar has a tendency to fail over time (mine works out of the box). And the wired mic is also fine.

Best CPU Cooler ever

ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler
ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

Pros: This is by far, the best CPU cooler that I have ever used. It's very quiet, and is extremely efficient.

Cons: If you're tight on space you may run into problems.

Overall Review: I would highly recommend this cpu cooler