Internal Desktop Components Reviews

Band : EVGA
Model : 512 P1 N724 LR
Product Features :
- PCI Graphics Card
- 8400 GS with 400MHz clock
- 512MB of DDR2 memory
- 400MHz clock with 800MHz effective memory rate
- Open GL 2 0 and Microsoft Direct X 9 0 Support

EVGA 512 P1 N724 LR GeForce 8400 GS 512MB DDR2 PCI Graphics Card
>> Attention Total War Players
This graphic card is good if you want to play the TW series from Shogun Medieval II However if you are looking to play the newer games such as Empire total war or Napoleon skip this card and go a few steps further

All and all thou for the price you cant beat the deal
>> Video Card
I upgraded to this card from an integrated video controller on the motherboard Installation was easy and works fine
>> Great PCI mother board
I must say the 512 PCI video card works for anybody outthere looking to upgrade a ol pc with PCI slot this is the video card for you the system in wich i used the video card is a SR1211NX compaq presario Graphis are 100 better my litte nephew can play games that requiered more video memory I recommned this video card so far no problems with the video card

Band : Samsung
Model : HM160HC
Product Features :
- 160GB UDMA/100
- 5400RPM
- 12ms average seek time
- 5 6ms average latency
- ATA S M A R T Feature Set

Samsung 160 GB 5400 RPM 2 5 Inch Hard Drive
>> Quite operation and best IDE replacement
I had a Hitachi Travelstar installed on my laptop The other day I dropped it and crashed the hard drive I bought this Samsung HDD not knowing it is PATA was not enough information available from Amazon Once arrived I was skeptical that it would work with IDE port Sure enough it is compatible and works fine It does not only work fine it works better than the older Travelstar HDD It is quieter and seems to be faster I know IDE and ATA drives are being phased out by new SATA drives but for the people like me stuck with older computers this is the best replacement of technology and best value for the money
>> best thing u can do to a laptop on a budget
its best thing u can do to a laptop on a budget dont know why its so cheap and dont care
>> Good replacement
Other drive was getting to be intermittent Needed upgrade in size Seamless installation So far so go as in older laptop

Band : EVGA
Model : 896 P3 1257 AR
Product Features :
- PCI Express 2 0
- 55nm GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked with 626MHz clock
- 896MB 448 bit 1 ns GDDR3 memory
- 1053MHz clock with 2106MHz effective memory rate and 1350MHz shader clock
- Full DirectX 10 and Open GL 2 1 Support

EVGA 896 P3 1257 AR GeForce GTX260 Core 216 Superclocked 896MB DDR3 PCI Express 2 0 Graphics Card Lifetime Warranty
>> Does the job and then some
Was looking for a higher end graphics card for some special software I am running Cost was a factor and this card is a great value does every thing that cards twice as costly do Its fast and the graphics look great Excellent value
>> WTF
I ve Got This Card And Was Working At 1X
Not At 16 X
It Wasn t Motherboard s Fault Because I Tryed This Card On The Other Motherboards Rampage Forumla Rampage Extreme And Gigabyte P35
So I Couldn t Keep This Card I Can t Play Games On Max Settings

I Sold It For 40

It Was Worst Purchase By Me
>> Works well with a 3 year old PC
I bought this card to upgrade my existing PC see specs below That PC is almost 3 years old and with a new card power supply and more memory I hope to get another 3 years out of it before looking for a replacement The cost of the card and power supply and more memory is expected to be about one third of the price of a current day equivalent replacement PC

Installation
Physical installation was pretty straightforward and took 5 10 minutes As other reviewer have noted the card is long indeed a little over 10 inches but it fit in the case with room to spare One thing I noticed was that in my pc the card covered 2 PCI slots one PCI express one non PCI express while using only one the PCI Express Results may vary in your situation
Software installation was a little more cumbersome but it may have been caused that Windows Auto Update tried to install software during the installation of the driver software I ended up crashing the computer and had to install the drivers a total of 3 times Again not sure if this had to do with the drivers themselves

The software is pretty straightforward and it comes with trial version of a handy tool FRAPS This tool allows you to measure framerates among other things It appears that you can record screen shots and movies of your games as well but I have not tried that functionality

Once installed I tested it on 3 games
Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare This game allowed me to run with all possible options maxed out at 1900x1200 while achieving a framerate in the 60 70 range at graphic intensive points An example would be a scene at night in the rain with lots of movement At other time fps was well above 100
Assassins Creed Again I was able to run with all option maxed out at 1900x1200 The framerate hovered in the 35 40 range when churning through graphic intensive scenes higher at other times While not as high as hoped I did not notice too much flickering
Crysis SP Demo I downloaded the demo when it first came out It did run on the NVIDIA 7900 GS but only at Medium settings in a 1200x768 resolution Even then the screen would sometimes flicker and stutter With the new card I could run it at high in 1200 768 while achieving a fps of 30 I did not notice any noticeable flickering

Note I did have to buy a new power supply because the standard PSU that comes with the Dell is rated at 375W which is not enough for this card If you google a bit you can find a calculator that let s you estimate the total power need for your PC It estimated my power need at 390W I decided to go with a 550W PSU It appears to be working well

Overall I think this card has given my computer an extension on life The cost of the card and power supply and more memory is about one third of the price of a current day equivalent replacement

Original setup
Dell XPS 410
E6400 Dual Core
2 GB Memory
NVIDIA 7900 GS
Vista Home Premium SP2

Band : Creative Labs
Model : 70SB117000003
Product Features :
- Stream your iTunes music Windows Media Internet Radio or any audio from your PC to speakers across the room or around your home
- Includes one wireless transmitter and one wireless receiver
- Expand your Sound Blaster Wireless Audio System by adding multiple Creative Wireless Receivers or Sound Blaster Wireless speakers
- Enhance and upmix your compressed iTunes media MP3s and movies to amazing surround sound using X Fi technology
- USB interface gives you maximum compatibility with all desktop or notebook PCs and Macs

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Wireless Audio Transmitter and Receiver Bundle
>> It s not too expensive anymore
Just know that the 100ft range is line of sight considerably shortened by metal objects in between Mac set ups are easier than Windows The best part is that it can be used with streaming internet radio sites not just iTunes

My only complaint is the price You can get it directly from Creative now at for 98 99 with free shipping
>> recent purchase met the need perfectly
I have a Bose home system with speakers throughout the house and wanted to use Pandora for music throughout My need was to find a product to interface with the Bose system easily and play any kind of music easily This product worked great right away and solved the problem for not a lot of money Other products were more expensive doing the exact same thing very pleased with the result
>> Connection drops constantly
Now in theory this is a great device and it s really easy to setup plug in the stick into the USB Port hook to the receiver to your Audio System press the connect button Driver installation from CS is only needed if you want some of the advanced settings or things like listening to incoming sound from a Microphone When it works it is a really great device Sadly for me most of the time it doesn t work the connection drops constantly for a fraction of a second which gives the sound quality of a radio that loses it s tuning all the time The distance between the USB Stick and receiver is about 6 Meters with no walls in between only a wooden desk and human body I do not know if the Wireless LAN is interfering but that works perfectly fine Overall I had to replace it with a cable again

Band : Kingston
Model : KVR333/1GR
Product Features :
- Lifetime Warranty
- 100 Tested for Reliability
- Free Technical Support
- Easy to Follow Installation Instructions
- Designed to Meet or Exceed Industry Standards for Performance and Reliability

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB 333MHz DDR1 Desktop Memory KVR333/1GR
>> RAM for cheap
This product installed quickly and works great Should have a link of what CPU use what type of RAM
>> Worth it
I had the memory for about a month now and it works great No problems just performance I would buy this product again if I needed more memory
>> 5 Stars Amazon
I am very satisfied with this product It was reasonably price and shipped in a timely manner Time is everything

Band : Sabrent
Model : SBT SP6C
Product Features :
- Support Inquiries Support kinamax com

Sabrent SBT SP6C 6 Channel 5 1 Surround Sound 3D PCI Sound Card
>> Cheap and Easy Install
Product installed on XP SP3 easily Put the driver disk in and 5 minutes later everything was working Great product to fix on board sound issues cheaply On an old computer you don t want to spend much money fixing it and this fit the bill
>> Works well with Windows 7
Automatically installed drivers with Windows 7 Ultimate x86 Much louder then my onboard audio The best thing about this card is it wont disable my onboard audio so I always have two options for audio/microphone There is some audio hissing/static due to it being a cheap internal soundcard but you can t really complain at this price

NOTE Throw away the CD that comes with it don t even place it near your computer If your OS doesn t automatically install the driver for you Go to the Sabrent website click on drivers scroll down to soundcards then click the first option choose your OS use 7zip or winrar to extract it double click the setup exe install driver reboot done
>> Runs on Windows Vista with AMD Athlon 5600
When I let Vista run installation the installation of driver software failed with Windows error code 39 So I looked around the files on the mini disk and I saw a setup exe I ran it and it worked Sound is great

Band : EVGA
Model : 01G P3 1180 AR
Product Features :
- GeForce GTX 285 with 648 MHz clock
- PCI Express 2 0
- 1024 MB 512 bit 7ns DDR3 memory
- 2484 MHz memory clock and 1476 MHz shader clock
- Open GL 3 0 Windows XP and Windows Vista support

EVGA 01G P3 1180 AR GeForce GTX285 1024 MB DDR3 PCI Express 2 0 Graphics Card
>> Fantastic card Exceeds expectations
Long story short this card is fantastic I ve had stable performance very high FPS in modern games and the fan is fairly quiet Overall very pleased Using under windows 7 on an i7 system

Just make sure you have room in your case I had to move a hard drive in my mid tower case because this card is so long
>> Problem when using two monitors 1920/1080
This is a good board Good to know the noise is below the average as well

However I had bad luck with this one When I try to switch the clone option on in both Windows XP or Vista the video signal sometimes fails loose sync or even the whole image either in one or both monitors
I m using two Samsung LCD FULLHD 32 and 40

I haven t had this problem with my old Gigabyte 8800GT 512mb and my previous Evga 7800GTX The problem can occurs when switching resolutions too p ex from 1920x1080 to 1600x900 I had this problem with Call of Duty Modern Warfare

I ve even formated my Windows XP and the problem is still there I reinstalled the drivers etc

It s sad once I like to play games either in my living room using my wireless Xbox 360 controller or in the computer s room The workaround I ve found is to alternate the cables using just one monitor at time
>> Modification of many mid tower cases may be necessary
I have a mid tower size Antec P150 case I had no trouble fitting in my previous 8800GTS Guess what The GTX 275/285 s are even longer This may involve you having to do some serious modification of your existing case The GTX 275/285 card may not fit your mid tower case The back of this card may just happen to be able to extend it s rear end into one of the hdd bays with no problem A lot of mid tower owners will find the card won t fit without modifying hacksawing the hard drive bay shelves It CAN be done Buy a small hole saw with a metal cutting blade Cut away as much space as is needed If you have just 2 hdd s in a mid tower case you may need a new case to use with this card

Band : Sapphire
Model : 100296HDMI
Product Features :
- PCI Express x16 bus interface
- 128 bit DDR3 memory interface
- Microsoft DirectX 10 1 support
- OpenGL 2 0 support
- Unified Superscalar Shader Architecture

Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 1 GB DDR3 HDMI / DVI / VGA PCI Express Graphics Card
>> Yes this works with Sims 3
Forget all these silly shooter games does the card work with the latest game in the most popular franchise in history Yes It passes EA s EasyInfo assessment easily for Sims 3

I d been able to play Sims 3 with all the graphics options set to low with my on board graphics but my display adapter crashed if my Sims used the tv computer or dollhouse No problems with this card with the game set to med high graphics options I m still getting over the textures which are so much more defined at the high end

My main concern about buying a new card was compatibility I knew I had a PCIe slot but I wasn t sure if the power supply was adequate I ve got a fairly common computer HP Pavilion desktop model a1720n 2 years old Vista 32 bit Intel Core 2 Duo 1 86 GHz 3 GB RAM and the power supply seems to be adequate if it helps anyone with a similar set up Installation was no trouble at all the a1720n and probably any newer Pavilion will automatically switch from the on board graphics to the new card so no mucking about in the bios was needed

In Vista you may get a pop up telling you that Windows is having issues right about the time the driver software tells you to reboot to complete the installation Ignore the pop up and reboot Windows is having issues because the installation isn t complete

There is a new version of the driver for Vista/Win 7 at ATI s website I installed from the CD and then went to the site via the ATI software s link but you might save yourself a bit of time downloading the Catalyst Control Center suite before you install the card
>> Great performance
First note I m a long time Nvidia user so I was concerned about this card Replaced my 8500GT 512 MB with this one The 4670 was easy to install has less power consumption doesn t overheat and superb performance
I have noticed significant improvement in all my games Were I was playing Fallout 3 at maximum of 1280x1024 on high settings with some lag now I m playing at 1440x900 in ulta high settings and no lag
2 downsides for me was the audio built into the video card since it disable my onboard sound and I have no hookups for this type of audio Disabled it and all was well
Second was I was used to my screen auto adjusting to various resolutions in games This one doesn t do that like my 8500GT did so I found had to set resolution to a specific one to account for my widescreen no big deal just annoying if you re not used to it lol
>> great card FAST SHIPPING
amazon is amazing I ordered at 12pm my order shipped at 2 30pm same day and arrived next day 12pm granted i live about 40 miles from the warehouse in LA still the product arrived in excellent condtion and is a very good value card
my windows experience index for graphics is now 6 7 from 4 2 am running a quad core athlon 630 with 4gb ddr3 ram and asus 785g chipset mobo windows 7 64bit another plus is that with the card my memory index score also improved to 7 3 from 5 9 will be trying it out on crysis later

card is QUIET and cool and short fits in my MICRO ATX case

cons teh fan blocks access to one of my PCI slots i have two slots below the PCI E x16 slot

Band : Antec
Model : TriCool 120mm Blue LED
Product Features :
- Sold Individually

Antec TriCool case fan TRICOOL120MM BLUELED
>> Good
It s just a fan with blue led Works as it should Not too loud Has fan control settings Blue led is bright That s all
>> Blue cool fan
i bought this fan for my ibuypower pc which already had one blue side fan and had room for one more This fan is actually lot more quiter then the fan that came with my pc perfect fit and good quality no problms for last 4 months now
>> Works like a fan should
This fan has a cool blue glow to it and they are adjustable in terms of fan speed low medium high Completely silent on low which is plenty for the purpose that I installed them to keep my hard drive cool Great item at a great price

Band : D Link
Model : DWL P200
Product Features :
- Transmit power and data over 1 cable up to 328 feet 100 meters
- Eliminates the need to place an Ethernet enabled device near a power outlet giving you more freedom in placement
- Easy plug and play installation requiring no tools and no software
- Gives you greater flexibility in your Ethernet enabled device installation
- Adjustable 5V or 12V power output

D Link DWL P200 Power Over Ethernet Adapter
>> works fine but runs HOT and power cable tip is wrong size

This item will provide power ethernet over a single Cat5 cable from a standard
non POE switch to a non POE device

If you have a POE switch and you want to run a single cable to a non POE device
then you would use D Link DWL P50 instead

I bought 2 of these so I can use a UPS battery backup in a back closet to provide
power to a cable modem and Axis internet camera in my living room so in the event
of a power failure the cable modem and internet camera will still operate

There is a switch on the remote unit so you can select either 5V or 12V to power
your device D Link supplies a short 2 foot power cable but the plug on this
cable would not fit either my Motorola cable modem or Axis internet camera

So I had to cut the cable and solder on a different plug and use some heat
shrink tubing to finish the job

D Link should have provided several different sized plug tips such
as this item

Power Line 0900 77A 1300 mA AC Adapter with USB Charging Port

After installation my cable modem and internet camera are both working fine
but the D Link remote unit box gets hot to the touch which is disturbing

My cable modem uses only 9 watts of power which is less than what the D Link
DWL P200 is capable of supplying 12 watts

So overall I m satisfied though it was a hassle having to make two custom
power cables and I m concerned about the lifespan of this unit due to the
high heat


>> Power over Ethernet adapter works great
D Link makes reliable products and this is no exception It sends power over the ethernet cable to a security camera and has never given me any problems
>> What a Mistake Not quality
This was clearly not what we d hoped for and it cost me more to ship it back than it did to receive it The product appeared to be a cheap made in China product and it did not work as we hoped There was very little power to be had We found a better POE product elsewhere but this particular product was not it No thanks I know that associates and buddies seem to be unhappy about our review but sadly this particular product was of poor quality and service Better can be had elsewhere There is good POE hardware to be had but this ain t it

Band : Creative Labs
Model : 70SB088000004
Product Features :
- Hear crackling gunfire and earth shattering explosions EAX 5 0 delivers sound effects that pull you into the game
- Hear 3D positional audio so precise you can locate enemies by sound
- Boost performance in your favorite games with hardware audio acceleration that will blow your motherboard audio away
- PCI Express Sound Blaster X Fi Titanium has fantastic inputs and low latency ASIO drivers for great music recording
- Watch your DVDs in cinematic surround sound with PowerDVD software featuring DTS and Dolby Digital EX decoding

Creative Labs SB0880 PCI Express Sound Blaster X Fi Titanium Sound Card
>> Not what it should have been
Save your money and get the Sound Blaster Audigy series

I thought this would be a decent upgrade from the Creative s external card MP3 but I actually want to go back to the mp3 Their mp3 series was SO impressive that I actually bought 4 of them I wanted a couple spares just in case Sadly they don t make the mp3 anymore

X Fi vs Audigy I had to make a switch between 2 computers for space reasons The other PC had an older Sound Blaster Audigy There was very little difference in sound quality between the 2 cards but I actually think the X Fi doesn t sound as good which is pretty amazing The audigy was a cheaper card about 1/2 the cost and sounded marginally better

As for the software use the out of box installation and DO NOT update The software runs fine off the disc but as soon as you update it then the crashes start The card will work fine but the options interface crashes frequently after the updates and it runs just fine with the default installation from CD

Bottom line does it sound good Yeah but for half the cost you can get the same sound
>> WOW
This is the first soundcard I ever bought and it was replacing the very old Soundblaster Live 24 bit that came with my Dell Dimension 9100 I bought this mainly to make my recordings sound better but also just for pure music enjoyment

After the easy installation I launched Windows Media Player and put on a song and started tweaking the controls in the very in depth Creative Control Panel After adjusting the EQ and a few other settings I was blown away by how great it sounded I had no idea a soundcard could make such a difference especially on the little crappy computer speakers I have I have yet to really do any recording using the Samson Zoom R16 but for pure music and sound output this thing is great

Highly recommended
>> Beats any onboard solution hands down
I m running this card in 64 bit Windows 7 Professional without any problems For those who are having issues with the drivers I suggest disabling onboard audio since it can cause problems Since the only drivers included in the box are for Windows XP and Vista you ll have to download the Windows 7 drivers from Creative s web site

That said Creative X Fi Titanium card is an excellent card that ll leave you in audio nirvana

Band : Antec
Model : SONATA III 500
Product Features :
- Sold Individually

Antec Sonata III 500 Quiet Super Mini Tower ATX Case Black
>> Quiet on low/med setting a bit loud on high No static problem either
This case is nice and sleek had good access to ports and is quiet on the low or medium setting but a bit loud on high It would be nice to adjust the fan speed from the exterior it is on about an 8in cable inside the case and would take some work to get it on the outside I haven t had any the static problems that others reported had it since beginning of Feb 10 The case is a nice black piano finish everywhere except the front which is black plastic The front panel is nice and opens wide I have a 2 yr old and a 9 month old who is starting to walk and it keeps them out of the optical drives/card reader I have installed I didn t have any cuts from the metal from the initial install or when adding all the extra hard drives and re routing cables but there are a few sharp edges so be mindful Also one of the rubber feel fell off when I was sliding it back into my desk but it caught on an edge it went right back on and have had no problems since but it s only glued on not screwed

The internals are nice too The front panel cables are long enough to reach near the back if your motherboard has connections toward the rear The motherboard installed easily and the power supply has plenty of power connectors see Antec s web site for specifics I don t think it will work with dual video cards though I have 2 optical drives card reader and 3 hd going to ad a 4th soon and the power supply still has extras if I need it The hard drives have rubber gromets that isolate them There are a few areas that allow you to tuck away the extra cables to keep the case clean There s not a cable management system but it was easy to zip tie where I wanted to to keep things clean and organized

Air
I initially used only the single 120mm fan on medium and everything kept cool so I put it on low and found that everything was still very cool When moving large files though my hard drives got a little warm so I added a second Antec Tri cool 120mm fan in the front to help It actually mounts in the middle of the case if looking at the side shot photo just to the left of the hard drives This is ok but I had to move a few wires around since this is right where all my SATA and front panel hookups are on my motherboard Not a big deal though and my hard drives are running a little cooler The power supply is also amazingly quiet and along with my hard drives during larger transfers is the only thing that gets even SLIGHTLY warm with my setup

Overall still quiet running the rear fan on med or low and my front middle fan on low The front fan isn t even necessary though just thought I d add one since they re under 15 Can t even tell the cpu fan is running and can barely hear my caviar black hard drive and 2 older western digital ide drives

My setup
This case
AMD Athlon II x2 240 w/stock fan radiator
Gigabyte GA MA785GMT UD2H Micro ATX Motherboard
Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 XMS3 4 GB PC3 12800 Core i5 Memory Kit yes it works on an AMD system too
Windows 7
2 120mm fans 1 included rear 1 added in front mounts behind hard drives
1tb wd caviar black hdd 2 wd ide hdd
>> kill the 2 3 year old reviews
The product is excellent I believe the 2 3 year old reviews should be removed as the company has fixed issues and all the old reviews do is diminish the products worthyness Just sayin If it was my product I would petition removals of any reviews past current manufacture dates
>> nice case loud rear fan flimsy front door assembly
i got this case after hearing how quiet it is although not as quiet as I had hoped it s alright I guess the included rear fan is pretty loud at the highest setting so I had to swap it out with a 120mm fan silverstone fan I already had earthwatt 500 psu is alright and it s been reviewed very positively

now the most annoying thing a screw that holds the front door hinge was already snapped off when I got the unit i had to crazy glue that piece back in there it s holding so far 1week but when I look at the computer now all I think about is when is that piece going to fall off

one word of caution the case has a mount for an optional read not included 120mm fan in the front ish part of the case between the drive cage and the mobo the problem with my setup was that my video card required a PCI E power cable that basically would obscure where the fan would be rotating in other words it s not deep enough they should have put the fan right between the front of the case and the drive cage if you have a fairly recent video card and it requires the power cable to be inserted in the opposite part of the DVI/VGA plug avoid this case

other than that it s an ok case I should ve bought a deeper case

oh Amazon delivered the sucker promptly no complaint with amazon

Band : PNY
Model : MD4096KD2 800
Product Features :
- Memory capacity upgrade provides improved system performance and responsiveness
- Deliver all the productivity your PC has to offer with PNY Memory
- Compatible with PC2 6400 800 MHz PC2 5300 667 MHz and PC2 4200 533 MHz systems
- Helps prepare your PC for running Windows Vista
- Easy installation Free 24 hour Technical Support and Lifetime Warranty

PNY Optima MD4096KD2 800 4GB 2x2GB Dual Channel Kit DDR2 800 MHz CL 5 5 5 15 PC2 6400 Desktop DIMM Memory Module
>> Excellent
I wanted to put more memory on my Dell eMachine I had 2x512mb memory cards installed My computer is kind of old So I only have
2 memory slots as opposed to the newer computers that have 4 slots
So I took out one 512mb card and installed the 1024mb card Now I have more memory instantly I wasn t sure if I had to restart my computer in order for it to take effect but I did anyway I have not had any problems with it I installed it 2 days ago I would order another one for my son s computer because it works well and I got it for at a bargain 20 You can t go wrong with that
>> Only thing quicker was the delivery
I bought this item with overnight shipping because my BestBuy delivery wasn t scheduled to arrive until seven days later And yes I did pay BestBuy for overnight delivery Need less to say I installed the RAM from Amazon and returned BestBuy s RAM for a full refund In the future I will buy my computer items through Amazon
>> Just Memory
What can you say about memory It is exactly as described and works perfectly on my wife s Dell E310 Make sure you are buying the right speed PC 6400 PC 5300 etc If you buy the wrong speed you will blue screen notice other s reviews

Definitely sped up XP from 1/2 a gig of base RAM

Band : Zalman
Model : CNPS9700LED
Product Features :
- 1 Compatible with all single and dual core CPUs for Intel s Socket 775 and AMD s Socket AM2/754/939/940
- 2 100 copper heatsink with aerodynamically optimized tunnel design for maximum cooling efficiency
- 3 Innovative and patented curved heatpipe design for a heat transfer capacity of up to six heatpipes with the use of just three
- 4 0 2mm ultra slim fins for minimized weight and reduced airflow resistance
- 5 Does not generate noise or vibration in Silent Mode

Zalman CNPS9700LED Ultra Quiet Cpu Cooler
>> Great CPU Cooler
Pros Very efficient and quiet cooler for your CPU I have 3 of these in various machines I built and they haven t disappointed It looks pretty nice too especially with the cool blue LED fan light

Cons While this fan will last you a long time the only issue I have is the ability to replace the fan if it goes bad In reality you will probably own this until you computer simply becomes too old and it becomes obsolete Price can also be a con because there are other coolers out there that do the same or better job while being cheaper

Overall not a bad investment for your money Zalman coolers have proven to be robust devices and will satisfy your PC needs
>> Pure copper goodness
It s all copper except the aluminum mount It looks beautiful in my windowed case blue LEDs aglow But that s not why we re here It lowered the temperature of my quad core CPU by 20 degrees Celsius at full load and by 10 degrees at idle That s a chunk I had been running the AMD cooler that came with the CPU It s quiet enough for me but I ve got six other fans running so what s one more Did I mention it s gorgeous Not only is copper pretty it conducts heat better than anything but silver and it s twice as good as aluminum It blows the heat right straight at my big rear exhaust fan Couldn t have designed it better myself

I had no trouble installing it in my full tower on an MSI K9N2 Diamond mobo with an AM2 socket it just clipped in place easy as pie Just bear in mind that it can rotate a smidge so get it perpedicular before you close up Before it arrived I was considering lapping it but when I unboxed it I found the face to be well polished already The face is not nickel coated it s bare copper The thermal compound paints on like nail polish I ve read complaints about the sharp vanes cutting fingers but I was careful and had no trouble People also say their fan was hitting the vanes when they fired it up I can see how that might happen the fan stands on two thin aluminum legs that could easily bend a little in shipping All you d have to do is bend the fan away from the vanes a tiny bit I m glad Zalman saved weight where they could because all that copper is heavy enough

The reason I didn t give it five stars is that it comes with its own little speed control box with an adjustment knob on it There is no way to let your firmware control the fan speed You can run the cable outside your case so you can turn the knob but that s way too Mickey Mouse for me I stuck it to the floor inside my case with the provided double sided tape turned all the way up Don t let that turn you off though Did I mention how good it looks Like the heart of some high tech space scooter engine
>> good machine
good product not extremely quiet but much better than what i had before i used it for my media pc

Band : Nzxt
Model : SENTRY 2 Touch Screen Fan Controller
Product Features :
- Automatic and manual modes of control
- Five fan control through an intuitive interface
- Ultra fast selection and response time
- Display temperatures in both F and C
- With a minimum of at least 10 Watts per channel the Sentry 2 will support almost all high end fans

NZXT SENTRY 2 Accessories 5 25 Inch Touch Screen Fan Controller Black
>> It works
The build quality is pretty cheap but I did not expect much for the price This fan controller does create quite a mess in wires though and it wouldn t be that much of a problem but the tape that it comes with for the temperature sensors don t stick too well so it is quite troublesome if you accidentally move a wire and pull off the tape I also had trouble getting it to fit properly since I have a screwless case and this fan controller is a bit short so it wouldn t lock in place I had to use some velcro tape to hold it in place It is pretty easy to install and straight forward since all the wires are numbered The touch screen is very responsive and require no pressure at all and the microwave like sound doesn t really bother me It s nice to be able to control all the fans you want with this You can hear feel and see that it is working
>> NZXT Sentry 2 Misses the point of a fan controller
I have been in search of a computer fan controller which meets a few basic criteria see below
After reading countless Google searches product reviews good and bad I have come to the conclusion that there just aren t many
fan controllers made that are truly useful

I bought a unit which was made poorly and broke after a couple of months I then found the Lian Li TR 5B controller which meets most of my criteria and is working fine after 2 months of service Its only drawback seems to be that the case style is designed for the Lian cases and would not mount in any other of my cases The NZXT Sentry 2 had mixed reviews but seemed from specs to have the best chance of meeting the criteria This unit in actuality failed to meet most of my needs and I do NOT recommend it So its back to the search

NZXT The Bad
First the reviews were right about the non existent manual
The unit does not sense the fan rpm and only provides open loop no feedback control in 8 fixed steps 0 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 This discreet control would be fine if it went lower their 40 still drove my fans in the loud zone
The 40 and in fact all control steps caused the fans to buzz slightly which only adds to not reduces the noise problem
The automatic mode does NOT work The temperature control in the Auto mode seems to be for an alarm and not a control point for the fan speed I tested this for quite a while setting the temp value up and down and found the unit completely unresponsive to the setting

NZXT The Good
Easy to install and connect in most cases
Manual mode works pretty good still needs to go lower than 40 0 doesn t count
Display light switch works well To turn display back on touch anywhere


Must have specs
1 Reasonable quality of construction to last a long time without crapping out
2 Push button or touch screen operation i have a door which covers the drive bay and very little room for controls which stick out
3 Control of fan speed to a level which reduces its noise by a real amount and still moves air
4 Automatic operation so it can be autonomous in operation this is not the only computer in the room
The control point temperature must be settable cpu fan is different from case or hard drives etc
Control of fan RPM based on temperature set point
5 Fit in a single 5 1/4 drive bay
6 Minimum of 4 control channels each ch includes temp probe fan RPM sence Fan power driver

Nice to have extras
7 Alarm set points
8 Feed through rpm signal so motherboard or raid cage can continue to perform their monitoring/alarm
9 A sheet of paper which details the How To information of the unit everyone thinks their own gizmo s operation is obvious
10 Light switch for the display I do not look at the thing unless I need to know whats going on
11 Fan RPM and temp values displayed
>> Pretty good for the
I haven t had any issues with mine and it works exactly as advertised

Its a decent Fan Bus for the money compared to what else is on the market I like that you can turn the display off and it blends in well with a black case mine being an NZXT Panzerbox it all but disappears when the display is turned off In all reality I didn t need this as I don t mind what fan noise there is from the Panzerbox but I figured they would be a bit noisy after reading several reviews prior to buying mine so I grabbed one just in case

My only knock on this bus is there doesn t seem to be a way to turn off the irritating confirmation beeps that register every input and yes the temp probes aren t all that accurate which is fine since I could care less about that feature actually I find the temp display a bit annoying This thing has been a solid buy for me so far hopefully I wont have any of the mentioned issues others have ran into

Band : Elgato
Model : 10020311
Product Features :
- The most affordable EyeTV tuner ever
- Includes the award winning EyeTV 3 software for Macs
- Watch record edit and enjoy free over the air HDTV
- Compatible with Windows 7
- Compact all in one USB stick design

Elgato EyeTV One Computer TV Tuner 10020311
>> Be Aware of the Free Shipping Option
I am excited to actually receive the product Elgato makes terrific stuff for the Mac My issue is with Amazon s Free Shipping option If you do not mind waiting for 2 3 weeks to get the product then this is a good option for you The Free Shipping option is typically 5 9 days for shipping what they don t tell you is that there is also another 3 5 days that needs to be added on for Amazon to actually fulfill the order Why I don t know but for some reason if you select Free Shipping you are also getting slower service no clue why you are still a customer and still paid the same amount for the product I expected better from Amazon If you want it I guess you need to pay for the shipping or just ride the wave and wait for it to show up sometime
>> Just works
I got this for my Macbook Pro and it just works Plugged it in and installed the EyeTV software and away I went I would highly recommend this to anyone I also was able to get the EyeTV iPhone app to work and stream recorded TV to my iPhone in 3G and wirelessly The iPhone app had some weird glitches when setting up but once I got it working it s great

Would highly recommend this to anyone looking for an easy way to get TV on their Mac One note is to make sure you get a good antenna I haven t yet so only get two networks and a few oddball channels I need to put an antenna up in my attic
>> Amazing HD picture quality
I bought this on a whim along with an Terk HD antenna I wanted to have something to watch some free TV in the bedroom without using a dedicated TV The EyeTV One is very small but has a flexible USB tail unlike some others that are similar to a flash drive I figured having it flexible would help with both cord compatibility and keep it from getting broken off

When the box got to my office I tried to load it on my PC desktop which is a Vista x64 system I loaded the driver from the CD ROM but there is no included software to run it I looked up online and saw that is works with Windows Media or whatever it s called but that didn t work Then from the Elgato website there is a PC program to run it I loaded that but there was no selection available for the EyeTV One only some other models So I gave up I noticed it mentioned it had Windows 7 drivers but maybe that meant only Windows 7 Well I bought this for using on my Macbook Pro so it doesn t really matter to me that I couldn t figure it out on the PC I m sure a true PC geek would know how

On the mac it was pretty much plug in slip in drag click and play Maybe took 3 minutes to get it running You can manually tune or have it scan all your local signals In San Diego near the coast I was able to get the main networks quite a few 2 and 3 channels plus a ton of Spanish language channels all of which I then deleted It works amazingly well for the basic CBS ABC NBC Fox etc The recorder is full quality as far as I can tell I recorded 30 rock as I was watching it then played it back and couldn t see a difference You can schedule recordings but I assume you have to have the computer in full wake mode with the lid up It would be cool if it recorded while closed and the software could wake it up and record Maybe it does An experiment for later

My only gripe and its not from this product is using a not so aesthetically pleasing antenna attached and a very tippy one at that I suppose I could break down and attach a cable from the wall assuming the jack in my room actually works then get more channels etc It would be cool if it worked wirelessly somehow But for 100 that s a tall request

Overall great product if you are using it on a mac I would recommend it without question

Band : Antec
Model : A/V COOLER
Product Features :
- Rated Voltage DC 12V
- Operating Voltage 12V 10
- Air Flow 5 5 to 8 0 CFM
- High Speed 1600 10 RPM
- Low Speed 1200 200RPM

Antec Low Profile AV Component Cooler for Media PC Home Theater Products
>> Stay Cool
I m useing this with an OnkyoTX NR3007 you could cook a meatloaf dinner on it until I got the Antec Things are much cooler now It s Nice and clean looks good Most important It works
>> Very quiet
Has a very nice look to it Wish the fans were bigger This unit is very quiet when running which is very nice Would reccomend to anyone with an expensive home theater receiver
>> Works As Expected Keeps Your Devices Cool
I purchased this from Amazon for 68 in Dec 09 The main reason to purchase was to cool an otherwise poorly ventilated media center cabinet When this was received quickly thanks to Amazon I placed it on top of a home theater amp gets real warm so that the fans blow down into it I then placed a small HTPC on top of it to gain benefit from the heat dissipation plate I have to say that this worked better than expected and cooled down the otherwise HOT amp

Couple of comments

1 I always have to use the high setting as the low does not move enough air Even high could do with a little more power but does strike a good balance between effectiveness and low noise

2 The unit does give off a fan hum but from more than 4ft away you barely notice it even on high

Overall I love this unit wished I purchased it sooner and would highly recommend it for anyone looking to cool their home theater equipment and therefore hopefully prolong their device life

Band : Patriot
Model : PSD1G400
Product Features :
- 184 Pin Dual in line memory module
- Non ECC Unbuffered
- 1 Rank Double sided module
- 100 Tested
- RoHS Compliant

Patriot Signature 1 GB PC 3200 DDR 400MHz Memory Module PSD1G400
>> memory module
My grandson installed 2 of them and it made my computer much faster Thank you
>> YAY
My friend popped in the card and instantly everything ran smoother and faster Great deal and I m very happy so far D
>> Good Deal Great Vendor
The Patriot memory is giving me rock solid performance The vendor s amazingly fast delivery was great
http //www amazon com/gp/product/B000NFZQ56/ref cm cr rev prod title

Larry Scher

Band : Thermaltake
Model : N0012USU
Product Features :
- 3 5 inch USB 2 0 eSATA hard drive enclosure for 3 5 inch SATA hard drives
- eSATA transfer speed of up to 3 Gbps USB 2 0 transfer speed of up to 480 Mbps
- 80x80x15 mm blue LED silent fan for cool operation
- Includes easy stand foot eSATA Cable power adapter eSATA PCI bracket and USB 2 0 cable
- Vista ready

Thermaltake N0012USU Max 4 Active Cooling 3 5 Inch USB 2 0 eSATA Hard Drive Enclosure
>> Died after the first use
I thougth this was a great unit with the fan and sata was just what I wanted I used it to clone one drive in December and then when I went to see what was on another drive recently the fan would start to move weakly and stop and it wouldn t power the drive up
I tried several times plugged/unplugged the drive in same issue put the drive in another unit and it booted right up

Other issue with this is these tiny phillips screws used to hold the cover on geez you almost have to be a jeweler and use tiny tools to even unscrew the case bad design there and the screws were not easy to line back up in the holes and one cross threaded

Returning this unit for warrantee repairs guess I ll see what happens
>> Excellent Quality and Performance and a Deceptively Good Buy
This is an excellent external hard drive enclosure It offers both USB and eSATA interfaces a cooling fan an included eSATA adapter kit for your computer a rugged durable and secure internal hard drive interface and USB and eSATA cables of generous length

The eSATA adapter kit is what makes this unit more of a good buy than may be obvious It includes a SATA cable to run from a spare SATA port on your motherboard to a slot plate which has a SATA to eSATA connector feeding through it and then an eSATA cable to run from that connector on the rear of your computer to this external hard drive enclosure The eSATA adapter looks a lot like Amazon com s 2FT Sata To Esata Transition Cable with Mounting Bracket so that about 11 of your purchase price for this unit is the value of this adapter and accounts for a lot of the price difference between this unit and the good selling Acomdata Model No SMBXXXU2E Blk Acomdata Samba USB 2 0 3 5 inch IDE/SATA Hard Drive Enclosure SMBXXXU2E BLK Black

Both the eSATA and USB interfaces allow the Thermaltake unit to go into and out of Windows sleep mode I have tested it with both XP and Vista The fan a whisper slient one always runs from the AC power supply but the hard drive is shut down when your computer times off the hard drives in accordance with the power selection you made in your Windows Control Panel

At first a good seller like the Acomdata SMBXXXU2E Blk mentioned above seems a better buy at about 2/3 the cost of this unit and offering EIDE or PATA hard drive interface capability in lieu of having an eSATA interface But this is deceptive

First the Acomdata does not run like a true USB drive with an EIDE hard drive installed which removes what would seem to be its great advantage If you start the computer with the drive already running it will not mount the hard drive You have to boot up your computer and then start the Acomdata external drive This is not like an integral external USB drive which starts when the computer starts sleeps stands by when the computer sleeps et cetera If you forget and left it running while you restarted your computer after installing Windows security updates for example you have to shut the computer down turn off the drive reboot the computer and then turn on the Acomdata external drive In other words it is a pain and was a disappointment for those of us who thought we could covert large EIDE hard drives we had from previous computers into convenient backup storage via a makeshift external USB hard drive for our new SATA computers

Second the internal hard drive mounting for the Thermaltake is much more secure and is much less likely to cause any harm to the hard drive during mounting it

Third the Thermaltake has a built in cooling fan which keeps the unit cooler than a natural convection unit like the Acomdata

Fourth and last because it is the most obvious the Acomdata lacks the speed of the eSATA interface whereas the Thermaltake unit not only has an eSATA interface but its purchase price includes the SATA/eSATA adapter and a nice length of external eSATA cable As stated above most of the cost difference between the two units is the cost of this included adapter

We have two of these enclosures with a third on order from Amazon com Amazon com was generous to accept our Acomdata unit back after it failed to work like an external USB drive with an EIDE disk as advertised

>> Great for Video Rendering
I purchased Pinacle Studio for video editing and it recommended having a second drive to do video rendering I knew that a USB drive would be too slow so I decided to go with an external enclosure This one has a cable and face plate for the back of your computer so you can use your internal SATA ports I purchased the Seagate Barracuda 1 5 TB 7200RPM drive Seagate Barracuda 7200 11 1 5 TB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 32MB Cache 3 5 Inch Internal Hard Drive ST31500341AS Bare Drive Amazon Frustration Free Packaging Installing it was a snap except for getting the screws back in the case after the drive was in I plugged it into my computer and it recognized the drive right away After formatting it I changed my software to point to that drive for rendering I also moved my media over to it as well It works great The drive goes into sleep mode when not used but is quickly available once it is accessed I would reccomend this combination to anyone who wants more storage It is three times faster than a USB drive but you can t turn it off or unplug it like a USB drive You need to shut off your computer in order to disconnect it

Band : Western Digital
Model : WD3200AAJB
Product Features :
- Ships in Certified Frustration Free Packaging
- WD Caviar Blue hard drives are available with either SATA or EIDE interface
- WhisperDrive technology minimizes noise to levels near the threshold of human hearing
- IntelliSeek Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption noise and vibration

Western Digital 320 GB Caviar Blue PATA 7200 RPM 8 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD3200AAJB
>> Dreadful Packaging
Drive arrived at the bottom of a large box with a few air packets on top of it Absolutely nothing to stop the drive bouncing around the large box during its journey
>> HDD
good delivery and the Hard Drive is working well
well done

thank you
Chris
>> Excellent replacement drive but difficult setup
Now that I have gotten through the setup process the drive is excellent and somewhat faster than the previous boot drive and does not change system noise level
The setup difficulties were because the usual standalone utilities would not recognize the drive Both WD utilities and Windows 98 boot disk to run FDisk failed until the drive was formatted under W2K I was then doing an image copy of the old C drive boot partition to the drive I learned the hard way that from W2K on Windows stores the drive letter of the page file in the registry and the drive letter in the MBR Master Boot Record of the disk
The only way to make this the C drive to match the registry was to format the partition under W2K using next available letter then do the stand alone image copy from the old C drive then make the new drive the only hard drive in the machine and run standalone FDisk MBR to build a new MBR with the C drive letter
If you are just adding a second drive you will not have these problems Just connect it as the slave and be sure the original drive is set as Master see jumpers on back of drive boot your operating system right click My Computer choose Manage go to Disk Management and partition and format the drive as you want

Band : LaCie
Model : 130823
Product Features :
- Fast interface transfer rates up to 1 5Gbit/s
- Supports RAID 0 and RAID 1 modes
- Compliant with 32 bit PCI slots 32bits/33MHz
- Anti static handle
- Easy to install

LaCie 130823 eSATA PCI Card Design by Sismo
>> Not even recognized
I m using XP SP3 and this isn t seen AT ALL by my computer and I ve tried two different pci slots It comes with a CD that has no drivers Hint to companies make drivers just in case ok that way you won t suffer huge profit losses How obvious was that

Defintely skip this one
>> Worked when other didn t
Other PCI cards from Amazon with various bells and whistles broke various Vista bells and whistles like being able to boot This card is purely a one trick pony and it does require drivers from the included CD for Vista but it is recognized during boot up with or without an external drive plugged in and it just plain works I do wish it had an internal port though
>> Dont even consider if you have windows 7
Bought this not realizing that they would not have a working update for Windows 7
They do but it does not open or is it useable Just data but nothing else
Lesson learned Just be forewarned

Band : Creative Labs
Model : SBXtremeGamer
Product Features :
- Sound card delivers faster audio performance and intense realistic sound in all your games
- Headphone surround sound is better too so good
- Your games will sound richer as you hear all of the crisp clear highs and bone crushing lows
- It s Sound Blaster on steroids

Sound Blaster X Fi XtremeGamer Refurbished
>> Sound is perfect
I like it Sound difference was very good When i purchased this it was two times cheaper than new and it was worth buying but since a new XtremeGamer is 65 i would prefer buying a new one
>> Great Deal
This was half the price of the new card Installation was a pain My PC would not recognize the card After some searches and reading the Creative forums I tried downloading and installing the latest driver which solved the problem Now that it works it is great Noticeably better sound than the onboard audio I had before A great upgrade for the money There is no reason to pay the price of a new not refurbished one

Band : Western Digital
Model : WD5002ABYS
Product Features :
- Reliability features makes them the perfect Solution for servers video surveillance and other demanding write intensive applications
- Dual processors provide twice the processing power
- Thermal extended burn in tested
- Time limited error recovery TLER Prevents drive fallout caused by the extended hard drive error recovery

Western Digital RE3 3 5 inch Enterprise SATA Hard Drive 500 GB 1 2 million hours MTBF 16 MB Cache 7200 RPM
>> Very good drive at a reasonable price
The RE drives from WD like the ES from Seagate are enterprise drives and have a specified MTBF which the consumer drives do not Performance is top line and what else can I say
>> Approved for use in ReadyNAS Duo
Netgear approved drive for the ReadyNAS Duo Bought this as a second drive to my 500GB Duo Duo recognized it immediately after installation no problems for at least two months now

One note it does appear to run 5 10 degrees F warmer than the stock Seagate drive that shipped with the Duo but nothing out of the ordinary
>> Western Digital 500GB RE3 Sata 7500rpm RAID HDD
Have three runnig in an RAID 5 config must have minimum 3 drives for RAID 5 These drives are silent run fairly cool and are quick Not knowledgable enough to discuss the technical aspects but suggest you visit the Western Digital site and explore the Enterprise RE2 and RE3 technical info RE2 and RE3 enterprise drives are recommended for RAID configured server applications The differnce between RE2 and RE3 you ask From the DATAMATION web site The RE Series drives are currently offered in three flavors The previous generation RE2 drives the next generation RE3 drives with a dual processor design that increases the drive s performance 20 beyond that of the 2nd generation drives and the RE2 GP or GreenPower drives which feature power conservation features including Intelliseek calculates the optimum speed of the actuator arm to reduce wasted movement Intellipower balances the actual spin speed of the platter to match needs and consumes less power on start up and Intellipark unloads recording heads during idle Intelliseek is also featured in the RE3 drives

They work great in my small network storage/retrieval application If you re looking for absolute speed check out the Western Dig VelociRaptor 10 000 rpm series while you re at the website

Band : Cooler Master
Model : RC 341C KKN1 GP
Product Features :
- Tool Free mechanical design for quick assembly and maintenance
- Industry standard Kensington slot and mechanical design for security
- Meshed front panel design provides the superior airflow and maximum cooling performance
- Built in washable Modern and stylish design front air filter
- 120mm fan in the rear to give your PC the best ventilation while maintain silent cooling solution

Cooler Master Elite 341 m ATX Mini Tower Case Black RC 341C KKN1 GP
>> Just what I asked for
Unfortunately not quite what I needed The individual who sold me the card I tried to fit in her told me the card was a mini when it was an ATX Still this case is so sleek that I m now looking for a card to put into it
>> Nice case with good ventilation
This is one of the better micro ATX cases out there The reason being is that it has better ventilation then most other cases in its class You can add up to four 120mm fans which is important for cooling in a small confined space of a micro ATX case


>> Very Efficient Case
Having the ability to add 4 120mm fans is great Adding LED fans looks really good I lowered my MB and CPU operating temp by 11 degrees from my last case Turns out my ASUS M3N78 VM MB design was perfect for this particular case All the wiring can bet tied back or held in place with clips allowing for totally free air flow over the entire system As others have mentioned No Sharp Edges I found 1 but it was in a place you shouldn t put your hand anyway The design is very Basic but totally functional If you use your imagination you can add up to 7 hard drives internally in this case but who would need that anyway Maybe with a little coaxing we can get Cooler Master to design a removable HD tray for this case I have a 160GB IDE drive inside and use the USB ports to connect external drives for storage TIP If you have and older style AT PSU laying around you can use that to power your external drives alleviating any drain of power to the PSU in your case

All in all I am Very Pleased with this case It works very well for my current needs I wish Cooler Master would make an affordable Full Tower with the same design

Band : XFX
Model : PVT95GZAFG
Product Features :
- Sold Individually

XFX nVidia GeForce 9500GT 1 GB DDR2 VGA/DVI/HDTV PCI Express Video Card PVT95GZAFG
>> Great Card but they should include the low profile bracket
Love the hardware itself Dislike the fact the price is somewhat misleading insomuch that some manufactures of low profile cards include the always needed low profile bracket I mean why would I bother ordering a low profile card if I didn t have a low profile case I guess you could but I m not sure why you d bother The bracket is made by XFX and called the Low Profile Accessory Kit It just seems like a bit of a mooch on an otherwise terrific card On the bright side the card is not overly expensive so it s bearable If the first one wasn t DOA and the box included a low profile bracket I d have given this a 5 star

Pros
XFX makes great products
Drivers download and install easy as falling off a log
Chipset is amazing considering it ll run on such low power
Runs WOW and other mid range games at highest resolution with all the bells and whistles
Amazon refunds are fast and easy

Cons
First card I got was DOA had to get replacement
Dislike having to buy a low profile bracket for a low profile card
It should come in the box
>> Unit works but fan too noisy
The performance of the unit is good however the cooling fan is much too noisy Other users have had the same problem At an additional cost a non OEM quiet cooling fan replacement has been found and will be given a try The OEM really needs to correct this problem
>> Made Measurable Improvement
My computer is a middle aged Dell Dimension 4700 with an Intel Pentium 4 2 8 GHz I had upgraded RAM to 3 0 GB before which had allowed me to keep up with games until recently when my 256 MB video card could no longer support their needs Adding this card was easy the directions in the box were clear and there were no surprises with Windows XP SP3

On my latest game Left 4 Dead 2 I was able to increase the screen format from 720X480 to 1680X1050 go from no anti aliasing to 2xMSAA improve model detail and shader detail The game improved markedly Only regret was I hadn t done it sooner So far about a month on the card with no issues

Band : Asus
Model : EAH4350SILENT/DI/512MD2LP
Product Features :
- Radeon HD4350
- Engine Clock 600 MHz
- 512MB of DDR2 memory Memory Clock 800 MHz Memory Interface 64bit
- DVI / /2nd VGA /HDMI / /HDTV Support

ASUS Radeon EAH4350 512MB DDR2 PCI Express Silent Graphics Card
>> OK for a standard Graphic card
The overall product satisfaction is 3 5/5 There seem to be a bit of a complication when using the graphic card in a Compaq Presario desktop no sound is produced from any of the output for audio
>> Great HTPC Video Card
Fantastic video card for HTPC and light gaming I wanted the multiple outputs DVI HDMI and this card delivered Make sure you download the latest drivers and S/W before installing After that the card will work great with Windows 7 64 bit Installed and up and running in less than 30 minutes Rebate is a VISA card not a check


>> A lot for your money
All pro for this works no heat problems silent and the hdmi might be lot of fun Great price

Con haven t used hdmi

Band : Corsair
Model : TR3X6G1600C9
Product Features :
- This TR3X6G1600C9 is CORSAIR s XMS 6GB kit solution for the Intel Core i7 processors
- This part delivers outstanding performance in the latest generation of X58 DDR3 based motherboards
- Online 24/7 Customer Support available at www asktheramguy com for your convenience and questions
- 6GB Kit PC3 12800 1600MHz 240 pin DDR3 9 9 9 24 at 1 65V
- Lifetime Warranty

Corsair TR3X6G1600C9 XMS3 6 GB 3 X 2 GB PC3 12800 1600MHz 240 Pin DDR3 Tri Channel Intel Core i7 Memory Kit
>> High speed RAM
Full disclosure I don t actually run this at 1600MHz I overclocked all my computers throughout college but just didn t feel like it when I put this one together So because the RAM defaults to the normal high speed JEDEC standard at 1 5V and you need to manually set it to 1 65V and 1600MHz I didn t Just be aware of this if you want to buy this or last I checked any other memory for its higher than normal clock

Anyway my computer s been running well for about 8 months now and the RAM tested out fine in memtest86
>> Corsair always wins
I have never had a problem with Corsair memory I worked with my AMD Phenom II system very happy with performance
>> It is what it is
I had no problems with this product It s a great deal for the money and has been operating well

Band : EVGA
Model : 01G P1 N948 LR
Product Features :
- PCI bus GeForce 9400 GT with 550 MHz core clock
- 1 GB 128 bit DDR2 memory
- 1000MHz memory clock and 1350MHz shader clock
- Full DirectX 10 Shader Model 4 0 and Open GL 3 0 Support

EVGA 01G P1 N948 LR GeForce 9400 GT 1024 MB DDR2 PCI Graphics Card
>> Good for the price
I purchased this card to expand my setup from 2 to 3 monitors I already own a 9800 GT which I use for rendering most games I play From my experience I would recommend this card if you do not have the money to spend on a higher end card However if you want the most bang for your buck I would recommend going with a 9800 GT or a similar card
>> No HD
I replaced a lesser model graphic card for this and didn t see a noticeable difference I was hoping at least 720 videos would play well if not 1080 but no luck
>> BEST PCI VIDEOCARD FOR OLDER/LIMITED UPGRADES
I bought this card for my cousins Dell Dimension 3000 2 8ghz P4 Prescott 2gb DDR3200 80gb HD 12x DVD RW 305w 17a 12v RAIL Stock P S It works flawlessly and 10x better then the stock Intel 865 Graphx w 8mb I had to upgrade the PowerSupply about a week later after it blewout got a 40 POWER COOLING by OCZ 375w P S wit a 25a 12v Rail and everything been flawless ever since EVGA HAS IT RATED FOR 300W 18A 12v RAIL
My internet scrolling and other word precessing is AWSUM no flickering or pausing internet video n pictures just in general are way more vivid colors n realer lookin
Plays newer games good NOT by any meaans on HIGH/ULTRA settings PERFORAMANCE setting go quickly/easily GOOD/AVERAGE setting look/play good on 1024x768 n sum on 1280x1024
I run WinXP Pro so not sure how well the Vista Aero VISTA SCORES DX10 works on this 9400GT PCI

Overall very satisfied with the buy 3rd EVGA vid card set owned/purchased 2x 7800GTX 256mb SLi 2x 9800GT 512mb SLi

Band : Cisco
Model : WMP300N
Product Features :
- High speed Wireless N draft 802 11n networking for your desktop computer
- MIMO technology uses multiple radios to create a robust signal that travels up to 4 times farther and reduces dead spots
- Up to 12 times faster than Wireless G but can also connect to Wireless G and B networks
- Advanced wireless security Wi Fi Protected Access WPA2 with up to 256 bit encryption

Cisco Linksys Wireless N PCI Adapter WMP300N
>> N/A
Used on a Windows XP box Software and driver weren t any problem at all The card is a little finacky in the PCI slot When I tightened the screw to secure it it didn t want to work When I removed the screw and re seated in the slot it worked fine Connects without any problems and is fast as can be expected
>> Do not use the instilation disk
DO NOT USE THE INSTILATION DISK LET WINDOWS SET IT UP USING ITS OWN SOFT WARE This product didn t want to connect no matter how hard i tried when i used its software Then i found a blog telling me to throw the disk away I deleted the software from my pc and put the card back in and fired it up to see what happens Windows led me through its own software location set up and I ve never had another issue So save yourself the headach of pulling your tower apart 3 or 4 times and just throw the instilation disk in the trash I promise you won t be sorry
>> what a deal
I bought this refurbished for 18 plus shipping from DealBarn through Amazon s site and am totally satisfied I didnt expect it to arrive as soon as it did so you can imagine my surprise when i went to the mailbox On top of that the installation went smoothly The one and only hiccup I had was because of course i installed the card before installing software The directions tell you clearly in a couple places to install software first shut down then install the hardware Worked like a champ

Band : Intel
Model : BX80569Q9650
Product Features :
- Product BX80569Q9650
- Manufacturer Intel Corp
- Manufacturer Item BX80569Q9650
- UPC 735858203425

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3 0 GHz 12M L2 Cache 1333MHz FSB LGA775 Quad Core Processor
>> kjmartin s Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3 0 GHz 12M L2 Cache 1333MHz FSB LGA775 Quad Core Processor Review
First let me say that Amazon com is one of the only online stores that I trust

I bought the item from Amazon com and felt secure that I did the right thing

Unlike some other online stores where you hesitate clicking the buy button and then when and if you do finaly click it you have second thoughts about it and worry

I have shopped from a few online stores over the past few years like ebay direct2drive and some other places

I am always worried about shopping on ebay so I dont do it anymore got ripped off to many times I guess slow learner

But when ever I am thinking about shopping from amazon com I never worry about what is going to happen or if I did the rght thing by clicking that little buy button

When I buy from Amazon com/item is bought and shipped from Amazon com it always goes nice and smoothly

I browes the lists of fine products that I am looking for make sure they say bought and shipped from Amazon com and if I commit to buying the product that I am looking at I feel confident that I had made the right choice

ia it was easy to do a sucure purchess and they will get my product to me promptly and carfully packaged to make sure I get the product in the condition I wanted

the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3 0 GHz 12M L2 Cache 1333MHz FSB LGA775 Quad Core Processor

ok first let me say that I a computer hardware fanatic a computer tech an enthusiast gamer graphics freak and overclocker

I am also a perfectionist and very picky about my computers

That being said I bought this chip to replace a week old intel core 2 duo E8400 3 0 GHz 6M L2 Cache 1333MHz FSB LGA775 that was rockin

I wanted two more processing cores because of the extensive work I do with graphics and web design

I also dabble in video editing and am a musician I edit mix and master my songs and videos on my pc

I like I said before am a gamer and a graphics enthusiast I play games like Mass Effect 2 crysis warhead Tribes Vengeance Joint Operations Shattered Horizons Fallout 3 as well as many other processor speed needing core eating fram rate depleting games that take a lot of processing power

This processor does it all with ease with its 4 processing cores clocked at 3 0 GHz 12M L2 Cache 1333MHz Media enhancements and over all great craftmenship

The price is great you get your moneys worth

Blazing speeds 4 processing cores one of the best LGA775 Intel processors you can get and easy overclocking ablilities

This chip is awesome

NOTE I have seen this chip overclocked to 4 2GHz 4 7GHz on air alone with an good aftermarket air cooler the right mobo psu ram and great ventilation and even higher on liquid

So if your an multi tasker enthusiast gamer perfectionist like I am and are going with LGA775

This is definitely a chip I would consider for your rig

Buy bought and shipped from Amazon com

JM

>> Good upgrade
Upgraded an E8600 to this puppy Wasn t expecting a huge performance increase but boy was I wrong This thing runs circles around it

If you have the cash flow for it go for it
>> Not Cheap but s it s one of the best quad cores for LGA775
Have this chip running on my Asus P5Q Deluxe running at 4 05Ghz at 1 275v It may go higher but i haven t even tried no need to Temperatures run cool under load 60 52 53 53 I still can t figure out why Core 0 is so much higher but it doesn t seem to cause any problems Also have a stuck sensor on Core 3 never goes below 40c

Band : Corsair
Model : CC800DW
Product Features :
- The removable CPU backplate panel is perfect for easy heatsink installation
- Unique cable management routing holes guarantee a clean and clutter free installation
- Tool free optical drive installation makes building a system easy and faster than ever
- Isolated cooling chambers to keep your components cool running with maximum heat dissipation
- Four easily accessed hot swap drive bays make swapping hard drives a breeze

Corsair CC800DW Obsidian 800D Black Aluminum Full Tower ATX Enthusiast Case
>> Outstanding Case
Bought this case last year after debating over similar Antec Thermaltake and a couple others You CANNOT go wrong with this case particularly if you re running dual SLI with top end cards Most if not all towers won t be able to fit them Special Note If you CPU cooler is one of those that take up space I have a V8 then this case is perfect for those larger sized coolers as well
The CPU runs cooler than any I ve ever had and running RAID 1 with all disks avail on the front just rocks My only complaint have a locking mechanism on the chassis for drives and motherboard access since this machine is to easy to get into although I can t many folks lugging this monster around at LAN parties

Bravo to Corsair my vote for the case of the year 2009 and 2010
>> Best case i ve ever used
first you need to realize what you want in a case do you not really care about size do you want to water cool do you want the clear side panel do you want the best cable management on the market do you want 4 sata hot swaps do you want one of the most beautiful pieces of computer hardware you ve seen in awhile if you answered yes to any or some of these questions this is for you

seriously has the best cable management and hides everything well hot swaps are GREAT for air cooling i would recommend the antec 1200 just because this doesnt have the best air flow but has some great features for WCing
>> Corsair Obsidian 800d yet another amazing case
Thanks to amazon as the seller of the case I finished my build by putting all my previous computer parts into this fabulous case I previously switched over from the Silverstone Raven RV 01 They are both similar in height but the stacking effect technology and cooling wasn t enough for me The Obsidian case itself is I think a blend of aluminum and steel With an attractive matte black color It s way lighter than expected from a completely full tower case The wire management is amazing it makes my work look so professional and look like something that would take much more time than it actually does to complete I m using and liking the front quick drive swap bays Lots of internal room for improvement and potential such as more fans or even liquid cooling I think everything in this case was well engineered I honestly believe this case is worth more than it actually is sold at This case is something you should try You can say you are amongst one of the firsts to buy and use Corsair s first generation line of computer cases I have always been a fan of Corsair products I hope my review isn t Corsair bias

Band : Antec
Model : EA650
Product Features :
- 80 PLUS certified
- ATX12V version 2 2 and EPS12V version 2 91 compatible
- Three 12V output circuits
- Industrial grade protection circuitry
- 6x SATA connectors

Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Power Supply
>> Quiet Powerful and Eco Friendly
When purchasing my latest PC from Dell a year ago I opted to upgrade many of the features including the RAM CPU and Graphics card What I failed to take into account and wasn t alerted to by Dell was that the PSU could barely take these upgrades So when researching new additions to my PC I realized I would need a significant upgrade over the 300 Watts I had

After reading multiple reviews I chose the Antec EarthWatts 650w as it clearly met my needs and budget The item was easy generally easy to install although the amount of cables left little spare room inside my case which isn t particularly small It is clearly a quality product as it felt significantly heavier and sturdier than the PSU I replaced

So far the PSU has done everything I have asked of it without any hesitation including graphics video editing and gaming Empire Total War Fallout 3 Game of The Year Edition It is quiet powerful and eco friendly Short of having a huge gaming rig this will be more than enough for the average user just don t buy it if you have a minuscule case
>> First power supply
I built my first computer wasnt sure exactly sure what i would need i looked around for months finally decided on this power supply Works perfectly havent had a problem with it its running 2 hard drives 2 graphics cards and a ssd
>> Easy install Flawless quiet performance Grab it
I purchased this unit to power a HIS HD 4670 iSilence4 Native HDMI 1GB 128bit 850 MHz DDR3 PCIe in an Asus CG5720 Though it was the first of two components I have ever installed into a PC it was a snap Keep you old supply connected but remove it from the housing Then mount the Antec Unplug one connection at a time from your old supply then plug it into the appropriate connection on the Antec It was a breeze This thing runs quietly and hasn t had any glitches since

Band : PNY
Model : MD4096KD2 667
Product Features :
- Memory capacity upgrade provides improved system performance and responsiveness
- Deliver all the productivity your PC has to offer with PNY Memory
- Compatible with PC2 5300 667 MHz PC2 4200 533 MHz and PC2 3200 400 MHz systems
- Helps prepare your PC for running Windows Vista
- Easy installation Free 24 hour Technical Support and Lifetime Warranty

PNY OPTIMA 4GB 2x2GB Dual Channel Kit DDR2 667 MHz PC2 5300 Desktop DIMM Memory Modules MD4096KD2 667
>> Work well with my Pentium 4 machine
I used to have 512MB on my Dell 4700 Pentium 4 machine It was running slow and freezed up a lot I ve done everything to try to quicken the speed e g removing files defragment the hard drive checked off startup files None is more effective than adding these 2GB dual memory modules to PC The price was good and the memory has been helping a lot for the issues it was a rather low investment for a better performance
>> Poor quality WORSE customer service
I purchased 2 kits of this memory for a computer of mine and in less than one year 3 of the 4 chips went bad Tested bad using Dell s Memory checking utility and would not post with them installed I contacted PNY and they have refused to honor their warranty and in fact were rather rude and cavalier on the phone I would STRONGLY recommend avoiding PNY products in the future Not only are they of poor quality but customer service appears to be even worse
>> Works Great With Dell 9100
I purchased this to increase the memory in my Dell 9100 circa 2005 from 1GB to 3GB It was a simple procedure to install the memory into two open DIMM slots on the motherboard The PC still has the original 1GB of memory installed by Dell which occupies two of the four DIMMS on the motherboard After installation I rebooted the PC and the system automatically recognized the new memory The PC which was working fine before the memory upgrade continues to work great with the PNY memory I can t say that the memory upgrade has a made a major difference in the speed of the PC though there are a number of operations that I can tell run faster For the relatively small cost of the upgrade I am glad that I added the additional memory