Product Reviews

theboomboom · Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 12:01 pm Post subject: Product Reviews

In this thread, we post about our new hardware. The format I've chosen to use is as follows:

Product Name:
Type of Product:
Price:
Link to where it can be purchased:

Review: *****
I think this product is great cuz...

Feel free to review anything you have, or post inquiries to see if anybody already has something you are planning on getting.

And could an admin plz sticky? Smile

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You do not say that the wheel is fatigued, yet the body is as material as the wheel

GotMilk? · Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:27 pm Post subject:

Done

Wang Chung · Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:23 pm Post subject:

Product Name: Logitech 350 USB headset
Type of Product: Headphones + mic, USB
Price: Now $32 AR
Link to where it can be purchased: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826106937

Review: A downhill slope...

I bought a pair of these nice headphones and two weeks later the volume control to headset wire was so fucking thin and tangly it just snapped in two. I returned it and NewEgg sent another one, which I promptly taped like a motherfucker.

These phones are sexy as shit though. I mean, I want to do them when they're not all covered in giant wads of electrical tape. The volume control switch is big and round with a sexy blue LED to show you whether or not your mic is on, with a little volume control circle button. Very sleek, but so fucking impractical and easy to hit the buttons and mute yourself.

USB sound is nice. The quality on these is good and at first makes you think these are suitable for any audiophile. Yet, latency with USB shit will piss the driver off. Oh well, at least I don't have to use the shitty onboard sound.

Built-in firm drivers = no customization. Nothing to update, nothing to fix though. I don't have a "stereo mixer" - software options are ridiculously limited with these.

It's been a while and the light on the mic switch went out. Great. I've worked hard to try and fix it, but the thing blows, so no dice on that. Now I can't even get the shit back on without a massive glob of glue and tape. Fuck that.

At least it gets the job and is a consistant performer. It's very sad, actually - take the sound processing and the actual headset and you're finee .. aside from the month period it takes to get used to the awkward size of the headphones pinning your ears to your head... but after that it's decent until it shits apart and starts to blow.

Newegg Rating: 3/5
My rating: 1/2
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theboomboom · Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:42 pm Post subject:

Product Name: Zippy EL-715
Type of Product: USB Keyboard
Price: $40
Link to where it can be purchased:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823128018
Review: A Great keyboard, *****
I have had this thing since Christmas and it has been as reliable as the day I got it. The keboard is slim, compact, backlit and it uses the same key design as a laptop, so I find I do my fastest typing on it. Some of the complaints I have heard are the light is too dim, and all I have to say about that is this thing is perfectl lit. Not too bright, not too dim. If you have ever owned a watch with indiglo, this keyboard uses the same technology. Another thing I have heard is the labels on the keys coming off, and I havent noticed that either for the past 4 months. The only complaint I have worthe addressing is that it makes a very high pitched whine, which is easily trumped by a little music. All in all, this is a great keyboard, one of the best I have owned and I highly reccomend it to anyone.
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You do not say that the wheel is fatigued, yet the body is as material as the wheel

Last edited by theboomboom on Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:20 am; edited 1 time in total

RK-Mara · Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:40 am Post subject:

Glowing keyboard? No thanks.
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Bender · Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 3:01 pm Post subject:

how aboot some good headphones that are reasonable priced, my socom ones fucking up
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Like most of life's problems, this one can be solved with bending.

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Koppa · Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:27 am Post subject:

anyone know a good monitor around 100-200 dollars?

ChrisT · Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 5:30 pm Post subject:

Koppa wrote:

anyone know a good monitor around 100-200 dollars?

any viewsonic crt. Don't go with a lcd unless you want to spend more. $300
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CaptJack · Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 8:51 pm Post subject:

Product Name: Acard 2 Target 16X DVD-R & CD-RW Duplicator NEC 3550A Burner
Type of Product: DVD Duplicator Tower
Price: $259.00
Link to where it can be purchased: http://stores.ebay.com/COPYSTARS-com-DVD-CD-Duplicator

Review: This is sick, This is very easy to produce DVD's at a quick pace, like I use for my business. It has an original drive than 2 copy drives(you can have up to as many as 16 copy drives than range to 850 dollars) and It copies the original exact in about 2-3 min. If you are in to DVD production and Editing, this duplicator and others like it are the way to go.
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Phantom_Shadow · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:25 pm Post subject:

Wang Chung wrote:

Product Name: Logitech 350 USB headset
Type of Product: Headphones + mic, USB
Price: Now $32 AR
Link to where it can be purchased: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826106937

Review: A downhill slope...

At least it gets the job and is a consistant performer. It's very sad, actually - take the sound processing and the actual headset and you're finee .. aside from the month period it takes to get used to the awkward size of the headphones pinning your ears to your head... but after that it's decent until it shits apart and starts to blow.

Newegg Rating: 3/5
My rating: 1/2

i just wanna say, my right earpiece broke off after two months of rare usage.
it is now held on by a rubber band.
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Raed · Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:03 pm Post subject:

Product Name: Creative XFi XtremeGamer
Type of Product: Sound Card
Price: $90
Link to where it can be purchased:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102006
Review: Nice sound, good features, drivers work *****

I just built a new rig, everything runs beautifully, blah blah, etc. Except that I found something that sticks out. The onboard sound that my mobo came with sucks... badly. So why not complete this beast with a nice sound card?

After a small chat with theboomboom I decided to go with the Xfi XtremeGamer over the slightly more expensive XtremeMusic version($95 on newegg.com), which actually had a higher sampling rate (192KHz) vs. the Gamer's (92KHz.)

However, theboomboom saved me from something I didn't want to deal with. The XtremeMusic looked all nice and all, but it had no Front panel connectors for the case. Since 90% of gamers like me are lazy bastards, we don't want to reach for the back of our PC every time we want to hook something up. That was a good enough reason for me to get the Gamer edition, because I am probably not going to watch any HD movies on my PC, which is what the higher sampling rate is useful for if I recall.

On to how it actually sounds. I noticed a pretty big improvement from my onboard to the sound card. The drivers that it came with give you a good amount of control on how you want your music to sound. It isn't TOO in depth but it has some nice little features like a crystallizer(supposedly makes shitty music quality sound good) and bass booster. You can also switch between three modes: Gaming, Audio Creation & Entertainment.

If you are going to hook up your new $400 7.1 surround sound kit and 32" plasma, I wouldn't recommend the XtremeGamer. If you are a gamer and want the best sound you can afford, I would go with the XtremeGamer. Overall a great product. 5/5
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theboomboom · Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:28 pm Post subject:

Product Name: Creative XFi Fatal1ty Pro Series
Type of Product: Sound Card
Price: $145.99
Link to where it can be purchased:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102005
Review: Amazing Sound, Handy Driver, Performance Boost, No Front Panel Sad

****

Boom kind of reminded me of this thread and also reminded me that I hadn't reviewed the sound card I got for Christmas yet.

I'm really no audiophile, and my speakers aren't really the best, but there is a very distinct difference in system performance during gaming and overall audio quality with this card. Compared to a $120 pair of speakers running on motherboard audio and my cheap $40 pair, mine sound much better with this card. I never paid that close of attention to frame rates in Battlefield, but there is a visible difference with this card over the turtle beach santa cruz I had been using (this is due to the X-RAM and gaming mode). The recording quality with my Logitech headset is superb when set on either multimedia or audio creation mode, and just ok when on game mode. There are a ton of tweaks you can do with the driver software.

I used to use an older joystick that would plug in fine to my old card, but the connector won't fit onto the back of this card (what appears to be a 15 pin connector is really just a connector for the external I/O box). Also, unlike the cheaper xtreme gamer x-fi (bewmx1's card), this card doesn't have any headers to plug in your front panel audio. If you switch between speakers and headphones and your speakers don't have a headphone jack, you will have to manually swap the cords in the back. This is where it would have really been handy if it had front panel headers, or if you could switch what each jack did on the back of the card and just leave both plugged in.

Overall, I'm kind of bittersweet on this card. The audio quality is superb, and it does help in games that take advantage of the onboard RAM. The thing is, there aren't many games that do this, and I think I may have been better off going with the cheaper card. The strange back connector is also a bummer. The tweaking features, on the other hand, are very cool and do a lot to improve audio quality.
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You do not say that the wheel is fatigued, yet the body is as material as the wheel

Wang Chung · Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:53 pm Post subject:

I have a tough time believing a sound card is ever worth that much money.
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is now -=|CT|=- Frothy Mixture