Desktop Reviews

Centon does not offer warranties on 3rd party resellers

I purchased this module at Circuit City when I purchased an E-machines T1220 1.2 GHz Celeron system. This allowed me to bump the memory up to 256 Mb. Installatiion of these memory modules is a snap and the Centon memory while PC133 is also compatible with PC100 and PC66 systems. I've just recently removed the memory (replaced with PNY 256 MB module) and installed it in a Dell 550 MHz PIII system without any problems. It was in the E-machines system for 3 months running without a problem. Other modules from other brands work as well and can be purchased just as cheaply without fiddling with a rebate. My rebate took 7 weeks to receive. Overall decent product.

I installed this module into my Pentium II PC (350 Mhz and 64M RAM) and it improved its performance significantly: the internet and other programs (such as Word, Excel) now run much faster. The module is very easy to install (it took me no more than 5 minutes) and compatible with many systems (it works with any Pentium II, III system up to 233 Mhz and faster). I strongly recommend this product.

I keep this at my desk and it's a great tool for anyone needing a quick calculator for the small financial tasks. I use mine all of the time, especially at the computer!

This calculator is very good. It is very durable (i have dropped it and kicked it still works great. It uses solar power but has a battery for backup inside which i have never has to replace. The button are nice and big along with the screen. Its easy to read and the screen has a small tilt which is great when using on a desk. I love this little calculator!

I have had this calculator since 1991. I use it alot and I have had it in my car since the day I bought it. I purchased several more to keep in my office and around the house. I especially like the big numbers for easy reading and the the big keys spaced far apart so you don't have many missed entries. You can buy alot of cheap calculators but none so easy to use and so long lasting.

For an AMD system this one is pretty high end - except for the graphics. Based on the Nvidia Nforce chipset, this system is aimed at entry level users. An otherwise nice machine is hobbled by week graphics. If you even intend to play games, stay away from this machine. Not only is it based on a graphics chipset that is about to be discontinued (can only be found on very low end graphics cards today), but it uses system memory, which is slower than graphics cards with their own integrated memory. So it is slower than your standard GeForce 2! If you are an entry level buyer there are cheaper systems, if you are a power user this isn't for you. Therefore it is hard to reccomend this system to anyone.

This is great computer DVD-R you can store up to 4.7 GB on the disc.
This PC is fully loaded, if you want everything this is it.
Almost perfect.
Runs 24/7 non stop for 3 weeks , and no problems.
Highly addicted PC

This PC has several things going for it and is an excellent deal.

It has a built in DVD-RW (a Pioneer A04--good choice). You'll be hard-pressed to find a machine with similar specs including a DVD-RW at this price (as of August 2002). It also has a powerful processor for encoding video quickly. It has conveniently placed IEEE1394 and USB1.1 ports up front so you can hook up your camcorder so easily.

I like the mid-size box, and find the silver/black look appealing. I really like the clean front for the optical drives and connectors (no goofy doors like HP/Sony/etc.) It even comes with a reinstall disk (unlike HP labelled products). Even the keyboard is respectable.

The graphic chip set with shared memory helps keep the price reasonable and if you really need high-end game graphics, you can add a graphics board easily enough. For video editing and everything I ever do, the graphics are fully adequate.

Drawbacks: There is only a single open mounting slot for an additional drive inside. I have placed an additional drive just laying inside. Also, the machine includes some persistant Compaq shopping software that takes a couple steps to disable.

Also of note. The PC comes with no speakers. This is not convenient but at least lets you get just the speakers you want since most included speakers are usually disappointing anyway.

Overall, this is a lovely machine for video work and general use. I'm very pleased with mine after a month churning out videos and homemade DVDs.

Although your mileage may vary, the Hawking directional antenna did not work very well for my situation.

I needed a way to extend the range of my wireless network inside my house. I wanted to get reception one floor below and many rooms over from the location of my wireless access point. After connecting the Hawking corner antenna to my D-Link DI-614+ access point, I hardly gained any range - although throughput may have increased a little.

I would highly recommend a repeater instead, such as the D-Link DWL-800AP+. It's a little more expensive (~$68) but you get so much more bang for your buck. A repeater is a smart little box full of electronics vs. the little bit of metal and plastic you get with the antenna. I am happily using the network downstairs in my home at high speeds with the D-Link repeater and no Hawking directional antenna. (My laptop is a 17" Apple PowerBook with built-in WiFi and it works great with D-Link)

received this antenna from amazon.com, install on same location where I used 6dbi antenna
the signal has 1 bar increase on windows
then, I check the prism settings for MN710
the percentage has 10-16 point increase over hawking 6dbi omni antenna
and now, the signal is good enough
since the antenna is located on the edge of the house, that the signal still can sweep across the whole house
this is a good buy

I have no idea what the person writing the review above was talking about. I had exactly the opposite experience with both products. I put the HAI15SC on a D-Link DI-624 802.11 G/B wireless router and saw a huge improvement !! I'm using three Apple Powerbooks with airport cards - the D-link is a great wireless router but the signal was pretty weak in our house (lot of walls). Put the HAI15SC in and the signal strength increased significantly in the entire house. Rooms that had not signal were now able to get small signal. Highly recommended ! Friends who bought this also experienced a benefit. On the other hand I did buy the D Link DWL G800AP repeater - went through 2 of them in fact - and neither of them worked. I returned them both after weeks of trying to get them to work and some 16 calls to D Link tech support. D Link tech support finally admitted that they were not sure why they did not work - it was a new product and maybe had problems. Take a pass on the D Link repeater and try the antenna - its a lot cheaper. The D Link repeaters do NOT work - they drop signal. Trust me - I tried have set up several networks. Been through three wireless routers, three antennas (I'm big on buying, trying, returning if it does not perform.) The HAI15SC works very well.

This is a great computer. I got mine for christmas, and I am very happy with it. The hard drive is a great size, processor is pretty good, and the memory is great (512) I have only 3 complaints. The first is the partition. The factory settings give the C: drive only 15 gigs, and the rest is given to the partition. This isn't a problem yet, but the usable size of C: is about 11 gigs. A few newer games will fill this shortly. The only way to change this setup is to reformat the hard drive. The second is the video card, which although solid, isn't that great. The third is Corel Wordperfect. I am simply not a fan of this software, but some may not mind. Overal this system delivers great bang for the buck

I was looking to upgrade my PC to a new one that featured cutting edge technology, at a reasonable price. I would say this Sony definitely fits the bill. The 2.0 Ghz Pentium 4 performs considerably fast, you have 512 DDR RAM at your disposal, and the 60GB hard drive is more than enough space to last me a while. The entire system is solid, I just wish it included USB 2.0 slots, but that probably won't be a problem for most users. Also, the graphics card is nothing spectacular, but only hardcore gamers wil probably notice/care. Sony makes a good product, all in all it is a good value and I highly recommend it.

Its an excellent value for money. Excellent performance, good memory both storage and runtime. Its has got all one needs for personal use . I think its a good buy

Not a bad system though I reccomend getting a bigger HDD drive. I've had Gateway's in the past and had no trouble with the tech support, but then I haven't had any serious problems with any of my Gateway systems.

Gateway award winning desktops are always a good choice for customers. I wasn't disapointed a bit with the feature set of this machine. 256MB of memory and a 15 inch LCD were the primary feature sets that seperated this product from the other machines.

it is a very good idea to use disc instead of the expensive compactflash card. It may be a great product 2 years ago. but now: 1. 40M is too small for new compactflash card 2. no USB support, that is, slow slow downloading. 3. its price is too high.

So you've met up with your coworker(s) at the meeting location. You're all carrying your Win 98 or Win 2K portables and each of you has a PowerPoint presentation. You want to get them onto on system for the presentation session but they're all larger than 10 megabytes. No one is a PC rocket scientist. What do you do? Sound familiar? This Iomega drive will rescue you elegantly. If I used it for no other purpose it is worth it for transferring large files between systems while on the road. It also provides for backup copies of that trip's critical files. Need it once and not have it and you'll give yourself a mighty dope slap once you see how easy it is to solve these problems.

The mouse is AWSOME. The scroll button is really smoth and the optical sensour is soooo much better than a ball. I really like the layout of the keyboard too. The quick launch buttons are all very usefull. The hardware was very easy to configure. Just make sure you read the instalation booklet before you start attaching it to your machine. My only Gripe is I wish the range was a little better. I suppose in time there will be improvments in that department. For now its a great keyboard and I can easily sit with it on my lap a few feet away from my computer hutch. It is also very stylish looking and comfortable to work with.

This works really well. The keyboard and mouse are quite ergonomic. Since I'm anti-Microsoft, it's hard for me to admit that these gizmos actually work as advertised. The keyboard, especially, is perfect for a touch typist. The six foot range is a little overstated, but that's forgiveable. I can't exactly read text on my 19" monitor from six feet away, anyway. I found that the recommendation in the user manual to keep the receiver away from the monitor is a little over cautious. In fact, in my configuration, the receiver works best placed next to my monitor. Likewise, the user manual also recommends that the PS/2 connection should be used instead of the USB connecter if possible. I have no problems with the receiver being connected to a USB 2.0 port. I'm very happy with these input devices and I'd give it five stars if the user manual wasn't so misleading.

...The computer is fast enough for most things, but I added 256K more RAM and the performance has improved tremendously, so much so that I am planning to add another 512K for a total of 1G.

I do not like the fact that the second drive is only a CD-ROM. I am thinking of taking it out and putting in a 40X CD-R drive, since the write speeds on the DVD-R/CD-R r hopelessly slow, being, 1X and 8X respectively. This is most inexcusable !!

But aside from these issues, the model is very well built and designed with quality written all over it. And the price is very hard to beat.

I bought this pc yesterday from Circuit City and am not disapointed. I was a little disapointed with Circuit City's customer service, I had to go to three stores to get all the items I purchased, but the pc is awesome. It was pretty much plug-n-play right out of the box. The click to DVD software is mostly automatic with very little effort to hook up my video camera to the PC (the cables do not come with the PC). You won't be let down by its performance.

I bought this TV based almost entirely on the quality of the picture; it blew everything else away. I'm still very happy with this.
However, the software is less impressive.
The picture quality is undoubtedly a product of algorithms ensuring good contrast and range, and the picture can be further tweaked to viewer preferences. So far, so good.
It would seem to me that it would be fairly easy to write code that would determine the aspect ration of the picture being fed into the TV and adjust the picture accordingly. This could be overidden by the viewer. Similarly, it should be possible to access the inputs and determine which one had a signal. Instead, one has to mess around with the picture size and inputs which involves finding the remote control....
I don't know whether this is a problem with all modern TVs or not, or perhaps most users are not so fussy about bits of the picture disappearing off the edges. With this model, this aspect of its design could definitely be improved.
While I don't use the internal speakers, I have tried them out; the quality of sound is really very good for a TV.

I bought this TV a few weeks ago and so far I am happy with it. I haven't had a chance to hook up Satelite or Cable to it yet, but I will be doing that in the near future.

I bought this TV along with a Panasonic home theather system and it provides the best home theather experience I can imagine for my bedroom. DVDs in progressive scan using component cables (I use monster video 2's) look absolutley stunning - just like in the movies if not better - but only from far away. You have to be at least 80 inches (about 6 and 1/2 feet) away from it. The closer you get to it, the more the pixels become apparent.

This TV also has a very slight ghosting problem. Although you can't see it from a far away distance at all (80 inches or so as I've mentioned earlier) it becomes apparent when you're close. All LCD TVs have issues similar to this from what I have seen, so I would recommend an LCD TV only to those who will be watching it from a good distance. The rule of thumb is to watch from a distance of 3 times the size of the diagonal, so for this 26" LCD TV you would wanna be at least 78 inches away. This happens to sound correct given that in my personal experience this was really the best distance to look at it from.

For those looking for a home theather experience, don't let the relativley small size (26") fool you. Since the TV is widescreen watching enchanced for 16:9 DVDs elminates the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. The size of the image itself on such movies is roughly equivalent to a 32" 4:3 Aspect "Square" TV, since on such a TV you have the black bars which take away from the size of the image.

This TV does a GREAT job of making you think you're at the movies, especially with the back lighting and picture settings on TV set to "Movie". If you get the settings right, it looks as if you're looking at a projector in the movies. Having a home theather system with surround sound and a subwoofer (5.1) also enchances the experience a lot. I've watched Signs, Snatch, and Rocky IV on it, and I was absolutley delighted with the quality of the experience.

I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a home theather TV to watch DVDs or HDTV Movies on. But remember to reserve some distance between the TV and where you will sit or the quality of the picture and thus home theather experience will suffer. 80" is my personal minimum.