Review: AOC E2243FW
Back in the summer of 2007, flat-panel screens were fairly expensive. As someone who worked full-time and made some good cash before starting my final year of high school, I decided to upgrade to a flat screen myself. Unfortunately, when it comes to computers, I have this small obsession over aesthetics. I’m not really fond of black colored electronics because they’re already everywhere and it’s boring. I like white because it looks more futuristic and cleaner. Most importantly, it was different. As a result of wanting everything to be white (which I eventually reached), I purchased a $430 HDTV that supported PC input at an unethical resolution of 1360 x 768. I could have purchased an actual monitor that boasted twice the resolution for half of the price, but instead I bought this one because the cabinet color was white. Since then, not much has changed. I’m still obsessed over white and trying to find a good white monitor is like trying to find something that only exists in storybooks. Just within the past few weeks, I discovered the AOC E2243FW on Newegg. A super-slim black and white cabinet color monitor that boasted a full 1920 x 1080 resolution for only about $155. It was the lowest price I had seen for a (partly) white monitor and the customer reviews about the monitor were all positive. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally upgrade my screen but I decided to wait just a bit longer… long enough that I caught TigerDirect selling it for only $120 a pop. Yes, that’s right. $120. I decided to indulge and purchase two of them for only $240. It was a great decision at the moment because the product was sold out the next day. I spent almost half the amount of my HDTV for twice the screen, resolution, and desktop space. I’ve had some time to thoroughly use my newly purchased monitors. Was this really a good investment, or did I just throw money at a cabinet color again?
Workstation flow
Can you believe the weather here in Texas these days? We’re reaching lows of 19 degrees! How is that even possible? My fingers freeze within ten seconds of walking outside, it’s crazy!!
Ack, I’ve been away from my blog for quite some time. For the past few days I’ve been thinking about all kinds of things I want to write about but I’ve just been so lazy. Keep checking back though!
Okay, so this time I just wanted to share something small that I found recently. I regained access to my old Photobucket account and found a lot of old pictures that I took of my workstation over the years. I liked taking pictures of my workstation the same way MySpace users obsessed over taking hundreds of pictures of themselves just to upload a decent profile picture. I’m glad I did, because now I get to see how much I’ve progressed over the years along with how much money I’ve blown. :( So yeah, not really the most interesting thing in the world but take a gander at it if you’re curious. They are in order from oldest to newest and there’s descriptions on each picture. I don’t have accurate timestamps of every photo but I know the earliest was taken no earlier than 2005.
Stay warm!!
Review: Antec Mini P180 White
The only good Black Friday deal I was able to snag was from Newegg.com. The Antec Mini P180 White is a computer case that I’ve been interested in ever sense it first debuted in 2008. Antec is known for their excellent quality computer cases, so I was convinced that this was the best white case I could find on the market today. It would without a doubt be a major upgrade from the ugly Antec case that I noobishly spraypainted white while I was still in high school. The only thing that was really holding me back from getting it at the time was the $149.99 price tag. Newegg.com sold this case for $44.99 ($74.99 before rebate) on Black Friday, which was a steal. I knew I couldn’t miss this opportunity, I immediately ordered one of these babies.
The case came in a few days later. It looks beautiful inside and out. The exterior consists of flexible-but-sturdy plastic and polished silver metal that will actually shine white depending on the lighting and the angle you look at it. The interior is different than your traditional chassis design, but still good, even innovative you might say. It features a bottom-mounted power supply slot, two slide-out hard drive bays that hold a total of five hard drives, and three ’5.25 (CD drive) bays, one on top and two on the bottom. This case was clearly designed to be silent while maintaining good air flow. The power supply slot and drive bays are padded with silicone grommets to absorb sound and vibration. While there is a rear 120mm fan, there is also a large 200mm fan mounted to the ceiling. Both fans run very smooth and quiet and there’s switches on the back of the case that allow you to change the speed fans without opening the case. The ceiling fan is a major plus. Heat naturally rises, so dissipating it out from the top makes perfect sense. There are also three air filters attached to the front and bottom of the case that reduces the amount of dust coming into the case. Instead of opening the case and cleaning it out, all you have to do is take out the filters and clean them, granted that they work like they’re supposed to. We’ll just have to wait and see to find out.