Everyone has their own CD-R King horror stories: the long lines, the unfriendly attendants, and crappy items that go boom after a week. But with so many items in their catalog, there’s got to be some hidden gems in there.

So to round out my series on the ZyXEL router hidden among the hundreds of CD-R King merchandise, I’ll be pointing out other items that I consider to be notable in their catalog.

High Quality Blank Media

Even with a name like CD-R King, you might not expect this store to sell high quality media. But they really do sell high quality media. It’s going to take a bit of trial and error to find the best brands, though.

DigitalFAQ has a Blank DVD Quality Guide which provides a way to determine the quality of the media you bought. First you have to download a tool like DVD Identifier to determine the media ID of the DVD. Then you compare the media ID with their list of DVD media.

first class media

Above is a screenshot I made of a Verbatim 16x DVD-R disc I bought from CD-R King. Apparently, they do sell first class media sometimes.

Don’t be fooled by logos or brands, however, as in my experience, some fake “branded” DVD media are also sold in CD-R King. Trial and error is still the only way to make sure that you’re getting decent media.

Computer Coolers

One of my pet peeves in the local PC market is that PC stores almost never carry decent cooling devices even though we live in the tropics. CD-R King, on the other hand, has an entire category dedicated to Fans/Coolers.

Unfortunately, it is still a somewhat mediocre list. The only items that catch my eye are:

thermal compound

Cheap thermal compounds. I dare you to find thermal compounds for sale in normal PC stores. Heck, even PCO doesn’t carry thermal compounds (IIRC). This is weird considering that you need to reapply thermal compound every time you reseat a processor’s heatsink.

VGA Cooler

VGA Coolers. When video card’s fan gets borked and your card is out of warranty, you’re going to have to buy a new one. Unless of course you could find a compatible heatsink/fan combo for your card. Enter CD-R King…

RAM heatsink

RAM heatsinks. They void your warranty but they lengthen the life of your RAM. And they look cool to boot.

small heatsinks

And finally, these guys. They aren’t really useful for PCs, but there’s one thing about them that makes them interesting:

  • Thermal Tape Included

They come with 8 strips of 3M™ Thermally Conductive Adhesive Transfer Tapes, double sided tapes that conduct heat (which makes them great for heatsinks). Unless you’re some hotshot Electrical, Electronics or Materials Engineer you won’t be able to get your hands on these types of tapes anywhere else.

With thermal tape and some old motherboard heatsinks, you could mod your electronic devices to run cooler. Just stick the tape + heatsink on top of the hottest IC you could find in the board and you’re good to go!

(Note that the blue version of these heatsinks already have the tape on them i.e. you can’t salvage the thermal tape for other uses.)

USB KVM Switch

USB KVM Switch

I already mentioned this in my older post on computer stores. Simply put, there is no store in Metro Manila selling USB KVM switches. Most stores that actually carry KVM switches only carry the Aten PS/2 KVM switches. Now if your keyboard and mouse has funky features not supported by PS/2, that type of switch nerfs your P3k+ worth of peripherals.

A USB KVM switch is heaven sent for us enthusiasts with better peripherals and running 2 computers at the same time. Now if only Encore could sell USB + DVI-D KVM switches…

Network Stuff

crimping tool and cable tester

I’m not talking about the routers or the expensive UTP patch cables, I’m talking about the cable testers and crimping tools. Some years ago stores sold expensive cable testers and crimping tools, but the prices dropped when CD-R king entered the scene. Well… that’s how I remember it. :P

The WTF!?!

And finally we have the freakiest item sold in CD-R King:

windmill

A freaking windmill. It’s also worth a hundred grand, an amount you probably won’t entrust to unfriendly attendants. :P

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4 Responses to Notable CD-R King Items

  1. […] no secret that I have a guilty pleasure of going to CD-R King to look for decent stuff in their inventory. And I do find some nice stuff once in a while, for example, I only recently found out that they […]

  2. lito says:

    bought 2 avr’s both 500watts so it says, yung una ginamit lng ng 1 month sira na at ng ibalik ko syempre tpos na warranty me service charge daw na halos kasing presyo ng AVR ( ano ito gaguhan o lokohan ) edi inuwi ko knlng tapos yung isa ang specs eh SVR-500 gumagana pero yung PC ko nag o auto-shut off ng buong taon at pabalik balik ako sa gilmore pra pa check ang CPU at hilong talilong na lahat ng Technician pinalitan na lahat ng piyesa at nag-upgrade pa ako at dagdag memory, lagay ng video card na mataas specs,palit ng cables atbp. nag reformat ng paulit ulit nagpalit ng OS ng paulit ulit PERO wala pa din nag o auto-shut off pa din ang PC 3 days from now pinalitan ko ang AVR ng mas cheaper brand then at long last nka bukas lahat ng browser at applications at downloading at 3 days nka bukas ang PC hindi na namamatay o nag o auto shut-off ang CULPRIT eh yang produkto ng p…tng..i…ng CD-R KING na yan na walang kwenta na ang serbisyo pati produkto at kaya pala 2 weeks lang ang warranty kasi cgurado sila na 1 month lng itatagal ng items nila (hindi lahat) pero nasaan ang quality control at proteksyon ng customer-WALA at ipapaayos mo pba kung ang presyo eh konti nlng eh bago na.?!@#%*^”#* sana sa dagat dagatang apoy mapunta ang me ari nito

  3. […] Edition Nov 3 Brain Dumps, Follow-Up, Hardware It’s been almost two and a half years since my post about hidden gems within the multitude of (often crappy) products found in CD-R King. Since that […]

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