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Aaron B.

Aaron B.

Joined on 01/11/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 20
Most Favorable Review

Good Deal

Samsung Over-The-Ear Bluetooth 3.0 Headset w/ Dual Mic / Multipoint / Noise Reduction / Echo Cancellation (HM3600)
Samsung Over-The-Ear Bluetooth 3.0 Headset w/ Dual Mic / Multipoint / Noise Reduction / Echo Cancellation (HM3600)

Pros: Good battery life (we'll see how this pans out in the long run). Comfortable. Ear hook is metal with a compliant covering. Bonus points for being bendable to fit ear shame and having a swivel. Noise reduction is good, not great so far. Haven't tested in any truly high noise environments. Stays on the ear very well despite odd wearing method (see below). Good sound quality. Better than my BlueAnt Q1 by a substantial amount. Plus for decent voice prompts (power on/off, paired, etc). Good price on current sale. Killer Feature: dedicated, positive position on/off sliding switch.

Cons: On the ear instead of in the ear means you must use the earhook, no sizable earbuds. Also takes a bit longer to put on than most bluetooth headsets. You swivel the hook a bit, seat the earpiece, swivel back in place and settle it.... a bit awkward at first. It won't fall off from my experience, but occasionally you need to reseat the earpiece. Less range than my BlueAnt Q1, but it runs more than 2x longer in talk time (closer to 3x).

Overall Review: On the ear design is interesting. Haven't tested pairing with my PC and using VOIP apps yet, though quite frankly bluetooth compatibility on the PC has been quite the mess between dongle manufacturers, Microsoft, and bluetooth headset manufacturers, so I have zero expectations here (not a knock against this headset).

Most Critical Review

Disposable Bluetooth for a disposable society

LG HBM-235 Black Bluetooth 3.0 Headset w/ 13hrs Of Talk Time & Multi-Point Connectivity
LG HBM-235 Black Bluetooth 3.0 Headset w/ 13hrs Of Talk Time & Multi-Point Connectivity

Pros: Battery life (never fully tested - see below). Sound was ok.

Cons: LG is making the majority of their headsets with a very brittle plastic earhook. "Unbreakable" plastic technology has existed for >40 years so this is unacceptable. After the earhook broke, the earbud stem (thinner than any I've encountered from Nokia, BlueAnt or Samsung bt headsets) snapped as well. "Clicker" is just counterintuitive interface design. Volume buttons are too nearly flush, require too much force, and have no tactile identification for up / down, so you remove the headset from your ear to set volume. Earhook (before it broke) pinches pretty badly on whichever point it rests, so I never could use it long enough to find out about battery life. Fatiguing after only 30 minutes of wear or so. No noise reduction. Didn't pick up ambient noise and voices as badly as a Jabra I suppose.

Overall Review: Don't buy.

Not bad for the price

Vantec EZ Swap F4 MRK-425ST-BK 4 Bay 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD/HDD Removable Rack, SATA III ready (Supports 9.5 & 12.5mm height SSD/HDD)
Vantec EZ Swap F4 MRK-425ST-BK 4 Bay 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD/HDD Removable Rack, SATA III ready (Supports 9.5 & 12.5mm height SSD/HDD)

Pros: Good price on sale ($30). LED indicators for which HDD slots are plugged in. Looks pretty sharp from the outside. Fit is acceptable.

Cons: Fan bearing staring squealing after maybe 6 weeks of being installed. More an annoyance, since it is used mostly for SSDs and your average laptop 2.5" drive isn't going to care much about heat either. Construction is bare minimum quality to achieve the finished product. While I mentioned the exterior look is sharp, once you pull out a tray, you realize this isn't really a nice metal framed bay.

Overall Review: Now I have to go and rip the fan out or at least disassemble and remove the wiring. It would be cheaper easier to just go with an open vented back and let the case fans do their jobs.

So much lost

Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 (CC-9011030-WW) Black Steel High Airflow ATX Cube Case Support ATX Power Supply
Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 (CC-9011030-WW) Black Steel High Airflow ATX Cube Case Support ATX Power Supply

Pros: Nice to see some cube form factor cases and alternate spacial arrangements.

Cons: This could have been a great server for those with lots of HDDs or wanting to setup some kind of NAS. Widen the drive side layout to accept 8-10 3.5" disks (6 at least putting 3+3 vertical) and really just one 5.25 optical drive. It's just very disappointing to see the wasted space on the other side.

Constant Reconnects

ORICO 4 Port USB 3.0 HUB With Type C Power Supply Port For PC Laptop Computer Accessories ABS USB Splitter USB3.0 OTG Adapter Up To 5Gbps, Plug and Play,  For iMac, MacBook Air, PC, Laptops
ORICO 4 Port USB 3.0 HUB With Type C Power Supply Port For PC Laptop Computer Accessories ABS USB Splitter USB3.0 OTG Adapter Up To 5Gbps, Plug and Play, For iMac, MacBook Air, PC, Laptops

Pros: Nice casing, good connectors, 4-ports.

Cons: Constant reconnects with various brands of USB 3.0 drives, both bus power 2.5" and externally powered 3.5". Firmware updates make the problem worse. Take the hub out of the loop and the drives work perfectly. Also, on some attachment actions, it's spotty connection causes Windows to prompt to format the disk.

Overall Review: Updated from firmware REV_0701 to REV_8581 and things only got worse, faster disconnect / reconnect cycles. I have another USB hub with a similar Renesas / NEC chipset which works fine. Must be poor quality manufacturing on the inside. Other devices have similar reconnection issues, but might be masked if you have sound off.

Garbage quality

Cooler Master Elite Power - 460W Power Supply
Cooler Master Elite Power - 460W Power Supply

Pros: None.

Cons: MTBF of 100,000 means on average this power supply should last 11 years. Didn't even make it 11 months (bought March 2013, failed at my fathers house in November). It would be a surprise if the system it was in ever used more than 150 W (e8400, 1 HDD, geforce 5200, Blu-ray drive). The point about it being a 377 W max PSU says a lot about the poor quality. Wish I had noticed / known before I purchased.

Overall Review: Poor business practice to put "Elite" on a PSU that out of the box felt cheap. Should have returned on the spot when I noticed how thin the wire gauge and other construction bits were. It's going to cost me more $$ in the time to get an RMA and to pay shipping and to swap the part out. Unacceptable, when I would rather have a refund and take my money to someone who produces a product that works the first time. Maybe Cooler Master should stick to fans and heatsinks (though I've never had one of their fans make it to the MTBF either). Sad that I have a 550W OCZ PSU that is 5 years old, trucking strong and gets wailed on with an overclocked i7 + GTX 460 and LOTS of HDDs and peripherals... and that is the company going out of business.