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Charles J.

Charles J.

Joined on 08/18/06

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Product Reviews
Seller Reviews
product reviews
  • 15
Most Favorable Review

Rosewill Rails

Rosewill RSV-R26LX - 26" 3-Section Ball-Bearing Sliding Rail Kit for Rackmount Chassis
Rosewill RSV-R26LX - 26" 3-Section Ball-Bearing Sliding Rail Kit for Rackmount Chassis

Pros: See other comments. Best way to mount and unmount is to pull out rails. I presume you have already mounted the rails to the side of your server / workstation chassis with the screws and/or standard mounting hardware. Place the "male" rails on the side of the chassis and glide into the extended female rails that are mounted in your rack. The unit will only slide in so far. Then you will have to take your fingers and trigger some extension locks so they snap in so that your rails will continue to slide in all the way. If you have very heavy equipment, enlist the help of a second human being to lift up or hold up the chassis while the racks are connected and fully extended and you are triggering the extension locks. You could have a bad equipment accident or stress failure if you don't.

Cons: Can't seem to figure out how I would get this product to mount my various server chassis boxes fully flush inside my APC NetShelter 25U box. Oh well, the exterior doors still close and can lock if I need to so I guess I can't complain.

Overall Review: Nothing else really. I think it's a decent product for a fair price.

Most Critical Review

Speakers - Good for Units that Work

SCOSCHE Red boomCAN Portable Media Speaker PMSRD
SCOSCHE Red boomCAN Portable Media Speaker PMSRD

Pros: Good sound for the units that work. (Each of the kids got one in their stocking for Xmas for their iPods or other MP3 players, etc.)

Cons: One unit was bad out of the box. Worked but you could tell the speaker was shot. Sounded distorted / blown. Having blown lots of speakers in my college days, this one sounded like a blown speaker right out of the bag. (Of course my daughter doesn't have any devices strong enough to "blow" the speakers. A sound attenuated iPod shuffle and a phone that isn't real loud - Pantech.) Hope Scosche will work with me on an exchange. Kid with the bad speaker unit is bummed.

Overall Review: Ability to daisy chain is kind of cool for stereo effect. Kids plug them into laptops, phones, and mp3 players for on-the-fly sound.

KVM Switch

ATEN CS1784A 4 Port Dual-Link DVI KVM with USB 2.0 and 2.1 Audio Support
ATEN CS1784A 4 Port Dual-Link DVI KVM with USB 2.0 and 2.1 Audio Support

Pros: Good KVM switch. Does the trick. Best support of all the KVM Vendors I've tried. I've owned Avocent, Belkin, Startech, etc. My unit is technically the CS1784. I would imagine the A revision unit here is just upgraded. Would be interested in hearing about the upgrades / updates in the CS1784A. Haven't actually used it on a 2560X1600 DVI-D compatible monitor yet but bought it in case I wished to upgrade to a DVI-D monitor. My monitor is a 1920X1200 Gateway 24". Comes with 4 KVM cables. You provide your own console cables to the unit.

Cons: A little pricier than some, but you get what you pay for. Only problem I've run across is running fancy mice / keyboard setups. Other than that, not a big problem. Rarely have had to mess with this unit. Have had for many years now. Presume the slightly newer CS1784A unit is similar and just as reliable.

Overall Review: Hint: Use the front USB or back USB connector (not the identifed keyboard / mouse connector) with your fancier Logitech or MS mice that have special wheels, buttons, etc. I have an MX1100 that works with this switch. Had to update the firmware. The HSM (Hotkey Settings Mode) manager is a little funky. Just a note, I somehow changed the HSM invocation sequence to the alternate Control - F12 method. (Please see the manual.) Invoking HSM and typing H brings you back to the NumLock and "-" key sequence. That stalled me for a while with the whole firmware upgrade process. I used a separate machine off of the KVM switch with a com port hooked up to my monitor's VGA input. That did the trick for me and the special Logitech mouse functions for the MX1100 running the latest Set Point Control Center Version 6.51.8 and Driver Version 5.50.98 running on Win 7 64 are running just fine with this KVM. Middle mouse wheel click works in Ubuntu Linux 12.04 on this KVM.

Blue Screen City / Poor RMA Communication

GIGABYTE GA-880GM-UD2H AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-880GM-UD2H AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Lots of stuff integrated onto motherboard.

Cons: Not reliable motherboard in my opinion. Used it for about 6 months or so then it just died. Gigabyte tech keeps telling me that the RAM tests good. I take RAM from existing known good systems that pass Memtest+86 4.20 - including some that are Gigabyte boards and it fails at 43%. Constant blue screens. Sent to Gigabyte for RMA and they just send it back to me and say it passes Memtest. I asked for a replacement board directly on my notes on my system configuration sheet they ask you to fill out. This is the second time I sent in the board. No communication via phone / e-mail or nothing. They just send me the bad board back saying "memtest burning 12 HR OK". Tell you what, if you say it's my RAM, then sell me the RAM you have on your test bench you used on this motherboard that passes the Memtest+86 bench test and doesn't blue screen my Windows. Because I've tested Kingston HyperX, Crucial, GSkill, and Patriot DDR3 1600 over here from known good machines and they all fail the Memory test and blue screen any Windows install. No overclocking or anything fancy here. Some of the tested RAM are from machines that have Gigabyte motherboards that memtest fine.

Overall Review: First time I've had to use Gigabyte RMA / repair. Mostly their boards have been pretty reliable for me. This one definitely is not reliable. I am not impressed with Gigabyte RMA / repair department sending me back the board and saying it passed Memtest +86 with a 12 Hour Burn. I will post a video of failure later as proof.

Update

SUPERMICRO SYS-5015A-H 1U Intel Atom 330 Dual-Core 1.6GHz Dual Gigabit LAN Server Barebone
SUPERMICRO SYS-5015A-H 1U Intel Atom 330 Dual-Core 1.6GHz Dual Gigabit LAN Server Barebone

Pros: Running Zentyal (Ubuntu 10.04 LTS base). See previous review. 2 X 2GB memory solved all problems. Will run with that 4GB configuration. Have it configured as a file server and print server on my network. Hooked up an 80GB SSD and a 3.5 TB LVM volume. Running like clockwork. If you don't need massive CPU power and like small form factor and low energy usage and quietness then you'll like this unit.

Cons: None really. Unless you are looking for bigger server with more power and more options. But then you wouldn't be interested in this product to begin with.

Overall Review: Great little setup. Probably would like the IPMI on the newer unit SuperMicro sells but this one is pretty solid.

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBNT
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBNT

Pros: Used on the following Newegg Product: SUPERMICRO SYS-5015A-H 1U Intel Atom 330 Dual-Core 1.6GHz Dual Gigabit LAN Server Barebone http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101262 Works fine. 2 X 2GB RAM = 4GB total. Note this product only advertises that it works with 2 X 1GB configuration. So pleasantly surprised. Others have noted this server works with 4GB configuration. G.Skill - Originally was skeptical. Now they have earned my trust. Have not had bad memory sticks from them yet. Knock on wood.

Cons: None that I can think of. No heat sinks but I doubt you are buying this RAM if you are thinking of over-clocking anything. MemTest+ 4.20 did not work on the platform I was running. But neither did any 1GB DDR2 sticks I have lying around that passed Memtest on other platforms. (I think it's something with Memtest on this particular SuperMicro 1U Atom Server platform.) Boots and blinks on Memtest but just doesn't run any of the tests. (Also tried Crucial and OCZ DDR2 and same thing even though they came from machines that are running fine and pass Memtest.) BTW, these sticks pass Memtest on an E8400 dual core with Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L Mobo... Don't know what's up with the SuperMicro board but I'm not worried. Have burned in and seems fine.

Overall Review: G. Skill - Great bang for the buck. Have to say the reliability has been pretty good so far.

11/19/2011
seller reviews
  • 1

64GB Samsung SDXC Card - Counterfeit

Sold me a counterfeit 64GB Samsung SDXC Pro card. Samsung video tech support (pretty cool) looked at my product and said the coloring and packaging was way off and was not an official Samsung SD card product.

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