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Jack V.

Jack V.

Joined on 10/02/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 19
Most Favorable Review

Linux ZFS ok on USB3 and eSATA

Mediasonic ProBox 8 Bay 3.5" SATA External Hard Drive Enclosure - USB 3.0 & eSATA  (H82-SU3S2)
Mediasonic ProBox 8 Bay 3.5" SATA External Hard Drive Enclosure - USB 3.0 & eSATA (H82-SU3S2)

Pros: Compact size for holding 8 3.5" drives, USB3 or (single) eSATA connector, pretty solid construction. I don't mind the plastic door at all, how often do I really need to open it? Once, to install drives. Variable Fans (or auto), custom power off settings (15sec, sleep, or never off).

Cons: I had to actually read the included instructions to figure out how to disable the auto-power off, but after that, nothing really.

Overall Review: I installed 8 1.5TB seagate drives first with USB3 using ubuntu 12.04 + ubuntu-zfs. Had a bit of a problem with drives going to sleep after inactivity but I blame seagate, for not supporting APM flags on the drives, not the enclosure. I switched to eSATA just to see and I can't tell any difference for normal home media serving use. If you use eSATA your eSATA controller must support port multiplying.

Most Critical Review

No Support AT ALL from Palit

PALiT NE/960TSX0252 GeForce 9600GT SONIC 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
PALiT NE/960TSX0252 GeForce 9600GT SONIC 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Pros: DVI works fine.

Cons: Displayport support, the reason I bought the card, is poor at best. Most of the time the card won't properly detect the monitor using the displayport and you are locked at 1024x768. Manually switching between DVI (which works at 2560x1600) and displayport sometimes "tricks" Vista into remembering what monitor I have. Bootup? Forget it, it NEVER works on boot. I went back to DVI and will replace this card ASAP.

Overall Review: Palit support is non-existant. You can only email "info" or "sales", there is no USA based phone support, no forums, not even a knowledge base.

Low chance of explosion

Supermicro MCP-220-84601-0N Single 3.5" Fixed HDD Tray
Supermicro MCP-220-84601-0N Single 3.5" Fixed HDD Tray

Pros: Solid aluminum construction with holes correctly spaced, this drive mount far surpassed my even my most outlandish drive mounting needs.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: It's a drive mount. There isn't much that can go wrong.

Nice board but Extended Mini-ITX was an issue

ASRock E3C224D4I-14S Extended mini ITX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C224 DDR3 1600 / 1333
ASRock E3C224D4I-14S Extended mini ITX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C224 DDR3 1600 / 1333

Pros: Supports ECC ram, has two SAS ports for SATA breakout cables, would make a nice home built NAS motherboard.

Cons: Beware: this motherboard is "Extended Mini-ITX" and is larger in dimensions than a standard Mini-ITX board. It did not fit in my Silverstone DS380B case, it prevented the PSU from being mounted in the case. Minus 2 stars for proprietary sizing.

Overall Review: I bought this board to use in a Silverstone DS380B nas Mini-ITX form factor case and this motherboard's dimensions are too big to fit properly preventing the PSU from being mounted. Make sure your case can fit this board, if it's a tight Mini-ITX case, it might not fit. I kept the motherboard and bought a different less optimal case so it would fit.

Works, but not as good as it should

Ceton Echo – Windows Media Center Extender Watch Live & Recorded TV/HDTV Access Personal Media Libraries on Any TV on Home Network, HDMI Interface, Remote Included
Ceton Echo – Windows Media Center Extender Watch Live & Recorded TV/HDTV Access Personal Media Libraries on Any TV on Home Network, HDMI Interface, Remote Included

Pros: Very small Windows MCE Extender, much smaller footprint than an XBOX360. Simple setup (updating firmware should be task #1) and powered with a USB cable (ac adapter included) which you can plug into TV if it has a powered USB port.

Cons: Internal CPU isn't quite fast enough to keep up 100% of the time. It works ok on regular channels ,but if you hit a high action HD channel it can lag. I was trying to watch some of the NCAA Tourny on it and it would lag badly. I also cannot stress how much I hate the included remote control. The buttons are way too close together, anyone with fingers bigger than a five year old will really struggle with some of the buttons and mash unwanted buttons. The only good side is that the unit will work with just about any MCE compatible remote, so I replaced it easily enough. Also, the line of sight for the remote to work properly is basically a straight line. If you are off center even a little (up or down), you will need to do some remote waving in the air to make it work at all.

Overall Review: All in all, it's not a terrible product, but it could be so much better. A slightly faster CPU and a better remote would really go a long way to making this a much better product.

Didn't work in XBMC

2.4GHz Mini Wireless Keyboard 2.4G Trackball Mouse IR Learning Remote Controller for Smart TV, Set-top box, Google TV, HTPC
2.4GHz Mini Wireless Keyboard 2.4G Trackball Mouse IR Learning Remote Controller for Smart TV, Set-top box, Google TV, HTPC

Pros: Wasn't on the same freq as a different mini-keyboard I own, keyboard half did work.

Cons: Awkward shape in hand, doesn't feel like a remote. I bought this for use with XBMC running on a linux system, the keyboard side worked ok, the buttons are too spongy and also don't feel right. The remote side didn't work at all on linux or with XBMC. There are several other brands of usb mini-keyboards that are far superior to this model.

Overall Review: The only reason I didn't rate this the lowest possible rating is that the keyboard side did actually work even though it felt awkward and the keys are very annoying. I didn't try this on Windows at all, so YMMV.