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David B.

David B.

Joined on 01/09/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 28
Most Favorable Review

Product of the year

Obihai OBI100 VoIP Telephone Adapter with Google Voice & SIP
Obihai OBI100 VoIP Telephone Adapter with Google Voice & SIP

Pros: When setup correctly these things work flawlessly. Better in voice quality than a land line or cellphone. Google Voice gets you a free local number that works better than a landline. Link your cellphone and your Google Voice! Call GV number - I set it to ring both lines simultaniously. Call my cellphone - I set it to forward to GV and ring when I have no service/don't answer. These are two amazing features of GV that you just can't get with a land line or most other providers, especially for free!

Cons: You would have to be a real &%#@ to have a con with this device for the service it's providing. I'm not sure how these things aren't sold out constantly - Obihai should probably advertise more. Google Voice will inevitably either start charging, or eventually shut down. Either way this box will still work with a third-party SIP provider, or hopefully Google charges low rates.

Overall Review: A few truths about this device: When setup CORRECTLY this thing is bulletproof - but you should set a static ip, make sure your router excludes that IP from DHCP, and make sure you use QoS on your router and set this and only this or other real-time devices to Premium. Voice quality is perfect, no echo, no lag, LOUD - but you can adjust voltage output in the settings or turn down your phone. It is nice to be able to hear ANYONE, I never get a "quiet call" on this thing. Obihai servers are NOT used when making GoogleVoice or other SIP provider calls. If someone mentions "issues" with this device it's pretty much 100% in the setup; this thing seriously can be backfed into your house jacks and run just like a land line! (But you MUST disconnect yourself at the demarcation point.) If you use a dynamic IP address (ie: simply plugging this thing into your router) you're gonna drop your call when your ip is renewed - use a static ip.

Most Critical Review

10 days.........

PNY Optima 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model MD4096KD3-1333
PNY Optima 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model MD4096KD3-1333

Pros: They were inexpensive after rebate. They had heat spreaders. They were 1333MHz, of course I would prefer higher.

Cons: Second stick quit after ten days. See my other review, after 5 days the first one quit. I swear it must be a solder issue - they work "flawlessly" (so to speak) up until a point where they are no longer stable whatsoever.

Overall Review: Well, I hope that this was a new product for PNY or a single batch of production. This stuff happens sometimes and yes, it is unfortunate - however, if they make good on the sticks then at least they corrected the issue...............

Got 2 of these free after rebates!

ASUS GX1005B Unmanaged Desktop Unmanaged Switch for Home/SOHO
ASUS GX1005B Unmanaged Desktop Unmanaged Switch for Home/SOHO

Pros: VERY quick for store+forward. Low power consumption! 1watt :) Small, lightweight, mounting holes on bottom.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: Allowed me to shutdown my 24-port 3com Superstack II switch which used around 55 watts idle. Going through 2 of these didn't increase latency by any noticeable amount. The way I feel about a switch is that you shouldn't know you are going through a switch, this one meets that requirement. I wish it were Fast Forward but some people would probably prefer Store & Forward, I just like things to go as fast as possible. (Hey, the original data was coming over the wire in the same chunks that Fast Forward would be using.)

Driver issue is it's downfall..

XFX Radeon HD 4850 1GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card HD-485X-ZNFC
XFX Radeon HD 4850 1GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card HD-485X-ZNFC

Pros: Good card at a good price point. The 4850 is still powerful enough these days to do a great job gaming.

Cons: This card, as others have mentioned, has issues with the latest few driver updates. 11.6 seemed to work before but now I am down to 11.5 and all is well.

Overall Review: If you did not know better you would think the card was bad when running newer drivers. I have the latest BIOS update on the card and it does nothing to fix any issues. You must run an older driver and forcibly stop Windows and CCC from automatically updating to a newer version. Otherwise the card works great, although the fan can be incredibly loud at full speed. If it were not for the fact that Windows and CCC are always trying to automatically update drivers, the whole driver issue would more or less be a non-issue.

RMA'd and ready to roll

PNY Optima 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model MD4096KD3-1333
PNY Optima 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model MD4096KD3-1333

Pros: Second set works perfectly. Low price.

Cons: First set had issues after a week or two.

Overall Review: PNY must have made a bad batch. I spent $2 to send them back to PNY and 5 business days later (FAST!) I got a brand new package of the same model memory. Works perfect now. All manufacturers are subject to bad batches now and again. Memory was not DOA so even if they had individually tested for 48 hours the ram would have passed. Some people may view it as a hassle, but I buy a LOT of computer parts and very few are ever defective (contrary to user reviews lol). It is understandable that now and again there will be a bump in the road. Memory is dirt cheap to ships USPS anyway.

5 days............

PNY Optima 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model MD4096KD3-1333
PNY Optima 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model MD4096KD3-1333

Pros: Inexpensive, Mail In rebate, Free Shipping, Heat Spreaders. One stick is still good - which leaves the computer able to work during the RMA process. (Though I have plenty of DDR3)

Cons: 5 days after installing, the computer failed to resume from hibernation. The computer then proceeded to bluescreen when loading windows. After isolating the bad stick (one is still fine), the computer would not even post (BIOS yelled about the bad checksum and went into recovery mode).

Overall Review: I have order several thousand dollars worth of parts from Newegg in the last few years. I have never once gotten a defective item. This item was not DOA and for that, I cannot blame PNY's quality control - had they tested my bad stick, it would have passed. I assume that the defect rate on this product is perhaps something as simple as a solder issue. of course, this is not something that should be expensed to the consumer through the RMA process (shipping/time) This is the first time I have given an item one egg, and I do not wish to do so. However, with currently 35% of newegg reviews being 1 egg - I assume that there is a bad lot of RAM out there that needs to be recalled.