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matthew j.

matthew j.

Joined on 10/23/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 8
Most Favorable Review

very happy with this purchase

RainMachine HD-12 - The Forecast Sprinkler - Smart WiFi Irrigation Controller. 12 Zones. 6.5" Touch
RainMachine HD-12 - The Forecast Sprinkler - Smart WiFi Irrigation Controller. 12 Zones. 6.5" Touch

Pros: This thing works well. Initial setup was quick. Once connected to wifi, you can use the app or web portal to configure lots of options and rules around how you want you yard watered. Love how it tracks a history of water saved. User forums are very helpful. Would be 5 out of 5 except for issue that required return (see below)

Cons: Worked like a charm for about a year. Then one day I tried to remotely access and could not. Checked the unit and touch panel was frozen. Followed troubleshooting steps and it would always hang during boot up. The bright side is I contacted tech support and they were very easy to work with. I shipped the unit to them after they opened an RMA (my one gripe is the RMA took a couple of days) and got it back a few days later. I reinstalled and was back up and running. I was even able to restore my previous config from backup using the app.

Overall Review: To summarize: This thing is awesome. I'm a little wary of how long it will last after seeing a failure after a year.

Most Critical Review

Both drives died in less than a year

Seagate BarraCuda STBD3000100 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Kit Retail Packaging
Seagate BarraCuda STBD3000100 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Kit Retail Packaging

Pros: worked well before failure

Cons: No warning of failure, just died. Luckily I backed up my data elsewhere, but this is unacceptable.

works great so far

TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 Dual Band Wireless N900 PCI Express Adapter, 2.4 GHz 450 Mbps / 5 GHz 450 Mbps, IEEE 802.1a/b/g/n, WEP / WPA / WPA2, Plug & Play in Windows 8
TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 Dual Band Wireless N900 PCI Express Adapter, 2.4 GHz 450 Mbps / 5 GHz 450 Mbps, IEEE 802.1a/b/g/n, WEP / WPA / WPA2, Plug & Play in Windows 8

Pros: easy install. windows 8.1 didn't recognize the card right away but I used the install cd and it was working in minutes. it found and connected to my 5G network quickly. I got this to replace another TP-Link USB wifi adapter that was a few years old and did not work very well.

Cons: none so far, but I'll update this post if I find any.

good drives

Seagate BarraCuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Seagate BarraCuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: bought a pair for raid1 on a budget. installed easy. no problems so far. working for 3 months since install. i'm probably just lucky but i have bought 7 seagate drives over the last 3-4 yrs and none arrived DOA or have had any issues since install.

Cons: none yet.

nice set

Kingston 2GB MicroSD Flash Card with 2 adapters (miniSD and full-size SD) and USB reader Model MBLY/2GBKR
Kingston 2GB MicroSD Flash Card with 2 adapters (miniSD and full-size SD) and USB reader Model MBLY/2GBKR

Pros: easy to swap the micro card between adapters. perfect for going from my phone and camera to my laptop

Cons: only 2 GB. we will see how long it lasts.

Overall Review: great price. i plan on buying some more

tons of features

ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: easy install. too man overclocking features to mention. lots of options here.

Cons: driver disc was unreadable. had to download everything.