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JOHN V.

JOHN V.

Joined on 03/15/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 24
Most Favorable Review

Solid cable, flexible arrangement

StarTech.com USB3SPNLAFHD Blue 2-Port Panel Mount USB 3.0 Cable
StarTech.com USB3SPNLAFHD Blue 2-Port Panel Mount USB 3.0 Cable

Pros: Solid quality cable. Each USB connector having its own pair of screw mountings provides the most flexible mounting arrangement

Cons: None so far really. I had a bit of an issue connecting the 20 pin connector to the USB 3.0 card, but mostly because I didn't want to apply too much force and potentially bend pins so I unmounted the card and carefully held the connectors and clicked it together and remounted the card.

Overall Review: Given the particular case that I have (an older eMachines) I wasn't sure how practical it would be to get front side USB 3.0 ports in the place where there was space for them and a covered cutout in the sheet metal. Well, it all worked great, in part thanks to the individual connector heads and flexible screw mountings of this cable.

Works well, fun, fairly easy to setup

Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 Bulb Starter Kit 2nd Generation (456194)
Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 Bulb Starter Kit 2nd Generation (456194)

Pros: Having smartphone remote control lighting is very cool. There are a variety of additional apps for fun uses, and a wide range of bulb control, pretty high lumens if needed for more than mood lighting, neat to create light effects from selecting portions of photographs.

Cons: It is FAIRLY easy to setup--mostly just plug everything in and install the app and open it, except in the situation/method I used which was to try one bulb and see how it worked before putting all three of them in a socket. The problem with this approach is you don't know which is bulb 1, 2, or 3 and that is the only way they are labelled in the app, and there is NO way to know from the outside on the actual bulb which is which so at first I didn't think it was working.... until it dawned on me that bulb 1 is not the one I put in the socket but a SPECIFIC mysterious one from the set. When I found that specific one, things were fine. Another potential con is the new Philips app is a little limited in capability. I think it connects fine and works fine for what it is, but scene management and selection is more limited than some other third party apps out there. Add on bulbs, particularly GU10 ones are stupidly expensive.

Overall Review: Love the "Hue Disco" app available from a third party. These bulbs can seem to run a little warm when used in can lights or uplighting fixtures, though the one in my regular bedroom lamp seems to as well. the metal heat dissipation part just seems to get warm, not burning hot, but pretty warm like a CFL.

12/18/2016

Seems to work fine, quiet smooth operation

TOSHIBA DT01ACA300 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
TOSHIBA DT01ACA300 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: good price point and value per TB

Cons: absolutely ZERO support on the Toshiba website for drives and seemingly no drive utilities to confirm drive is working

Overall Review: We shall see how long it lasts based on what people have said on here, I've only had it a couple of days. Also, the first time I hooked it up in an existing SATA enclosure I had, the drive was not able to be initialized and only identified as 768MB but it was the SATA card not the drive in the end. I hooked it up to a straight USB SATA adapter I was able to initialize and clone on it to the full 3TB size. Unfortunately the old enclosure is apparently useless for anything over 2TB maybe.

Kicks it and just works

ARRIS SURFboard SB6141 8x4 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem
ARRIS SURFboard SB6141 8x4 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem

Pros: Pretty easy to setup really -- just plug in and make sure the cable provider had all the necessary info in their system to recognize and register the device on their network. The vertical form factor takes up less space than the previous Cisco one I had. This unit runs and stays pretty cool. Speed is great, but that is as much a function of my service and DOCSIS 3.0 than anything.

Cons: The only somewhat minor but annoying thing is that the status lights are VERY bright and larger than a typical LED. And there is only one data light and flashes at a constant rate regardless of traffic so it doesn't really give you an indication of what is happening inbound or outbound.

Overall Review: Compared to my prior cable modem, this one seems to take a fair while to boot up and connect when restarted. It's not clear to me what that is about.

Does what it needs to do

SAMSUNG 16GB microSDHC Flash Card (Bulk Pack) Model MB-MSAGBBD1
SAMSUNG 16GB microSDHC Flash Card (Bulk Pack) Model MB-MSAGBBD1

Pros: good price, decent speed

Cons: depending on usage, might need a card with faster speed, see "other thoughts"

Overall Review: I am using this in a TomTom for holding extra maps, and despite the higher class speed, there is a noticeably slower startup and boot time when switching to the map on this card. There doesn't seem to be any lags though when actually USING the map during navigation.

Works great so far, quick setup, good features

ASUS RT-N10P Wireless N150 Router IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11d, IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.11i, IEEE 802.11e, IPv4
ASUS RT-N10P Wireless N150 Router IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11d, IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.11i, IEEE 802.11e, IPv4

Pros: This thing has no brainer, easy setup, wide range of features, and is a really great value.

Cons: None so far. I am quite impressed. I assume it will stay/be rock solid or else I'll update this.

Overall Review: I had no trouble updating to the latest firmware, have had no performance or connectivity issues in the first day... and all seems to work great.