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Gus K.

Gus K.

Joined on 05/05/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 13
Most Favorable Review

Great but with some issues

Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ USB 2.0 / Ethernet HD Media Player Only STCEA201-RK
Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ USB 2.0 / Ethernet HD Media Player Only STCEA201-RK

Pros: You can read all the positive things about this unit in other reviews so I won't repeat them here. Just know that before purchasing I checked out the products from Asus, WD, and other companies and this seem the be the most problem free.

Cons: The remote control will stop working when the unit with the attached Passport drive gets hot after running for about an hour. Most people choose to replace the ugly and low quality remote with something else or program the remote function on their other A/V units. If you plan to do this, then this is a non-issue.

Overall Review: I uploaded graphics (from Netflix, etc.) to use as thumbnails for all the DVD ISO files that I have on the hard drive. I had some problems with some of the thumbnails not displaying but after I deleted the .Theater directory everything was okay.

Most Critical Review

Limited support for large drive

Vantec NexStar MX Dual Bay 3.5" SATA to USB 3.0 / eSATA RAID Enclosure
Vantec NexStar MX Dual Bay 3.5" SATA to USB 3.0 / eSATA RAID Enclosure

Pros: Can do RAID 1 or 0. Nice looking.

Cons: Could not get it to work with 3TB drives. Funny how the description does not state the maximum drive size. Also, the power connector does not connect well as the unit powers off when the unit is moved. In fact, if you touch the power connector where it connects to the device, you can power cycle the unit easily.

May Just Be Defective

Koutech Dual Channel SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCI Express Card (2x internal) Model IO-PEU232
Koutech Dual Channel SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCI Express Card (2x internal) Model IO-PEU232

Pros: N/A

Cons: Installed this on a Windows 7 64-bit PC for use with case-mounted USB port. Windows detected it but that's the end of it as nothing plugged into the case USB ports work. Tried powered external hard drive, SD reader, and even a regular USB stick. I know the case connector works as I've tried other brands of PCIe cards. However, this is the only card with two external USB 3.0 connector so I couldn't use the single port SIIG or StarTech. Hopefully, I merely got a defective unit. Will know in a few days.

Works Great...up to 2TB

VANTEC NST-400MX-UFB Aluminum Alloy and Plastic 3.5" SATA I/II USB 2.0 / 1394a / 1394b External Enclosure
VANTEC NST-400MX-UFB Aluminum Alloy and Plastic 3.5" SATA I/II USB 2.0 / 1394a / 1394b External Enclosure

Pros: Been using this device for a while already. It works great...decent speed and does not get hot.

Cons: Has a 2TB RAID 0 limit. So you can't use hard drives bigger than 1TB each or you'll lose the space.

Overall Review: They don't have any plans to upgrade the firmware to enable the device to take 1.5TB or 2TB drives at full capacity.

Power Issues

Kensington 33118 DomeHub USB 2.0 (7 ports)
Kensington 33118 DomeHub USB 2.0 (7 ports)

Pros: It's nice looking and the USB plug at the top makes it really convenient for USB sticks.

Cons: Although this comes with a power adapter plugging a few devices will overload this unit. My old D-Link cube does not have any problem with this. Also, when using Vista the device needs to be reset when you power up the PC...about once a month.

Overall Review: Too bad, this is one of the nicest looking and solidly built USB hub out there but the power issues just make this not too stable. Maybe buying another power adapter will fix this issue as I'm sure its not defective. We are using a few of these units and they all have the same problems.

Not for 1.5TB Hard Drives

Vantec NexStar MX Dual 3.5" SATA to USB 2.0 & eSATA External Hard Drive Enclosure with JBOD/RAID 0/1 - Model NST-400MX-SR
Vantec NexStar MX Dual 3.5" SATA to USB 2.0 & eSATA External Hard Drive Enclosure with JBOD/RAID 0/1 - Model NST-400MX-SR

Pros: Works very well and fast with any drives, even mixed capacity, up to a combined maximum of 2TB.

Cons: This unit has a combined capacity of 2TB. So using two 1.5TB drives on RAID 0 or linked JBOD will not work. You will only see 750GB.

Overall Review: Tech support was very quick...took less than a minute for them to answer. This was when I found out that the there is this 2TB upper limit.

10/30/2008