Joined on 12/10/04
Awesome
Pros: Great blu-ray burner from Pioneer. 16X is almost unheard of for a blu-ray burner. Amazing quality compared to the one that it is replacing. Spin up time is less than 6 seconds. No more waiting a that dirty 15 seconds for other brands. Who has that kind of time? (wink) But, seriously, this thing is great. Quality burns so far. (about 100+ since I got it). No coasters at all. There are some blank media issues though, see cons for more on that. As alwasys, no drivers needed. Completely plug and play with Windows 7 and Linux OS. What isn't these days though, right? Unlike most other burners in this price range, it comes with software. Not just for burning, CyberLink Power2GO, but also software for playback (CyberLink PowerDVD). Now that's a plus in my book. No more having to use Nero's blu-ray player, which is well known to be very buggy. All in all the software works quite well. Not as lightweight on resources as Nero, but still good. (See other thoughts for more on that) With this drive you are able to write, with the right media, up to 12X as far as I have experienced. Quite a jump from 6X BDRs taking about 22 minutes to burn, now at 10-12X only taking about 9-11 minutes to complete. Without read errors afterwards. GREAT! As stated before, the spin-up time means you put the disc in the drive and it almost instantly pops up. Copying files, both to my SSD and mechanical HDDs, I have seen speeds reach 38-40 MBps. Meaning you can copy a whole blu-ray in less than 11 minutes. Instead of the old 20-25 minutes it used to take. Great again! The BDXL feature is cool, but seeing that the price for one blank disc is almost the price of a small hard drive I don't think I will ever use it. Good to have it though. Drive runs way more quiet than my old one. That thing is now in a land fill. Overall great quality product from Pioneer.
Cons: A few cons even though I am very happy with this burner. First of all, the laser is way too sensitive. Anything on the disc, and I mean ANYTHING, such as a fingerprint, a hair, even one time a speck of dust and this thing will spin-down, and show a read error. So make sure to keep your media clean, or clean it before putting it in this thing. Also it really doesn't like cheap blank media. I had some old Rosewill BDRs, both burnt and blank. It would burn them, but then couldn't read it's own burns. I have heard about others experiencing this same problem with these discs and other burners. A firmware update corrects these read errors, but one is not available for this drive at this time. Verbatim BDRs burn perfectly with no read errors. Even at 12X. Explain that one to me. When trying to copy old discs to my HDD to re-back them up, (again same Rosewill discs), this thing went completely 'nanners. I'm not sure if it has error correction, but the drive would slow down, and read really slowly. Causing it to take 39-45 minutes to copy a single disc. Really odd. Almost opened an RMA over it. Luckily another drive I had would read them so I could re-burn them with this drive. Another weird thing that happens when I burn, around the 36-37% mark, the drive stops, then starts burning again. Like a spin-down then spin-up. Both of the burning software programs I use do it. So it's not the software. I don't know if I got a dud or what. It seems like if the drive hasn't been used in a while (cold start), then I experience these problems. It runs completely fine if I use it for a minute, to warm it up. Then all the problems go away. The software is kind of a resource hog. I tested this burner both on my Windows PC and my Linux PC. They are both higher end machines and when you try to burn using Power2Go, it really jacks up the memory and HDD usage way more than Nero. Not on the Linux PC, since I had to use different software to burn on that particular OS. It's not really a problem for my builds, but something to consider if you are using a PC on the lower end.
Overall Review: I use this for data backup, if you haven't already guessed that. Being that the price of hard drives is still sky high, and the reliability of them is sub-par. I need something that won't take up too much room, and give me a lot of space per disc still. DVD-DL just wasn't cutting it anymore. About a year and a half ago I started using BDRs. They work great for data backup. Every once in a while I will burn a video disc. So I do use it for what it was intended for also. My old burner was making noises similar to a 20 year old used car. Also experiencing read error and coasters. So I decided to change brands and see if anything else out there was better. This will do the trick I hope. The small amount of glitches I have experienced will probably just iron themselves out. Now that the burner is broken in, it does seem that these problems are going away. One more note. I wouldn't recommend burning too far over what your blank media is rated for. I don't think these burns will retain data as long this way. Put it this way, I learned way back when CD burners first came out that a slow burn is a quality burn. So if you want something to last, I would burn it 2X under or at most 2X over the speed that the discs are rated for. Just my opinion on that matter. I tend to burn my 6X discs at 8X. As long as they are a higher priced brand name. I haven't seen any problems with them as of yet. I tested this drive on Windows 7 x64 Home and Ultimate editions, as well as Ubuntu 13.10, Xubuntu 12.10 (custom) with KDE over the top, Manjaro, Linux Mint, and Arch Linux. There were only slight issues with compatibility with some of the Linux systems. They were all easily fixed with a quick google search. Very good burner so far. Now we'll see if it lasts...
Nothing fancy, but it works!
Pros: Nice, small, nano-like design. Doesn't take up more than it's fair share of space. Meaning you can still occupy another USB port next to it when installed. Cap is included for ease of transport/protection from shorting out. Activity indicator LED is nice and not overly bright. 300 Mbps is advertised. It will achieve this when networking between PCs/devices, but will not always run at this peak speed. WPS, Soft AP mode, and works on b/g/n networks. Plastic construction doesn't feel too cheap. Included driver mini-CD. Windows 7 compatible (unsure about Win8/8.1/10). Another decent Rosewill product.
Cons: Nothing to hold the cap with the device itself, which would have been a plus. Cap is really small and easy to lose. Does get hot when downloading large files, or after extended use. Plastic instead of metal construction is a big downside. Use of metal would have acted as a built in heat sink and helped with longer lifespan. Fake brushed metal feel on the plastic gives the illusion of quality, but I don't really believe this will last more than a year or less. Oh well...
Overall Review: I bought this because I needed wireless on my custom desktop. I hate using PCIe Wifi cards as they are ugly, kind of bulky, and ruin the custom look of the interior of my PC. Having a side panel window makes it hard to hide things like these. It's much easier to just get a little USB Wifi card and put in in the back, out of the way. I used this with 60Mb/s internet and it performed pretty well. I've had it running for about a week now, with no connection issues as of yet. Others are complaining about how it will randomly disconnect. This is a problem with almost all of these cheap, and even higher end, USB Wifi adapters. They wear out fast. Normally re-installing the driver every once in a while will remedy this issue. Although, it can get annoying to have to do it all of the time. Haven't tried online gaming or anything like that with this yet. Streaming HD video is no problem though. Along with cable internet, using Internet Download Manager with 8 connections per file, I got up to 8.35 MBps peak download speed. That's on a good night when bandwidth was highly available on my ISP and the server I was connected to. Does get hot when used like this for an extended period. Hope it lasts at least a little while. I have high hopes so far.
Not bad, don't know why people are complaining...
Pros: These are not bad little flash drives for the price. For $6 a piece you really can't expect too much out of them. Data transfer rates are decent enough, when reading or copying files from the drives themselves. I've seen 100+ MB/s when transferring MP3s from these to my desktop or laptop. Shows pretty good read speeds for USB3. Although, the read speeds are nothing fantastic (see cons). Retractable USB connector is nice, protecting the drive from being broken or shorting out when not in use. Key chain hole to be used for ease when traveling is nice, but almost every flash drive on the market comes with this now days. At this price point, if speed is not an issue, this will suit your everyday needs quite nicely.
Cons: Made of cheap plastic, as is to be expected in this price point. You're not going to get steel or even aluminum for $6. As mentioned before the write speed is nowhere near what higher end USB3 drives can achieve. I only got up to 15 MB/s peak write, and that was only for a few seconds or so. The key chain hole is moved really far in, I'm guessing to add extra strength, but makes it hard to even attach to a key chain in the first place. Most drives use a loop around the edge of the drive itself. Just saying, could have been a better thought out design.
Overall Review: I got three of these in package deal for under $15. I mainly use them to store music to be played in my car stereo. So speed is not really that important to me. They get the job done and do it well. I've owned Corsair, Kingston, and PNY USB3 drives in the past that get write speeds up to 25-50 MB/s. Even beyond that. These do not at all keep up with those. I'm happy with these, because they work for the job I intended to use them for. Everyone should do that. Do your research before purchasing anything, and don't expect diamonds from a lump of coal. If you pay this little, you will receive something cheap. That's just the way it works!
Great...for the time being...
Pros: First off didn't get the E6220...not that I'm complaining, got the E6230. 4 threads, meaning it runs almost like a 4 core processor, even though it is a dual core, 4 GBs RAM, and a 320 GB HDD instead of the 250. Wow what a deal right? CHECK CONS before purchasing. Actually runs on the i5 3320M @ 2.6 GHz. I was surprised to see this variation from what I was going to be getting. B grade doesn't mean a thing really in this situation. A few nicks and dents, a small gouge out of the screen, almost unnoticeable. Very snappy response. After the 90 days I will be throwing in a 240 GB SSD and upgrading the ram to 8 GB. Not too shabby for what I paid. Gets a 5.9 on WEI. Most of that is from the HDD. I was happy that the gaming graphics scored a 6.5. Awesome for a business class ultrabook. Overall it's behaved well, "as far as it can be thrown". Just kidding. I'll wait for it to make me mad...I'm sure it will, I am an AMD guy. Only needed this for work and Serato. Also came with a backlit KB for your nightly needs. 4 stages of illumination. 1-3 and off. Very nice. Also shuts off after 10-15 secs to conserve power. GREAT!
Cons: Came with the battery, which was a 6 cell by the way, not complaining, was dislodged and would not take power at first, now will. Also the HDD was dislodged and no screws were put into place. Replaced screws and....I guess we'll see...Bad quality control at JoySystems I guess...
Overall Review: Thanks to Newegg and JoySytems for making my life normal. I have a huge pain in the you know what to deal with again. instead of my ex. THANKS GUYS!!! <br><br>With much love,<br><br>The Mr. Peabody
Oops! Review Update
Pros: Still love this thing. Just still figuring out the MSi App software, and it pros and cons. See update below. Finally got around to testing The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. I wouldn't say the best in the world, but still better than my GTX 670 PE ran it. With it's puny 2 GBs of VRAM. I'm using the latest Game Ready drivers (WHQL), and I think the game is updated to the latest update (Update 5 or something...). nVidia Geforce Experience auto optimized it, but I still went in and tweaked it a little more. Still doesn't utilize all 4 GBs of ram. Only a little over 3.6 GBs. Running the card with a custom overclock of 1550 MHz, memory clock of 7035 MHz. It's still not getting any hotter than 66c. I think I also didn't have room to mention in my other reivew that this has a 3 year warranty. 3 years for parts and 2 for labor. Not bad at all.
Cons: Me and my quick-draw review I posted last night. This thing really has no cons in this nerd's opinion.
Overall Review: In my last review I stated that this card idles in the high 50s. Well what my, let's just say, altered state of mind didn't piece together is that I was idling in Game mode on MSi App. If you just turn on MSi App and let Afterburner run like normal in the background, leave everything alone, and don't select a profile, this GPU under-clocks itself like all nVidia cards do. I was just watching a show on Netflix in high def with no profile selected, fans were at zero RPM. Afterburner reports that the base clock dropped to 405 MHz, memory clock dropped to 1620 MHz, and the temperature dropped to 32-34c at idle - or idle-ish (just streaming a TV show ). Granted it's cold and rainy today, 68-72F, and all of the windows are open. So yeah...that heatsink really gets the job done, almost all by itself when in low power mode. What are you still reading this for. BUY ONE NOW!!! DO IT!!! COME ON!!! What have you got to lose? These things are a steal at less than $400. Also they overclock up to the speeds of the more expensive brands/models. You're not going to get a better deal for such a wide array of features. Sure you can spend $250 more and get to brag that you have a 980, but why would you want to brag about being so unintelligent that you spent more money than the person who got the best bang for the buck? Wouldn't you want people to be more astonished that you were able to spend less and get a card that performs at about 95% of it's more expensive counterpart? I certainly would. So that's what I did.
Great PSU
Pros: 1050 watts of power, plenty of headroom for whatever you may be building. Tons of wires for powering any type of setup. Enough PCIE connections for two or even three way SLi or Crossfire. Wires are long enough to install this PSU in a mid or full tower with a lot of extra slack left over. Fully modular, meaning less clutter and increased airflow even in a cramped type of case. Nice Proton stamp on the side, if you mount it in that fashion, to show off what you have installed in a windowed side panel case. Each sata power cable comes with 3 plugs instead of the normal two meaning less cables have to be run for hard drives or SSDs. 5 year warranty! Lastly a single 12 volt rail, which is perfect for high end/gaming setups. Overall a really great PSU.
Cons: As other have stated, the wires are very stiff and not that easy to run for a totally well rounded cable management system. The 24 pin and CPU 8 pin cables should be sleeved all the way to the connection. They are not, causing my build to look unfinished, ugly even. That's why I deducted an egg. Also the sata power cables come with 3x sata power and a molex power at the end. Not that well thought out in my opinion. The molex should come as their own cable. Being that I only needed one molex connection (for my fan controller) I now have 3 sata power connections just sitting there, serving no purpose. Made cable management much more hard than it should have. Think things through Rosewill.
Overall Review: I needed more power for my system. I kept getting BSODs and shutdowns when playing graphically, power hungry games. Narrowed it down to being the power supply's fault. As I was only running a dual rail 700 watt PSU. I was looking at the high end power supplies, Corsair, Fractile Design, EVGA. They were all way out of my price range. I've owned Rosewill PSUs in the past and figured I might give one of these a try. The old 550 watt Stallion series PSU I have running in my daughter's PC and it's been running flawlessly for over 5 years. I also noticed that this is one of the only PSUs out there with a 5 year warranty. That is just totally unheard of in the PSU market. The cables are really stiff, and not that easy to route. This made cable management really hard, even in my Corsair Graphite 600t mid tower. Which is kind of ginormous and usually really easy for cable management. I found myself cussing and swearing at the computer when trying to force the cables to bend in ways that they are not supposed to be bent. That is the main reason I deducted an egg. Otherwise this thing is top notch. No more BSODs and shutdowns. Worked great right out of the box. Hope it continues to run like it is right now. Something I forgot to mention in the pros section is the fan. It's temperature controlled, so it powers up and down when power is not needed. Runs almost silent even when under a full load. (Phrasing!)... My only real complaint besides the stiff wires is the fact that they went ahead and put a molex at the end of every sata wire. Why? Every other modular PSU I have owned has it's own dedicated molex wire. I only needed 1 to power my fan controller and now have an unneeded wire just sitting there. Kind of annoying after forking out over a hundred dollars for this PSU. Now would I buy it again? Yeah, in a heart beat. For something this nice, at it's low price tag, you really can't go wrong. I will however be buying some white extension cables to cover up the ugly unfinished 24 pin cable. System build info is listed below. Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 MB AMD FX 6300 Vishera running @ 4.5GHz Cosair Hydro H80i AIO liquid cooler 16 GB Cosair DDR3 1866 MSi GTX 670 PE OC running at 1250 MHz Corsair Force GT 128 GB SSD WD Caviar Green 500 GB 2x WD 10,000 RPM Velociraptor 300 GB Seagate Backup 4 TB external HDD Rosewill Photon 1050 watt PSU Cosair Graphite 600t midtower Case Logitech Z623 2.1 audio system EVGA Torq x10 Gaming mouse AZIO MGK1 mechanical gaming KB