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Mathew H.

Mathew H.

Joined on 03/08/01

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 16
Most Favorable Review

AWESOME

Brother HL Series HL-4040cdn Workgroup Up to 21 ppm 2400 x 600 dpi Color Print Quality Color Ethernet (RJ-45) / USB Laser Printer
Brother HL Series HL-4040cdn Workgroup Up to 21 ppm 2400 x 600 dpi Color Print Quality Color Ethernet (RJ-45) / USB Laser Printer

Pros: Color, works great with any platform, very easy to setup, DUPLEXING, sturdy construction, internal web-based config, IPP/IPPS support, CUPS support, and more.

Cons: Does not come with an antigravity module to help it be carried up stairs.

Overall Review: I have always wanted a duplexing laser printer at home, but they'd always been too expensive.. Then I held out for color.. So far this printer has exceeded my expectations.. I installed the latest OS X 10.5 drivers from the Brother site, attached the printer to my LAN, turned it on, and was able to print as soon as it warmed up. No more clogged nozzles, chipped ink reservoirs, or wonky output.. It even includes a SSL cert generator so you can print via https/ipps! Probably got a little embedded Linux board handling the network interface.. Also, shockingly fast shipping from newegg as always: ordered late in the day EST, 3-day option, fulfilled from east-coast distro center, arrived the day after next.

Most Critical Review

Clearance issues with SATA, full length vidcards

Antec Silver Aluminum / Steel Fusion Remote Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
Antec Silver Aluminum / Steel Fusion Remote Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

Pros: Same as before (in the SATA dremel review)

Cons: Clearance for full-size videocards (Sapphire 1GB 4870) is tight, and with the card edge power plug, I had to bend back an internal case rail to accomodate it

Overall Review: The internal layout of this case is problematic for high-end components, make sure you get short cards and SATA connectors that point 'up' off the motherboard and not 'over the edge'. Or get your dremels and pliers ready for some a-hackin.

Outstanding

BUFFALO AirStation HighPower N300 Gigabit Wireless Router - WZR-HP-G300NH
BUFFALO AirStation HighPower N300 Gigabit Wireless Router - WZR-HP-G300NH

Pros: * huge # of TCP conns supported without complaint * syslog logging works well * excellent web-based management * stable, have yet to reboot it except for config changes or firmware updates

Cons: * no way to import configuration from prior router (WHR-HP-G54)

Overall Review: I ran the WHR-HP-G54 for about 3-4 years prior to picking this unit up, and that router was fine except that bittorrent would constantly flood its TCP connection table and require occasional reboots. After trying a few cr?ppy alternatives (D-Link, Netgear junk) I saw that Buffalo finally started to sell routers in USA again, and I picked this one up. This router is basically the WHR-HP-G54 plus -N and a honking huge amount of memory. I swapped out the old for this, all works perfectly now, job done. Plus, DD-WRT support on this thing is official, no crypted firmwares and TFTP or JTAG nonsense. If they're supporting the project financially or technically, then doubleplusgood on Buffalo!

Excellent unit

Logitech Harmony One Advanced Remote Control
Logitech Harmony One Advanced Remote Control

Pros: Controls everything I have Nice bright touchscreen Excellent button layout

Cons: Didn't map all the buttons from my 880

Overall Review: I got this unit to replace an 880 that couldn't seat in its cradle anymore (and had its screen broken when I tried to jam it on there). The Harmony upgrade process in software was super simple, though it lost all the custom button configurations for the screen since the screens were different. The screen and button layout on this model are far superior to v880 except that the 880 had space for 8 functions on the screen vs 6 on this touchscreen. But the 880's screen is junk compared to this unit's much brighter and clearer one.

11/30/2009

Pretty nice

Wintec FileMate SolidGO 2.5" 60GB SATA II & Mini USB 2.0 MLC Internal / External Solid State Drive (SSD) 3FMS2B060M-WR
Wintec FileMate SolidGO 2.5" 60GB SATA II & Mini USB 2.0 MLC Internal / External Solid State Drive (SSD) 3FMS2B060M-WR

Pros: Light, solid-state, plugged in and it worked as expected

Cons: Rubber cover has hole for mini-USB connector, but it's not big enough for the included USB cable!

Overall Review: Either get a mini USB cable that can fit within the rubber cover, xacto-knife off the excess rubber, or remove the drive from the rubber. This is worth 1 point knocked off.

10/16/2009

Fun with SATA

Antec Silver Aluminum / Steel Fusion Remote Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
Antec Silver Aluminum / Steel Fusion Remote Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

Pros: Pymped out case with adequate PSU for 1 nice GPU, HDD internal mounts have rubber plugs to prevent noise and suppress vibration, trick DVD cage, like the zoning and cable mgmt (tie downs, zones with holes between them)

Cons: Looks like they didn't leave enough clearance between the SATA plugs on a mobo and normal SATA cables. I could spring for right-angle SATA cables, but I think it'd be much easier to just dremel a hole in the case panel between the HDD area and mobo area... Not sure if Antec could know that SATA ports would hang off the edge of the mobo like on mine, but I think I'm not alone, and they'll probably have to revise the case to accomodate this sort of thing...

Overall Review: I will still keep this case, but I'll have to dremel out and buff or wrap a hole near my DFI LanParty x58 micro-atx mobo's SATA sockets to get them to play nice with the case. BTW, I'd be willing to bet that you could sneak a 2.5" or 3.5" drive in the 5.25" bay that's obstructed by the VFD. I don't need to... Now.. But if I ever decide on a SSD boot drive, that will probably be where it goes.