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David B.

David B.

Joined on 10/26/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 18
Most Favorable Review

Good drive, but INSANE price

Western Digital Blue WD800AAJS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital Blue WD800AAJS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: It a good, reliable drive that *used* to be cheap.

Cons: The price has more than doubled from a couple years ago when I bought a few of these drives. Apparently this is due to flooding in Thailand, the major world supplier of HDDs.

Overall Review: I'd probably wait on buying any HDD until the problems in Thailand are sorted out.

11/12/2011
Most Critical Review

Bad color, bad quality, bad price

Samsung PX2370 23" Full HD LED BackLight LCD Monitor  Slim Design 250 cd /m2 DCR 5,000,000:1 (1000:1)
Samsung PX2370 23" Full HD LED BackLight LCD Monitor Slim Design 250 cd /m2 DCR 5,000,000:1 (1000:1)

Pros: It is thin, light, and consumes less power than a traditional LCD.

Cons: The first thing I noticed was that the monitor had major color balance issues out of the box. All the colors were washed out. Installing the 'Magictune' program that came with the monitor allows you to adjust the color to a slight degree, but not enough to fix the problem. Eventually I had to go into the control panel for my video card and set the color balance directly from there. Even then, I could never get the balance right... reds always came out looking magenta or pink. Secondly, ghosting is a major problem on this monitor. Its very noticeable in games. Thirdly, the construction of this monitor is way too cheap. The screen pivots on a cheap plastic ball joint, but only by a few degrees back and forth. The screen shakes like a leaf due to the slightest vibration, such as when typing. I guess this is to be expected when the screen is supported by nothing but a thin stalk of acrylic. Also there's no wall/desk mounting ability, as it does not have the holes to attach a mount

Overall Review: This monitor is priced far too high for the cheap quality that you get. Samsung's decision to replace actual buttons with touch-sensitive panels is cool for the first few days of using it, but then it becomes a tedious gimmick because it often wont register a hit if you don't press it just right.

Good for storage but not for quick access

WD 1TB Elements Portable Storage USB 3.0 Model WDBUZG0010BBK-WESN Black
WD 1TB Elements Portable Storage USB 3.0 Model WDBUZG0010BBK-WESN Black

Pros: Bought it in 2019, has been working flawlessly for the past 2 years. Works well for storage or backups.

Cons: This is not an SSD, so don't expect fast seek times - it takes a while to spin up so you'll experience frequent pauses and hiccups if you're using this for constant read/write.

Overall Review: Good for infrequent-access data storage, but not good as a replacement for your C: drive. I.e. don't install programs to it, or set program data caches to be on this drive.

Terrific, easy to use NAS

BUFFALO LinkStation 441e (LS441DE) Diskless System Diskless Enclosure High Performance RAID NAS Personal Cloud Storage and Media Server
BUFFALO LinkStation 441e (LS441DE) Diskless System Diskless Enclosure High Performance RAID NAS Personal Cloud Storage and Media Server

Pros: - Extremely easy to setup. - Aesthetics are nice and simple - Like other Buffalo devices I've used, the web interface is very intuitive and well designed. It makes setting up the NAS or checking its status easy.

Cons: - Very little feedback about how long a disk check operation will take. Eventually I found that logging into the web interface and going to the RAID Array section shows a progress percentage, but this is not documented anywhere. - Drive bays are made of plastic. Would prefer they be made of some sort of metal. - Included software is a bit redundant. Its essentially just a limited version of the web interface.

Overall Review: Using 2x 3TB WD Red drives in RAID1, it took about 30 hours for the disk sync to complete. So if you're setting up a RAID array, don't be alarmed if it seems like the sync is taking a while - log in to the web interface and go to Advanced Settings > Drives > RAID and you'll see the current array sync progress listed in the far right column.

More Joules than I can handle

BELKIN BE108230-12 12 Feet 8 Outlets 3390 Joules Surge Protector w/ Telephone Line/Coaxial Protection/Extended Cord
BELKIN BE108230-12 12 Feet 8 Outlets 3390 Joules Surge Protector w/ Telephone Line/Coaxial Protection/Extended Cord

Pros: - Low profile makes it nice and unobtrusive - Outlets are spaced apart widely. Plenty of room to plug in even the absurdly large power plugs

Cons: Absolutely no cons thus far.

A decent USB hub

HooToo® HT-UH010 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub with 2 Smart-Charging Ports for iPad, iPhone, Smart Phones & Tablets (Latest VIA VL812 Chipset, 12V/5A Power Adapter, 3.3ft USB Data Cable)
HooToo® HT-UH010 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub with 2 Smart-Charging Ports for iPad, iPhone, Smart Phones & Tablets (Latest VIA VL812 Chipset, 12V/5A Power Adapter, 3.3ft USB Data Cable)

Pros: - Works flawlessly with a USB switch to switch this hub between multiple computers. - Plenty of ports, the dedicated charging ports are really handy for charging my mobile devices. - Looks nice, and the packaging is very nice too.

Cons: - The USB ports are a little too tight - plugging in something, it feels like you have to force it a little too hard.

Overall Review: $50 for a USB hub is definitely on the high end of the spectrum.