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Ryan W.

Ryan W.

Joined on 06/30/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 14
Most Favorable Review

Great tablet, mediocre laptop.

ThinkPad Tablet 2 (367927U) Intel Atom Z2760 2GB Memory 64GB Flash Memory 10.1" Touchscreen Tablet, Windows 8 Pro 32-bit
ThinkPad Tablet 2 (367927U) Intel Atom Z2760 2GB Memory 64GB Flash Memory 10.1" Touchscreen Tablet, Windows 8 Pro 32-bit

Pros: Light weight, long battery life, plenty of power for web browsing and tablet apps, and capable of running (albeit slowly) full "desktop" applications on the go in an ultra mobile form factor.

Cons: Desktop apps run slowly with the Atom processor and only 2GB of RAM, however this is a decent trade off for its light weight, battery life, and cost. I also wish Lenovo's accessory keyboard offering was a bit better, its just a bluetooth keyboard with a kick stand, it doesn't attach to the tablet in any way, it seems like it would have been trivial to add some kind of clip to keep the tablet from flopping out of the keyboard and crashing to the floor. I really expected better from Lenovo with how robust and durable their ThinkPads are.

Overall Review: I was provided one of these from my employer, I am now toying with the idea of buying one for personal use rather than the iPad I had planned on getting. I like the ability to run regular desktop apps when there is no tablet app up to the task and its interface is much more polished and finished compared to android devices I have used. Seems like it could be a real contender to the iPad if more apps take off on the platform.

Most Critical Review

Work if youre in the same room

NETGEAR XET1001-100NAS 85 Mbps Powerline Network Adapter Up to 85Mbps
NETGEAR XET1001-100NAS 85 Mbps Powerline Network Adapter Up to 85Mbps

Pros: seemed fast, and was easy to setup, IF it was plugged in the same room.

Cons: Will NOT work on Arc-Fault protected circuits, so pretty much useless in new construction since those are requirements in "bedrooms" in modern electrical codes (2000ish and newer). We were so lucky our builder used Arc-Fault on ALL the breakers, so these would only work for me if the 2 outlets used were in the same room, which is pretty useless.

Overall Review: They need to find a way to get the signal to pass from circuit to circuit in modern construction. Do that and get gigabit speeds (I know some newer "powerline" products offer close to gigabit) and this product would be a real winner.

11/11/2011

Great Switch.

NETGEAR ProSAFE 16-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch (GS116NA)
NETGEAR ProSAFE 16-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch (GS116NA)

Pros: Fast, reliable and low power

Cons: None

Overall Review: I bought this switch back in 2008 to replace an old cisco 24port unit to reduce the power draw on my home network, and it has been super reliable, never given me a lick of trouble.

Great mSATA SSD

SAMSUNG 840 EVO mSATA 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-MTE120BW
SAMSUNG 840 EVO mSATA 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-MTE120BW

Pros: Installed in my wife's Lenovo T520 3 or 4 months ago, works great and SUPER fast!

Cons: SSDs are still a bit too expensive for my taste.

Overall Review: I went with an mSATA SSD because we were able to keep the traditional hard drive in place for storage capacity.

Good FAST router

NETGEAR N600 Dual Band WiFi Router (WNDR3400)
NETGEAR N600 Dual Band WiFi Router (WNDR3400)

Pros: Good router for the money, VERY stable IF its kept cool.

Cons: Like most other routers it runs on the bleeding edge of what its (non-existent) cooling is capable of, I cracked mine open and added heat-sinks to the CPU, RAM, and Radio chip. Sadly this is a ritual I have had to perform to almost all my "retail" Wireless routers if I want them to last much longer than a week before they start "locking up".

Overall Review: I would down rate them more for the pathetic cooling if it wasn't industry standard in ALL "retail" sector units. I have 2 of these (my house and my parents house) both running for over a year now solid and stable with heatsink mods.

Decent SSD

Intel 330 Series Maple Crest 2.5" 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDSC2CT060A3K5
Intel 330 Series Maple Crest 2.5" 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDSC2CT060A3K5

Pros: Decent speeds, reliable, good warranty.

Cons: Known bug, wont link at SATA2 on certain nForce boards, and SLOW as molasses on SATA1 link, had to install on my SAS controller (which also wanted to link at SATA1, but I was able to force to SATA2 in controller config). Not as fast as my Mushkin Chronos on SATA2, but heck of a lot more stable, Mushkin would lock up and BSOD a lot, so I will take slower and reliable, over fast and buggy.

Overall Review: Bought this for the reliability and price, and it delivers, much more stable than a Mushkin SSD I have. That said, since I bought this, I bought a Crucial M4 for my wife's laptop, that thing puts this and my old Mushkin to shame. It's the fastest SSD I have ever used, everything is instant on her laptop, even photoshop.