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James R.

James R.

Joined on 03/15/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Very functional, strange design.

D-Link Wireless AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit Cloud Router (DIR-868L)
D-Link Wireless AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit Cloud Router (DIR-868L)

Pros: It works and does what it says it will do. I had some major pains in connecting some of my devices to the thing (Wifi printers, thermostat, Macbook), but in the end it all worked out. Honestly, I never figured out why I was having so much trouble but I suspect it was the devices and not the router. The throughput on this router is amazing. In fact, I don't think my gigabit internet connection is slowed at all by this router. Wifi connection speeds are also good. I'm not used to the DLink menus, but I'm getting used to them and they are fairly easy to navigate once you know where everything is.

Cons: Strange casing design. My nephew came over and pushed one of the LED indicators and the flat, semi-transparent, WAN and Power indicator piece broke loose and fell into the router casing. This bugged me to no end so I had to take the thing apart and fix that piece. Taking it apart required removing the thick plastic ring sticker that cover the screws on the top. This meant destroying this sticker. Once inside, the piece that had broken off did not just snap back into place, I had to tape it. Whatever held it place to start with was very weak. This seams like a design oversight that could easily be fixed on DLink's end. The firmware menu system is also strangely arranged. Seems more set up for automation than anything else. In order to customize, you have to go digging for what you want.

Overall Review: Not really a problem, but this thing is tall. It did not fit in my cabinet where my old router was, so it has to be on the top. After removing the sticker, three silver screws are exposed as well which is not aesthetically pleasing. Maybe DLink can send a new sticker? I'm still giving 5 stars. Throughput was what I was ultimately after and that's what I got with this router along with everything else I would expect.

10/31/2013
Most Critical Review

Too slow to call functional

Logitech Logitech Harmony Link- 3rd party
Logitech Logitech Harmony Link- 3rd party

Pros: Item works as described, although nothing is said about its speed.

Cons: It is slow, not as customizable as I'd like.

Overall Review: The only reason I bought this is because I wanted to be able to quickly turn my entertainment devices to AirPlay mode, streaming music from my phone, and I wanted to be able to do it without having to walk to my living room and turning everything on. The problem is that all of the device data is stored on my phone, not the Harmony Link. This means the PHONE has to send the signals one by one to the HarmonyLink and I have to wait for each of them to be sent. In addition, there is no way to tell app that I don't want it to remember the state of all of my devices. The activity I use it for switches all of the inputs to AirPlay configuration. Well, last week I used it to set up my system to play AirPlay, but when I turned it off, I used my Harmony 650 remote (which works great, highly recommend). So, if today I want to turn on AirPlay, the app thinks it is already on, refuses to send "turn on" signals since it never turned anything off, and I have to tell the app to turn everything off so that it knows what state my devices are in, wait for all the signals to be sent, then tell it to start the AirPlay activity and again wait for all the signals to be sent, THEN, I can turn on my music and start it streaming. So, basically, this thing is useless to me.

Long card

XFX SPEEDSTER MERC319 AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT LIMITED BLACK Gaming Graphics Card with 16GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA 2, RX-69XTACSD9
XFX SPEEDSTER MERC319 AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT LIMITED BLACK Gaming Graphics Card with 16GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA 2, RX-69XTACSD9

Pros: Looks great, excellent performance in an AMD rig.

Cons: Long and heavy. You'll need to support this thing - the bracket included adds significantly to the required space - 370mm, that's more than 14½ inches. I measure 345mm without the bracket and 60mm thick. I had to move my radiator fans outside my full tower case and now have to leave the front panel of my case off.

Overall Review: Great card, tight fit. We need more inverted case options for such large, heavy cards!

Stable, easy to set up

ASUS H87-PRO LGA 1150 Intel H87 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
ASUS H87-PRO LGA 1150 Intel H87 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: Fully featured for H87. Great documentation. Great RAID support and boots super fast.

Cons: None really.

Overall Review: Hardware vendors are phasing out support for XP systems - this has to happen eventually. I think its unfair to dock the average rating by a full egg just because you want to use an outdated OS. Just like Linux users, you need to make sure, before purchasing, you can get the thing working if you're not going to use a mainstream OS.

Stable and consistent

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin PC RAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9S-4GBRL
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin PC RAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9S-4GBRL

Pros: Bought the Tri-Channel kit version of this memory, (12GB) and then decided to upgrade my whole computer to a dual channel system. Bought this stick to turn the tri-channel kit to a dual channel kit. It worked great even from mismatched sets and sticks manufactured months apart.

Cons: None.

10/31/2013

Great case

CM Storm Scout 2 Advanced - Gaming Mid Tower Computer Case with Carrying Handle and Windowed Side Panel - Black
CM Storm Scout 2 Advanced - Gaming Mid Tower Computer Case with Carrying Handle and Windowed Side Panel - Black

Pros: Got this case on mark down and with a rebate. I could not have done better. -Cable management is the best I've seen. Cables are easily routed under the mobo or just about anywhere you need them. Lots of places to quick-tie the cables in place. You wouldn't even think I had cables looking at it. -Drive bays are very roomy, maybe a little flimsy, but very easy to work with and I am not worried about a drive falling out as another reviewer stated. Drives can be mounted with connections facing away or to the front depending on your preference and I love the sideways bays. It also come with trays to mount SSD's in the 3.5" bays. -Air flow is great with the stock fans so long as you install everything correctly and don't run a super hot system. I ordered two extra exhaust fans for the top, but I really don't think they're necessary. -Case is just well built. It does not feel cheap. Form and fit is perfect. Side panels are sturdy. Handle on top is sturdy. Case is big for a mid tower. -Looks 1000 times better than all the Star Wars and Star Trek looking cases out there that cost $300-$400. They kept it simple, nice lines, etc etc. It is heavy, but that's because its rugged. -The front panel can be removed without having a bunch of wires come with it. The front components are not attached to the front panel

Cons: -None so far. This is one of the few times I took some time to make a NICE review, mainly because I've been so frustrated trying to find a case that doesn't make me wonder if it was ever even tested prior to production. Don't get me wrong, there are better cases out there, but for under $100, I doubt you'll find one better that this one. Good job CM!