cover
Andrew N.

Andrew N.

Joined on 01/22/03

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 18
Most Favorable Review

Works Great on TWC

ARRIS SurfBoard SB6121 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem
ARRIS SurfBoard SB6121 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem

Pros: $20 promo code when I bought it DOCSIS 3.0 Speed save $3.95/mo for TWC customers less latency than SB5001

Cons: none

Overall Review: For those with Time Warner, when they ask the make & model tell them it's a SB6141 because the SB6121 isn't on their official list. They won't hassle you. Give them the new MAC, power cycle the modem & your router and you are up and running. I got 20/2 on speedtest - exactly what my data plan is. My latency went way down. Went from ~45ms to ~20ms using the same server location.

Most Critical Review

Service Counts, Avoid Zotac

Zotac ZBOX-ID81-U Intel HM65 Black Mini / Booksize Barebone System
Zotac ZBOX-ID81-U Intel HM65 Black Mini / Booksize Barebone System

Pros: - nice design, essentially tool less - faster than an Atom - Bluetooth is nice

Cons: - SERVICE, terrible RMA turn around time!!!!

Overall Review: I bought two of these. One worked perfectly and is still going. The other had to be RMA'd after constant BSOD & lockup issues. No big deal, things break. Too small of a sample size to complain. However, Zotac can care less about service. It's been over one month since they received my unit and I'm still waiting for a replacement. The office has been one machine down since the RMA. On the RMA form they tell you 30 days! No - that's not OK, I don't care is you write it on your form! That's terrible service and it shows service doesn't matter to you. I will not be buying any more Zotac products. I wonder if I'll get a good unit back when I finally receive it...

Short depth, but very accommodating

ARK 3U390A Black 3U Rackmount Server Case w/o Power Supply 2 External 5.25" Drive Bays
ARK 3U390A Black 3U Rackmount Server Case w/o Power Supply 2 External 5.25" Drive Bays

Pros: - short depth for a 3U (15.35") - 2 external 5.25" bays support drive cages - intuitive layout - very sturdy

Cons: - I wish they made a 5th cutout for expansion cards, but I guess it was a little too close to the power supply. - no serial port cutouts (would have been easy)

Overall Review: Apparently some 'experts' have never seen hot swap backplane devices. I have 2x iStarUSA BPU-126-SA installed that gives me 12 hot-swappable drives with plenty of breathing room. I have one chassis at my home and one in my datacenter. I would definitely recommend for either use. The layout is entirely intuitive. If you look at it for a couple minutes, it should make perfect sense to you and install will be a breeze. I really can't even see any place that would be 'tricky' or give a seasoned builder any issue at all.

So far, so good

Ceton InfiniTV 6 ETH – Six-Tuner CableCARD Ethernet Network Tuner for Win7 and Win8 PC 5504-DCT06EX-ETH
Ceton InfiniTV 6 ETH – Six-Tuner CableCARD Ethernet Network Tuner for Win7 and Win8 PC 5504-DCT06EX-ETH

Pros: - 6 freakin tuners - solid construction - good price per tuner

Cons: - slightly less stable than InfiniTV4 PCIe

Overall Review: I have two of these used by virtualized Win7 Pro mediac PCs that push a bunch of extenders. Both systems previously had InfiniTV4 PCIe that were rock solid for a couple years running. The transition to the ETH version was very easy since I already had the latest drivers and utility on each system. Shockingly, I didn't even have to deal with any PlayReady DRM nightmares when swapping tuners. The stability isn't quite where the PCIe version was - I'd go many months without having to reboot those. So far I've had to reboot every 7-10 days on the system with a tuning adapter, while the one on Comcast (no TA needed) has only needed to be rebooted once - and that was after an electrical storm. I expect Ceton will iron out TA issues with this new device like they did on the original and all will be well. The company seems dedicated to making their tuner products the absolute best they can be. (don't judge Ceton on the Echo disaster) From other reviews I've seen, you may be better off sticking with Win7 with this device.

stick with win7

Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64-bit (Full Version)
Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64-bit (Full Version)

Pros: - OK for tablet use

Cons: - Metro interface is non intuitive for Desktop use. It's essentially a mobile OS that M$ decided to jam down your throat and charge you for. - New UEFI OEM product key embedding is a step in the wrong direction - The metro interface makes it nearly impossible to multitask in the way that every Windows user would be familiar.

Overall Review: I'd be shocked if M$ didn't release a simple patch/rollup that enables an easy selection on which type of GUI to use rather than having to make registry changes to do so. I won't move a single client that I support to Windows 8 as it exists today. Doing so would result in an instant loss of worker productivity.

Jetway - Not A good Company

Jetway Mini-Top Atom Dual-Core 525 Intel NM10 NVIDIA ION2 with WiFi /Remote Control DDR3 Mini Barebone
Jetway Mini-Top Atom Dual-Core 525 Intel NM10 NVIDIA ION2 with WiFi /Remote Control DDR3 Mini Barebone

Pros: - value priced when comparing features vs the competition

Cons: - poor quality control - overheating issues - very slow RMA service

Overall Review: Going back a couple years I've bought more than 30 of these for a few offices I support. Over time many (about 12 now) have developed overheating problems. I sent three back for RMA service at different times, and each one took well over a month for replacement (just about 45 days) That's just wayyyyy tooooo long! I have many of these now that are out of warranty and no longer usable because of overheating issues. End result is that at the two year mark, half of these units will no longer usable. 30+ is a good sample size to say that they are a lemon and Jetway in general produces inferior products. (had several H61's as well) I'm taking Jetway off my buy list...