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Vincent G.

Vincent G.

Joined on 09/27/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
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Most Favorable Review

Extremely fast keyboard, great for gaming and very good for general typing!

Corsair Gaming K70 RAPIDFIRE Mechanical Keyboard, Backlit Red LED, Cherry MX Speed
Corsair Gaming K70 RAPIDFIRE Mechanical Keyboard, Backlit Red LED, Cherry MX Speed

Pros: The big thing about any keyboard is the key action, so let me cut to the chase and say that the key action on this keyboard is FANTASTIC! Super silky key travel, combined with low key force and low key travel mean that once you recalibrate from other keyboards (i.e. stop bottoming out each stroke), you can really fly while using this keyboard! You only have to go about 1/3rd of the way down before the keys register, so its speed is very VERY quick. It's so fast that a few times playing FPS games during downtime I found myself accidentally strafing (guess my fingers are heavy) the first few days I was using this. The windows key lockout is a Godsend. Sure other keyboards have this, but it's worth noting that it's there for a serious gaming keyboard. While it does lock out both windows keys, unfortunately it doesn't lock out the right context menu key. Red backlight color is good for low ambient light gaming. Three levels (plus off), so you can likely find an intensity that you like. Keyboard is very easy to clean. There is no bezel around the keys, so crumbs and other detritus can either be shaken out or blown out with compressed air easily without removing the keycaps. The keycaps are easy to remove and replace, if somehow an animal should manage to wedge itself underneath. Love love love the volume wheel instead of discrete buttons! Now when a window pops up a video that's blaring, it's easy to either hit mute (a button) or wheel the master volume back quickly! Media keys are also present, if that's a major feature for you. They're kind of akward, though; they are low profile rubber type, and situated immediately above the numeric keypad. They aren't terrible on their own, but in comparison with the excellent feel of the regular keys they don't feel great.

Cons: Shifted and unshifted printing is reversed from a normal keyboard. This is to accommodate the backlighting, as the red LEDs are mounted above each key. But it gets really confusing for people who don't have keyboards memorized, because it looks like you have to hit shift-1 to get a 1, when instead that will generate an exclamation point. The period and comma keys look absolutely bizarre swapped vertically. The spacebar is textured. WHY? That's the *only* key that's textured on the entire keyboard. Has a kind of gator skin type texture to it, and feels out of place with the rest of the keyboard. More to the point, if you're doing a lot of actual typing where your thumbs are slightly moving back and forth on it while you're typing, it starts to irritate your thumbs after a few minutes. Also, the backlit marking on the space bar is essentially five underscores; a better marking would be nothing at all. Had a friend try and hit shift-space to generate an underscore! Extra USB port requires a second USB connection to use. Guys, it's 2016 -- WHY IS THIS NECESSARY? There's no ps/2 adapter (nor did I try any) so I assume this keyboard is usb-only. What does a usb-2 hub chip cost these days, $0.10? Wouldn't that be a lot cheaper than running two USB cables all the way back to the PC? Num lock, caps lock, and scroll lock LEDs are in no-man's land, and the printing is very small. In an unlit room it's impossible to tell which is on and which is off. Also the LEDs are white instead of red, which seems a very strange choice given the entire rest of the illumination on the keyboard is red.

Overall Review: Overall I love this keyboard! I hadn't planned on changing my keyboard (a cherry MX clicky style) but find that I'm seriously giving consideration to just keeping this keyboard as my main keyboard. It's just so darn fast to type on! Such a nice and silky feel when typing on this that I'll likely mothball my old keyboard, despite loving that one as well. Maybe I'll just put tape over the stupid spacebar.

Most Critical Review

Will work in some situations, but don't expect miracles

TP-LINK RE210 AC750 Universal Wi-Fi Wall Plug Gigabit Range Extender with External Antennas
TP-LINK RE210 AC750 Universal Wi-Fi Wall Plug Gigabit Range Extender with External Antennas

Pros: Looks like a smart outlet with ears. Decent speed, but is really dependent on how noisy of a wireless environment you're in. 5GHz repeater can really help since 5GHz tends not to penetrate well. WPS setup is easy -- hit button on router, hit button on range extender, done. Rock solid, didn't have to reboot the unit pretty much ever since installing it.

Cons: Range extenders halve the bandwidth available, and there's no getting around that. Also, in order to be effective you have to put the range extender within range of a strong signal of the original access point, so that cuts down the effective range even further. So don't expect miracles here; it works but there are some serious physics caveats that you simply can't avoid.

Overall Review: Would be nice if you could combine the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz backhauls. But that might be asking a bit too much. Ethernet bridging is very handy, and might be worth it just for that feature alone. i.e. a computer or device that only has ethernet, or doesn't like your wifi key for some reason. Second outlet is accessible but not overly so when the unit is plugged in. Regular straight out plugs will work, but nothing even remotely oversized like a wall wart.

11/26/2016

Great keyboard, but bluetooth support is a raging tire fire.

CORSAIR K63 Wireless Special Edition Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, Backlit Ice Blue LED, Cherry MX Red
CORSAIR K63 Wireless Special Edition Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, Backlit Ice Blue LED, Cherry MX Red

Pros: Typing on this keyboard is a dream! If you've ever typed on a cherry MX keyboard, then you know the feeling and it's no different than any other MX keyboard. If you haven't, the key travel is smoooo-oooo-oooooth. The feel is kind of like typing on a soft cloud or marshmallow until you hit the key bottom. That's not a negative thing, it's a good thing; very light key pressure needed! CUE lighting effects are stored IN THE KEYBOARD! YES! So if you configure the keyboard the way you want it (I like the wave lighting effect), then hook the keyboard up to something that doesn't support or have CUE installed (another computer, or say via bluetooth), the lighting effects still happen! Finally! Awesome! Compact design! If you're tight on space and don't need no stinkin' number pad but still want an extremely nice keyboard to type on, this is your guy! Everything EXCEPT BLUETOOTH works on win7. Media, volume, lighting effects, etc. Decent 2.4GHz range with the dongle. Very good battery life, got tired of testing after a week of use + standby. Super sturdy construction! It doesn't have a metal backplate like other corsair keyboards, but it certainly has heft. Feels like I could grab this during a zombie apocalypse and last for a minute, maybe 90 seconds before it gave out. Using it as a wireless keyboard via the dongle really didn't feel any difference in response time between that and using it corded via USB. Didn't bother with bluetooth responsiveness due to how broken the implementation is (see cons). Battery came mostly charged, and topped up quickly. (Under an hour? I dunno, connected it and forgot it.)

Cons: Bluetooth support is broken, really really REALLY broken, and Corsair support threw up their hands with a "dunno!" reply. Issue #1: no win7 support. Now I admit it in the spec sheet it doesn't say win7 compatible but THIS IS A KEYBOARD. It's a HID device. This is not a new class of device! There is NO REASON WHATSOEVER this can't work on windows 7. Yet there's absolutely nothing when you try and pair it to a win7 machine, as if it doesn't even exist. (2.4GHz works, so half a point back, but seriously... how broken of a bluetooth stack do you have to have in order to not work with a completely industry standard protocol and not be seen at all? Turns out really broken, see issue #2...) Yet linux sees it just fine! WT*, Corsair??? Issue #2... shift keys don't work under bluetooth. No, really, they don't! I tried connecting this thing to several different android phones running anything from android 5 to android 8 (along with a friend's ipad), and they all behave identically -- the shift keys are broken! The ONLY way to get capital letters out of this keyboard over bluetooth is to toggle the CAPS LOCK key on and off! If you hit shift-A, for example, instead of getting a capital A you'll get a lowercase A every time. Bizarrely, if you hit shift-1, you *do* get an exclamation point, so the shift keys *are* working, the keyboard itself is just sending the wrong letters! It's NUTS! (Same behavior with other keys; the . key shifted generates >, so it's not just a number key thing. It's frankly the most bizarre misstep I've ever seen with bluetooth (outside of windows 7 not seeing it at all), and makes me wonder what Corsair was thinking and how it could have possibly missed this. Literally all you have to do to find this problem is type ONE SENTENCE on the keyboard via bluetooth and the problem jumps right out at you! Volume control is via buttons instead of a roller. Not really sure why they went this route; the roller & mute key they use on every other keyboard would have fit pretty easily in this keyboard. Nevertheless, the replacement buttons, well they work *okay* but they're definitely a step down from using an analog-feeling (I know it's not analog) roller. Second downgrade is that those aren't cherry MX (just membrane switches) so they feel mushy, and terribly unsatisfying compared to the keys right below them.

Overall Review: Corsair Ticket #678805... open two weeks, no resolution, not even a suggested time frame for more action. Sorry guys but I did my due diligence and here we are. Bluetooth is broken. Irreparably! I even mentioned it was a review unit! If you can't get support to move when mentioning it's review unit, IT AIN'T GETTING FIXED, EVER! So as a bluetooth keyboard I'd classify this as "emergency, every keyboard within 50 miles is broken" type use. As a USB keyboard, I'd absolutely use this. As a 2.4GHz keyboard, I'd also absolutely use this. USB connection is micro-B. Ehhhhh, that's OK for maybe another year. They do include a very high quality USB cable, so can't complain too much.

Good product, but... kind of sounds thin and clinical, both with the mic and earphones

Corsair Gaming VOID PRO RGB Wireless Premium Gaming Headset with Dolby Headphone 7.1, White
Corsair Gaming VOID PRO RGB Wireless Premium Gaming Headset with Dolby Headphone 7.1, White

Pros: Easy to setup, don't even really need any drivers at all if you're good with stereo only. Microphone automatically mutes if you rotate the microphone stalk vertical. Also has a red accent that lights up when the microphone is muted this way. Charges quickly, charge lasts for hours and hours. Lots of options for the lighting; can do patterns, colors, etc. Only real problem with that is that there isn't much actual *color*. The only thing lit up on the headphones is the corsair logo, the on/off button, and the mute button on the left side. Right side is just the corsair logo. So even while using the RGB features (which shorten battery life considerably!), the predominant colors of this headset continue to be white and black instead of whatever color you put in. SUPER COMFORTABLE! Headset is padded quite a bit, and the ear cups are padded as well. Easy to wear while using glasses, too. No DC offset (a problem with some other corsair products) nor any reasonably detectable noise from the microphone. Some headphones I have to process DC offset or noise out of the resultant audio, not so here; the output is pretty clean. No crazy insane levels without drivers, as some previous corsair products have done. This can really be a plug and play headset if you need it to be. (*cough*Linux*cough*)

Cons: RGB feature shortens battery life, but not dramatically. Sound is VERY dry and bass is very lightweight. I don't have the tools to do a full spectrum analysis of the output, but my ears say that the bass on these is very lightweight. You'll be hitting the bass boost, then wishing you had a *second* bass boost when listening through these. Weirdly, the microphone output also has a dramatic lack of mid-low bass! I did some testing and I wound up having to do a dual pass FFT to make the microphone sound normal. Honestly the microphone sounds like a good quality cell phone microphone, and that's not in any way a compliment. I didn't notice much or any room noise, so maybe it's overactive noise cancellation at play here? Kind of a big dongle for a mere wireless receiver. Think wireless mouse receiver circa 2005, and you have the idea. Seriously it looks like a thumb drive! (And if it didn't have an FCC logo on the back you'd be forgiven for thinking that it was one!)

Overall Review: These are super comfortable to wear, which is really a saving grace for them. Receiver can also be used with USBOTG, so I was able to plug in the receiver and use them as a full headset with my android phones as both headphones and microphone. (I know it's overkill, but it's fun to try.) No controlling the colors in that mode of course since that's only available on the PC, but still nice to know the device is *fully* USB compliant! Packaging is nice. I don't like these as much as my other corsair headphones, but if I got them as a gift I wouldn't take them back either. The sound is just a bit clinical for my taste.

12/19/2017

Solid m.2 format SSD

WD Blue 3D NAND 250GB Internal SSD - SATA III 6Gb/s M.2 2280 Solid State Drive - WDS250G2B0B
WD Blue 3D NAND 250GB Internal SSD - SATA III 6Gb/s M.2 2280 Solid State Drive - WDS250G2B0B

Pros: Tiny form factor m.2 SSD really packs it in there; can squeeze four of these in the space of a traditional 2.5" SSD. Cloned my existing SSD to this for testing. Sustained write speed was at 108Megabytes/second, which is roughly pegging a gigE connection in the real world. Been using this as my daily driver ever since, and had not so much as a hiccup! No cables with the m.2 form factor; it's more like plugging in DRAM (if it were plugged in on the short side). Very affordable price.

Cons: Requires a full length m.2 2280 slot, so if you only have a 2242 or 2260 available you're out of luck. But it absolutely conforms to the m.2 2280 spec, so if you have that kind of spot available no worries that it won't clear; it will. SATA only; doesn't support PCIe connectivity. (one can dream!)

Overall Review: It's really hard to tell real world performance difference between SSDs that are released in the same year. So I'm not even going to run the numbers; for the vast majority of folks they're entirely irrelevant. The thing to remember is SSDs are fast, whether they're 2.5" or m.2 or anything else.

Inexpensive cable modem, has minor issues

TP-LINK TC-7610-E DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem (Easy-open package)
TP-LINK TC-7610-E DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem (Easy-open package)

Pros: Super easy to setup -- call cable company, give them your MAC address, done! Speeds are identical to my old cable modem (Zoom). Seems to be fairly stable as well. Easy open packaging is just that -- brown box, cut one sticker and you're in! EASY!

Cons: Extreme light weight means that any cable tension at all (such as from the wire memory from the ethernet cable) will pull the unit askew. Unit does not record any transmission or reception errors. My old cable modem (Arris) would record these, and I'm really sure that my cable connection isn't all of a sudden magically perfect since my cableco hasn't done any work. So the only logical conclusion is that the tp-link either isn't detecting or isn't recording any correctable nor uncorrectable errors. Odd wall mounting would require the unit to be mounted horizontally and extending out from the wall. I guess that would work, but would look very odd and be prone to incidents vs. some sort of flush mounting. No display for how long your link has been up, so when you do have a problem it's unclear whether the problem was with the cable modem or something else.

Overall Review: It's a cable modem, it's pretty much an install-it-and-forget-it type device. This one works well. It's a basic cable modem, but that's sometimes all you need. And it doesn't have any wifi mucking up your connection by offering free bandwidth to the whole world that you get to pay for.

11/26/2016