Joined on 04/18/05
Very nice business-class all-in-one device
Pros: - Very well built, does not feel like a cheap printer at all - FAST printing - Beautiful output. HP has the best black tones. Color copies actually look better than original! - Very quiet - Easily print from Apple devices; airprint-ready - Easy wi-fi discovery and setup; WPS enabled for quick password setting - HP apps for the smartphone are actually very good and usable - Dual media trays - "legal size" wide-format printing - Great job with photos, if you want to use this gigantic printer for photos ;-) - Nice document feeder on top, better than some dedicated copy machines
Cons: - Tiny LCD screen. Nearly useless on-screen keyboard (thankfully you don't have to use it too often) - Installation was not too smooth; see comments in "other" - Unpacking the printer had one weird issue - large pieces of cardboard wedged into media trays - if not very careful you could easily break the plastic tabs on the media trays when removing that cardboard. Really bad idea, HP.
Overall Review: I really like this printer and it instantly displaced my old Canon color printer. It dwarfs my HP LaserJet 1300 which is still my workhorse b/w printer. I can never see not having a good solid laser printer in my office. HP gives you a nice online experience when it comes to your user account. Your printer gets its own email address, and you can do things like forward a PDF file to that address and the printer will know what to do with it. You can limit the incoming emails from a set of pre-approved sender email addresses - which I highly recommend. Nothing worse than getting spam emails in your printer output tray. It also has a lot of settings, all of which are available from the smartphone app. Since this is an airprint printer, I want to leave it on all the time. Except overnight. So, the printer has auto-on and auto-off scheduling which is very flexible. Nice! When going through the set-up and the settings, watch out for the 'opt-out' on HP collecting usage information from you. Some people are ok with that, which is fine. I just don't like it, and I was surprised to see that I had to tell it "no" at least twice. They should ask that question one time at the beginning -- and stick with the answer. I pretended to have patience, and I very methodically followed the quick-install guide that came with the printer. It went well until I got to the point of downloading the software. An installation GUI utility came up and said it needed to download the rest of the software (drivers, apps, etc) -- then it simply stopped and said something like "unable to complete". Huh? I turned off firewall and anti-virus just to eliminate that as an issue. Still no joy. So I had to go the HP website, find the printer and download the drivers/software myself to complete the install. Which ended up better anyway since the version I direct-downloaded was several versions newer than what the installer was trying to install (again..huh?). So this printer loses one egg because of a silly installation glitch that should not have happened. Final thought - you are obviously getting more value in terms of hardware, for this purchase price. This shouldn't be news to anyone, but what HP is selling you is ink. A set of replacement cartridges for this printer will run you just north of $100 and the "starter set" that the printer comes with will likely need to be replace fairly soon. This isn't a 'con', it's just a fact and all the printer manufacturers do this. Again, I find the best balance is to stick with my trust LaserJet 1300 for 90% of my printing, and use the big color printer for when it is needed.
Sorry - just not worth it
Pros: - Wifi and phone app integration - Simple For someone with money to burn this can be an interesting device to get your feet wet with some real-world interfacing and simple "coding" (if you call IFTTT actually writing code). Not much you can get wrong with this thing since it is so darn simple
Cons: It's way too limited for doing anything productive beyond turning lights on/off or opening/closing a garage door, etc. Way too expensive for the ROI, as well. You'd need a small collection of these things to do anything useful. There is no user's guide and forget finding anything about the internal architecture. The phone software is buggy and the device works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. I would not trust it with anything more important than turning a light on.
Overall Review: It's sad that they could have had a winner her and this thing comes up so lame. For this price, it should have two channels of A/D inputs -- then we could do some interesting things. For example, it would make a neat foundation for environmental monitoring, or even a way to experiment with creating your own remote car starter (you need A/D feedback to test engine RPM or alternator voltage). Even Belkin's online 'community' discussing this device is lethargic and the best that end users could come up with are things like water level sensing or remote launching a model rocket. Really? Anyone spending this money would be better suited looking at something else for more bang for their buck. Sorry to sound so harsh but this device is really not worth it.
Awesome drive from Corsair
Pros: ✔ 4x speed ✔ Very dense (memory) packaging, yet lightweight and nice looking ✔ No drama installation; works first time with no intervention required
Cons: Really could not find a single thing not to like about this drive.
Overall Review: This is a great upgrade over SATA; you will notice the speed difference immediately -- if your MB is of recent enough vintage (and BIOS level) to support M.2 at the 4x speed setting. Runs nice and cool as well. Corsair did a great job with this product, I can recommend it with no reservations at all.
Simple, clean, versatile power supply - you can't go wrong
Pros: I do a lot of custom builds and for laying out a plan for keeping costs reasonable yet having a highly reliable system, these supplies from Corsair are my go-to. I don't even mess around with less than 500W - as it is better to have more headroom and keep the heat generation in the overall system down. This power supply is perfect for this type of application. - Plenty of SATA supply connectors (7 of them). - 44 amps at the 12V rail which is very nice. - Variable speed fan so in an office environment you can keep the noise level down with this PS. - Supply seems solidly built and looks great.
Cons: - No cons that I could find. It just works.
Overall Review: Can't say for sure how long it will last as this is a fairly new unit, but it comes with a 3-year warranty. With supplies this inexpensive if you support customers there is no reason not to have a couple on hand at all times.
Great keyboard for gaming! Solidly built and feels really good to use
Pros: - Love the tactile feedback via true mechanical keys. This is so nice to have on a gaming keyboard. - No worries about replacing batteries, uses the familiar Corsair recharging system, via USB. - Keyboard snaps nicely into the lapboard. - Great mouse pad, plenty of room which you need for gaming. - Easily find space bar and home position via texture/indicators. - No issues with Windows, recognized right away with no driver drama. It's a nice, weighty keyboard with a crisp mechanical operation. The memory foam rest is very comfortable and will help to avoid injuries from extended use. There is zero lag and great range - I got nearly 18 feet with no problems.
Cons: For the price, it would have been nice to have this be a carrying case as well, with a snap-on cover with inside padding -- to use it to transport your mouse and cables, for example.
Overall Review: This isn't a product for a wide range of users. If you are a desktop person, you will just get the K63 keyboard by itself. Nice that they have this combo, but it's pretty expensive.
Very good headset...little bit gimmicky...but good.
Pros: Excellent sound quality; immersive experience. I like the way these feel on my noggin...I have a pretty big head (I'm 6'4") so they may very well be loose on some folks. I did not have any "ear fatigue" from these as I have had from other headphones. In terms of sound quality, I benchmark against my favorite pair of Sennheiser studio headphones - the same ones recording engineers us to mix down to stereo tracks. These headphones are pretty darn close, I was impressed. I had to roll down the bass just a little, and lift the high end -- using the Corsair "CUE" software (which is very nice)...but at least I could tweak it to my liking. The microphone worked well although my buddies that I tested this with said it was not as loud as my older Corsair gaming headset -- so I had to up the mic gain a bit. Not a huge deal. I took one star off for two reasons: First the "color changing" LED...maybe I'm just too old but do we really need "color changing" on every piece of computer hardware these days? Second, I totally understand the software-based Dolby 7.1...but I'm a purist and sorry these are stereo headphones. You do get a bit of surround illusion, but again this is 80% marketing and 20% reality (being generous). Range was excellent; up to around 25 feet inside my house. This is nice so when you have to go get a snack you don't get disconnected :-) My older Corsair set has seen a lot of use and never let me down. I don't expect this one to, either. Seems very well built. Battery life is excellent; I went at least 12 hours of heavy usage over a week long period. Recharge was pretty quick, too.
Cons: My wife tried these on and they were very loose on her head, so might not be a great answer for someone on the smaller end of the size spectrum. 2.4GHz...we are on an analog RF signal...which is fine but it's not digital.
Overall Review: I would definitely check this headset out if you game a lot (comfort), don't have a small head, and want something you can rely on as well made and long lasting, like almost all Corsair products are.