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Josh S.

Josh S.

Joined on 09/30/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 36
Most Favorable Review

Big and fast.

SAMSUNG Spinpoint M7E HM641JI 640GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive Bare Drive
SAMSUNG Spinpoint M7E HM641JI 640GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: As fast (or faster) than a lot of 7200rpm drives due to the two large platters, gobs of storage.

Cons: A bit noisier than the 250GB drive that came in my MBP...

Overall Review: While somewhat pricier than a 500GB, this 640GB drive is still a good deal. I got mine when it was $10 off, so that made it even better. I have a Samsung drive in each of my Macs (a white Macbook for my wife and my 13" MBP) and have been very happy with both of them.

Most Critical Review

Flaky, intermittent connection

VANTEC NexStar HX4 NST-640SU3-BK Aluminum / Plastic 3.5" Black SATA I/II/III USB 3.0 & eSATA Quad Bay HDD Enclosure
VANTEC NexStar HX4 NST-640SU3-BK Aluminum / Plastic 3.5" Black SATA I/II/III USB 3.0 & eSATA Quad Bay HDD Enclosure

Pros: Keeps drives cool, fan is (relatively) quiet. Decent quality construction.

Cons: Connection is intermittent on BOTH computers I tried it on (both Macs, if that's important). Sometimes data would write perfectly, other times it would drop off and disconnect in the middle of a write. Needless to say, I don't trust it. I was using it with four 1TB WD10EAVS WD Green hard drives.

Overall Review: I really wanted this to work... I really did; cheapest solution I could find with all the features I wanted, looks pretty nice, and is QUIET (hard to find in a quad enclosure). But if DATA isn't going to copy correctly. then I can't trust it - DATA is what this is for, after all. :-(

NIce addition to the Foxconn Nettop

Slim Magnetic DVD Burner for Barebone
Slim Magnetic DVD Burner for Barebone

Pros: Works great and matches the little Nettop perfectly. LOVE that it's a slot loading drive instead of a tray!

Cons: The magnets don't attach quite firmly enough for my tastes. It stays put, but it shifts around a little and gets out of alignment with the PC at time.

Overall Review: The magnetic attachment is cool, but I'd gladly trade it for an option to physically attach the drive with screws to the PC. As a drive, it works flawlessly.

Good for a basic TVPC

Foxconn nT-i2847 White Intel NM70 Mini / Booksize Barebone System
Foxconn nT-i2847 White Intel NM70 Mini / Booksize Barebone System

Pros: Small and quiet. USB 3.0 and DDR3 RAM. HDMI output. Got mine while the DVD drive was free. Does its intended job quite well (albeit not speedily).

Cons: Low power is LOW power. Not that I really expected much else, but this Celeron 847 is... slow... Mine's currently running a standard hard drive; gonna swap it for an SSD when I have time (gotta move it from another machine). Hopefully that will improve the responsiveness of the system.

Overall Review: I'm running Windows 7 Pro on mine. It works perfectly fine for its intended use (a cheap replacement for a power hungry Pentium 4 TVPC), but its not as quick as I'd hoped it would be. Hoping that the SSD swap will make up for it. All in all, I'm happy with it for what I paid. It's small, quiet, and I can actually HEAR my TV shows instead of the computer's roaring fan! lol

Does what it's supposed to

Ipro Drive 3.5" USB 2.0 External SATA Hard Drive Enclosure
Ipro Drive 3.5" USB 2.0 External SATA Hard Drive Enclosure

Pros: Does exactly what it's supposed to - encloses the hard drive, connects via USB, and turns on and off automatically.

Cons: I get the feeling it's a "one time use" item; the case was VERY hard to get snapped together correctly and feels as if it will disintegrate if I ever try to take it apart.

Overall Review: For the price I paid, I am 100% satisfied, even if it DOES break into a million pieces when I try to swap the drive. :-)

DOES NOT SPIN DOWN

MASSCOOL UHB-3232 Aluminum 3.5" Silver SATA I/II USB 3.0 External Enclosure
MASSCOOL UHB-3232 Aluminum 3.5" Silver SATA I/II USB 3.0 External Enclosure

Pros: Looks REALLY nice, pretty good quality construction for the price.

Cons: NEVER spins down, even when the computer sleeps. Afraid my HDD was going to melt inside. Tried other cables and computers, but got the same result. Mine arrived with a few cosmetic defects - I would've dealt with that if it wasn't for the no-sleep issue.

Overall Review: Why would ANY modern HDD enclosure not allow the drive to spin down to save wear and tear? Ahhh!