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Michael M.

Michael M.

Joined on 03/30/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

Does what it advertises very well

Drobo BeyondRAID 4 Bay Diskless Storage Array Enclosure  - DR04DD10
Drobo BeyondRAID 4 Bay Diskless Storage Array Enclosure - DR04DD10

Pros: This thing works well, VERY well. I had an Eagle dual drive enclosure and it was just getting way too hot, and I was limited, and I had to manage each drive, and there was no redundancy. I have this connected to a Mac Mini acting as my server via Firewire 800 and it runs very quickly considering the calculations it is doing while transferring. This is best used in this sort of scenario. One computer. One point of access that manage what goes on the drive. I did have to call the techs to see why their software was not running in Snow Leopard; and that went very well. Prompt, knowledgeable, knew OSX terminal commands, pointed me to an ftp to download a specific version, etc. All they needed was to know what product I had to help; no real information other than email, and before I even registered the product. Buy this if you want to stop worrying about redundancy, but also if you don't want to worry about managing drives, RAID setups, etc.

Cons: I wouldn't consider this a real con... I had to transfer roughly 2.5TB of data. So that took awhile (roughly 20+ hours) and during this period the drives started to get much hotter than I would have liked. BUT my other enclosure ran hot constantly. There is a con that if you are running Snow Leopard that you will HAVE TO BOOT IN TO 32-bit MODE TO USE THE SOFTWARE. They're working on 64-bit for the next release.

Overall Review: Two 2TB Western Digital One 1.5TB Seagate One 1TB Western Digital 4.06TB Available while keeping drives protected.

11/22/2009
Most Critical Review

Waaaayyyy too hotttt

Rosewill RX82-MP-SUF82-BLK Aluminum 2.5" Black USB 2.0 & 1394bx2 External Enclosure
Rosewill RX82-MP-SUF82-BLK Aluminum 2.5" Black USB 2.0 & 1394bx2 External Enclosure

Pros: Simple install, quality built, F800 is great on my MacBook Pro considering it only has 3 USB 2.0 ports.

Cons: I don't know why, but this thing runs VERY hot. Too hot for me to comfortably put a drive in with any real data I care about. This is a pretty big concern given I wanted to run a 320GB Black Western Digital drive in it with an OSX install in case something happened to the 500GB Seagate drive I put in to replace it. Running as hot as it does, this makes me not able to do that.

Overall Review: For the price tag, I expected it to work much better than it has. Maybe it's a firmware issue, too much power, I don't know.

11/22/2009

Pretty amazing piece of hardware

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Black 21.1 MP Digital SLR Camera w/EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens
Canon EOS 5D Mark II Black 21.1 MP Digital SLR Camera w/EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens

Pros: * Great menu, Canon thought this out well * Lens that comes with the bundle is phenomenal * Video is superb, will support 60fps soon * High ISO settings are ridiculous in a good way. Yes, shooting 6400 iso will make grain, about the same amount of grain my 30D has at 1500. * Full frame! * VERY solid build * Metal Body

Cons: * Specific video modes aren't straight forward enough. but then again this is a camera... * I'll try to find more and get back to you.

Overall Review: * If you have the hard drive space, ALWAYS shoot RAW format. * If you don't have other lenses and looking to see this camera do amazing shots, grab the Canon 50mm for around $120. This camera combined with that lens at 1.8F and you will be blown away. This camera really does break the barriers down for any photographer that has to shoot without a perfect setup. Yes, you could buy something cheaper and invest in flashes, etc... But at the end of the day you will realize with this camera it's really great to have something that doesn't need superb lighting for superb shots.

12/29/2009

Build quality is what you pay for, great lense though!

Canon 2514A002 SLR Lenses EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens Black
Canon 2514A002 SLR Lenses EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens Black

Pros: For the money, this is an astonishing lens. It practically sucks in light. To give everyone an example I have the lens that comes with the Canon 5d Mark II. Went in to a concert to photograph with that lens. To get anything usable I had to go to 6400 ISO, 1/60th with the lens absorbing as much as possible. Not enough. Put this lens on and dropped the ISO to 2400, 1/200th of a second which properly lit photos. Huge difference, and at $100 it's supremely worth it.

Cons: For $100 bucks, I can't think of any. This lens is made to be good and cheap and easy to replace if broken.

Overall Review: As for people who drop it and complain... How often do pro photographers drop lenses? Never dropped a lens in 10 years of photography; EVER. And how often to pro photographers only spend $100 on a lens? If people want a better built product, PAY MORE. Don't blame a product purposely made for a price point. Don't by a scooter and complain it's not a motorcycle.

Wow, worth the money, so worth the money

Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: 8gb ram, 3 hard drives including one 10k rpm raptor, EVGA 280 GTX, AMD Phenom 9950... A lot of heat pretty much. But, with this case I can keep the CPU temp to around 48, and the video card RARELY gets above 65C on full load after hours of gaming. The space between the case an the back of the motherboard tray provide ample room for wiring, I was able to accomplish the cleanest wiring setup I've ever seen. This case is astonishing. 8 fans, all variable speed... This is one of the best purchases I've ever made.

Cons: Minor, and would not even come close to changing my mind on the purchase, but the doors don't slide in as nicely as most Antecs do, but it is not at all any sort of frustration when working on the computer.

Overall Review: The price, for what this has done for my setup, blows EVERYONE out of the water. If you look at any other cases on the site, you will not see any other one with such a good layout for fans, air filters, etc... The price is literally unbeatable.

Worth every penny...

SAMSUNG 20" a-si TFT/TN WSXGA+ LCD Monitor 2 ms (GTG) 1680 x 1050 D-Sub, DVI-D 206BW
SAMSUNG 20" a-si TFT/TN WSXGA+ LCD Monitor 2 ms (GTG) 1680 x 1050 D-Sub, DVI-D 206BW

Pros: Everything... Sorry, I know that doesn't help much :) But really, there are no dissapointments with this lcd. I have it setup on a riser on my desk, power switch underneath along with my wacom, external hard drives on the side, 7 port usb below, media center remote and reciever also below, speakers to the side, it is a perfect setup. I was quite anxious about going lcd since I do ALOT of digital design and photography... Crts always had the best overall picture and color. But Samsung, along with many other lcds have come a long way. No dead pixels, perfectly bright (but easily turned down a notch). Perfect weight, simple design, sturdy base.

Cons: None that I can find right now. You can not tilt it forward, but truth be told if you have to tilt it forward considering it's low stand and inability to rise any more than it already is, I don't see needing a forward tilt.

Overall Review: It's not to say this monitor was built on a budget, but Samsung definitely had a price range in mind and by leaps and bounds they come out ahead. The picture is worth more than what I payed, if I wanted forward tilt, more cable management than offered, I would of had to pay more, and then who knows what else they would compromise. Going to be getting a second one in a month. The 20 inch is perfect size, not too big, not too small.