Joined on 11/26/10
Not bad, not bad at all.
Pros: Very inexpensive for what it is. Per $, the best possible system improvement on any system running off an HDD. 64GB ended up being ~57-59GB once Win 7 x64 was installed, but that's still plenty of space for all the essentials: all other programs, games, etc go on the HDD. I can run firefox as soon as I can click it after having logged in.
Cons: A bit tricky to install: note that most of these ship with firmware 0001 or 0002 (the current version as of the date of this posting is 0009). You MUST (for best performance/compatibility) update the firmware by booting from a burned CD of the .iso downloaded from the crucial site. When doing this you must be sure to have no other drives plugged in, and cannot have the SSD setup in hot-swap fashion. Not too bad, just overall a lot of plugging and unplugging.
Overall Review: With storage drives I'm always worried about DOA products, or bad sectors etc. and in this instance I did not experience that. Although there was certainly a noticeable increase in performance, it's not face-melting. Don't set your hopes too high. My final write score speed as benched by Crystal Disk was 320mb/s, over my HDD's 120mb/s. After some light tweaking, I got it up to 367mb/s. An overall 3x performance increase for <100$.
Bad Sectors
Pros: Fair price, better than average RMA policy: They sent me a new *2TB* Caviar Black before I had to send them back my RMA'd 1TB.
Cons: This was the only HDD in my rig at build time, and I had trouble installing Win 7 x64 on it, but finally got it to go through. Experienced some problems with large files often, and deduced it was due to bad sectors on the drive.
Overall Review: Still would've rather not had to RMA and migrate windows at all, but in the end it wasn't that bad of an experience.
Not quite refrubished...
Pros: None, entirely non-functional.
Cons: Product does not stay connected via bluetooth to the ipad. Constantly loses connection, needs to be forgotten, repaired and then loses connection again after 30 seconds. Magnets seem very weak. Just opening the case separates them. Not at all what I'd seen in other review videos (where they hinges are shaken)
Overall Review: Very disappointed in both Newegg and Logitech for letting a refurb go through still defective. Both are usually great companies, but I guess they need to cut corners somewhere. Logitech support is 6am-6pm GMT-8...
Pretty Good monitor for the price.
Pros: I have it set up in portrait mode as a second monitor, which was very easy with the locking mechanism on the back of the monitor which allows you to spin the screen on it's stand.
Cons: The monitor quality isn't STELLAR, but that's what you get for this price. I have it setup in portrait mode, so the problems of LCD monitors when viewed from low (brightens) or high (darkens) angles becomes a problem when viewed from sharp left (brightens) or right (darkens) angles, which is annoying. I really have to have it facing me square on, which makes my setup a little different then what I wished.
Overall Review: If it were a solo, primary monitor I think it would do the job well. That being said, IMHO ASUS makes better monitors at similar prices.
Great Case
Pros: Great case, large, open, airy, many HD slots. EZ open from both sides is a huge plus. I like the features of this case, and it looks very sleek. The option to turn off the fan LED light is great. Very easy case for those who need to pop open the hood every once in a while.
Cons: Accumulates dust very easily due to large amounts of air flow. If you have you computer setup like me (to the right of your leg) you may get some dust on your pants if you brush up against the case. Triangular top of the case means you cant really place anything on top of it, i.e. jewel cases, misc items, etc.
Works well
Pros: No problems on install. It's RAM, so pretty straight-forward. Noticeable performance increase, no DOA sticks.
Cons: Fins on the sticks are very sharp and if you have a MoBo which needs you to force the sticks to lock into place, you'll have some marks on your palms.