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Eric F.

Eric F.

Joined on 06/22/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 14
Most Favorable Review

ideal

HGST Ultrastar 7K3000 HUA723020ALA640 (0F12455) 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprisel Hard Drive Bare Drive
HGST Ultrastar 7K3000 HUA723020ALA640 (0F12455) 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprisel Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: I needed large capacity and with these I can take advantage of 6G/s speed supported by the motherboard. They run 24/7, not just powered on but constantly actively transferring and to date have been perfect.

Cons: none

Overall Review: I have had a defective drive or two over the years from Hitachi but overall they have been among the best I've used. I use them (these and earlier models) in FTP, video file servers, and video editing machines where they experience very heavy use for many years with almost never a failure. (A notable professional video and graphics rendering computer maker uses HGST almost exclusively. I have bought from them but generally prefer building my own.) I won't call them out here but in such environments I have had a 100% failure rate with 2 other very popular brands. Nothing is perfect. HGST has been close. We'll have to wait and see how it goes now that Western Digital owns HGST since history has shown when one buys another the product quality often changes.

Most Critical Review

Kills radio reception

Athena Power AP-MP4ATX30 300 W SFX-12V ATX-12V eMachines, HP Upgrades/Replacement Power Supply
Athena Power AP-MP4ATX30 300 W SFX-12V ATX-12V eMachines, HP Upgrades/Replacement Power Supply

Pros: It fits and it works. Runs cool. It's an SFX form factor. Fits perfectly in a Raidmax ITX-0907-BP.

Cons: Fan is a little noisy. The tight clearances in these small supplies is a problem, not only with this model but all of them. In some situations the fan blades actually touch the housing. It isn't a noisy bearing. This thing radiates RF like no other supply of any kind I have ever owned. The description says low noise. Not if you try to listen to AM radio. It leaks tons of hash into the power system, radiating 50 feet from all the wiring. I can hear it down the block to the pole transformer.

Overall Review: In the case I use it in the fan is the bottom. Internal case air is not pulled through the supply. Air moves between the rear and bottom of the case. Whether that's good or bad depends on your situation.

10/12/2012

Works just fine

VANTEC UGT-CR970-BK SD/microSD/CF USB 3.0 USB 3.0 to Multi-Slot Aluminum Card Reader with A to C
VANTEC UGT-CR970-BK SD/microSD/CF USB 3.0 USB 3.0 to Multi-Slot Aluminum Card Reader with A to C

Pros: Small, fast, works

Cons: 'In Use' LED is very small

Overall Review: I've had numerous internal card readers, all have been glitchy in some way and/or fail prematurely. Now, with so few cases having small drive bays & so few readers being full size you always need bay adapters. They are also a zillion-in-one devices. I only use SD, microSD, (& related) & occasionally CF. So why have all those other slots? So I'll try a more simple external box. So far this little thing has been perfect. Note: it has a single board in the center. Therefore slots on one side are upside down related to the other. With the logo on top the SD and micro SD slots are upside down. That's a bit of an annoyance. It's very light, you can't insert cards without holding it or you'll move the whole thing. Using some hook & loop stuff or whatever to mount it in some way can be helpful. It has been reliable and appears to transfer very fast.

Works just dandy

SYBA SI-PEX40089 PCI-Express 2.0 2-port SATA III, PCI-E, x1, Revision 2.0, (Full & Low Profile); ASMedia Chipset, RAID
SYBA SI-PEX40089 PCI-Express 2.0 2-port SATA III, PCI-E, x1, Revision 2.0, (Full & Low Profile); ASMedia Chipset, RAID

Pros: Affordable, works Windows 10 (1709) found and set up the card immediately, was truly plug and play.

Cons: none in particular

Overall Review: Ordered Syba, received IOCrest, same thing but that's curious, perhaps the egg should update the item. If you're concerned about speed keep in mind mechanical hard drives and even most solid state drives will not get anywhere near the SATA III spec. PCIE 2.0 tops at 500MBps while a 7200 RPM drive transfers a maximum of about 150MBps on a good day. I use this card for two optical drives so speed is even less of a concern.

11/26/2017

Nice product

Corsair 32GB Voyager GT USB 3.0 Flash Drive, Speed Up to 240MB/s (CMFVYGT3B-32GB)
Corsair 32GB Voyager GT USB 3.0 Flash Drive, Speed Up to 240MB/s (CMFVYGT3B-32GB)

Pros: Soft grip is nice, reasonably fast.

Cons: Not nearly as fast as claimed. The best I could get is 35MBps write using Fat32 or exFat, regardless of cluster size. NTFS is slower, as expected. I expected at least nearer the specs. Yes, it's not an $85 Lexar P20 which just smokes everybody (although now Lexar isn't the same after being sold by Micron). So at this price it's still pretty decent.

Overall Review: Blue activity LED clashes with the red accents of the body, could just as easily have a red LED. I prefer retractable designs or those where the cap can be kept with the body. But I wanted a decent flash drive in 32GB size and USB 3. (Fat32 needed so using larger than 32GB is very problematic). There's plenty USB 3 devices that don't even come close to USB 3 speeds so this isn't surprising. Hopefully it has the durability of other Corsair memory products. Package has no *easy open* feature nor any "cut here" line or any such. There's a warranty paper in there. I cut the paper right in half when opening the package with scissors. It's a little bigger than most. I like it but for close spaced ports it will be a problem.

11/21/2017

Perfect on Ryzen 1700x

Thermaltake Contac Silent 12 150W INTEL/AMD with AM4 Support 120mm PWM CPU Cooler CL-P039-AL12BL-A
Thermaltake Contac Silent 12 150W INTEL/AMD with AM4 Support 120mm PWM CPU Cooler CL-P039-AL12BL-A

Pros: Fits AM4 socket out of the box, installs easily, seems to have well more than enough cooling power for AMD Ryzen 1700x running full blast and slightly overclocked, (I tend not to push things to the limit). Low noise even up at full speed which in my system it rarely gets to.

Cons: None in particular

Overall Review: It clamps quite tight, can be a little tough to get clipped on, even more difficult to get off, so be careful. Depending on clearance in you case it may be easier to put the fan on first before mounting on the board, or the opposite may be true. The fan clips are easy to use but if you're near the case edge getting a hand in there can be tough. I had considered using a second fan to increase cooling power. Replacement fan not (currently) readily available but it can be gotten through their support. The fins are shaped symmetrically so one could clip on a second fan but you'd need the clip. Certainly one could choose to use another fan but I wanted the identical just because. A small stand off of some sort may be needed to do this without the blades hitting the fins. I may never do this, it's just an idea, funny they don't sell it since it would fit fine. But as is it cools very well.