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David S.

David S.

Joined on 08/17/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 8
Most Favorable Review

Style and Grace

LaCie Minimus 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive 301961
LaCie Minimus 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive 301961

Pros: This is 1TB and USB 3.0, what's better than the newest USB 3.0, besides eSata, but USB 3.0 is at least compatible with USB 2.0 ports. Defiantly one of the most compact desktop drives I know of if not the most. The USB 3.0 Cable is a decent length unlike some of their previous model cables. The plug is international.

Cons: To be honest, none there is no Cons, I love this drive.

Overall Review: By far one of my favorite drives, and I have plenty external hard drives as well as internal drives. I love the minimalist design to this drive. Simple, flashy and not at the same time.

12/28/2010

Style and Grace

LaCie Minimus 2TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive 301967 Aluminum
LaCie Minimus 2TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive 301967 Aluminum

Pros: I have the 1TB version and I liked it so much that I ended up buying this is 2TB version as well. USB 3.0, what's better than the newest USB 3.0, besides eSata, but USB 3.0 is at least compatible with USB 2.0 ports. Defiantly one of the most compact discrete desktop drives I know of if not the most. The USB 3.0 Cable is a decent length (3 ft.) unlike some of their previous model cables. The plug is international. Runs very quiet, and doesn't get too hot. The brushed aluminum enclosure helps keep the hard drive cool. Transfer rates for a 4GB file with speeds of at least 130MB\s with a burst speed of 1.06GB\s ending in about 43secs. Transfer rates for a 15.8GB file with speeds of at least 105MB\s with a burst speed of 529MB\s ending in about 2mins 45secs.

Cons: To be honest, none there is no Cons, I love this drive.

Overall Review: By far one of my favorite drives, and I have plenty external hard drives as well as internal drives. I love the minimalist design to this drive. Simple, flashy and not at the same time.

Heavy Duty

LaCie Starck 1TB USB 2.0 3.5" External Hard Drive 301888KUA
LaCie Starck 1TB USB 2.0 3.5" External Hard Drive 301888KUA

Pros: Great hard drive, one of my favorite USB 2.0 drive. 3mm thick aluminum case which not only looks cool but is also very functional as a great heat sink thus making it less likely to over heat. This drive is also surprisingly much FASTER than most USB 2.0 drives I've dealt which was not low quality at all. The unique busy light is nice, I am not very fond of the touch "button" just because I don't want to get any smudges on it so I don't touch it, but it is great that it has that option.

Cons: Brings a super short mini USB cable, which using a mini USB on a drive this size just feels weird since most uses the A to B but either way it runs FAST.

Overall Review: The only thing that could make this better is if it was USB 3.0 instead. Still love the design, quality, and speed.

11/17/2010

1 Hiccup

QNAP TS-119-US Network Storage
QNAP TS-119-US Network Storage

Pros: This has a gigabit port, 3 USB ports and an eSATA port, what more can you ask for in a small home network besides, a USB hub CAN be attached to the front USB to expand the amount of ports. It has a great account manager as well.

Cons: The need for initializing the drive through the proprietary software is a little annoying. The simple torrent UI just does not have enough options for my taste, and just generally not that great just okay.

Overall Review: Make sure that you install their software first and follow the directions to initialize it completely because going through explorer just doesn’t work; it will most likely freeze up on the initialization of the hard drive as well as mess up the whole OS, thus rendering it unusable.

11/14/2010

Value

CyberPower Intelligent LCD Series CP1500AVRLCD 1500 VA 900 Watts 12 Outlets UPS
CyberPower Intelligent LCD Series CP1500AVRLCD 1500 VA 900 Watts 12 Outlets UPS

Pros: Power supply preforms great, I've built a power house desktop rig and usually the power doesn't go off but had a roommate that doesn't know anything about electricity, electronics, or almost anything technology wise, and then some, for that matter and she keeps on blowing out the breakers with everything connected to 1 outlet, so I bought this. I did a self test, either the same day or the day after receiving it, with my desktop on by simply unplugging and the desktop was still running smooth.

Cons: None of the consumer UPS's are at all efficient so it can't really be held against that but a 60% efficiency just isn't that great. Anything thing with a higher efficiency cost at least about 4 times more than this.

Overall Review: This is great for its price, can't really find anything cheaper that actually works well and can sustain 900w's of power. So far I have 2 cyberpower UPS's and I am very content with those products. I do recommend getting this if anyone has issues with high powered electronics and a electricity issue such as an ignorant roommate.

1 Hiccup

GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: It has one of the most SATA3 ports that contain 6gbs ports and it has 2 SATA2ports at an affordable price. There is 2 ESATA ports on the back panel, what more do you want. There are also 2 USB 3.0 ports which is normal for a lot of the new MB's.

Cons: No onboard video card was a small issue for me because I intended this to be a storage server so I didn't care about adding a graphics card on this at the moment. The SATA2 ports are hard to connect anything to when it is under my huge video card so you should make sure to connect those first

Overall Review: The onboard ESATA controller freaked out on me once, it had stopped reading my ESATA drives, but all i had to do was to go into the bios and disable the ESATA onboard controller and restart the computer, let it load up, restart the computer and then re-enable it. Now it is fine so that isn't enough for me to take it down an egg.