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Jeff S.

Jeff S.

Joined on 10/17/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Good deal on commercial engineering workstation.

HP Z400 Workstation - Intel Quad Core 2.66GHz W3520 Xeon Processor, 8GB RAM, 240GB SSD + 500GB HDD, DVDRW, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 510 2GB Professional Video Card, Keyboard & Mouse, Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
HP Z400 Workstation - Intel Quad Core 2.66GHz W3520 Xeon Processor, 8GB RAM, 240GB SSD + 500GB HDD, DVDRW, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 510 2GB Professional Video Card, Keyboard & Mouse, Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

Pros: Great preformance for the money, from quad-core Intel Xeon server/workstation, built like a tank, will be running fine 10 years from now. Coretek is EXCELLENT and Thomas is immediately responsive...bent over bachwards for me for Christmas !

Cons: Older style memory, maxes at 4gig per stick, machine I bought only had 4 slots, for a maximum 16 gig, but some Z400's have 6 slots and max out at 24gig.

Overall Review: Recommended to neighbor with kids in Engineering school, but for average home use, don't need to go this far maybe ?

Most Critical Review

So far, INCOMPATIBLE even though NewEgg says it is !

Patriot Viper Elite 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4 2400MHz DRAM (Desktop Memory) CL16 1.2V Grey DIMM (288-pin) Extreme Performance Memory PVE416G240C6GY (Intel XMP, AMD Ryzen)
Patriot Viper Elite 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4 2400MHz DRAM (Desktop Memory) CL16 1.2V Grey DIMM (288-pin) Extreme Performance Memory PVE416G240C6GY (Intel XMP, AMD Ryzen)

Pros: Funny.....forcing me to enter what I "liked" about the hardware......

Cons: Well....just received order today....MSI Tomahawk Arctic, AMD Ryzen 5 1600, single 16g Patriot 2400Mhz, PVE416G240C6GY NEWEGG says supports RYZEN.....plugged in a basic MSI R7 250.....fired it up.....NOTHING....Arctic diagnostic LEDs for CPU and DRAM are lit, no POST, no BIOS......followed manual....single 16stick plugged into DIMMA2.....nothing. Disconnected everything but power switch and Video card, same CPU and DRAMM LEDs lit. What a great way to blow the weekend.

Excellent, Inexspensive USB-to-Ethernet

Edimax EU-4208 USB 2.0 to 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet LAN Wired Network Adapter for Windows XP/ Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1, Macbook Air, and Linux (ASIX AX88772B chipset)
Edimax EU-4208 USB 2.0 to 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet LAN Wired Network Adapter for Windows XP/ Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1, Macbook Air, and Linux (ASIX AX88772B chipset)

Pros: Simple installation (does require driver disk, Win7 does not have driver built-in); Works without problems; Fast solution for dead motherboard ethernet jack on 1 year old HP desktop PC

Cons: None experienced

Overall Review: These USB-to-Ethernet adapters probably all use the same chip, that's how the semiconductor market is....a chip comes out that "does it all, cheap" and everybody just uses it....so this one's as good as the rest....no problems experienced.....it just works.

Quick, Capable, Affordable

MAGELLAN 4.3" GPS w/ One Free Map Update & Lifetime Traffic
MAGELLAN 4.3" GPS w/ One Free Map Update & Lifetime Traffic

Pros: Magellen Roadmate user-interface is very intuitive, easy to learn operation, "OneTouch" favorite destinations a great feature; This 2036-MU has their latest maps, ver. 41, that's what "MU" stands for (Map Update). I've read they've switched to TeleAtlas maps, from NavTeq....unit does not say inside. But I've got a Lowrance XOG GPS with NavTeq maps, and I see no superiority to either brand of map....ALL units, regardless whether they use TeleAtlas or NavTeq, will have some addresses they don't recognize, or some other quirk you just have to get used to, there's no perfect GPS, regardless of price or brand or map.

Cons: People with "Garmin Envy" who wish they "...should of (have) bought a Garmin..." The Garmins I checked out before buying this were no better, and seemed a bit slower (in this price range). Nothing wrong with Garmin....but this Magellan 2036-MU was a better deal.

Overall Review: One significant feature everyone should care about is the ability to back up your address book. If you have to reboot/reload the unit for some reason, such as un updated operating system download, you need a way to save your address book, unless you're willing to re-enter everything all over again. Some GPS units have removable memory card slots for this purpose. All Magellans can use their downloadable "Device Manager" software to back up your address book, so even their least expensive units not having a memory card slot (the 2036 does not) can back up the address book. Incredibly, the owner's manual to this 2036-MU fails to mention such a significant feature !??!

Like a pickup truck, solid, dependable

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F1-3200PHU2-2GBNS
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F1-3200PHU2-2GBNS

Pros: I've bought 3 or 4 of these sets....haven't had a single problem with any of them....no bad address-spaces found while testing with MemTest86+. Look for Dimms like this, that use clips you can see on the outside, that hold their heatsinks on, NOT like some brands that use double-sided tape inside the heatsink....I've had some of those actually drop off inside the PC while POWERED UP....one fried a motherboard...but not this G.Skill.... it's great.

Cons: NONE

Overall Review: ....definitely some of the best I've used in 15 years....builiding and repairing more machines than I can remember.

Nice, Quick, and Quiet....but....

Seagate Momentus 5400.3 ST980815A 80GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 / ATA-6 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive Bare Drive
Seagate Momentus 5400.3 ST980815A 80GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 / ATA-6 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: My Compaq R3000 P4 laptop had no problem recognizing this drive upgrade, from it's older, 4200rpm 40 gig drive.... ....This ST98081-11a was a nice, quiet, and quick upgrade.

Cons: ....BUT.....the one I got (from here at NewEgg), which was actually the ST98081-11a, not the 15A listed now...just died on me a couple of days ago, out of the blue. One minute it's working perfectly, the next it's corrupted and won't boot!! However, I MUST state that I can't honestly be sure the drive is to blame. I had just finished allowing Microsoft to do some critical update it claimed it had to do.....that I decided to cancel because it was taking more time than I could spare at that moment....rebooted, and the drive was corrupted. I tried running Seagate's SeaTools to repair it, but that failed, so I'm now forced to ship it back to Seagate under their 5-year warranty (which still has 1.5 years left on it)....the drive wouldn't even allow reformatting and reloading XP it was so far gone!

Overall Review: It's hard for me to believe a Microsoft update could have done this, so I'm leaning towards the idea that the drive was failing in the first place.... ...but who knows? It was a great drive for the last few years, so maybe this new 15A version will be even better...I just ordered one and I'll use the old one as a spare when it comes back from Seagate.