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Joshua P.

Joshua P.

Joined on 03/24/01

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 10
Most Favorable Review

Cheap, works.

Rosewill RX35-AT-SU SLV Aluminum 3.5" Silver SATA USB 2.0 External Enclosure
Rosewill RX35-AT-SU SLV Aluminum 3.5" Silver SATA USB 2.0 External Enclosure

Pros: It's cheap. It works. It's small. It's metal. Stable stand. Attractive. Includes cables and screws.

Cons: Gets warm, though I guess that means that it's transferring heat away from the hard drive. The power switch is a bit cheap, but for the money I guess I can't complain.

Overall Review: Not sure I'd recommend this for 24x7 operation, such as attached to router for shared storage; the unit gets noticeably warm, so I only use it for quick backups then turn it off. I bought two but dropped the first one on the floor (with a drive in it) about 30 seconds after getting it put together. DOH!

Most Critical Review

Terrible. Had such high hopes for this.

ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 GAMING-ITX/AC LGA 1151 Intel Z270 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Mini ITX Motherboards - Intel
ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 GAMING-ITX/AC LGA 1151 Intel Z270 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Mini ITX Motherboards - Intel

Pros: I wouldn't know. It won't boot with both memory slots filled with compatible memory. Gives POST error code of 3 beeps. Boots with either of my compatible memory inserted fully into either of the memory slots, but when installed together, won't boot.

Cons: The first one I ordered arrived damaged. I left a negative review on Newegg about it but apparently they won't show it. So this one is the replacement. Seemingly arrived undamaged but won't boot with both memory slots filled. Will never buy Asrock again.

Not impressed, returning as defective

Intel BOXDH57DD LGA 1156 Intel H57 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel BOXDH57DD LGA 1156 Intel H57 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Small form factor, feature packed

Cons: Unstable. Randomly powers off for no apparent reason. Happens in MEMTEST as well as in Windows 7. Similar to a previous post here. Bought (seemingly) compatible Kingston memory for it, should be a no-brainer. If it shuts off in MEMTEST in DOS, how can one determine if the RAM is bad or the mobo is bad? I have no other memory to test with...

Overall Review: Should have been a no-brainer easy installation. Not willing to buy another one of the same model...

Highly Recommended

Synology DS209 Diskless System Disk Station 2-bay SATA NAS Server for Workgroups and Offices
Synology DS209 Diskless System Disk Station 2-bay SATA NAS Server for Workgroups and Offices

Pros: Well built, fast NAS, RAID 1, quiet, Gigabit connection. Easy setup. Great web interface. Lots of great features and capabilities, many of which I will probably never use. Works GREAT with Macs and PCs alike (and apparently Linux).

Cons: Lots of features I will probably never use. Not a whole lot of great detailed explanation of how the extra features work. But its core capabilities -- fast RAID 1 NAS -- works great.

Overall Review: Glad this works great with my Mac. Very fast for a "budget" NAS. Currently using 2x1GB WD Green SATA drives. Very quiet and fast. Looking forward to the rumored 2.2 management tools release this fall to allow this to be used with Time Machine.

Couldn't be happier!

ICY DOCK MB559UEB-1S Aluminum body with partial plastic 3.5" SATA USB 2.0 & 1394 External Enclosure
ICY DOCK MB559UEB-1S Aluminum body with partial plastic 3.5" SATA USB 2.0 & 1394 External Enclosure

Pros: Attractive, Firewire 800 interface, easy to slide drive in and out. Drive tray locks in securely. Pop-open feet seem to work well.

Cons: Wish the FW800 pass-through feature worked with the drive powered off, it has to be on for my Mac to recognize downstream FW800 devices. Some concern that the pop-out feet should have been designed to open wider to give the drive housing extra stability.

Overall Review: Extra drive trays are a bit pricey.

Disappointing performance

ASUS Radeon HD 4350 512MB GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card EAH4350 SILENT/DI/512MD2
ASUS Radeon HD 4350 512MB GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card EAH4350 SILENT/DI/512MD2

Pros: Fanless, low power requirement, HDMI out.

Cons: Everything else. Really poor performance.

Overall Review: For just a few bucks more, you could have the Radeon HD 4550 from Gigabyte, also passively cooled, with MUCH better performance for about the same power usage. My Vista Aero scores jumped from 3.7 with this card to 5.1 with the 4550 card. There's no choice in my mind, this card should be ignored.