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Zachary L.

Zachary L.

Joined on 07/02/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

Works perfectly in Ubuntu 13.04

IOCrest SI-PEX40064 PCI-Express 2.0 Low Profile Ready SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) Controller Card
IOCrest SI-PEX40064 PCI-Express 2.0 Low Profile Ready SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) Controller Card

Pros: Works in Ubuntu 13.04

Cons: None

Overall Review: I'm using this card currently as a simple SATA port addition for more drives in a Linux RAID. It works wonderfully. No drivers/kernel recompile necessary. I can't speak to speed, or build-in RAID functionality (but if you're using built-in RAID, you should really be using software RAID), but I'm so happy it works as advertised in Linux without a headache.

Most Critical Review

Good case, but short on reset sw

Antec Nine Hundred Two V3 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case
Antec Nine Hundred Two V3 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case

Pros: Great case. Nice fans, roomy, everything I'd want in a case...

Cons: ...except the reset switch developed a short. It took me forever to figure it out. Replaced motherboard, PSU, front panel header (which doesn't include the reset switch), and finally figured it out. Not a horrible defect, but it was just so annoying to deal with.

Overall Review: Good case. Still worth buying. However, just want people to know about this problem I encountered.

NOT FOR DEBIAN

HighPoint RocketRAID 620 PCI-Express 2.0 x1 SATA III (6.0Gb/s) Controller Card
HighPoint RocketRAID 620 PCI-Express 2.0 x1 SATA III (6.0Gb/s) Controller Card

Pros: Probably a great card if you want to use it in OLD Ubuntu, NEW RedHat, or Windows.

Cons: The company advertises this card as working in Linux, and working well. Unless you want to patch your kernel, install the driver, and then re-compile/re-install every time you do a kernel update, don't buy this card. If you were running Linux software RAID...have fun re-building. SYBA is more supported for newer Debian-based distros.

Overall Review: Probably a great card. However, the company should NOT advertise this as working well in Linux if they don't support the most commonly used distribution. Wasted my time and my money.

Good cheap case, but not perfect

Rosewill RSV-L4411 Black Metal/ Steel, 1.0 mm thickness, 4U Rackmount Server Chassis, 12 SATA Hot-swap Drives, 5 Included Cooling Fans
Rosewill RSV-L4411 Black Metal/ Steel, 1.0 mm thickness, 4U Rackmount Server Chassis, 12 SATA Hot-swap Drives, 5 Included Cooling Fans

Pros: Case is an incredible value. Very sturdy, nice large fans. 12 front-facing drive bays.

Cons: The drive bays are a bit flaky, especially since they're not truly hot-swappable (must screw in drives to the trays). Even when fully clicked in, it failed to recognize one drive (a very scary thing when you have only RAID 5). The case is a bit wide, and wouldn't work with some generic rails I had (although I think Rosewill has rails that will work). The lock on the front is almost purely cosmetic.

Overall Review: This is a VERY good deal for a case. If you push the drives in all the way, it seems to function well. I'm happy with it, although if you want something a bit more high quality go for a Norco case (for lots of bays) or a SuperMicro case (for high quality build and features).

Fantastic point-and-shoot!

Canon ELPH 300 HS Black 12.1 MP 5X Optical Zoom 24mm Wide Angle Digital Camera
Canon ELPH 300 HS Black 12.1 MP 5X Optical Zoom 24mm Wide Angle Digital Camera

Pros: * Fantastic picture quality * Great video * Feature-full (stitching, color-picker photos, cool effects like fisheye, etc) * Relatively cheap

Cons: * None

Overall Review: Best point-and-shoot camera I've ever used. Ultimately, the important thing is picture quality: Mega-Pixel count, fancy features, etc don't matter if it looks grainy, not colorful, etc. The pictures I take with this just look great, period. Low-light, back-lit, scenery, people, anything looks good.

Very poor construction

ICY DOCK MB122SKGF-1B 5.25" SATA Mobile Rack Removable Hard Drive kit with LCD Display short version
ICY DOCK MB122SKGF-1B 5.25" SATA Mobile Rack Removable Hard Drive kit with LCD Display short version

Pros: - Sleek-looking design - LCD display - Feature-rich

Cons: - VERY flimsy design. I broke the plastic tab on the front within 30 seconds of using it - Latching mechanism is quite poor. I don't even know why the plastic hinge part is attached to the front: I suppose it's to let you pull it open. The thing actually just has a non-locking latch for the tray

Overall Review: Stay away from this. The fact that other people have had bad electrical wiring is reason enough. I should have listened to them and bought a different product. The latching on the front is terrible, and the whole unit just feels flimsy. Save yourself and purchase a different tray.