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David S.

David S.

Joined on 04/02/12

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Most Favorable Review

Great Power Supply A++

CORSAIR RMx Series RM550X 550W 80 PLUS GOLD Haswell Ready Full Modular ATX12V & EPS12V SLI and Crossfire Ready Power Supply
CORSAIR RMx Series RM550X 550W 80 PLUS GOLD Haswell Ready Full Modular ATX12V & EPS12V SLI and Crossfire Ready Power Supply

Pros: Corsair did a wonderful job on the overall build quality of this power supply. The RM550x is both aesthetically pleasing to look at and the overall construction of the power supply is very solid. Plus supporting an 80+ Gold certification, Corsairs Zero RPM fan mode and a 7 year warranty, makes this power supply something to be sought after for builders with a low to moderate powered system. In the box you will find a few nice features that Corsair threw in to hold everything nicely. 1x Pouch to store the power supply 1x Pouch to store the modular cable connectors 1x Bag with zip ties, screws, and Corsair logo sticker Moving onto the connectors this system supports an appropriate number, type, and length. 1x 24 pin (20+4) ATX at 610mm 1x ATX12V 8 pin (4+4) at 650mm 1x PCIe 8 pin (6+2, with 2 per cable) at 750mm 2x SATA 3 (3 connectors per cable) at 750mm 1x Peripheral cable (Molex 4 pin, with 4 per cable) at 750mm 1x Floppy adapter at 101mm Only the 24 pin ATX and 8pin ATX-12v connectors are sleeved with heat shrink on the ends for a cleaner look. The rest of the connectors are un-sleeved black cables. Getting a bit more in depth with this power supply I would like to mention its 80+ gold efficiency and fan noise. Under a low load of about 20-40% the system will run anywhere from 83-90% efficient with its peak efficiency at 93% running around 50-60% utilization. The fan noise is next to nothing until it turns on, which it won’t do until the system gets hot enough. According to Corsairs site the highest noise level will be around 22db with the system at full load which usually won’t happen too much if ever. And during the time that I was testing this power supply the fan never turned on.

Cons: I really can’t find a con for this power supply. Though if I do find one I will be sure to edit this review.

Overall Review: Overall I feel many builders will be pleased with this power supply. Its fully modular features allow you to use only the needed cables, and the cables themselves are plenty long for a mid-sized ATX case. The amount of connectors are perfect for this size of power supply as well. Something to note is that the only difference between the RMx and RMi series power supplies is that the RMi supports Corsairs fan control software. The RMx is a power supply for builders that would like all the features of the RMi but don’t need the special software. Good job Corsair I can’t wait to see what other products you come out with.

Most Critical Review

Decent but Unsecure

D-Link DCS-5009L Pan & Tilt Wi-Fi Camera
D-Link DCS-5009L Pan & Tilt Wi-Fi Camera

Pros: Unboxing the camera you will find a 10+Ft power and Ethernet cable along with some screws and a bracket for mounting the camera to a surface. And as always you will find some warranty information and quick install/user manuals and the camera itself. The D-Link is an indoor IP-based camera that supports both wireless N and 10/100Mbps wired connections. So I wouldn't recommend using this device outside as it will not last very long. Now lets take a closer look at the wireless camera. The D-Link DCS-5009L supports a wide range of options and features including: PTZ (Pan,Tilt,Zoom), Motion Detection Alerts, Night Vision, Remote Viewing and a very very simple setup process. Meaning it's very DIY based with no hidden fees or monthly charges to use this devices. After plugging in the IP-Camera to your home network either via wireless or the supplied ethernet cable you can navigate to its web UI by going to its IP address. So you will need to hop into your router and locate the device. Or you can use the WDS feature the camera supports which I personally will never use as I will never use wireless with a device like this due to security concerns. After finding the IP address you can head into the web UI. Be sure you have java installed onto your computer or you will not be able to view the live camera feed. Speaking of Java there is strike one for this camera. Java is defiantly not a secure language, and new exploits are found in java on a daily basis. Once inside the interface you will notice it is very straight forward with what you can do. So nice job D-Link with the interface this will greatly help any new users when it comes to configuring the camera. Live video does just like it says allows you to view a live video feed from the camera. You can also use the built-in PTZ controls to move the view angle around to see new areas. Keep in mind this is not a 360 rotation device so you and only go about 180 in either direction. You can also configure Motion detection which is nice so you wont get alerts if its windy outside and your camera trips on a blowing branch. As well as the motion detection you can configure mail alerts, FTP uploads which I will highly suggest you be very careful with. This device is not the most secure thing in the world and all communications to and from this device are unencrypted meaning anything sniffing on your network can very easily intercept its communications.

Cons: If I can open up wireshark and view the almost plain text data going to and from the device then I don't feel safe connecting this to my network. I have dealt with my fare share of IP-Cameras and almost all of them are in some shape or form need security enhancements.

Overall Review: There are few thing that are good about this device, such as the fact that you can change its listening port and set camera positions for quick navigation. So instead of the default port being 80 you can change it to almost anything you want. Also PTZ positions are very helpful when trying to switch viewing angles. Instead of clicking the left arrow 20times to go all the way to the left you can select a position you can customize and the camera will go right to that set position. Another feature I like is the ability to setup users, but one thing I really wish is the ability to change the default admin user name. Tiny changes like this can only help when it comes to security. Sorry D-Link but I wouldn't recommend this to any home users and absolutely 100% will never recommend this device for small business use. 2014 was a terrible year for cyber security with new and very dangerous exploits and bugs being discovered that caused massive amounts of harm and damages. This is a decent device with handy features for average home users but when I can open up wireshark and watch everything going to and from this device I don't really want this on my network, in fact there are sites out there right now that display hundreds of thousands of insecure IP-camers, all thanks to people not changing the default password. Nothing against D-Link here as I have bought many of their products before and I do greatly enjoy them. But really all the IP based camera systems out there today and not just D-Link's are in need of security enhancements.

Great upgrade from the MP510

Corsair MP600 PRO LPX M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 3D Internal Solid State Drive Up to 7100 MB/sec (SSD) CSSD-F1000GBMP600PLP, Optimized for PS5
Corsair MP600 PRO LPX M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 3D Internal Solid State Drive Up to 7100 MB/sec (SSD) CSSD-F1000GBMP600PLP, Optimized for PS5

Pros: Fast, slim, & storage up to 4TB X570 Aorus Pro WiFi Mini-ITX AMD Ryzen 7 3800x 8-Core Corsair VENGEANCE LPX 32GB (2x16) Windows 11 Switched out my MP510 with the 600LPX and absolutely no complaints. Noticeable improvements on system boot, loading steam games, and overall slightly snappier response times from when I was running the MP510. I am also running Hyper-V on my local system with 4 VMs for various projects and just like above, systems are snappier and more responsive. It's great to be able to just fire up a game or VM without having to wait! Doing some basic tests with CrystalDiskMark shows advertised speeds for most tests and even if it was slightly slower than advertised this drive is still crazy fast when you have it in a Gen4 slot.

Cons: Not a big con as I understand why heatsinks are on most Gen4 m.2 drives but it would have been nice to see Corsair not glue the heatsink to the board. I have a mini-ITX board in a Dan case and with my CPU heatsink, it's a very snug fit. If I could remove the heatsink I could use the motherboard's built-in Gen4 m.2 fan to cool the drive and have a bit more airflow in the case.

Overall Review: Overall Corsair makes great products and I have never had a bad experience with them yet. Drive works as advertised for its speed, it is slim and comes in a variety of sizes up to 4TB.

I can never go back now

Corsair Force MP510 M.2 2280 960GB PCI-Express 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3 3D TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-F960GBMP510
Corsair Force MP510 M.2 2280 960GB PCI-Express 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3 3D TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-F960GBMP510

Pros: Very very fast, I used to think that SSD's where amazing and now that I have an M.2 drive for booting I can never go back. Boot speeds, performance speeds, and general file transfer speeds are amazing on this device. I used to see performance issue before with SSD's while I was encoding videos or just transfer files around in general. Though with this M.2 drive my drive speeds are no longer an issue at all.

Cons: None that I can find so far

Overall Review: I would recommend Corsair M.2 drives to anyone not only because of their speeds but Corsair has always made good products and I've never had a bad customer experience yet with them. Overall I am very satisfied with this drive and its speed consistency during long or large file transfers.

Amazing but cant update firmware or use software

Gamdias Hermes M3 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Blue Switches
Gamdias Hermes M3 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Blue Switches

Pros: I have used mechanical keyboards before but this one by far I like the most. The look, feel, build quality, and snazzy lights all make this keyboard something for guests to ogle over. The key presses feel amazing and are very natural. I really like how short the presses are. I really like the LED lights for this keyboard and what functions and patterns I could play with were amazing! This keyboard takes the award home for best look.

Cons: Very obvious that the creators are not native English speakers. "We do firmware update?" Message i received when trying to update the firmware. I couldn't use the software as I couldn't get past the "We do firmware update?" message. So i was not fully able to test out this keyboard to its full potential. Now this is important as by default the "WASD" keys are the "up/down/left/right keys" and the "up/down/left/right keys" are "WASD" Makes typing a little hard to do when you are not in gaming mode. Though since I couldn't use any of the software because I couldn't get past the firmware update, I cant remapped the keys. Speaking of Firmware issues, when the firmware went out to try and connect it would crash constantly. When it didn't crash, my computer played the audio as it would when a new device is added but it never stop playing. Looking at device manager I could see that the keyboard driver was being uninstalled and reinstalled over and over again.

Overall Review: I'm sure this keyboard is great and deserves more then 2-eggs but I cant give it more then that, without being able to fully use its software. I will say this though. The keyboard looks amazing! I love the LED lights, I love the key presses, the love the feel of this keyboard and how simple it is to use its extra functions. Needs some tweaking as far as firmware and software as well as some refinement to the owners manual.

You won't regret it!

WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB Internal SSD - SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5"/7mm Solid State Drive - WDS500G2B0A
WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB Internal SSD - SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5"/7mm Solid State Drive - WDS500G2B0A

Pros: Great SSD for the price and if you are using it as a boot drive you'll be set for a long time. Running current 3D NAND tec and keeping pace with its competitors 500GB of storage Fast and no problems to date

Cons: 4K r/w are very slow, with a cap for me running an average of 45MB/s.

Overall Review: I have always been a WD consumer when it comes to drives and this SSD is no exception. Fast right out of the gate and no issues that I can find. My tests were run on Windows 10x64,AMD 8-Core,16GB ram,and a Sabertooth 990FX R2. People have complained about the 3 year warranty but with how fast tech is changing in our world, you should be replacing your equipment every 3 to 5 years anyway. So the warranty for me is not a problem. Ran my test against a PNY Optima 240GB SSD and a Samsung 830 512Gb. WD out performed the PNY by a long shot and at times was neck and neck with the 830. Though in the end the 830 did out perform the WD SSD. Overall I like this drive a lot and for the price you could get others for cheaper. I wouldn't as WD has always made good drives and stood behind their products. To me that makes the difference when I decide what hardware I will buy. If you want to build a rig with this SSD I saw go for it and you will not regret it at all. WD Seq: R345 W352 4K. R33 W71 Samsung 830 Seq. R367 W377 4K. R33 W75 PNY Seq R245 W252 4k. R27 W56