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Mike J.

Mike J.

Joined on 06/05/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 26
Most Favorable Review

Simple Enough.

Vantec NexStar DX 5.25" SATA to USB 2.0 External Optical Drive Enclosure  - Model NST-530S2
Vantec NexStar DX 5.25" SATA to USB 2.0 External Optical Drive Enclosure - Model NST-530S2

Pros: Easy to assemble. Metal housing. 6 screws. Slide the drive in through the front. Attach the power/data molex. Screw the drive into place. Slide on the outer shell. Screw on the backplate. Attach USB and power cable. TADA!

Cons: Requires prehensile thumbs to construct. Too hard to use if you are a mollusk.

Overall Review: My LG GGW-H20L fits without any problems. USB 2 is fast enough to watch HD-DVD/Blu-Ray content and burn BD-RE discs.

Most Critical Review

Ehh.... Speed is so-so

Transcend 8GB Compact Flash (CF) Flash Card Model TS8GCF133
Transcend 8GB Compact Flash (CF) Flash Card Model TS8GCF133

Pros: The price.

Cons: I shoot with a Canon 30D in RAW. The speed is alright I guess, I own faster cards that have a lower speed rating printed on them, but for general use it's just fine.

Overall Review: I sent another Transcend card back for replacement under the lifetime warranty and it was handled very quickly.

RMA Drive Bad as well..

Pioneer Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 8X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BDR-206DBKS
Pioneer Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 8X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BDR-206DBKS

Pros: Nothing.

Cons: 2nd Drive has the same issue as the first. It worked for a time or two then the tray won't open. The green light shines when I press the button, but nada. The computer thinks the tray is open when it's not.

Overall Review: Tired of paying to ship bad burners back to NewEgg.

WHIRRRRRR... POP!

Vantec NexStar DX 5.25" SATA to USB 2.0 & eSATA External Optical Drive Enclosure - Model NST-530SU
Vantec NexStar DX 5.25" SATA to USB 2.0 & eSATA External Optical Drive Enclosure - Model NST-530SU

Pros: It matches the other Vantec NexStar DX that I already own?

Cons: Placed Pio BDR-206D in the case, connected as required, turned on the Vantec. WHIRRRRRRRRR goes the fan. POP! goes the circuit board and dies.

Overall Review: No motivation to RMA it... Into the trash bin it goes... So that makes 100% of the items that I bought defective in some way. I had to RMA the BDR-206 already. I hope this case wasn't the cause of failure for the first Pio, and I'll be furious if it dorked my replacement drive.

Won't Spin & Won't Eject

Pioneer Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 8X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BDR-206DBKS
Pioneer Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 8X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BDR-206DBKS

Pros: Quiet & fast when it worked.

Cons: Won't spin. Won't eject via eject button or Win/Mac software eject. The eject hole on the front was the only way to get my disc out. Oh well.

Overall Review: RMA'd it. We'll see if the replacement bonks out as well.

Easy Upgrade

Mushkin Enhanced 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Memory for Apple Model 976644A
Mushkin Enhanced 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Memory for Apple Model 976644A

Pros: Installed the chips in a 17" MBP UniBody i7 (2010) with no issues. I can't say that the machine runs faster, just that I now have the ability to run my virtual machines with 3GB of RAM and not choke the box.

Cons: none.