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Gregg I.

Gregg I.

Joined on 02/29/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 35
Most Favorable Review

Still going strong after a year

Rosewill RCX-Z5-Ultra 92mm x 2 Two Ball + Long Life Sleeve CPU Cooler
Rosewill RCX-Z5-Ultra 92mm x 2 Two Ball + Long Life Sleeve CPU Cooler

Pros: No issues after almost a year of service. SpeedFan makes it easy to tweak speed and listen to noise level changes. Effective cooling even at lower speeds.

Cons: Wish it were a little quieter at full speed, but I'd rather hear it than have my CPU overheat.

Overall Review: I've opted to run it at about half speed, to keep the noise down a little. My CPU temp is dependent on room temp, but hovers between 31C and 34C. If I intentionally spinlock one core of the 65W Ahtlon X2, the temp will rise to 38C (safe limit for this chip is 68C). This sits above two fanless vid cards, and blows air up to two top case fans. I sometimes wonder if using non-stock thermal compound would have made a difference.

Most Critical Review

Addendum to last post about slow reads in first 15%

SAMSUNG 840 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7TE500BW
SAMSUNG 840 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7TE500BW

Pros: Same as before

Cons: Same as before

Overall Review: The model number for my drive is MZ-7TD500BW, which is NewEgg item http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147190. I just mismatched the models when I posted earlier.

11/22/2013

May not work with 2006-07 mac mini

Mushkin Enhanced 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Memory for Apple Model 976559A
Mushkin Enhanced 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Memory for Apple Model 976559A

Pros: Good price.

Cons: None. Can't blame the product for compatibility issues.

Overall Review: Installed in a 2007 mac mini, which was apparently a late 2006 version, and which doesn't like this memory. Our local mac shop said it's hit and miss with minis from that timeframe. If it doesn't work, it won't even boot or let you do a hardware test.

Very nice, but not everything is ready for 3 TB drives.

Hitachi GST Deskstar H3IK30003272SW (0S03208) 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Hitachi GST Deskstar H3IK30003272SW (0S03208) 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: - Compatible with MSI 890GXM mobo. - Works in this hot-swap unit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993028 - Good performance.

Cons: - Does not work in the Rosewill USB 3.0 enclosure (at this time anyway), due to a chipset incompatibility.

Overall Review: 2.7 TB formatted. 5 1 TB drives in RAID 5 give you ~3.6 TB. Two of these in RAID 1 could be a great alternative in many cases.

Sometimes slow to respond. My sys won't boot with it on.

SNT SNT-SAC136B 3.5" to 5.25" SAS/SATA Mobile Rack Hot-swap Aluminum Removable Hard Drive Kit w/ 80mm fan
SNT SNT-SAC136B 3.5" to 5.25" SAS/SATA Mobile Rack Hot-swap Aluminum Removable Hard Drive Kit w/ 80mm fan

Pros: - Easy to install, and the rack and tray seem solid enough.

Cons: - The system it's in ( MSI 890GXM-G65 mobo) won't boot if this is turned on with a drive in it when booting. Hangs during BIOS check stage.

Overall Review: - HD Tune read test started out at 150 MB/s, but steadily dropped. At the end, the read times were 64 MB/s. The slowdown was linear. - Running a checkdisk, with an empty drive, scanned quickly, but then took over a minute for the result dialog (showing no errors) to come up. - Seems slow to come to life. Turning it on after the system is booted, Windows is slow to recognize it. Turning it off, it doesn't always see it's gone, and then may be slow trying to find it again at times.

Tight in 2U server with SSD

Rosewill RX-C200 2.5" SSD / HDD Aluminum Mounting Kit for 3.5" Drive Bay
Rosewill RX-C200 2.5" SSD / HDD Aluminum Mounting Kit for 3.5" Drive Bay

Pros: Very solid and clean.

Cons: None

Overall Review: The Crucial SSD I put in it wanted to grab the thermal pad and bunch it up, which made installing a bit harder than expected. Used in a 2U iStarUSA case, which was a tight fit, but not the fault of this product.