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Toby D.

Toby D.

Joined on 09/16/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 5
Most Favorable Review
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ - Athlon 64 X2 Windsor Dual-Core 2.8 GHz Socket AM2 89W Processor - ADA5600CZBOX
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ - Athlon 64 X2 Windsor Dual-Core 2.8 GHz Socket AM2 89W Processor - ADA5600CZBOX

Pros: Quite pleased with this processor.

Cons: No complaints.

Most Critical Review

Also chiming in with a failure...

Seagate BarraCuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Seagate BarraCuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: No complaints while it worked. Average. No frills. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Cons: Died after a year or so of near-continuous use as my main drive. Thankfully, I was able to retrieve most of my important information so this wasn't a catastrophic loss. Another time and place and I might not have been so lucky. :P

Overall Review: I haven't really had a hard drive die on me in a long time. This decade, I've retired drives for larger ones long before they've had a chance to peter out. So this took me by surprise. Of course, I'm willing to consider that those of us who've suffered these failures are the exceptions. Out of over 1,500 reviews, 20% of them are 1-star, and 60% of them are 5-stars. I can't decide if that's good or bad. :P

Untrustable

Corsair Force Series GT 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-F120GBGT-BK
Corsair Force Series GT 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-F120GBGT-BK

Pros: Very fast, but I don't have a good frame of reference versus other SSD devices. I was happy, at least.

Cons: Ran great for two weeks on a fresh 64-bit Windows 7 installation. Then it would vanish; the OS wouldn't see it. I would have to power cycle the device (simply rebooting wouldn't work) in order for it to be seen again. Then it would work for a while, rinse, repeat. Finally I updated the firmware as suggested, after which the device became even more wildly unstable. I gave up, having my existing fear of SSD devices reinforced.

Overall Review: I should have returned this drive. It was needlessly expensive, and I was well within the return period. However, I was horribly lazy and eventually I shoved the thing into my netbook and installed Android on it. I'm using it as a random experimental drive, where data integrity isn't a priority. :P This really is a shame, because for those two weeks where it was running okay, I was greatly enjoying the experience. SSD *is* the future, but it's going to take a lot for the scars to heal where I'll trust one of these drives again. A serious shame.

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ

Pros: No complaints. Nice and stylish heat spreader. :)

Cons: No complaints.

Worked as advertised.

PQI 1GB MicroSD Flash Card Model AE56-1030-0112
PQI 1GB MicroSD Flash Card Model AE56-1030-0112

Pros: In the short time I have had it, I have had o problems at all with the device. Long-term stability remains to be seen.

Cons: Small size makes it a fragile device to handle, but that is the nature of the format itself, and not a flaw with this particular device. Packaging was difficult to open without tools, though, again, this is typical of most electronic devices like this nowadays. This often renders the included documentation shredded as a result.