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Steve C.

Steve C.

Joined on 09/29/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Super easy & fast

D-Link PowerLine AV Mini Adapter Starter Kit (DHP-311AV) Includes 2 Adapters, Up To 200Mbps
D-Link PowerLine AV Mini Adapter Starter Kit (DHP-311AV) Includes 2 Adapters, Up To 200Mbps

Pros: Price (got it as part of a Shell Shocker daily email). Easy to configure. Works & has decent speed.

Cons: none so far

Overall Review: This could not have been easier to do. I plugged both units into the same outlet & waited until they saw each other. Then, I hooked one in one room, and the other to my router. Everything immediately saw each other, and began working. Purchased this just to try with a Pioneer 822 AV receiver. Pioneer's units cost at least double what I paid for these. Pioneer had told me that their units were proprietary. If they didn't work, I planned to use them elsewhere. They immediately started working & I am able to stream music on this receiver now. I can also control it from a variety of devices such as a Droid Razr & an Ipod, as well as the receiver remote. It could not have been easier to install & to use. In fact, the most difficult thing I did on the install was to have to move something so I could get to the wall outlet.

Most Critical Review

Check the Hardware Version - Issues with firmware

TP-Link TL-WR1043N 450 Mbps Wireless N Gigabit Router
TP-Link TL-WR1043N 450 Mbps Wireless N Gigabit Router

Pros: Decent speed Wireless Coverage area (see Other Thoughts) Price Easy to configure USB Port Print capability

Cons: Firmware issues (at least with Hardware version 1.8) Other firmware (DD-WRT) also has issues

Overall Review: Have had issues I blamed on other things ever since I bought this router. PC would BSOD on netio.sys but not leave dump file. Kept upgrading all drivers on PC & still had problem. Upgraded firmware on router, and got fewer BSOD's on PC, but still got them & a couple issues I blamed on other things. Finally, tried a beta version of firmware from mfgr & no more blue screens. However, another problem that was persistent still occurs. Wireless will suddenly "disappear" from the house. Can't connect to it from any wireless device. Wireless may or may not come back, but router now prompts everything for password. Power off the router & back on, and all is fine. All wireless devices reconnect without an issue. Also, when wireless "vanishes" I cannot get to router via a wired connection to restart it, so power off is only option to resolve. Check the HARDWARE VERSION on this. Mine is 1.8 and I found many others have these same issues. I think the Beta firmware fixes hardware version 1.9. Have had this for about 18 months, and have not been able to resolve problem via tech support (yet).

Lots of BIOS revisions

ASUS P8H67-M LE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
ASUS P8H67-M LE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Relatively inexpensive Easy to install Fairly easy & intuitive to configure onboard video Intel CPU

Cons: Video drivers Lots of BIOS revisions onboard video Bad Tech support BSOD'd a lot USB issues

Overall Review: Lots of BIOS revisions - 3 in 2012 & 5 more in 2011. One BIOS revision in the last 30 days still. The onboard video would constantly cause my Vista Ultimate OS to BSOD. Had to disable it & install an after-market video card. It will still BSOD occasionally, but whatever's doing it doesn't cause a dump to be created. This was my first Intel CPU since the days of 486's. I'd used ASUS boards with AMD CPU's without many issues over the years & had decent luck. Unfortunately, right after I bought the CPU & MB, the backpedaling on the Sandy Bridge/ Cougar Point Chipset recall from Intel. Not sure if this MB is part of it. ASUS was decent about responding to tech support issues, but there was never any continuity in working with a single person to resolve the issue. They'd continually have me to do the same things over & over again, with the same result, then escalate the problem to the engineers, who would simply blame the OS manufacturer & want me to reload the entire system. Ran all sorts of memory tests, all of which come out okay. The board was relatively inexpensive, but has been much more trouble than I anticipated having been a previous ASUS owner. The fact that there have been so many BIOS revisions leads me to believe that ASUS was aware it was a buggy board. The BIOS revisions: version 0603 - March 2011 version 0801 - April 2011 version 0803 - May 2011 version 1002 - October 2011 version 1101 - December 2011 version 1303 - February 2012 version 1401 - May 2012 version 1403 - September 2012

Rock Solid

SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 ST2000DL004 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 ST2000DL004 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: It has been one of the best performing drives I have ever owned. Absolutely zero issues with it since I installed it. It gets daily use, and has never had an issue. Huge amount of space for the money. It isn't the fastest drive I have ever seeen, but gets the job done well beyond my expectations. My first Samsung drive. Picked it up on a Newegg Black Friday special ($79.99).

Cons: None whatsoever.

Overall Review: Newegg never puts it back on the Black Friday price!! This hard drive is always on a price alert for me.

A great monitor

AOPEN 19" Active Matrix, TFT LCD SXGA LCD Monitor 16 ms F90JS
AOPEN 19" Active Matrix, TFT LCD SXGA LCD Monitor 16 ms F90JS

Pros: Decent price at the time

Cons: none

Overall Review: Still going rock solid after 5+ years. No burnin, no dead pixels, as good a monitor as I have ever owned.

Avoid

Rosewill Jumbo Drive 4GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) RJB4096
Rosewill Jumbo Drive 4GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) RJB4096

Pros: At the time, a lot of storage for the money.

Cons: Got first one & it worked for a couple weeks & started making a noise, stopped being recognized about a day later. Had it replaced, second one stopped working within a week.

Overall Review: I've usually had decent luck with Rosewill stuff, but this one was a real bad piece of junk.