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David A.

David A.

Joined on 12/15/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 3
Most Favorable Review

Great hardware - beware "refurbished"

CHUWI HeroBox Pro Mini PC Computer 8GB+256GB(Max 1TB) Intel  CPU UP to 2.8GHz Windows10 Portable Desktop Host
CHUWI HeroBox Pro Mini PC Computer 8GB+256GB(Max 1TB) Intel CPU UP to 2.8GHz Windows10 Portable Desktop Host

Pros: Very cute hardware. Reasonably priced. So tiny yet reasonably powerful. Works great.

Cons: I purchased a refurbished unit and it was not software wise. Windows came up in Chinese with an account in someone else's name and (since I do not read Chinese) it was not easy getting Windows to use English. I would expect "refurbished" to include flashing the disk with the normal new unit image of Windows. My only other complain is two USB ports is limiting if you use a mouse that uses one and a keyboard that uses the other. If you use bluetooth peripherals this should not be a problem.

Overall Review: If you need a tiny PC this certainly is wroth a look.

Most Critical Review

Watch out of screwy rebate policy

ZOTAC GF8200-C-E AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 Mini ITX AMD Motherboard
ZOTAC GF8200-C-E AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 Mini ITX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Nice board for HTPC. Small and powerful.

Cons: No IDE, included dongle needed for HDMI connector

Overall Review: Watch out for their rebate policy designed to reject your rebate. You have to wait at least 30 days but not longer than 45 days to postmark your rebate. This is not very clear from the rebate form. I learned about it by contacting the company. When I suggested it was a ploy to screw their customers I received the following from Daniel Park, RMA Specialist: Our company motto is that “Our customers are always right.”. Please understand that our policy is our policy and that it will stand as long as our president says so. He created the motto and he created the policy. If you can not respect our motto as well as our policy. Do as you please. Just know you are making a big mistake. Have a wonderful day. I worry this odd version of "the customer is always right' might apply to warranty returns as well. Lets hope not.

Buggy Browser Not all WS Shown

SimpleTech STI-NAS/500 500GB SimpleShare NAS
SimpleTech STI-NAS/500 500GB SimpleShare NAS

Pros: It does hide in a closet and provide network storage.

Cons: I have had constant problems with the device hiding computers on my network. The problem is it implements the Microsoft Browser service badly. With SimpleShare off, one of my XP system is the Master Browser for my workgroup and all my workstations appear in Network Neighborhood. When SimpleShare is on, and I reboot the Master Browser system, SimpelShare becomes the Master Bowser (verified with nbstat.exe) but it only list two out of my five workstations. (Two XP and one Vista system are missing.) I can access the missing systems directly (as \\<computer name>) but they do not appear in NN.

Overall Review: The original firmware did not work at all - I could see the device but not connect to it. SimpleShare provided a firmware version that worked, but most of the features I bought the thing for (encryption, mirroring) were not supported.