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Stephen B.

Stephen B.

Joined on 08/28/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 47
Most Favorable Review

Solid as storage server 24/7 uptime

ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 AM4 AMD Promontory B450 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 AM4 AMD Promontory B450 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Extremely reliable, 24/7 uptime. Currently 168 days since last reboot (down due to power outage the UPS couldn't outlast)

Cons: None

Overall Review: Great board, very reliable for past 12 months running as my home storage server, unifi server, and unifi video server, with 3x external HD's attached.

Most Critical Review

Good aesthetics, but doesn't feel worth the price tag

Silverstone GD11 Ideal compact HTPC case with 240mm radiator support
Silverstone GD11 Ideal compact HTPC case with 240mm radiator support

Pros: Looks nice, definitely a good HTPC aesthetic to it. Seems to be well designed.

Cons: Just doesn't feel like it's made to a quality level of the price tag. Case components are thin, and while "flimsy" would be an exaggeration, "not solid" like other cases I've had of similar price points would be an apt description.

Overall Review: Overall, not a bad case, and certainly meets the aesthetic and form factor goal of an HTPC. But I was generally unhappy with the build quality "feel". Far from a 1 egg quality, but equally as far from a 5 egg value. (Also, not the cases fault. check your CPU cooler size. Buyer's error there.)

Trustworthy and Simple

Mediasonic Raid 2 Bay 3.5" & 2.5" SATA SSD / Hard Drive Enclosure DAS - USB 3..2 Gen 2 10 Gbps Type C Support 30TB HDD
Mediasonic Raid 2 Bay 3.5" & 2.5" SATA SSD / Hard Drive Enclosure DAS - USB 3..2 Gen 2 10 Gbps Type C Support 30TB HDD

Pros: Easy to install, reliable. I have 5 of these units (or their USB-3 predecessors), some of them in service for 2+ Years. Contrary to another review, none of the 5 units I have produce any noticeable sound above a low hum.

Cons: Instructions for configuring into RAID-1 mode not quite accurate. Must hold down configuration button with power already on, which is opposite of what the graphical instructions indicate.

Overall Review: 10/10, would recommend.

Great little low power CPU

AMD Athlon 200GE 2-Core, 4-Thread, 3.2 GHz Base, Socket AM4 35W YD200GC6FBBOX Desktop Processor
AMD Athlon 200GE 2-Core, 4-Thread, 3.2 GHz Base, Socket AM4 35W YD200GC6FBBOX Desktop Processor

Overall Review: Not much to say other than running as a 24/7 storage server for home environment it has been a stable champ, with 24/7 uptime

Does well

G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 8GB 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300) Desktop Memory Model F4-2666C15S-8GVR
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 8GB 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300) Desktop Memory Model F4-2666C15S-8GVR

Overall Review: Not much to say other than it's been great for nearly a year.

Excellent for HTPC Media RAID

Mediasonic HFR2-SU3S2 PRORAID Box 4 Bay Raid 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Enclosure with USB 3.0 & eSATA
Mediasonic HFR2-SU3S2 PRORAID Box 4 Bay Raid 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Enclosure with USB 3.0 & eSATA

Pros: In use for 2+ years with 4x 2TB drives in RAID 5. Doesn't get used for a ton of I/O operations, serves as storage device for my movie/TV/music collection attached to file server (shared via network to HTPC). Playback is crisp and acceptably fast.

Cons: None that I can think of. Very happy after 2+ years.