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Michael W.

Michael W.

Joined on 12/01/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 17
Most Favorable Review

Excellent capacity, performance and price.

SAMSUNG 860 EVO Series 2.5" 500GB SATA III V-NAND 3-bit MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-76E500B/AM
SAMSUNG 860 EVO Series 2.5" 500GB SATA III V-NAND 3-bit MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-76E500B/AM

Pros: This is my go-to, no need to think about it, system drive these days. At 1/2 terabyte it is excellent for the OS (usually Linux/Centos but not always) and various home directories that occassionally need to accomodate large datasets. In general, serious work is done to/from other drives (usually also SSDs) of larger capacity. At less than $100 what is there to complain about?

Cons: None that I know of.

Overall Review: I have owned many Samsung SSDs and several of the Samsung 860 EVO series in particular and I have never had a problem (knock on wood).

Most Critical Review

Unable to make work

GIGABYTE TRX50 AERO D sTR5 AMD TRX50 EATX Motherboard - DDR5, PCIe 5.0 M.2, PCIe 5.0, USB4 Type-C, Wi-Fi 7, Marvell 10GbE
GIGABYTE TRX50 AERO D sTR5 AMD TRX50 EATX Motherboard - DDR5, PCIe 5.0 M.2, PCIe 5.0, USB4 Type-C, Wi-Fi 7, Marvell 10GbE

Pros: I much prefer this motherboard to the ASROCK one. Simpler power and all the features I need.

Cons: Will not get beyond the DIMM error on the board. Never get to the two digit code LCDs.

Overall Review: - I do recommend this motherboard if you can get a working version. Be sure to use qualified memory from the gigabyte site.

PS/2 Mouse Read Carefully

Adesso HC-3003PS Desktop 1000 dpi Optical metal scroll PS/2 mouse
Adesso HC-3003PS Desktop 1000 dpi Optical metal scroll PS/2 mouse

Pros: None

Cons: Its for the Ps/2 not USB

Overall Review: Not what I wanted. One must read carefully.

12/10/2019

A modern up to date GPU that fits into a single PCIe slot

MSI GeForce GT 1030 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 (uses x4) Low Profile Graphics Card GT 1030 2G LP OC
MSI GeForce GT 1030 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 (uses x4) Low Profile Graphics Card GT 1030 2G LP OC

Pros: I wanted a modern GPU that supported various output formats and fit into one slot. Mostly it is used for 2D and only occassionally for 3D. The performance is fine for that purpose.

Cons: None that I know of.

Overall Review: I use this card as a general tool in my studio. Whenever I am building a new system, this is usually the card that goes into it.

An excellent way to retrofit an M.2 SSD to a system

SYBA SI-PEX40110 M.2 M-Key NVMe PCI-e to PCI-e x4 Converter Card
SYBA SI-PEX40110 M.2 M-Key NVMe PCI-e to PCI-e x4 Converter Card

Pros: I wanted to use a 1/2 TB Samsung SSD with several different motherboards that did not have a working M.2 slot. This worked first time and every time I have used it.

Cons: None that I know of.

Overall Review: There seems to be something about this form factor that causes manufacturers to design products that dont hold the card in well. In this case, the problem was trivially solved with an all-purpose plastic wire tie.