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MATTHEW N.

MATTHEW N.

Joined on 11/15/12

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 13
Most Favorable Review

A rock solid Quadro for Linux workstations

NVIDIA Quadro K4000 VCQK4000-PB 3GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Full Height Graphics Card
NVIDIA Quadro K4000 VCQK4000-PB 3GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Full Height Graphics Card

Pros: - Fantastic warranty coverage - Nearly dead silent - Sips power at 80W - Single slot design - Excellent support for Linux and Solaris - Pushes high resolutions with aplomb - Additional bracket for 3-pin stereo 3D connector - Fast enough for more basic indie type games in a pinch

Cons: - Gimped double precision floating point capability - Not a PCIe 3.0 card - Still pricier than the GeForce equivalent (Since none of these cons affect me, no eggs are docked)

Overall Review: If you have a dedicated need for the Quadro, the K4000 will serve you well. Just be sure you are willing to shell out the dollars for this card. Personally, if your needs are not specific to professional graphics or video/audio and don't mind a dual slot card, consider a product like the Gigabyte Windforce instead, which you can find a model for less than half the price of the Quadro K4000

Most Critical Review

Fanless, but has annoying coil noise...

SeaSonic SS-520FL2 520W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
SeaSonic SS-520FL2 520W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

Pros: - Fanless design - Great design for maximum heat dissipation

Cons: -Some frequency and coil noise can be heard coming from the power supply, which is quite annoying.

Overall Review: For what it is, the premise of an absolutely silent power supply is tantalizing. Unfortunately, SeaSonic falls just short of that goal in this particular product. Perhaps my particular unit was defective, but I didn't want to take another chance on it and RMA'd the unit for a full refund. I do think SeaSonic makes excellent hardware in general, and I decided pick up their SSR-450RM instead.

Another winner from Toshiba! (N300 - 6 TB model)

Toshiba N300 6TB NAS Internal Hard Drive 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5inch - HDWN160XZSTA (RETAIL PACKAGE)
Toshiba N300 6TB NAS Internal Hard Drive 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5inch - HDWN160XZSTA (RETAIL PACKAGE)

Overall Review: I've purchased Toshiba drives before, and I've had zero issues with any of them. I even have an 5 TB X300 unit still in service since late 2016 and it still runs great. I purchased two 6 TB drives for an entry level NAS I put together and they get the job done.

A surprisingly good intro into the world of NAS hardware

Qnap 2-bay NAS, ARM Quad-core 1.4GHz, 1GB DDR4 RAM, 3.5" SATA HDDs, 1xUSB3.0, 2xUSB2.0, 1x GbE LAN (TS-228A-US)
Qnap 2-bay NAS, ARM Quad-core 1.4GHz, 1GB DDR4 RAM, 3.5" SATA HDDs, 1xUSB3.0, 2xUSB2.0, 1x GbE LAN (TS-228A-US)

Pros: . - A sleek and compact design - Contains an internal fan for cooling the drives - Better specifications compared to Synology's entry-level offering of the DS218j at comparable pricing - CPU is a 64-bit ARM SoC with hardware-based transcoding, which is helpful for Plex media servers

Cons: . - The web user interface feels a bit dated compared to Synology's products - App store isn't as robust as the competition - RAM cannot be upgraded

Overall Review: . If you're looking for an entry-level NAS that doesn't suck and gives you a proper bang for your buck, QNAP seems to have hit it out of the park with this specific model. My Toshiba N300 (6 TB) drives took perfectly fine and I was able to build a RAID 1 array with no issues. This unit also offers more wiggle room, compared to the measly dual core 1.3 GHz CPU and 512 MB of RAM the Synology DS218j offers for roughly the same price.

A well made drive at a great price

Toshiba X300 5TB Performance & Gaming Internal Hard Drive 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 inch - HDWE150XZSTA (RETAIL PACKAGE)
Toshiba X300 5TB Performance & Gaming Internal Hard Drive 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 inch - HDWE150XZSTA (RETAIL PACKAGE)

Pros: . * Priced very competitively per terabyte * Quality packaging * Large capacity (5 TB) * Nicely sized 128 MB cache

Cons: . * A bit noisier than other drives in its class * Wish Toshiba was giving them away (lol)

Overall Review: I've only had this drive for a few days, so my opinion is subject to change, but I'm quite pleased with this quality drive so far. According to some sources, as part of the acquisition deal between WD and HGST, a portion of the 3.5in HDD manufacturing line at HGST was spun off to Toshiba so as to prevent any violation of anti-trust proceedings. I would expect a quality drive from them in this case. However, initially, that wasn't exactly true. Earlier P-series Toshiba hard disks were decidedly hit or miss, likely due to some manufacturing conflicts that didn't exist before the gift from HGST. The newest X-series drives seem like a great choice and seem to net healthier scores. Backblaze has even observed newer Toshiba drives as being quite reliable and rock solid. I'm hoping my luck doesn't run out anytime soon. :)

Decent pair of gaming headphones, with a few caveats...

Gamdias GHS-3500 Hephaestus V2 Stereo lighting Wired gaming Headset
Gamdias GHS-3500 Hephaestus V2 Stereo lighting Wired gaming Headset

Pros: . - Decent price - Nice red LED lights (powered by USB cable) - Flexible microphone - Decent bass response

Cons: . - Highs and mids are a bit too muddy for my taste - Occasional rattling sound

Overall Review: . I got these headphones as a free pack-in with the HTC Vive I purchased. They aren't bad, but I'm not sure I'd spend $30 or $40 on a pair, as I feel better headphones for the price exist on the market. The USB plug also is used for powering the LED lights only. It doesn't double as headphones with its own DAC, so watch out for that if you require such a feature.

11/25/2016