Joined on 10/06/03
Worked Well With CentOS
Pros: Worked right off the bat under Linux.
Cons: None
Overall Review: I used this card to add some ports to a CentOS machine I set up to run Zoneminder. So far I only have one cam running on it, but the card was automagically detected & works fine.
Nice case, with one major flaw
Pros: Looks nice, solid build, low cost.
Cons: Hard to fit a SATA hard drive.
Overall Review: This case is internally very similar to the HEC 6K28BB8F which gets a good rating from people here. The main difference I see is this one lacks a reset button. I'd give it 5 stars for the price, except that in the main drive caddy you can't use a standard SATA cable & power supply, they'll hit the cover. OK, then you try to pop your drive in one of the other 3.5" holders, but you can't get them in without removing the MB - forget that. Finally I shoved it in from the outside through the floppy cover, since I won't use that anyway. It would be a pain to use more than one drive, unless you have right angle connectors lying around. The case fan is not too loud, but noticeable & I left it unplugged because my system runs quite cool (onboard graphics) & the air duct lines up nicely with the CPU.
Great HTPC
Pros: Small, quiet, runs cool, HDMI out, plenty of USB ports, decent wireless KB & mouse, built in WiFi, Win7, ION video outputs 1080p just fine.
Cons: None for my purposes.
Overall Review: I ditched DISH & am using this with a USB tuner to record HD OTA with an antenna. I also got one of the Media Center remotes. Windows 7 Media Center has been good for that, it gives good guide data & the tuner is better with the same antenna than the one in the Dish DVR. Streaming Netflix works well too from within Media Center. Plus, adding Media Browser makes it easy to browse avis, mkvs, and even DVD iso files (with virtual drive software). Every once in a while is takes a moment to wake up, but otherwise it's been doing everything I wanted. My wife isn't entirely happy, but that's mostly because the streaming options from Hulu etc are still pretty weak. Way too many clips, not enough full episodes - but that's not the fault of the machine, and hopefully the networks will wise up soon. If you want an HTPC I don't think you can beat this, unless you'd rather run XBMC or have a copy of Win7 in which case the single core version should do you well & save you some bucks.
No complaints here
Pros: Low cost, works just fine.
Cons: Case could be prettier, but really nothing.
Overall Review: I've bought a few of these for off-site storage; only one gets used regularly. They've all done what I want, which is be cheap & reasonably fast, with a large capacity. I don't care how they look, and none have failed yet, so I'm ordering yet another. Yeah, the Y-cables look goofy, but some motherboards don't give enough juice from one USB port so better to have it than not.
Works well
Pros: Runs cool, feels solid.
Cons: None.
Overall Review: I've bought a lot of different usb drives for work, and this is one I'm going to get for home. It just feels good and does what it should. I haven't had a chance to try the esata interface yet, but the usb works great.
Pros: Small, light, fast, cheap.
Cons: Somewhat flimsy construction, no lanyard.
Overall Review: This drive is fine for me; it's not as nicely constructed as a Sandisk but it works fine. Speed is better than my last drive. I had an issue with my XP box where it wouldn't install; the problem was with my machine missing the usbstor.inf & usbstor.sys files. Not the fault of the drive at all, I've had the problem before & just figured it out.