Pros: - Very stable out of the box - Firmware upgrade simple - Storage Manager software is enterprise quality - Recognized 6GB drives without issue
Cons: None that I could find!
Overall Review: I had originally purchased the HighPoint RocketRAID 2740 because it has capacity for up to 16 drives (the Adaptec RAID 6805 has 8) but it was a disaster. Besides the fact it would lock up after reboot the software manageability is web based and very buggy not to mention primitive compared what Adaptec offers. Very happy I returned it for the 6805. I am using the 6805 with 6GB SAS drives and couldn't be happier. I set the RAID configurations once and never looked back. Also the fan-out cable used for connecting 4 drives per port is very reasonable - use Google to see what is available. As a side note, which may be of importance to some... since the controller is fairly new Windows 7 does not recognize on a clean install thus the RAID sets will not be accessible until you update with the current drives provided by Adaptec. Not a biggie but just wanted to make you aware.
Pros: The VANTEC NexStar NST-350U2 is a well built external enclosure and a good deal for the price. Installation could have been made easier. The tiny screws that come with the device are a pain to tighten as mentioned by other NewEgg customers. I've installed more then one drive in this device and it's a tight fit no matter what drive make or model so take your time when installing the drive. Remember to jumper your drive to anything but "slave" and you'll have no problems.
Cons: None found as of yet. Although performance could be better - USB limitation - read below . . .
Overall Review: Two things about performance you should consider not only related to the NexStar NST-350U2 but any external hard drive. If you currently don't have USB 2.0 pick up a USB 2.0 card with your order (under 10 dollars). The speed difference between the older USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 is major and you'll kick yourself for not upgrading. One more piece of advice. Remember to enable "optimize for performance" in device manager. You'll find the external drive listed under "drives". This option enables write cache for the external drive and will slightly improve overall performance.
Pros: - Unlocked CPU - Quite - Runs surprising cool - Lot of I/O ports
Cons: Future possible Con: - Fingers crossed that Intel frequently provides updated the Radeon RX drivers
Overall Review: I've owned a few NUCs in recent years and have had positive experiences so when it was time to replace my aging desktop rig (i7-4770k) I decided to give the NUC8i7HVK a shot. I've had this NUC for almost a week now and its met my expectations. I am primarily using the AMD GPU for 4k video trans-coding and IMO performance could be better. As of this review the Radeon drivers provided by Intel were released on 4/13. I have to believe GPU performance will increase with new drivers. As new games get released the hope is that Intel will be lock-step with releasing updated drivers.