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Philip W.

Philip W.

Joined on 03/25/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 8
Most Favorable Review

Works Great

ZTC Lightning Card Converts both M.2 PCIe 4x Lane or M.2 SATA SSD To PCI-e Internal Card. UP To 1.6GB/s on the 4x PCIe Model ZTC-EX001
ZTC Lightning Card Converts both M.2 PCIe 4x Lane or M.2 SATA SSD To PCI-e Internal Card. UP To 1.6GB/s on the 4x PCIe Model ZTC-EX001

Pros: No issues to date running the Samsung SM951. I picked one up after I realized the onbard m.2 for the EVGA x99 Classified only runs at PCIe 2.0.

Cons: None to think of

Overall Review: Ultimately comes from China, so the packaging is a bit lackluster. You have to manually screw in the securing plate when it arrives, but it's no big deal. I think it comes with a half height adapter but It's been a while since I installed it so don't quote me on it. The specs talk about it being tested against PCIe 2.0... My SM951 is hitting 2170 MB/s according to Crystalmark on the Q32T1 runs (128Kib reads). It shouldn't be reading this high according to the PCIe 2.0 spec which is 500 MB/s per lane, so 2k total across all 4 lanes and with the horrible efficiency of 2.0, you should never see an actual 2000 MB/s. Point is, as far as I can tell, it is a full PCIe 3.0 card.

11/28/2016
Most Critical Review

Decently rated UPS with nice size

APC BR1500MS2 Back-UPS Pro 1500VA/900W, Tower, 120V, 10x NEMA 5-15R outlets, AVR, USB Type A + C ports, LCD, User Replaceable Battery -Tower - AVR - 16 Hour Recharge -4.10 Minute Stand-by -120 V Input
APC BR1500MS2 Back-UPS Pro 1500VA/900W, Tower, 120V, 10x NEMA 5-15R outlets, AVR, USB Type A + C ports, LCD, User Replaceable Battery -Tower - AVR - 16 Hour Recharge -4.10 Minute Stand-by -120 V Input

Pros: The physical size is not super big for its rated abilities. Worked great when it worked. The fact that it has 10 total plugs with 6 dedicated to battery is nice.

Cons: Purchased 03/17/2021, died 06/11/2021 with F02 error. Smelled burned electronics like the other similar reviews. Inspection date was 10/17/2020. Disappointed I got a unit from a bad batch of components. If I were to guess, the normal "high" quality components weren't available due to supply chain issues and lower quality components were sourced to meet demand. Only other complaint is the two offset plugs for larger transformers, are so low on the chassis they are pointless to actually use with larger transformers as they will interfere with whatever surface the UPC is placed upon. This is a poor design decision where the engineers weren't really paying attention to the details. The sheer number of plugs should make up for this design flaw in most scenarios but it's frustrating when companies don't think about the little things.

Overall Review: I have not contacted APC tech support to RMA yet due to weekend hours. Overall the unit seemed to work fine for what I need it for to power an 800w desktop computer and monitor. I looked for firmware and software but there doesn't appear to be any firmware updates for this model. The website also doesn't show any "software" for this model when searching either. I'm sure there's software available as a universal package, however it isn't easy to find when searching for this model and I honestly didn't care enough to dig for it.

Works until it doesn't

ASRock X570 PHANTOM GAMING 4 WIFI AX AM4 AMD X570 ATX AMD Motherboard
ASRock X570 PHANTOM GAMING 4 WIFI AX AM4 AMD X570 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Worked great when it worked. Fantastic value.

Cons: Died after 16 months of use in an office environment. It had the all too common "no post with CPU and DRAM solid red light" problem that plagues these boards.

Overall Review: Would I recommend? It's hard to say. Given ASRocks virtually non-existent and super confusing end-user warranty process that I haven't quite started yet, I'm thinking I might move away from ASRock. 3-year warranty according to Newegg, 1-year warranty according to ASRock. No RMA form, just "send us an email!". Because that's super professional of a multi-million dollar business in 2023?

Glaring design flaw makes it almost unusable

iStarUSA WOW-320 3U Wallmount Rack for Patch Panels or Hubs/Routers Rackmount Equipment
iStarUSA WOW-320 3U Wallmount Rack for Patch Panels or Hubs/Routers Rackmount Equipment

Pros: The item is sturdily made out of decent gauge steel. The ability to configure the rack for different depths is really nice for folks who just need a patch panel, but might want to expand it down the road for a switch.

Cons: No instructions. Anyone with some common sense and mechanical ability, can figure out how to put it together. The problem with this rackmount, is the hinge setup. While it sounds great on paper, the design is horrible. They literally use the same hinge from the right side and mount it inverted on the left. This creates a gap between the hinge and item you are screwing in, so you never end up getting a tight fit on the left hinge. In the end, you're left with coming up with your own spacers which isn't in the spirit of how this stuff should work. Unless the hinge design is fixed, I will not purchase this particular rack again.

Works Great

GearIT GI-HDMI14-WH-15FT 15 ft. White HDMI v1.4 Cable with Ethernet Male to Male
GearIT GI-HDMI14-WH-15FT 15 ft. White HDMI v1.4 Cable with Ethernet Male to Male

Pros: Great build quality. The cable is fairly thick to allow shielding etc. Bought a 15 ft cable and it feels very sturdy.

Cons: None to date

Overall Review: Recommended same brand to a friend who bought three. He has had great luck with them as well.

Enhanced Bass? What bass?

SONY Red MDR-ED12LP/RED 3.5mm Connector Canal Bud Style Earphone (Red)
SONY Red MDR-ED12LP/RED 3.5mm Connector Canal Bud Style Earphone (Red)

Pros: Great overall sound for the price if you aren't worried about the bass...

Cons: Bass response is not what I expected in comparison to other Sony ear buds I've owned. The shape of the ear bud may not fit well (or at all) for girls or people with smaller ears.

Overall Review: I personally don't like the joint line of the cord compared to the slightly bigger solid cord on more expensive Sony earbuds. It makes these earbuds feel like their cheap counterparts.