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STEVEN P.

STEVEN P.

Joined on 03/25/14

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 25
Most Favorable Review

Great laptop for the budget minded

Acer Laptop Aspire Intel Core i5-5200U 4GB Memory 500GB HDD Intel HD Graphics 5500 15.6" Non-Touch Screen Windows 8.1 E5-571-53S1
Acer Laptop Aspire Intel Core i5-5200U 4GB Memory 500GB HDD Intel HD Graphics 5500 15.6" Non-Touch Screen Windows 8.1 E5-571-53S1

Pros: i5, 4GB, and a 500GB Hard drive. This computer has all the components of a very good budget minded laptop with the added bonus of the Broadwell i5. Very few computers in this price range have a Broadwell chip, much less an i5.

Cons: None. People need to stop complaining about lack of information and reducing the rating of a very good laptop. I found all the information I needed within 5 minutes about this computer.

Overall Review: If you want a basic computer, don't want to pay a lot, like the flexibility of an i5, want some upgradability for RAM and SSD. Go with this one. You can't go wrong

Most Critical Review

Still just average

WD My Cloud EX4 Diskless: 4-Bay Personal Cloud Storage WDBWWD0000NBK-NESN
WD My Cloud EX4 Diskless: 4-Bay Personal Cloud Storage WDBWWD0000NBK-NESN

Pros: There are many things that can be said positively about this drive. I have detailed a lot of it in my last review.

Cons: - Still slow to boot - Frequent firmware updates (more on that below) - Still no Google Drive cloud backup capability (other drives have the ability to backup to Google Drive. - Still requires it's proprietary cloud program to access the drive remotely. Only work around I have found is through FTP access, and even that isn't perfect.

Overall Review: It has been almost two years since we bought this unit. Late last week, firmware 2.10.310 was installed (about the 50th firmware version released in two years) and it finally fixed much of the bugs I had been complaining about for almost two years. The major problem I had with the unit is every single menu that opened a submenu in a popup window would be blank. Master resets, browser changes, and workaround after workaround, sending log files to WD, all failed to work. I was so frustrated, I gave up and vowed to replace it in a year. I have a bittersweet feeling now on the unit and a bitter taste from WD to use the features I had gone so long neglected. Years of fighting with customer service and the issue is fixed silently with a simple firmware update. Only time will tell if the complete overhaul of the firmware will hold up.

10/28/2015

Best Laptop for the money

ASUS Certified Refurbished Laptop Transformer Book Flip Intel Core i3-4030U 4GB Memory 500GB HDD Intel HD Graphics 4400 15.6" Touch Screen Windows 8.1 64-Bit R554LA-RH31T
ASUS Certified Refurbished Laptop Transformer Book Flip Intel Core i3-4030U 4GB Memory 500GB HDD Intel HD Graphics 4400 15.6" Touch Screen Windows 8.1 64-Bit R554LA-RH31T

Pros: Touchscreen, Windows 8.1, Plenty of memory and hard drive space, i3 Processor, not a lot of bloatware, great value.

Cons: Space bar is hit or miss. Hard drive formatting is a terrible practice. Main hard drive is split into two partitions, deceptive to those who aren't in the know. I just deleted the "Data" partition and extended the OS partition in Disk Management.

Overall Review: I found these by accident while looking for new computers. My company used to purchase HP computers, particularly their G2/G3 series for employee use until the price jumped way up and we starting becoming plagued with wifi issues. I bought one to test and was thoroughly satisfied with the quality and features we got for the money. My company uses Windows 8.1/10 and it is simple enough to upgrade these using our VL keys to get them to Windows Pro. We have purchased 10 of these since them and will continue to purchase them until Newegg runs out. They're just too good. The space bar can be a little wonky, but with a little bit of pressure on the space bar, you can work out the issue. We haven't had to send any of them in for service. Overall, they're great computers. If you want a little more power, they have an i5 version with 6GB of ram and a larger hard drive for around $50 more. If you want better performance, for less than 4 bills, you can get a decent SSD and double the RAM.

Great basic access points

TP-Link TL-WA801ND 300 Mbps Wireless N Access Point
TP-Link TL-WA801ND 300 Mbps Wireless N Access Point

Pros: - PoE a huge plus - Multiple SSID ability

Cons: 10/100 ethernet port only. Watch out for some of these "budget" access points that advertise 300Mbps or above, a lot of them do not have Gigabit ports. After noticing this minor detail, I will be migrating to a new AP with a Gigabit connection and using these AP's for our slower connections in other buildings.

Overall Review: Great price if you have an internet connection under 100Mbps. If have faster internet, look into an AP with a Gigabit ethernet port. This unit has a lot of features and is easy to setup.

Works like OEM. Looks like OEM, I'm guessing it's OEM

Lenovo Flex 2 (15 inch) Laptop Touch Screen Digitizer Glass 15.6"
Lenovo Flex 2 (15 inch) Laptop Touch Screen Digitizer Glass 15.6"

Pros: Worked without issues when reinstalled

Cons: No adhesive to install the new digitizer or the LCD. Tough install

Overall Review: On a toughness scale from 1 to 10, 1 being easy, 10 being impossible, I would say the replacement had to be an 8. The actual disassembly of the computer to remove the LCD/Digitizer assembly was simple. The old digitizer had to be removed with a heat gun. Once removed, the LCD needed to be separated from the digitizer. Make sure you look into purchasing a new plastic housing as it never goes back together after applying heat to it. This wasn't the first digitizer replacement I've done, but certainly one of the more difficult ones I did. Everything went back together with a little coaxing and new glue.

Did not work

HP 970XL/971XL Ink Cartridge(1 Black, 1 Cyan, 1 Magenta, 1 Yellow)for HP Officejet Pro X576dw X551dw Printer - Premium Superb Choice® Product
HP 970XL/971XL Ink Cartridge(1 Black, 1 Cyan, 1 Magenta, 1 Yellow)for HP Officejet Pro X576dw X551dw Printer - Premium Superb Choice® Product

Pros: Shipping was fast and packaged well

Cons: Cartridges recognized as damaged when installed in the printer.

Overall Review: We have the HP Officejet Pro X576dw in four of our offices. For some reason, this printer does not like non-HP cartridges and says that the cartridge is damaged and refuses to work with the printer. I am not sure if there are different revisions of firmware for these printers that block non-HP cartridges, but it looks like we're going to have to use the expensive official cartridges for this one printer. Two of the four haven't gotten low enough to check if they're incompatible, but 1 of the 4 accepts this cartridge so I couldn't justify 1 star.