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Joseph G.

Joseph G.

Joined on 06/06/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 15
Most Favorable Review

Good Shaver

Panasonic ES8103S 3-Blade Wet/Dry Electric Shaver With Nanotech Blades
Panasonic ES8103S 3-Blade Wet/Dry Electric Shaver With Nanotech Blades

Pros: Good feel, cuts my thick hairs and misses very little, easy to maneuver around the curves of the face and under the nose, battery level readout.

Cons: Doesn't cut as close as a shaver with a lift and cut system and I still have to use the trimmer side to get those hairs that are laying down on my neck.

Overall Review: I am pleased with the ability of this razor to cut most of the hairs on my face. I don't have a lot of facial hair, but what I do have is thick, round hairs around my mouth, chin, and neck that lay down if they get too long. The razor still has trouble getting these hairs and I have to use the flip out trimmer. I moved to this razor from another brand that has a lift and cut system and I notice that my hair grows back faster, meaning I am not getting as close of a cut. I stuck with this razor though because it gave a better shave on the first pass, the head is easier to maneuver, and it worked better when my face was fresh out of the shower. Because of poor reviews I read before I purchased the razor, I have never gotten the razor wet, with the exception of the blades. So, even after a year, the battery display still works just fine.

Most Critical Review

Netgear's Expensive Adapter Falls Short

NETGEAR WN2500RP-100NAS N600 with 4 Port Universal Dual Band Wi-Fi Range Extender-Desktop Version
NETGEAR WN2500RP-100NAS N600 with 4 Port Universal Dual Band Wi-Fi Range Extender-Desktop Version

Pros: Looks cool

Cons: Netgear releases a Dual Band 802.11n Range Extender / 4-port Wifi Adapter in 2012 that is limited to 130 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band? Advanced users will find the Setup wizard difficult to get around and annoying to have to go through. Specs available anywhere for the brand new Netgear WN2500RP fail to mention the 2.4 GHz band is limited to 130 Mbps. This means throughput is dramatically lower, maxed out at 33 Mbps for me when a G device did 28 Mbps in the same spot and another N device did 65 Mbps.

Overall Review: Setup of the device requires an http path in your browser to bring up the setup screen, no disc, no software. So far so good, but that is where it ends. Next you are taken through a step by step wizard to configure your device and are required to move through each step, filling out information, before allowing you to move on. If you would like to disable that feature, you have to do it later manually. Manual setup is available after completing the wizard. Changing any setting will take an exceedingly long time. Scanning for wireless networks to connect to takes up to 2 minutes and changing most other settings requires at least 60 seconds, so leave yourself a good 30 minutes setting up the device. I know there are better devices out there, so I returned the two I bought… one opened and one still sealed in the packaging.

Great Product for IT Friend

KINGWIN KF-1000-BK 3.5" Internal hot swap rack
KINGWIN KF-1000-BK 3.5" Internal hot swap rack

Pros: Easy to install, mostly metal parts inside, reliable for the coupe dozen swaps I have put it through so far.

Cons: Would be nice to be able to buy an accessory adapter from Kingwin, made specifically for this rack, that would adapt a 2.5" drive to the rack.

Overall Review: I have used this rack many times to connect a friend's hard drive to my computer. No hassle of powering down the computer, opening the case, finding extra power and SATA connectors, plugging the drive in a temporary location in your case, and then powering back up. Just open the rack, slide the drive in, close the rack, and if you have hot swap enabled you will be ready to go in a few seconds. I was having trouble with a secondary hard drive on my HTPC, so I decided to switch this over from my main PC so I could swap the secondary drive in and out to see if it was causing the Blue screens. It was, so I sent it back for a warranty exchange. Thankfully, I left the rack in the HTPC because the next two replacement hard drives they sent me were bad within 45 days. Finally got a good drive, but even after I found it was reliable, I left it in the rack because I feel like it gets more air flow than if it were tucked away in the case. I would like Kingwin to offer a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter specifically designed for this rack because 2.5" drives are becoming more common and using the SATA connection is better than my USB dock, especially for speed and updating firmware on the drives. I am buying my third one of these here soon because they are too darn convenient.

Antec TruePower New TP-550 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply
Antec TruePower New TP-550 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply

Pros: Reliable and quiet PSU with plenty of power connectors for a small server.

Cons: Not compatible with most Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPS) because of PFC

Overall Review: I bought the Antec TP-550 for my server at home. This is what the PSU is powering: Intel S3420GPLC Server Board Intel Xeon X3440 Lynnfield 2.53GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Server Processor 16 GB of Kingston DDR3 1333MHz ECC Registered RAM (4x4GB) 6 - Seagate 500GB 7200.12 3.5" SATAII Hard Drives 2 - Western Digital Caviar Black 7200RPM 2.5" SATAII Hard Drives 2 - Seagate 1TB 7200RPM 3.5" SATAII Hard Drives Adaptec 2805 SAS RAID Controller After more than 2 years, the PSU is still going strong. The only con I can think of is that this power supply, as well as 90% of the PSUs available today uses PFC which requires a sine wave power signal. Most consumer end UPSes provide a square wave signal when providing backup power which will cause a power drop to your computer components while switching to backup power and will cause your computer to reboot, negating the point of a UPS. For this power supply, look to be spending more than the power supply costs for a UPS that will last 3

My new favorite surge protector/power strip

BELKIN BZ108000-04 4 Feet 8 Outlets 2130 Joules Compact Surge Protector
BELKIN BZ108000-04 4 Feet 8 Outlets 2130 Joules Compact Surge Protector

Pros: Well built, simple yet super functional design, plug 8 electronics devices into a power strip that has 8 outlets

Cons: I didn't buy it at Newegg, so I ended up paying more...

Overall Review: I should have known not to buy it at a box store. As soon as I got this wonderful piece of hardware set up, I looked on Newegg to see how much they were selling it for. Even with shipping, I almost paid double at a box store. So, other than the price I paid elsewhere, this power strip/surge protector is incredible. The 4 outlets on the side are spaced far enough apart for most large ac adapters and the outlets grip the prongs of the adapters well enough so even though the adapters are upside down, I am not at all worried about them falling off. Each outlet has sliders on them to close any hot and neutral lines that are not in use. This design is simple, but oh so functional. With the price, $200,000 insurance on each one, and the functional design, I am sure I will be replacing all of my surge protectors over the next year with these.

12/21/2011

Displeased with Buffalo

BUFFALO AirStation N300 4-Port Dual Band Wireless Ethernet Bridge and Gaming Adapter - WLI-TX4-AG300N
BUFFALO AirStation N300 4-Port Dual Band Wireless Ethernet Bridge and Gaming Adapter - WLI-TX4-AG300N

Pros: Small box, dual band, easy to set up if you have experience with other Buffalo Ethernet converters

Cons: Weak 5 GHz signal at distances of more than 20 feet and through a wall, only supports 4 lower 5 GHZ channels while my router supports 8, 100 Mbps Ethernet ports

Overall Review: I bought the WLI-TX4-AG300N to replace one of the three WLI-TX4-G54HP Converters that I own to get faster speeds to my dual band router and to get off the 2.4 GHz band that all of my other devices are on. The G54HPs are incredibly reliable and fast for an 802.11g device so I stuck with Buffalo. I know that 5GHz is not good through walls, but 20 feet away from my router, through one wall I was getting 36% (54Mbps) signal. Not happy with that, I decided to change channels on my router to a higher 5GHz channel. After 20 minutes of confusion why it wouldn't work, I finally found on a forum on Buffalo's site that the AG300N only supports four 5 GHz channels. Not be a big deal for some, but if you can't get a good signal on the lower 4 channels, you have no option to use the higher 4. Because the product is not "defective", it will cost me almost 30% of the price to return. So, I will keep it to use on a closer computer and find something better to replace my other Buffalo converters

12/15/2011