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Russell A.

Russell A.

Joined on 07/25/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 33
Most Favorable Review

great unit / features for the price

CyberPower Smart App Sinewave PR3000LCDRT2U 3000 VA 2700 W 9 Outlets UPS
CyberPower Smart App Sinewave PR3000LCDRT2U 3000 VA 2700 W 9 Outlets UPS

Pros: Business class UPS system with great monitoring faceplate, good software and all the things you expect in a much more expensive model. I have this racked up in a 42u rack with 3 2u's connected to this and they are running great. We have had several brownouts lately in my area and none of my servers have so much as hiccuped now that I have this in place.

Cons: No instructions for rail kit. I was able to figure it out but that would have been nice to have.

Overall Review: Unlike others who didn't read the product description, I knew I was going to need a 30a plug to run this thing. I called an electrician and had them put a 30a plug in (cost me $130). This was a completely painless process and I was able to plug the unit right up to it. This thing is HEAVY. Like extremely heavy.

Most Critical Review

2 in 2 out

Seagate BarraCuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive (Perpendicular Recording) Bare Drive
Seagate BarraCuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive (Perpendicular Recording) Bare Drive

Pros: It's huge and it's fast.

Cons: I ordered 2. The first one came DOA. The second took a month to die. Normally I have really good luck with seagate drives but I think these might not be the most reliable products seagate has ever made.

ultra crisp and fast

SAMSUNG UD590 Series U28D590D 28" UHD Monitor with Metallic Easel Stand 1ms 4K HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight TN Panel 370 cd/m2 1000:1 - Black
SAMSUNG UD590 Series U28D590D 28" UHD Monitor with Metallic Easel Stand 1ms 4K HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight TN Panel 370 cd/m2 1000:1 - Black

Pros: super crisp screen. Running mine at 3800 full resolution with %125 magnification and loving it (i've got good eyes). The colors look solid and the resolution is pixel perfect. The ability to see 4 browsers across on a single screen make web programming super easy.

Cons: zero adjustability. This sucks and if the monitor were not so good otherwise I would have knocked an egg off for it.

Overall Review: I have a samsung s9 ultrabook hooked up to it via mini-hdmi to hdmi which I was surprised supported the full mega resolution of this monitor.

4 years ago technology

YAMAKASI 301 SPARTA 30" LCD S-IPS QHD 2560x1600 16:10 DVI (Dual Link) Matte Screen 30 inch PC Monitor
YAMAKASI 301 SPARTA 30" LCD S-IPS QHD 2560x1600 16:10 DVI (Dual Link) Matte Screen 30 inch PC Monitor

Pros: very high resolution

Cons: this thing looks like something from a decade ago. The power brick looks like... well... a real brick, its huge. The monitor itself is also VERY thick and heavy. The heat this thing throws off is like a space heater its so hot. The picture quality is ok but not great. Pixels are a bit fuzzy.

Overall Review: It appears the way they are selling these so cheap is because the technology is ancient. going to try and send 1 of the two that I didn't open yet back. What a disaster. I would strongly recommend against buying this monitor.

essence of mechanical

Corsair Vengeance K95 CH-9000020-NA Black/Metal USB Wired Gaming Mechanical Keyboard (NA)
Corsair Vengeance K95 CH-9000020-NA Black/Metal USB Wired Gaming Mechanical Keyboard (NA)

Pros: when I bought this, the #1 thing I wanted was the mechanical tactile feel and this keyboard delivers that in spades. It feels and sounds terrific. As a bonus however, it looks really cool. The raised/floating keys with the underlight straight up looks cool.

Cons: I don't really use the gaming keys at all and they sort of get in my way. I wish I could detach it. its expensive

powerful but complex

SonicWALL 01-SSC-6945 TZ 205 Network Security Appliance (Hardware Only)
SonicWALL 01-SSC-6945 TZ 205 Network Security Appliance (Hardware Only)

Pros: Purchased this to get a step up in security for our small business office (10 users) for a reasonable price. The hardware is handling the traffic of our office without any noticeable drop off in speed and we have full stateful packet inspection turned on including all the security features. The interface is slick, well laid out and responsive. You can do very complex things that are normally only available in much higher end firewalls.

Cons: The price you pay is only for the basics. Expect to pay about $330/yr more if you want all the services they offer with this unit. I didn't deduct an egg for this because this was pretty obvious to me when I bought the router and paying annually for dynamic security services ensures that there are people at those places maintaining it at a high level. I wish this device had sonicwall's new geosecurity feature where you can block entire country IP blocks. It wasn't clear to me from their website that this model didnt have it. If you want that, you have to move up to the tz 215 (which sucks, they need to bring that feature to the 205).

Overall Review: No way to sugarcoat this, IT'S COMPLICATED. It has the interface of a much more powerful router and unless you are a network engineer or have experience in this field, this will be very difficult to wrap your head around and configure. They offer a few wizards to help you along the way but even the wizards require some level of knowledge and are inefficient in adding way more rules than are needed. Again, I didn't deduct an egg for this because sonicwall gives you a test interface to see (so you know what you are getting into) on their website and the documentation is very good / complete. However, let me repeat, don't buy this unless you have the expertise to use it or plan to spend a significant amount of time learning lots of complex network topics. Things that are simple with lesser routers like NAT port translation require MANY more steps. We don't use the VPN feature at all (so far) so I can't give any notes on how well that worked.