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Jay R.

Jay R.

Joined on 02/16/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 10
Most Favorable Review

good choice

Rosewill RDRD-11003 2.5" SSD / HDD Mounting Kit for 3.5" Drive Bay with 60mm Fan
Rosewill RDRD-11003 2.5" SSD / HDD Mounting Kit for 3.5" Drive Bay with 60mm Fan

Pros: Well-designed, with lots of thought gone into its construction. Fits well into 3.5in bay, proper holes drilled for 2.5in drive mounting, fan is not necessary for normal laptop drive but with a bit of remounting adds even more cooling for even the warmest 2.5in drive. Only mounted one but even with normal case airflow involved there were no overheating difficulties. The material is not aluminum as far as can be determined, but I hesitate to label it as "mild steel", or even iron truth be told. The material is strong, not easily bendable but not brittle, with a firm basis for mounting at least a single 2.5in drive with no difficulties. All the extra open area there that is not absolutely necessary for mounting fans or drives leaves lots of room for airflow while not detracting from the strength of the mounting points. I think the fan is a bit of overkill for most installations, but hey, cooler equipment is long-lived equipment. so kudos to Rosewill for this offering.

Cons: none

Overall Review: Just a suggestion: speaking as a computer upgrader, extra holes to mount in a floppy drive bay and a blank faceplate would have added even more to the attraction for this item, but even though Rosewill is normally in the forefront of options and usability for its offerings no one seemed to have thought of this possibility so just the HDD mounting options seem sufficient it appears.

Most Critical Review

Refurbs should do better

Nextbook NX785QC8G Tablet PC - ARM Cortex A9 RK3188 1.6 GHz Quad-core Processor - 1 GB DDR3 RAM - 8 GB Storage - 8.0-inch Display - Android 4.2 Jelly Bean - Wi-Fi - Black
Nextbook NX785QC8G Tablet PC - ARM Cortex A9 RK3188 1.6 GHz Quad-core Processor - 1 GB DDR3 RAM - 8 GB Storage - 8.0-inch Display - Android 4.2 Jelly Bean - Wi-Fi - Black

Pros: Compact, lightweight, seems to have an acceptable minimum of apps and the Linux boxen seem to see and work with it no problem.

Cons: Screen deeply scratched and gouged, if not to the point where you can not see things entirely. Image viewing angles are extremely poor. Battery was marginal, now dying. Could not evaluate battery useage time, charge time, or lifetime expectancy.

Overall Review: Unable to recommend. Battery needs immediate replacement. Screen needs physical grinding, sanding, and polishing. Driver controls for screen need adjustment for better viewing capabilities.

DSL Modem?

NETGEAR N300 Open-Source Gigabit WiFi Router 128MB NAND and 128MB RAM, 480 MHz MIPS 74K Processor (WNR3500Lv2)
NETGEAR N300 Open-Source Gigabit WiFi Router 128MB NAND and 128MB RAM, 480 MHz MIPS 74K Processor (WNR3500Lv2)

Pros: Nice Box. Specs look good.

Cons: This came up under the search for "dsl modem" on the website. The box shows a yellow "Internet Port", but unfortunately that is for an ethernet-style plug, not connectible to a DSL line it appears.

Overall Review: Kind of disgusted with Myself. Why the search function puts up a wireless router as a result of a DSL modem search is a mystery, and I should have looked closer. I was in a hurry to get a replacement modem and saw "DSL" in the product description. Now I have a wireless router which I really have no need for and still need a dsl backup modem. Can't really give it a lot of stars since I have no way of evaluating it, but can't really give it a single star since I can not claim it does not work well. Compromised at two stars and will just put it on a shelf somewhere since I can not use it. Now back to looking for a *real* DSL modem.

Works, no major problems besides setup

IBM Lenovo ThinkCentre S50 Desktop PC Pentium 4 2.8GHz 1GB RAM 40GB HDD Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit
IBM Lenovo ThinkCentre S50 Desktop PC Pentium 4 2.8GHz 1GB RAM 40GB HDD Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit

Pros: Arrived quickly, clean interior, no loose connections, all ports tested appear to be functional.

Cons: Optical drive is a CD/DVD Read-Only Media model. USB plugs in front were difficult to get into. Runs a bit hot, as well. Could use some better ventilation and fans. Minor annoyance; had to go into BIOS before the CD/DVD drive would work. Took Me over a day swapping drives and cables before I figured it out.

Overall Review: IBM KCKH6TD 32 bits IBM BIOS 2AKT51AUS Intel P4 3.2GHz 32 bits 100MHz clk DIMM DDR Synchronous 64 bits 1GB PC 3200 DDR module installed Operating at 3.20GHz, 400MHz Memory Speed System comes with read-only optical drive. BIOS Setup -you appear to have less than 1 second to hit Enter, then F1 to enter the setup utility. IDE Drives Setup: Parallel ATA: Primary Serial ATA: Enabled Native Mode: Automatic (Either option, Automatic or Serial ATA, can be chosen, since both options will only allow Native Mode Operation on the Serial channel.) Startup Sequence: First, set all options to Disabled. Note that the "Removeable" option appears to mean the internal floppy drive only, not a USB drive. Then you can set up like the following: First Startup Device: CD/DVD Second Startup Device: Hard Disk 0 Continue for up to four devices. Automatic Startup Sequence: Disabled. Only needed for different Sequence when using Automatic Power On feature. Removeable Devices -the only option is the internal floppy if you have not disabled it. Unit appears to run pretty warm, so I plan on removing MB and installing on a more roomy and better ventilated case. I will have to do some desoldering to relocate the front jacks and will lose the PCI expandability unless I find a flexible adapter for the expansion bus, but I did not intend to add any extra cards anyway. I run Linux so I don't really care about the Win7 option.

not impressed

Elite Cuisine ERC-003 6-Cup Rice Cooker with Glass Lid, White
Elite Cuisine ERC-003 6-Cup Rice Cooker with Glass Lid, White

Pros: small, generates little excess heat, does not require much power.

Cons: no non-stick on cooking container, temp / moisture sensor miscalibrated, seriously doubt that metal cooking container will survive several more attempts to scrub off toasted rice residue without losing its already poor surface. Needs guessing as to when to turn off or reduce heat to stop possible charring of food items placed in it.

Overall Review: I suppose it would be good for soups or stews, but for rice it is a constant battle as to when to properly turn off or reduce heat to prevent the rice on the bottom from turning dark brown, as well as the rest of the rice sticking to the container as well. Best thing I can say about it is: this item works well while under constant supervision and can probably last so long as it is carefully cleaned each time after it is used to prevent more scratches from the cleaning attempts causing more food to stick next time.

12/16/2013

Two slices max

Hamilton Beach 31137 Stainless Steel 4 Slice Toaster Oven
Hamilton Beach 31137 Stainless Steel 4 Slice Toaster Oven

Pros: Works ok, turns off when timer pings, toasts cold pizza slices well without burning, small footprint, generates little excess heat.

Cons: Small, only good for faily flat items such as pizza and toast, will not bake frozen pot pies without burning, small height frozen items only, no removable crumb tray, might fit four bread slices if you cut off the crust first.

Overall Review: Since I purchased this primarily for reheating pizza slices, this works well for that, but the single-level tray and the tendency for the upper quartz element to burn items that are too close to it makes things like pre-frozen pot pies impossible. Small-height frozen dinners can be done, but the temp must be gradually turned up to avoid carbonizing the tops of the portions or the cardboard container. Plastic containers are not recommended because of that.

12/16/2013