cover
Justin M.

Justin M.

Joined on 05/16/03

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 29
Most Favorable Review

Affordable enterprise grade drives

WD Se WD2000F9YZ 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Hard Drive
WD Se WD2000F9YZ 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Hard Drive

Pros: Western Digital reliability, 24/7/365 useage, Quiet, 5 year warranty, 7200 RPM, lower wattage than RE's, 1 million hours MTBF, drives are "short stroked" Bought 5 of these for around 625 dollars.

Cons: Did not work with SATA II 3.0 (for me). Drive showed as "failed" in Western Digital tools software until I re-tested it with a SATA III 6.0Gb/sec controller. Ended up spending about 150 dollars on a new SAS/SATA controller and 2 SAS to SATA breakout cables.

Overall Review: I had issues using these drives with the SATA II (3.0 Gb/sec) controller on a supermicro server motherboard. I talked with their tech support (supermicro) and the drive should have worked since it was no larger than 2TB. I could not format without tons of errors. I used both the western digital tool and Windows 2008 disk management to format. I tried both quick and complete. There is a jumper on the drives to "downgrade" it to SATA II, but it did not work. I ended up purchasing a brand new supermicro PCIe SATA III SAS/SATA controller and everything worked fine. These drive are decent. Speed ranges from 80-150 MB/sec when benchmarked, depending on what part of the platter the data is. Typical large file (2 GB+) transfers was more in the range of 80-120 on average.

Most Critical Review

Ok light use router for two devices

Linksys EA3500-NP SMART Smooth Stream Gigabit Dual-Band Wireless N750 Router IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, IEEE 802.3/3u/3ab
Linksys EA3500-NP SMART Smooth Stream Gigabit Dual-Band Wireless N750 Router IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, IEEE 802.3/3u/3ab

Pros: Cheap. Still waiting on rebate, so.. maybe not so cheap if I dont get it. Clean looking enclosure. Gig-ethernet connections. Can turn on/off the blinky flashy lights. :)

Cons: I seem to be limited to a max of two devices for full speed. Speed on those are great ~30mbit/sec speedtest.net results up to 50 or so feet away (I have this router on a 50 Mbit cable internet connection.) When I add a third device, be a tablet, laptop, or cell phone the speed drops to ~1Mbit/sec. Even if those other devices are not doing anything I cannot get any bandwidth on the 3rd device. Mind you that I am a foot away from the router when testing. It almost acts like QOS/media priority or something is turned on when the other devices connect. This router would work well in an appartment or a smaller home. Set this up in the center of a 100' long home and it barely covers the ends.

Overall Review: Haven't had much time to research into this router on why it is not giving me faster speeds on the other 2 devices that are connected to this router. Not for my personal use, someone else's network I set up. I'm sure if it was mine this would drive me crazy. The menu to me feels limited. I miss the older router (WRT's) config pages. For a long time I had them memorized by heart and could tell anyone over the phone where to go to change a setting.

Server rack depth adapters worked perfectly.

StarTech RDA1U Rail Depth Adapter Kit for Server Racks - 1U
StarTech RDA1U Rail Depth Adapter Kit for Server Racks - 1U

Pros: All mounting hardware included. Good powder coating.

Cons: Cost

Overall Review: I needed to mount a couple pieces of networking equipment ( RJ-45 patch panel, gig Ethernet switch) further back in a server rack so I could close the door and these worked perfectly.

High end industry standard gig ethernet cable. You get what you pay for with black box cable.

Black Box EYN880A-PB-1000 GigaTrue CAT6 550-MHz Solid Bulk Cable - Unshielded, CMR Grade PVC, Black, 1000-ft. Pull Box
Black Box EYN880A-PB-1000 GigaTrue CAT6 550-MHz Solid Bulk Cable - Unshielded, CMR Grade PVC, Black, 1000-ft. Pull Box

Pros: Cable does have feet markings. Some cable companies are not labeling feet markings anymore and this is a real headache when I have to pick up a used box that someone else has pulled wire out of. It is a larger, harder jacketed cable so it was very easy to pull in runs that ran through studs and around bends. You can never go wrong spending a little more to get better cable knowing that it will last and give you the least trouble.

Cons: It is a little on the pricey side for network cable, but worth it. Cheaper here than from Black Box, which is odd, but awesome!

Overall Review: We use Cables to Go and Black Box cable where I work and at former employers that I worked for. This cable is very well built. Good oxygen free copper, the right amount of twists (true gig), and good jacketing/pulling materials. I pulled 2 boxes (2,000 feet) recently for a new home build A/V install and did not have any issues such as twisted/pinched wires, signal loss, etc.. The outside jacket is VERY thick and was about as thick as the RG6 quad shield coax I pulled beside it. It passed with flying colors with my fluke tester and did not disappoint on the frequency sweep and bit error tests.

Serious quality & design issues. Not worth the retail price.

Corsair Obsidian Series 450D Black Brushed Aluminum and Steel ATX Mid Tower Gaming Computer Case
Corsair Obsidian Series 450D Black Brushed Aluminum and Steel ATX Mid Tower Gaming Computer Case

Pros: -Overall case aesthetics were pleasing. Nothing too flashy or cheap looking. -Fans seemed decent. Quiet and with good air flow. Long enough cables too. -Decent mounting for a top mounted radiator. -Good size for a water cooling setup with an ATX motherboard. -Rubber grommets that were for routing wires were a nice touch. -Side window being flush mounted gave the case a little nicer look. -Fan filters all around. The use of magnets made changing out filters easy.

Cons: -For this case being around 90% steel, it flexed way too much. This made putting the side panel on harder at times than it had to be. -Push button front fan grill comes off too easy. It really should have been magnetic. -Quick tool-less optical drive bay mechanism did not allow a drive to slide in easy. I almost felt like I was going to break it when I installed it. -Reset switch/power switch/HD light/Power light header cables were about 4 inches too short to my MSI Z170A motherboard. -Paint (on mine) had overspray/spatter on the one side and a place inside where they had missed painting it all together. That spot actually had rust on it. -About half of the screws for the motherboard stand offs were cross threaded. -The drive cage was also a bit on the thin side.

Overall Review: My first impression of the case was great, but as I dug in and started to mount everything it went downhill. I ended up sending this case back to Newegg and went with another vendor. I really had high hopes as Corsair sells some really great power supplies and water coolers. But I will stay clear of their computer cases. For the money there are better choices available.

So far so good...

Canon imageCLASS MF8280CW wireless Color Multifunction laser printer, 14 ppm
Canon imageCLASS MF8280CW wireless Color Multifunction laser printer, 14 ppm

Pros: Cheap price when on sale. Prints are average. Did what other users suggested, installed driver directly from Canon, no issues under Windows 7/8. Originally had the unit set up with wired ethernet, then went to wireless. No issues. Very quick first print. Made probably 20 color fliers in roughly 2 minutes for a car that I was selling. Build quality seems a little on the light side. Not quite the office grade of our HP laser printers that we have at work, but definitely better than a "consumer" grade home printer. I expect this thing to last awhile.

Cons: Tried to print pre-cut business card sheets, toner would not lay 100% evenly on them. Package even said "compatible with all inkjet and laser printers". Bought glossy version instead, worked fine. As others have said, your mileage may vary on the starter toner. Already burned half-way through mine as it sits. Roughly 200 pages have been pushed to it, mostly color fliers, so really not that bad. Still beats using my ink jet HP.

Overall Review: I wish newegg would have double boxed this thing. The box was beat up pretty bad. By the time I got it the handle was broke (UPS guy wasnt happy it broke halfway up the stairs) and there was a huge hole punched through the side of the box. Luckily, nothing inside was broke.