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DANNY J.

DANNY J.

Joined on 09/04/01

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Product Reviews
product reviews
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Most Favorable Review

A very affordable Pure Sine-Wave UPS

CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD PFC Sinewave UPS Systems - 1500VA/1000W, 120 VAC, NEMA 5-15P, Mini-Tower, Sine Wave, 12 Outlets, LCD, PowerPanel
CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD PFC Sinewave UPS Systems - 1500VA/1000W, 120 VAC, NEMA 5-15P, Mini-Tower, Sine Wave, 12 Outlets, LCD, PowerPanel

Pros: The CyberPower PFC series is an excellent value. It's line-interactive meaning that it will run on the AC coming out of your wall and in the event of low voltage switch to battery and output a pure sine wave. Although some electronics can run on a simulated sine-wave, all electronics will last longer with a pure sine wave. All but one of our PC's have Active Power Factor Correction and require a Pure-sine wave and down the road we'll upgrade the last PC and will also need active PFC. Since I've had these units (7 in total now, all on a Shell Shocker) I've had several events when I first powered on an amplifier (huge inrush current). The UPS recorded an event and switched to battery power for about 2-3 minutes, then switched back to wall power. A DVR was on the UPS along with a drop amp and it was also recording and there wasn't a hiccup at all. Since the UPS has an MOV surge suppressor built in, it's not a good idea to plug it into another MOV based surge suppressor. Doing so will void your warranty. I use a SERIES MODE power filter which filters anything higher than 60 Hz including all spikes, transients and surges. In this way, the UPS's surge suppressor will never see a surge and I don't have to worry about the MOV wearing out over time. The SERIES MODE device runs anywhere from 40 (used) to 125 (new old stock) to 175 new. A side note: when you consider that an MOV surge suppressor will wear out over time and require annual replacement, even a 20 dollar unit over 10 years will cost you 200+ and with a SERIES MODE you come out way ahead. I only have 2 or 3 devices plugged into the battery side at any given time and don't have an issue with the spacing. The UPS is rated for 900 Watts but the manufacture recommends that you run the unit at 80% of max load or 720 Watts. They do this to allow the UPS the ability to handle fluctuations in power demand, in essence leaving some headroom for additional equipment and reducing the chances of overloads. Can you run it to 90%? Sure, but again you reduce it's ability to handle power line fluctuations & increase the chance of an overload. Remember that not everything that is plugged into it will be well behaved all the time. By leaving some capacity you help to account for those dependencies. Once it is on batteries you also won't drain the batteries as fast. Consider that even NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturer Association) recommends that you run a branch circuit (everything on one circuit breaker) at 80% (12 Amps for a standard 15 Amp circuit breaker) to account for varying loads.

Cons: It would be hard for CyberPower to include more spacing and keep the form factor small, so I guess they had to make some trade-offs on outlet spacing. For those that do have to use more than one wall-wart, consider a short 6-12 inch extension for the wall warts (i.e., with the idea of keeping the extension as short as possible).

Overall Review: It would be nice to not have a built in MOV based surge suppressor because once the MOV wears out, you'll need to replace it & since it's built in, you'll need to replace the entire UPS. A way to prolong the life of the MOV is to use a SERIES MODE device to plug the UPS into. That ensures that the UPS will never see a surge.

Most Critical Review

3/4 of a GoFlex drive in disguise

Seagate 500GB SATA DVR Expander STAP500403
Seagate 500GB SATA DVR Expander STAP500403

Pros: Purchased to use as an external drive

Cons: The listing is somewhat misleading. It does not come with any interface cable at all, just a SATA connection that is deeply recessed. Upon further examination the pictures show you exactly what you get. It would have been useful to see the underside of the device in a picture that would have clearly labeled this device as a GoFlex drive.

Overall Review: The back of the drive is labeled with a sticker that refers to the item as a GoFlex DVR drive. In order to make it useful you have to purchase an "Upgrade Cable -- USB 3.0/2.0" for an additional $19.99 (Model Number STAE104) through the Seagate website. The cable is out of stock at Newegg. Fortunately for me, I had purchased the cable to upgrade another GoFlex drive from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 and kept the old cable around. The device was not formatted for Windows, rather some kind of proprietary format for use with a DVR. It was easy enough to reformat the device in Windows. For another five dollars you're better off getting a 1 TB external drive, but if you had the interface laying around then getting a 500 GB drive for the sale price was a bargain.

Using it to store all the 3.5" HDD's used in the home

ORICO Hard Drive Case 3.5inch 20-Bay HDD/SSD Multi-Protection Storage Box Suitcase with Foam Shockproof Anti-Static MoistureProof Travel Bag -PSC L20
ORICO Hard Drive Case 3.5inch 20-Bay HDD/SSD Multi-Protection Storage Box Suitcase with Foam Shockproof Anti-Static MoistureProof Travel Bag -PSC L20

Pros: The case holds the 3.5" HDD's nicely. I store the drives in ESD bags and the bags in the slots and it works well

Overall Review: Great value

11/20/2023

Adds back capability

USB Hub 3.0, RSHTECH 4 Port USB 3.0 Ultra Slim Aluminum Data Hub USB Port Expander Portable USB Splitter (Black)
USB Hub 3.0, RSHTECH 4 Port USB 3.0 Ultra Slim Aluminum Data Hub USB Port Expander Portable USB Splitter (Black)

Pros: Can't believe modern laptops have done away with ETHERNET and more than one USB 3.0 ports. This splitter adds back additional USB 3.0 ports. I have used it with a powered 3.5" HDD, portable 2.5 HDD/SSD and mouse/keyboard. No issues.

Overall Review: Great value for what it does

11/20/2023

No complaints

ARRIS SurfBoard Extreme SBG6782-AC DOCSIS 3.0 AC1750 Cable Modem WiFi Router with build in MoCA (SBG6782-AC)
ARRIS SurfBoard Extreme SBG6782-AC DOCSIS 3.0 AC1750 Cable Modem WiFi Router with build in MoCA (SBG6782-AC)

Pros: We use both the wired and wireless router. It was easy to setup with our cable company. And much more reliable than our old DSL moem

Cons: Not really a con, but I wish it had an on/off switch on the back. We power cycle the modem once every 3 months and it would be easier to do so with a switch. Right now we just hold the unit in one hand and unplug it, wait a minute and plug it back in.

Overall Review: We've gotten a lot of of value out of it so far and hope to get more value in our 2nd year of Cable Modem. UPDATE 10-23-2023: We've been using this modem for 8-1/2 years and it's been the best modem we have ever had. The firewall still works great but requires an older version of firefox to access which is not a problem. Our ISP capped the device to 150 Mbps which is plenty fast

10/23/2023

Been using 3 of these for 6 years now

MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 FM2 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) USB 3.0 HDMI Mini ITX AMD Motherboard
MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 FM2 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) USB 3.0 HDMI Mini ITX AMD Motherboard

Pros: I own 3 of these boards and have been using them for 6 years now. Two are still HTPC's with a BDXL Blu-Ray, a pair of 3.5 inch HDD's and an SDD boot disk. They were running Windows 7 and have been upgraded to run Kubuntu 18.04 LTS Linux. The two HTPC's have 16GB of RAM and AMD FM2 A10-5800K APU's (no need for external graphics). They are in a Silverstone ML03B case with one case fan and the stock cooler. Plenty of room in the case. The LAN port and WI-FI as well as the Blue Tooth still work. With Linux, the Windows 7 is now a Virtual Machine thanks to Virtual Box. The 3rd machine was redeployed April 4 of this year and is in an In-Win BP655 mini case with a DVD burner and a 250GB WD SSD, 8 GB of RAM and an AMD A6-5400K APU. It runs Windows 8.1 and is used as a home (work) computer. All 3 boards are running great for 6+ years

Cons: Can't think of any.

Overall Review: The two HTPC's in the Silverstone case have an external ANTEC cooler that is about the same size as the case and has a pair of fans that draw air in from the bottom and exhaust out of the rear. They run on low speed most of the time. Heat can destroy things and the 100-WATT FM2 chip does get hot and could easily benefit from a better heat-sink/fan combination. I wish these were still available as they are perfect for what I need. I am running the SATA controller in IDE mode as I had issues mixing SDD and HDD drives in AHCI mode.