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Dmitri L.

Dmitri L.

Joined on 09/23/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 12
Most Favorable Review
Rosewill Legacy V4-S - Silver, Aluminum Alloy Micro ATX Computer Case
Rosewill Legacy V4-S - Silver, Aluminum Alloy Micro ATX Computer Case

Pros: Light, well built, looks good. Unusual layout, and still quite roomy for a compact mATX case. Even the power button and HDD/Power LEDs don't look as gaudy as I feared. No Rosewill logo on the case.

Cons: Good screwdriver and nimble hands required. Dual front panel USB 3.0 ports and, maybe, an SD card reader would be nice.

Overall Review: One of very few mATX cases that fit into the standard IKEA KALLAX 13"x13"x15" cell. Definitely one of the best looking cases that do so. Now my LACK rack server has some company.

Most Critical Review

So much promise but such a letdown

Linksys EA6200 Dual Band AC900 Smart Wi-Fi Router
Linksys EA6200 Dual Band AC900 Smart Wi-Fi Router

Pros: It works

Cons: Dismal WiFi range Dumb interface No opensource firmware (e.g. DD-WRT) Power brick is rated for twice as many watts than my old router, I'm guessing this thing is pretty hungry.

Overall Review: I thought there were no bad WiFi routers left in this day and age. I was wrong. Certainly didn't expect it from a Linksys/Cisco product. How can a WiFi router be bad at WiFi? It had one job... Yet, this thing has the worst WiFi range of any router I've ever owned in the last >10 years. To add insult to injury, this router has an impressive spec sheet for the price. Gobs of RAM and flash, Broadcom chipset, GbE, USB, 802.11 ac. So much promise... If only I could replace the dumb, awful, stupid stock firmware with a nice DD-WRT build. No. Not an option. It's such a pity to see all this (presumably) nice hardware go to waste.

Good price when on sale

G.Skill 64GB microSDXC UHS-I/U1 Class 10 Memory Card with Adapter (FF-TSDXC64GA-U1)
G.Skill 64GB microSDXC UHS-I/U1 Class 10 Memory Card with Adapter (FF-TSDXC64GA-U1)

Pros: - Inexpensive - Fast sequential read speeds

Cons: - Low 4KiB IOPS - Sequential writes could be faster

Overall Review: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CrystalDiskMark 5.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2015 hiyohiyo Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s] * KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 82.941 MB/s Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 14.890 MB/s Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 7.944 MB/s [ 1939.5 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 0.693 MB/s [ 169.2 IOPS] Sequential Read (T= 1) : 79.277 MB/s Sequential Write (T= 1) : 13.211 MB/s Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 6.759 MB/s [ 1650.1 IOPS] Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 0.636 MB/s [ 155.3 IOPS] Test : 1024 MiB [F: 0.0% (0.0/58.2 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=5 sec] Date : 2016/10/25 21:04:40 OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 14393] (x64) G.Skill 64GB FF-TSDXC64GA-U1

10/25/2016

Dimensions Incorrect

RAIJINTEK RHEA, 3pcs 6mm Heat-Pipe, 9225 PWM Fan, Compatible with Intel LGA 115x & AMD AM2/AM3 CPU, Easy installation & User Friendly, Light Weight and 130 mm Height for Most Desktop System
RAIJINTEK RHEA, 3pcs 6mm Heat-Pipe, 9225 PWM Fan, Compatible with Intel LGA 115x & AMD AM2/AM3 CPU, Easy installation & User Friendly, Light Weight and 130 mm Height for Most Desktop System

Pros: Inexpensive, no backplate necessary, seems to be well made for the price.

Cons: Doesn't fit into my nMEDIAPC 7000B case, nor into Rosewill Legacy V4 case.

Overall Review: The "93x59x118 mm [W x D x H]" dimensions printed on the box and listed on Newegg specs page are incorrect. The width of this CPU cooler is indeed 93 mm. The 59 mm "depth" is the dimension of the CPU contact plate (not very useful), actual depth is over 90 mm with fan and brackets. But most importantly, the height. I have no idea where the 118 mm size came from. The height of the just the heat-tubes from base-plate to top is already 130 mm, and it's 135 mm from the motherboard to the top, and 140 mm total height with brackets. I didn't actually install this cooler, it clearly didn't fit. The heatsink seems well made. Brackets already installed with Intel OEM style mounts. I consider this an advantage. The cooler is lighter than I expected, so the weight shouldn't be a problem for the mounts. You would probably need to remove the fan to make installation easier, but that's a minor thing compared to the usual mess with brackets and backplates with other aftermarket coolers. Overall this seems to be a good product, but very disappointed that listed dimensions were wrong and it didn't fit in my build after all the hours I've spent researching compact CPU coolers.

Light and comfortable.

Sennheiser HD439 Over-Ear Headphones
Sennheiser HD439 Over-Ear Headphones

Pros: Light, comfortable, fabric earpads, better sound that my old headphones, inexpensive.

Cons: Detachable cable is nice, but I still couldn't find a replacement cable with a microphone that fits and costs less than what I paid for the headphones themselves.

Overall Review: Thin leathery stuff covering earpads on my old headphones started breaking away and was sticking to my face. These headphones should be immune to that. Nice soft fabric on the earpads. These headphones are very comfortable and light and sound great. Couldn't be happier considering the price.

Good value

Barska AB10290 10x21 Blueline Mini Porro Binoculars
Barska AB10290 10x21 Blueline Mini Porro Binoculars

Pros: Cheap, light, lets you see things that are far away

Cons: None

Overall Review: Feels like a plastic toy in your hand. In a good way. Very light and small. About the same size and price as a cheap theatre binoculars, but much brighter and clearer than most. I was pleasantly surprised.