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SEAN M.

SEAN M.

Joined on 07/30/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 23
Most Favorable Review

Great Router

3com 3CR858-91 OfficeConnect Cable/DSL Router 1 x 10/100Mbps WAN Ports 4 x 10/100Mbps LAN Ports
3com 3CR858-91 OfficeConnect Cable/DSL Router 1 x 10/100Mbps WAN Ports 4 x 10/100Mbps LAN Ports

Pros: Well built, great interface, holds up under heavy use, enough throughput to saturate a 9 Mbps link.

Cons: It has lots of half implemented toy features. This router still does more and better than anything in its class, but if I was expecting everything listed on the box done well I might be mad.

Overall Review: Don't set the admin login timeout very high. If your connection is cut while you're working on it and the timeout is 99 minutes, you won't be able to log back in for 99 minutes.

11/21/2007
Most Critical Review

Decent

GIGABYTE GA-945P-S3 LGA 775 Intel 945P ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-945P-S3 LGA 775 Intel 945P ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Amazing fit and finish for such a low priced board. Caps by Nichicon and Sanyo, and all ferrite core chokes. Good layout given the small size of the board.

Cons: Too small for no reason. All the front panel wiring, USB headers, and the floppy connector are stuck under the PCI slots. Make sure you have your wiring PERFECT before you start plugging in PCI cards. Also you have to press CTRL+F1 in the main BIOS screen to unhide all the 'advanced' settings, and this is documented nowhere but on tech forums.

Overall Review: Not a great overclocker's board; 300+ FSB speeds are by no means guaranteed. The PCIe lock only functions if you set the memory multiplier to the magical '2.0-' setting, and usually you won't have enough headroom working with just the BIOS to get your memory back up to full speed. Its only saving grace is that it works with BSEL modded CPUs. So if you aren't afraid to go crossing wires, it'll still overclock a bit.

Awooo

Seagate IronWolf Pro 4TB NAS Hard Drive 7200 RPM 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ST4000NE0025
Seagate IronWolf Pro 4TB NAS Hard Drive 7200 RPM 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ST4000NE0025

Pros: Quiet, good support terms, competitive price.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: Been using a pair of these in a BTRFS RAID1 setup for a few weeks. No checksum errors and SMART reads clean; nothing to complain about.

Integration Fail

Dell UltraSharp U2414H Black 23.8" Widescreen LED Backlight LCD IPS Monitor, 1920 x 1080, 1000:1, 250cd/m2, HDMI&DVI&USB Display Port, VESA Mountable
Dell UltraSharp U2414H Black 23.8" Widescreen LED Backlight LCD IPS Monitor, 1920 x 1080, 1000:1, 250cd/m2, HDMI&DVI&USB Display Port, VESA Mountable

Pros: All around good picture quality and responsiveness, low profile bezel looks great, stand is solid, and onboard audio output is decent quality. So basically the minimum functionality for a premium monitor is there.

Cons: Using the power button cuts power to the USB hub if the hub is connected to a PC, but optionally not if the hub is acting as a power source only for some reason. This makes the hub useless for input devices in some cases. The power button also messes with my AMD video card connected via DisplayPort. It reverts to 1024x768 and moves all the windows from my DVI accessory screen to the main desktop for some reason. I dunno if it's an AMD or Dell problem, but it seems from here like these monitors have unnecessary issues with all 3 of the big GPU vendors. Minor nitpicks, but still annoying: the touch button markings are difficult to see with the monitor on, the touch buttons themselves suck, the rear panel connections are labeled in black on black with super tiny font, and the HDMI ports are really close to the monitor's back wall, which makes them difficult to use with some cables.

It Works

SeaSonic SS-750KM3 750W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
SeaSonic SS-750KM3 750W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

Pros: Makes a reaaaallly quiet 400W power supply. Sleeved cables were an unfortunate trend that I'm glad to see the end of.

Cons: The unit I got from Newegg had coil whine and had to be returned. Seasonic support does not answer questions about their terms of service, and does not offer cross shipping or expedited shipping. It worked out in the end, but most of their competitors would have done better.

Overall Review: Newegg did a really horrible job of packing, which is why I involved Seasonic support at all. The retail box came in a 2nd larger box with at least 2" on either side to slam back and forth. The fan on the unit I returned ran rougher than the replacement from Seasonic. I don't think it's a coincidence.

Love It

CRU-DataPort 3 SATA Removable Hard Drive Enclosure (8430-5000-0500)
CRU-DataPort 3 SATA Removable Hard Drive Enclosure (8430-5000-0500)

Pros: Inexpensive, very sturdy, brilliant design. Acceptable cooling performance for 7200 RPM drives in an air conditioned room. Doesn't subject the hard drive to repeated mating cycles and uses more durable connectors than regular SATA.

Cons: The fan is a droning 40x15mm from some unknown Chinese manufacture, but that comes with the territory on cheaper caddies. I've definitely gotten worse from other companies. You could probably make a good show of silencing it with a ~4k RPM 40x28mm.

Overall Review: CRU and Newegg do a horrible job marketing these things. It's very arguably the best product on the market. Don't make me read PDFs on the manufacture's web site and pull part numbers to figure that out.