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Charles P.

Charles P.

Joined on 02/26/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 13
Most Favorable Review

What more do you really need?

Nippon Labs 2.5" IDE to USB 2.0 External Enclosure Model EN-25USB
Nippon Labs 2.5" IDE to USB 2.0 External Enclosure Model EN-25USB

Pros: Excellent price point. Worked for what it was designed to do. Stunning Corinthian leather case makes me the envy of all my friends. Comes with a beautiful mint green #1 (#0?) phillips screwdriver for assembly. Uses standard, large USB connector cable so no hunting for those little buggers when you try to use the drive.

Cons: I was really hoping for a retina-scorching blue LED but will have to settle for the red one.

Overall Review: My homeboys at NewEgg got it to me in 3-days (with Saturday delivery, no less). I'm not sure what more you can expect something like this to do. I bought several and they worked with every drive I tried.

Most Critical Review

Workable But Odd

Pixxo CM-8319HG Black Micro ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 400W Power Supply
Pixxo CM-8319HG Black Micro ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 400W Power Supply

Pros: Comes with a power supply (although don't expect to find a UL, CE or CSA sticker on the supply). Both front panel and power supply cables are plenty long. Thin construction but with enough bolsters to make it relatively sturdy. PS has two SATA and two Molex.

Cons: Can only accommodate one 3.5 inch drive. There are an additional set of screw holes (potentially for a second drive), but they are only on one side so if you hung a drive there it would be cantilevered from the screws on one side only. Additionally, because of the arrangement of the 3.5 inch drive in relation to the motherboard, very unlikely this case could be used with an actual mATX board (144x144). I could get the motherboard in or the drive in, not both.

Overall Review: Not a bad deal for the price, just know that the physical arrangement inside is odd. Also, could use some air suck-holes on the front. Don't know why all cases (with the exception of the huge gaming cases) have such horrible air flow engineering.

A little bait-and-switch

XFX Gift - DEUS EX Game Coupon
XFX Gift - DEUS EX Game Coupon

Pros: It didn't add any weight to my shipping.

Cons: Newegg had this listed as a package deal with an AMD video card. The only problem is that the game offer is good from April 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012. Newegg took my order on January 17, 2013. Only missed it by three weeks. The web page used for download doesn't even exist any more.

Overall Review: It didn't cost me anything so I guess I can't officially complain. Kind of a waste of my time though. And I suspect it did entice some people to buy that particular video card thinking that they were getting a game in the bargain. Psych.

Perfectly functional, why pay more?

StarTech.com EPS8EXT 8 in. EPS 8 Pin Power Extension Cable Female to Male
StarTech.com EPS8EXT 8 in. EPS 8 Pin Power Extension Cable Female to Male

Pros: Inexpensive yet high quality. Perfectly fine for moving electrons. Uses industry standard colors for the supply voltage used.

Cons: Could be an inch or two longer and it wouldn't offend me.

Overall Review: Perfectly functional extension for those cases where the power supply is on the bottom and the motherboard assumes the power supply is on the top. This generally means that you have to pull the 8-pin supply cable across the MB from bottom to top to get the plug in. It can be done but if you have cards (e.g., video cards, NICs, etc.) or a large CPU heatsink, it is going to be draped across everything in the case. Of course sometimes it simply won't make it at all. Stretching copper is pretty difficult. I guess for those of you with lexan on the side of your case it is not very visually appealing. Mine sits behind a piece of black steel so I can't see it anyway.

Works exactly like you'd expect

PNY Attaché 2 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive P-FD16GATT2-GE
PNY Attaché 2 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive P-FD16GATT2-GE

Pros: - Nearly STOLE this from Newegg on a cyber Monday deal. - Seeing transfer rates around 27 MB/s - No offensive blue LEDs

Cons: - Remember when every thumb drive came with a lanyard and a clip? - Remember when people called these 'thumb drives'?

Overall Review: Not sure why people are having trouble with these. This one works like a champ. I paid about what you'd expect to pay for a 4GB stick. I read somewhere that people were seeing drastic speed differences with different batches of these. I guess mine came with the GOOD silicon because I haven't had any problems.

11/30/2012

Actually it is an E02 - SINGLE CORE

Pogoplug POGOB01 Diskless System Media Sharing Device (Pink)
Pogoplug POGOB01 Diskless System Media Sharing Device (Pink)

Pros: - Prompt shipment by the Eggsters and a fair (but not great) price. - Has more memory than the dual core B01 model. - With Archlinux you have a Linux box with GbE and 4 USB ports for next to nothing.

Cons: - The box says B01 but the unit is actually a POGO-E02 which is a single-core, not dual core, and has no SATA port. - Its pink (you can find black ones out there for less). - I burn these over to Archlinux bootloader on first bootup so I have no idea if they work as sharing devices as they are originally sold. - WiFi dongle support is not great with the Linux distros out there (not really a fault of the popplug). I've heard the RTs will work but I haven't found one yet that does.

Overall Review: Use your favorite search to look for 'pogoplug B01 linux' and you will find that the B01 (Archlinux calls it a v3) is supposed to be a dual core ARM with an internal SATA connector. This unit is actually an E02 (v2) which is a single core ARM and has no on-board SATA connector. I recently bought another one (in black) from a different retailer and it was supposed to be a P21. The box said P21 but it was actually an E02 also. This is IMPORTANT if you are converting these to Linux as the process is completely different for the two architectures. I don't think the dealers are pulling a bait and switch - Cloud Engines is just cagey with specs and model numbers and does nothing but confuse people. Regardless, they work great (and silent) if you want to build your own Linux NAS, rtorrent box or web server. For anyone even fleetingly comfortable with the *nix command line, you will find packages to do just about anything you want... including making this into a much more powerful file sharing device than when it left the factory.

11/15/2012