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Stephen O.

Stephen O.

Joined on 02/03/13

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 51
Most Favorable Review

Cheap and Fast Fast Fast

ADATA 32GB Premier microSDHC UHS-I / Class 10 Memory Card with SD Adapter, Speed Up to 50MB/s (AUSDH32GUICL10-RA1)
ADATA 32GB Premier microSDHC UHS-I / Class 10 Memory Card with SD Adapter, Speed Up to 50MB/s (AUSDH32GUICL10-RA1)

Pros: -Good price -Performs up to specs perfectly on an 2nd gen Atom Tablet -Good, most importantly consistent I/O performance, so a good card for running programs/apps off of. -Convenient bundled adapter -Made me a sandwich

Cons: -Only made one sandwich

Most Critical Review

Below Average Drive for Below Average Prices

TOSHIBA DT01ACA300 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
TOSHIBA DT01ACA300 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: -Price -Good sequential read/write -Good customer service

Cons: -One drive of two purchased failed -Random write speeds are horrible (ie ~30MBps on anything besides large video files, such as transferring mp3s) -Random read not great either -Constantly loses integrity in a Windows software RAID1 when matched with multiple other drives. I know software RAID isn't great, but it was rebuilding the whole mirror twice a week.

Overall Review: Customer service very quickly gave me a credit for well above the cost of the failed drive. I got the credit because they don't make the drive any more, but I prefer buying a guaranteed new item using store credit 100% of the time anyways. For my first time buying a budget hard drive I'm not too unhappy but I definitely wouldn't do it again.

Still haven't learned my lesson with refurb routers

Linksys EA8500 Max-Stream AC2600 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router
Linksys EA8500 Max-Stream AC2600 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router

Pros: -Speeds are good when up -Looks relatively low key and even has the option to disable the lights on top -Wireless latency is good enough for gaming on (can't beat wired but this didn't cause me as many issues as wireless usually does)

Cons: -Signal drops frequently. [Jungle-based Digital Home Assistant] will frequently cut out halfway through answering a question and flash lost internet before reconnecting. Device is 5 feet away in line of sight and other devices have similar issues -Once a week or so will need a full reset to get back on the internet. -Software is very limited and no easy to install options for third party firmware. -Signal issue didn't start up until the short refurb return window ended so I'll deal with it for a while longer before tossing this in the bin with the other refurb routers that disappointed.

Can't beat real Cherry MX keys when this is on rebate sale

Rosewill Apollo - RK-9100xBBR - Mechanical Keyboard with Blue Backlight
Rosewill Apollo - RK-9100xBBR - Mechanical Keyboard with Blue Backlight

Pros: -$50 Mail in rebate really made this a no-brainer purchase -Key feel is excellent. Added some dampener O-Rings to reduce noise from accidentally bottoming out and this is functionally silent compared to any other mechanical keyboard (note: brown switches are great for an office, blue switches are incredibly loud even with dampeners) -Having mic/headphone/2x USB ports right on the keyboard is awesome if your desktop is hidden away under a desk. -USB cable is solid and is plenty long enough to reach my desktop under my standing desk without issue. -Full number pad is great to have -Software is limited but does offer macro support

Cons: -No option to hard lock the fn key on. You always have to press fn + f1 to mute for example, no way to just press f1. -Stabilizers on the larger keys are cheaper metal (paperclip thickness basically) but still do a decent job. -Backlight is adjustable on almost the whole keyboard. Unfortunately Numlock/capslock/G mode indicators are always full brightness when on.

Cheapest RX480 still means a solid card (note: product description incorrect)

PowerColor RED DRAGON Radeon RX 480 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support ATX Video Card AXRX 480 4GBD5-3DHD
PowerColor RED DRAGON Radeon RX 480 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support ATX Video Card AXRX 480 4GBD5-3DHD

Pros: -Gaming performance in line with whats expected (great) -Great value for dollar per fps -AMD driver software is much improved and a breeze in Windows 10 -Overclocking support is much improved for the newest generation as well, just probably not for this card

Cons: -Power connector is 6 pin, not 8 pin as listed. This means reduced overclocking ability and slightly over spec power draw from that 6 pin connector even at default settings. -Fans are loud and fan profile is all over the place, constantly ramping up and down so you never get a chance to get used to any noise level -Fans are very loud, which is to be expected for a higher wattage card but the fan blades seem to be designed more for looks than functionality. (but I'm no engineer)

Phenomenal value for a TV

Changhong 42" Class Ultra HD LED TV - UD42YC5500UA
Changhong 42" Class Ultra HD LED TV - UD42YC5500UA

Pros: -4k resolution is crisp and really cool -Colors are decent, certainly not high end but well above low end -Speakers have good amount of volume and enough bass response to keep any casual listener happy -Plenty of inputs including vga which is helpful for backwards compatibility -Stand is solid and tv isn't heavy. It is a wide central mount stand but at least it isn't one of the stupid TVs that have the mounting feet on the very edge of the tv so you can't use a smaller tv stand. -Easy to configure audio delay if your audio is off from video (sadly it probably will be to start)

Cons: -Video delay is very noticeable. Once you have the audio configured to line up you won't notice it while watching media, but any gaming is mildly frustrating at best. Don't get this if you want to game on it or do finer pc productivity work -Speakers will probably blow themselves out if set to above 30/100, the volume curve is way too steep. But they're pretty loud below that so just don't get overeager and turn them up too high

Overall Review: Do you just need something to watch tv and movies on in glorious 4k? You can't beat the value of this device. Do you want to do other things like game or use it as a pc monitor? Then move right along. This isn't the tv you're looking for.

12/14/2015