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Bryan P.

Bryan P.

Joined on 07/22/01

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 14
Most Favorable Review

6+ years of flawless NAS usage

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: I purchased and put these into service in December 2013 in my QNAP TS-212. They have been running continuously since then, and have not had any issues. What more can I ask for?

Overall Review: Reliable drives that are fast enough for my NAS, large enough storage space to be useful. 6 years of flawless operation makes for a happy customer. I'm thinking about upgrading just because of the age, not any flaws.

12/30/2019
Most Critical Review

Cannot get Analog Audio Working

ASRock H87M LGA 1150 Intel H87 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
ASRock H87M LGA 1150 Intel H87 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Other than the audio (see cons) this board has been working well since I started using it. It has a good balance of price and features for a budget build. I paired this with a Pentium G3220 and 8 GB RAM and it makes for a very snappy machine running Windows 7 64 bit.

Cons: I CANNOT get the audio to work on this board and am nearly at the point of RMA'ing it. I have tried everything I know, spending multiple days working on this updating drivers, etc. I cannot get any signal from the onboard Realtek audio - the rear panel connections are ghosted out. After browsing multiple support forums, I have found that there are a LOT of people who have problems with the Realtek onboard audio and a RMA usually fixes this. However, I want to make sure I exhaust my options before going that route. I have tried the audio in Win7 and Linux Mint. No success in either OS. Wish there was a way to test it in BIOS.

Overall Review: It would be a decent board if it worked properly... For an extra $20 I could just buy an external sound card, but that kind of defeats the purpose for a cheap board

Perfect performance for a Home NAS

QNAP TS-212-US Diskless System All-in-one NAS Server with iSCSI for SOHO and Home Users
QNAP TS-212-US Diskless System All-in-one NAS Server with iSCSI for SOHO and Home Users

Pros: I purchased this in December 2013 (current date is December 2019). This has been running flawlessly in a RAID1 setup with 2 Toshiba DT01ACA300 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives. I use very few of the features other than using this as the main file storage location for all of the home computers. We store our digital photos and videos on this, and enjoy the protection of the RAID. This is quiet, low power consumption device that just does what we need. Eventually I might upgrade to a slightly faster one, but a low power consumption network drive is all I really need.

Cons: Setup was not entirely intuitive, and the file structure on the hard drive is there to help support some of the web features. Not required, but it would have been nice to have a better "quick setup" option. However, I'm guessing this may have improved in the 6 years since I purchased.

Overall Review: A home NAS in a RAID setup is a great option for any household with more than 1 computer, or for anyone who wants to protect their irreplaceable digital photos/videos. Due to the 6 year flawless record I have had with this device, I can highly recommend to others.

12/30/2019

Great Value Haswell

Intel Pentium G3220 - Pentium Dual-Core Haswell Dual-Core 3.0 GHz LGA 1150 54W Intel HD Graphics Desktop Processor - BX80646G3220
Intel Pentium G3220 - Pentium Dual-Core Haswell Dual-Core 3.0 GHz LGA 1150 54W Intel HD Graphics Desktop Processor - BX80646G3220

Pros: Bought this chip, an ASROCK H87M, and 8GB of RAM for a budget office PC that has a long upgrade path. This dual core processor runs Win7 well for all of the current office, internet, and image editing tasks, and does just fine for occasional video editing. The OEM heatsink and fan that come with it are also quiet and sufficient, given the low power of this chip.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Socket 1150 means that I can drop in an i7 Haswell in a few years when they're nice and cheap.

Good Quality, Low Number of Prints

Rosewill RTC-TN350 Black Toner Replaces Brother TN-350 TN350
Rosewill RTC-TN350 Black Toner Replaces Brother TN-350 TN350

Pros: I bought this with a new Rosewill drum kit and the print quality was great.

Cons: Printed less than 500 pages before running out of toner. Not what I expect from a laser printer cartridge. I may as well have an inkjet if that's all I'm going to get from it.

Overall Review: Buy a Brother brand

Works fine

RiDATA Lightning Series 8GB microSDHC MLC Flash Card w/ 2 Adapters (SD/Mini SD/Mini SDHC) Model RDMICSDHC8G-LIG-2
RiDATA Lightning Series 8GB microSDHC MLC Flash Card w/ 2 Adapters (SD/Mini SD/Mini SDHC) Model RDMICSDHC8G-LIG-2

Pros: Works fine in mobile phone LG CU515 and in card readers. I even had an occasion to load Pendrive Linux on it this weekend to repair a crashed computer. It booted just fine and ran quickly from this memory stick on a USB card reader.

Cons: None yet.

Overall Review: I have not tried all of the adapters yet, but I'm assuming they work, too.

11/30/2009