cover
John G.

John G.

Joined on 08/23/08

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 5
Most Favorable Review

Great UPS

APC BR700G Back-UPS Pro, 700VA/420W, Tower, 120V, 6x NEMA 5-15R outlets, AVR, LCD, User Replaceable Battery - Tower - 12 Hour Recharge - 3 Minute Stand-by - 120 V Input - 120 V AC Output - Serial Port
APC BR700G Back-UPS Pro, 700VA/420W, Tower, 120V, 6x NEMA 5-15R outlets, AVR, LCD, User Replaceable Battery - Tower - 12 Hour Recharge - 3 Minute Stand-by - 120 V Input - 120 V AC Output - Serial Port

Pros: Superb product from a very reliable company (APC). These guys are the go-to brand for UPSs, and this UPS is no exception. - The active regulation for power dips is great for my apartment because the heaters like to dim the lights when they come on. - Great battery life; I can squeeze almost a full hour out of it when powering my laptop. - Front LCD panel displays loads of useful stuff, like my current power consumption in watts. When the power goes out, it estimates how much longer it will last in minutes. - Preemptive mute option. This is genius! When the power goes out, it doesn't start beeping like crazy (unless you want it to). Now I don't have to open it up and cut out the beeper myself (which I have done to other UPSs before). - Modified sine wave. Won't mean much to most people, but I like the fact that it's not just an unfiltered square wave coming out.

Cons: Not much to complain about. The way you change certain settings (like the LCD backlight auto-off) is a bit obtuse, but it's all in the manual. I wish the outlets were spaced out a bit, but I have a power strip for that. The software is kinda meh. I tried it out but removed it once I realized that all it did was change the settings you could already change via the front panel. I suppose you might need it if you want your computer to shut down on power failure, but the software didn't have the option to NOT do that (thus, I uninstalled it).

Overall Review: I trust APC and their UPSs. They have not gone wrong with this one, and for $100, it's a good deal. Don't cheap out on your UPS. A bad UPS can cause entirely new issues. Did I mention the preemptive mute? Because that's freaking AWESOME!

Great little netbook

ASUS Eee PC 1015PN-PU17-BU Blue Intel Atom N550(1.50GHz) Dual Core 10.1" WSVGA 1GB Memory 250GB HDD Netbook
ASUS Eee PC 1015PN-PU17-BU Blue Intel Atom N550(1.50GHz) Dual Core 10.1" WSVGA 1GB Memory 250GB HDD Netbook

Pros: Superb netbook! I love the EEE line, and this one is just great. Dual-core atom helps boost performance, especially with things like video playback. Plus with hyperthreading, it makes it seem like there are 4 cores. I like showing that off to my friends. =P Amazing battery life! With the 63WH battery, I can literally get 8 hours of battery life out of this thing, WiFi on. I use it in college every day, and I don't need to bring the power cord with me. Linux compatibility. All the hardware has Linux drivers available. The Broadcom wifi chipset gave me issues at first, but rpmfusion solved that. Webcam, sound and video work flawlessly. Webcam cover. This is just a little nicety. I usually just cover the webcam on a laptop with a piece of electrical tape, but this is much more elegant. The keyboard is nice to type on. There's space between each key, so mashing two keys at one is hard. My hands are fairly large, too, but typing is fine. SD card reader is a bonus.

Cons: Win7 starter. This is just a joke. I used it for about 2.3 seconds, got fed up and installed Linux instead (Fedora, XFCE spin). 1GiB of RAM. This is just not enough. I happened to have a 2GiB stick laying around, so the upgrade was fairly easy. Only 1 SODIMM slot, though. Getting to the hard drive is a royal pain. You have to take the keyboard off, pop the upper half of the case off (held with tabs(!), not screws) and disconnect two ribbon cables to get to the HD. This is just ridiculous. Put an access panel on the bottom, Asus! Getting the screen apart is a similar challenge, though replacing a smashed LCD panel yourself is possible (just difficult). Can't boot to SD card.

Overall Review: Just to note, I actually own the 1015PEM. It's the same exact computer except the PEM has Intel GMA graphics instead of the NVidia graphics. I can't speak to that difference, but unfortunately Newegg has discontinued stocking the PEM. I therefore decided to post my review here so that people will actually read it.

Perfect fit for my EEE PC

USA GEAR Protective Neoprene Tablet Sleeve with Zipper Pocket, Scratch-Resistant Lining & Slim Design - Works with WACOM Intuous Pen & Touch Medium, Bamboo Pen Touch, Fun Small & More!
USA GEAR Protective Neoprene Tablet Sleeve with Zipper Pocket, Scratch-Resistant Lining & Slim Design - Works with WACOM Intuous Pen & Touch Medium, Bamboo Pen Touch, Fun Small & More!

Pros: Great fit for my 10.1" EEE PC (1015PEM). The zipper lines up perfectly with the charging port, so I can charge the netbook in the case. Front pocket fits the power adapter (ish, see cons). Perfect for protecting my netbook in my backpack.

Cons: Front pocket is small. I actually had to shorten the AC side of the power cable to fit it all in (though to be fair, I do that to all my power cables). The material is a bit thin. I'm not sure how much protection this sleeve would afford to a netbook being dropped. But then again, you shouldn't be dropping your netbook.

Overall Review: It's cheap, but not cheaply made. Unless you need massive storage for all your netbook accessories(?), it'll do just fine.

Great SSD

SAMSUNG 470 Series 2.5" 128GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-5PA128/US
SAMSUNG 470 Series 2.5" 128GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-5PA128/US

Pros: Great SSD. Used it to replace the OEM drive in my netbook (Asus EEE PC 1015PEM). Couldn't be happier with the speed boost, low power consumption and ability to take a beating. I get almost 8 hours of life out of my netbook, and can wave it around without fear of head crashes.

Cons: No issues as of yet.

Overall Review: I used clonezilla to migrate to this SSD. After resizing all the partitions to fit, I backed up each partition and restored them onto the SSD. With linux, all I had to do was re-write the GRUB MBR and reset the fstab UUIDs. Win7 put up a much bigger fight, however, and I ended up using a boot thumb drive to get a recovery console and re-initialize the drives and boot records. I'd recommend re-installing windows, rather than trying to migrate it. Linux migrates fine with only a few tweaks, though. Gotta love open source, eh?

Good card with linux/injection support for cheap

Rosewill RNX-G1 Wireless Black Dongle w/ External 2dBi SMA Antenna IEEE 802.11b/g A-Type USB 2.0 Up to 54Mbps Wireless Data Rates
Rosewill RNX-G1 Wireless Black Dongle w/ External 2dBi SMA Antenna IEEE 802.11b/g A-Type USB 2.0 Up to 54Mbps Wireless Data Rates

Pros: Great card. External antenna boosts signal slightly. Standard rpSMA connector allows me to hook up directional & boosted antennas for even better range. Worked almost right away with Windows 7, no driver CD needed.

Cons: A bit on the bulky side, especially at the USB port. If you don't have well-spaced USB ports, you may need an extension cord. This is a minor issue, though.

Overall Review: The chipset inside is a Realtek RTL8187L. This works great in Linux and supports injection and monitor modes. I use it with Backtrack 4 all the time, as my built-in wifi card on my laptop is a different, unsupported chipset.