Joined on 01/30/04
Easy and Fast
Pros: Buy the kit to ensure you get the 6GB/s Cables. I installed this in a Server with 5 SSD drives and it is amazing. Everything responds very quickly and the overall installation and setup of the RAID 5 was very smooth.
Cons: Only pinged for 1 egg as I was unable to get the drivers to install for Windows 2008 Server. Adaptec's documentation that came with the card show this as a known problem and tell you to browse to the drivers twice as they will fail the first time. They failed 9 times...I gave up and went to Adaptec's website and downloaded the most recent drivers which installed on the 1st attempt. Adaptec you make extremely high quality and stable hardware at least make sure the drivers disc is working versus a note in the docs stating they will fail and to simply retry.
Overall Review: Almost went with a competitor based on their glossy brochure but decided to go with a company that I have used product from for over 2 decades with NO issues.
Amazing Deal
Pros: Recommended this deal to several small business owners I support and one owner took me up on it. This is a great deal with a nice bonus, the 147 GB IBM SAS drive was actually a pair of 147 GB Drive with a support for up to 4 drives. Essentially setup the boot drive to be a mirrored set with the 1 TB for storage. This thing is a tank and more powerful than most small company servers! Not a big refurb fan but with a 3 yr warranty who cares as most new computers don't have more than 1 year.
Cons: Very heavy which isn't really a con but you really need to be aware this thing ways more than 4 small desktop put together. Only negative but didn't take a star away due to the free bonus SAS for mirroring was that the main SAS drive cable had come loose in shipping and the computer wouldn't boot. Opened the case, plugged the drive in and it booted without issues but I had to rebuild it anyways once I built the mirror and had it not been for the loose cable I may not have opened it up to find the bonus SAS drive.
Overall Review: Get over the refurb, it has a 3 year warranty and it is a tower/desktop type system so you can always buy parts after the 3 years. It does come with a keyboard and mouse but with AST brand on them which isn't a big deal either. No software so if you try to rebuild the drive to a mirror set you will need to image off the current partition or have a DELL OEM Win 7 Pro 64 CD handy.
Great Gaming mouse for the price!
Pros: Still getting use to this thing but loving it. Tried Razer too many buttons for me and Mad Catz look cool but are expensive and worry about breaking them. This thing is solid, easy to configure, easy to use. I am running with about half the weights as it was a bit heavy compared to my previous mouse with all the weights YMMV. Also love that it comes with replacement pads since I have worn out the pads on a few mice back in the day. Warning: Like a fast car ...just because you have all that DPI doesn't mean you actually want to use it...it is just nice to know you could if you wanted too.
Cons: Takes time to get use to compared to my previous Logitech mouse.
Nice SBS Board
Pros: Built a Small Business Server with 2011 for a customer that I take care of regularly and this was PERFECT. Been running since early Fall of 2011 without a single motherboard issue. Running Intel Xeon E3-1245 with Kingston 16 GB (4 x 4) ECC unbuffered server memory, Adaptect Raid 6805 with 5 Plextor PX-M@ Series 128 GB SATA III drives in a Raid 5 config (1 spare). Running a mirrored set on the on board Sata with 2 Seagate 2 TB Drives. also of note: in a Corsair Carbide Case with extra fans and a Corsair CX500 power supply. System Screams even with Microsoft Exchange and a few other apps running full time.
Cons: None as the only issue I've had was one of the Seagate drives started to fail and it was simply swapped out without an issue.
3 yrs and still look as great as they did on day 1!
Pros: I bought 2 of these from Newegg back in 06/09 and knock on wood they have been awesome. No issues and I leave them on almost 24/7. They still cost about what they did 3 years ago but I am seriously considering buying another one so I can have 3 monitors on my current rig, just waiting for a great sale or rebate. These LCDs are now on their 3rd rig as the computers come and go but these thinks were cutting edge when they came out and are still a great deal. These do not have the back lighting like the -P model but are extremely bright to my eyes especially as I prefer not to have lights on in my office.
Cons: Nothing unless you want to count me wishing they would have gone down in price over the past 3 years.
Overall Review: If these things ever go under $150 each I might have to buy 3 more so I can give 2 to my oldest son.
weaf27
Pros: Perfect for what we needed. I added 4 of these to a large server build for a total of 7 fans. This will be in a small business and needed to stay cool and run quiet. If you need a decent airflow without any noise, these are perfect.
Cons: None.
Overall Review: If you want a wind tunnel buy a different fan these do what they were built to do.