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Randal K.

Randal K.

Joined on 05/01/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 13
Most Favorable Review

Nice repeater for the dough

ENCORE ENHWI-2AN3 Wireless Router With Repeater 802.11b/g/n up to 300Mbps/ 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Port x4
ENCORE ENHWI-2AN3 Wireless Router With Repeater 802.11b/g/n up to 300Mbps/ 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Port x4

Pros: Low cost solution, easy to implement. Repeater mode worked nicely with both 624 and 655 DLink.

Cons: No experience with the brand name--always a gamble.

Most Critical Review

Flaky

IOGEAR GUB211 USB 2.0 Printer Auto Sharing Switch
IOGEAR GUB211 USB 2.0 Printer Auto Sharing Switch

Pros: It half works.

Cons: Win7 on one machine, XP on the other. Win7 side software does not capture the USB port when switch activated. Have to pull both PC cables and reinsert the Win7 box first to get the printer connected to it. XP side software works flawlessly.

Overall Review: Suspect a driver update needed, but I'm not holding my breath for a years old product obviously developed for XP.

RAM headaches

ASRock FM2A88X PRO3+ Socket FM2+ 95W / FM2 100W AMD A88X (Bolton D4) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
ASRock FM2A88X PRO3+ Socket FM2+ 95W / FM2 100W AMD A88X (Bolton D4) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: It booted Windows a couple times.

Cons: I can't find compatible RAM. I tried a set from the Asrock QVL--won't boot. Doesn't automatically recognize the correct timings, blue-screens when you try to set them to factory. The rest of the QVL list appears to be unavailable or extortionately priced (like 5x the cost of the board). This was a real disappointment.

Overall Review: Your odds of ending up in RMA-heck look pretty high with this one. Buy something else.

Shop Carefully

ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ FM2+ 95W / FM2 100W AMD A88X (Bolton D4) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ FM2+ 95W / FM2 100W AMD A88X (Bolton D4) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: It works.

Cons: Look up the qualified RAM list before you purchase this board--very little of what they tested is available to purchase. And it seems to be picky about the speed and slots-filled configuration. I'm still trying to find RAM to buy that won't cost more than the board and CPU combined.

Overall Review: So far, I can't get it to boot with more than one slot populated. Silly me for Assuming the DDR3 I already had would work.

Close to perfect

Canon imageFORMULA DR-X10C (2417B002) Sheetfed Scanner
Canon imageFORMULA DR-X10C (2417B002) Sheetfed Scanner

Pros: Runs the forty 4.0 flat.

Cons: Only available in off-white. I'd give it 5 eggs if you could get it in CandyApple or HemiOrange.

Compaq Drivers? Really?

Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011 64-bit - OEM
Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011 64-bit - OEM

Pros: It works. It's cheap.

Cons: n/a

Overall Review: It's funny when people load a new OS on 10 year old hardware they scavenged from work, and then complain about drivers. Just a headzup, guys? Unless mom is paying the utility bill, those old Compaq servers will cost so much to run, a new NAS would pay for itself pretty quick.