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George K.

George K.

Joined on 07/11/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 11
Most Favorable Review

Impressed so far

CyberPower AVR CP1500AVRT 1500 VA 900 Watts 8 Outlets UPS
CyberPower AVR CP1500AVRT 1500 VA 900 Watts 8 Outlets UPS

Pros: High wattage output for home use. Great software utilities, also with Linux support. Long battery runtime. My latest battery test lasted at least 7-8 mins without causing a shutdown even with all these devices drawing load: Linux server, gaming/development machine, 22" high def monitor, external backup drive, DSL modem and network switch. With all those devices on backup power they draw between 300-500 Watts (depending on what I'm doing), and I can keep working mostly uninterrupted for at least 5 minutes in the event of a surge or blackout. I was able to install their powerpanel "business edition" software on my headless Linux server (Ubuntu 12.04), which uses a gui OR text-based installer and a web interface for remote management. Very slick web interface with diagnostic information, event handling (auto-shutdown, including coordinated multi-computer shutdowns). Received good, timely support from their customer service.

Cons: The only gotcha I ran into so far is an annoying "feature" that only appears if you haven't installed the powerpanel software yet. If you connect to the UPS with serial/usb, but you haven't yet installed the software, the UPS can (and probably will) switch off randomly when you least expect it, cutting power instantly to all connected devices. On the plus side, customer support was very helpful, and explained that this was by design (although I'm not sure I understand why you would want it to do this). This problem goes away completely once you install the software, so it's not that big of a deal. Just beware that you should probably not have the server on which you're installing the software connected to the UPS until AFTER you install the software.

Overall Review: Overall very impressed so far. It does everything I wanted in a UPS. I was afraid at first that I would draw too much load with all my devices connected, but even with all my stuff drawing load I'm only using 30-40% of the 900W capacity.

Most Critical Review

Nice little motherboard, except came with a broken nic

SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C204 Micro ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard
SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C204 Micro ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard

Pros: Seems to work well, except (see cons)

Cons: came with one broken NIC

Overall Review: I put one of these inside a 1U server case and overall it seems to work well, except one of the ethernet ports drops a lot of packets (seems to be a hardware issue). There are 3 ethernet ports, 1 for the IPMI and 2 that you can use for networking, but on my board one of those networking ports is apparently broken so it effectively only came with one usable ethernet port. This ended up not affecting me very much because I was able to fit a nic expansion pcie card in my case so I have 4 extra ports now, but you should be wary that there are quality control issues like this.

Very small, wouldn't trust the wall mount with heavy equipment

Server Rack – 12U - Wall Mount Rack - Locking Cabinet for Network - Electronics - Security - Audio - Video - AV Equipment - Data Rack - Legs / Power Strip / Shelf / Fan - 18-Inch Deep
Server Rack – 12U - Wall Mount Rack - Locking Cabinet for Network - Electronics - Security - Audio - Video - AV Equipment - Data Rack - Legs / Power Strip / Shelf / Fan - 18-Inch Deep

Pros: It looks cool, installation is relatively simple.

Cons: It's much smaller than I expected, and my servers (which I bought specifically because they are shallow depth) won't fit inside so I'll have to keep the door off. Also the posts have to be a specific distance in order to use the shelf, which means you can only use very shallow rack rails (or don't use the shelf). Even at max distance, it's still not big enough for the adjustable rack rails I bought. You definitely want to scope this out to make sure your equipment will fit inside. I think 15" depth is probably the most you can get away with without modifications like removing the door. Also, I bought it intending to wall-mount it, but then after I saw how thin the cage was there is no way I trust it to hold my servers on the wall without some sort of custom reinforcement. So I'm going to put it on the floor. Overall very disappointed with what I got.

Overall Review: I wish I could return it, but I'm stuck with it now.

Great card, bad drivers

EVGA 04G-P4-2686-KR GeForce GTX 680 w/ Backplate 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
EVGA 04G-P4-2686-KR GeForce GTX 680 w/ Backplate 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Pros: Excellent graphics, great FPS, no overheating problems in my system. Noise level is great (most of the time I can barely hear it, if at all. Maybe my games aren't pushing to the max then...) I received this card as an RMA replacement of the same 2GB model. I gave the original model (02G-P4-2680-KR) a 1-egg review because it became a brick after a matter of hours. It is very cool that EVGA sent me a better card than I had bought, after the original one failed so catastrophically. I got Assasin's Creed III and Borderlands 2 as part of the original purchase. I played hours and hours of games on it without problems. I did experience stability problems outside of games which are summarized in the cons section.

Cons: The drivers are unstable and have given me endless headaches dealing with EVGA support. I have the same symptoms everyone else describes online (screen goes black, then reloads with a message that my drivers have stopped working. Occasionally this ends in a BSOD or a frozen machine with white lines across a black screen). After extensive testing and working with tech support, we determined it must be the drivers causing the problem (I was able to reproduce the issue exactly in another computer with a fresh Windows 7 install and completely different hardware). After I RMA'd the card they sent me it back and said they tested it and it works fine. I believe them when they say the card is fine, because I was playing games for hours with it. It is just when I do specific actions, like browsing the web with 2 types of web browsers. I was able to isolate the crashes to times when I was watching a video with Firefox and browsing the web with IE 9 at the same time. The video would go great indefinitely until the moment I opened IE, then within a minute or two my screen would crash. Until they fix the drivers, I will apparently have to get used to only using one browser at a time... Time to choose my favorite...

Overall Review: I don't know yet if the driver problems are enough to prevent me from liking this card. I know it's great hardware, from the short time that I've had it, but such a high-end card should have high quality drivers, and so far I'm not convinced that they are.

Garbage

Seismic Audio - SAPT143 - Zip Ties - 4 Inches (Pack of 50)
Seismic Audio - SAPT143 - Zip Ties - 4 Inches (Pack of 50)

Pros: none

Cons: I only got 5 out of a bag of 50 to work. They snap, break, and do anything BUT what they're supposed to do, which is to hold wires together. I was very disappointed with this product.

Overall Review: Save your money, but a more expensive set and forget about these.

Good, not great

ICY DOCK MB453SPF-B 3 in 2 SATA I, II & III Hot-Swap Internal Backplane Raid Cage Module
ICY DOCK MB453SPF-B 3 in 2 SATA I, II & III Hot-Swap Internal Backplane Raid Cage Module

Pros: Does what it says - holds 3x 3.5" drives in two 5.25" bays. Easy to mount in the case, fits perfectly. I installed it in my server with three 1TB drives configured in RAID 5 (configure with your motherboard's RAID controller).

Cons: Feels cheap, but it will probably hold up. The drive trays are annoying to work with, because you have to mount each drive to a tray before sliding them into the cage. If this would bug you I recommend a trayless design, otherwise it works fine and is perfectly functional.