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Robert E.

Robert E.

Joined on 08/29/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 4
Most Favorable Review

Worked great in my HP dv6700CTO

Patriot 4GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Laptop Memory Model PSD24G6672S
Patriot 4GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Laptop Memory Model PSD24G6672S

Pros: Worked great in my HP dv6700CTO laptop, despite the manufacturer saying it could only take 2GB per slot. I now use 2 of these so that my old laptop has 8GB of RAM. This was the best upgrade I've ever done in terms of bang for the buck.

Cons: Prices on old DDR2 laptop RAM are pretty high when compared to DDR3... almost made me want to buy a new laptop instead, but this turned out to be the right choice.

Overall Review: I do a lot of web browsing with a lot of tabs open at once. With the original 3GB of RAM that came with my laptop, data would spill out into the page file, and my machine would grind to a halt (especially when swithing tabs or apps). Now, with 8GB of RAM, my machine never needs the page file, and swithcing between tabs and apps feels instantaneous. Fantastic!

Most Critical Review

So far, all discs failed :(

Optical Quantum 25GB 4X BD-R 5 Packs Disc Model OBBDR04LT-05
Optical Quantum 25GB 4X BD-R 5 Packs Disc Model OBBDR04LT-05

Pros: None

Cons: So far, I've tried 3 of the discs, and all 3 failed. They all took really long to burn. Only one completed the burn without error, but when I used a diff program to compare the written data with the original, there were arbitrary differences. Silent data corruption!

Pretty nifty

LINKSKEY LDV-302ARC 2-port DVI USB KVM w/ Audio&Mic Plus QuickSwitch Remote Button
LINKSKEY LDV-302ARC 2-port DVI USB KVM w/ Audio&Mic Plus QuickSwitch Remote Button

Pros: * Using this KVM is so much more convenient than plugging and unplugging cables manually. I'm glad I finally got one. * The keyboard hotkey works well. * The physical switch button works great too. * Works with my USB powered hub, so I can switch a whole bunch of usb devices at once (more than just my keyboard and mouse). * Works during system boot (via the physical switch button), so I can change bios and boot settings and stuff.

Cons: * The wire length is great for the back of my desktop PC, but for my laptop, the audio cable length isn't quite long enough, because the HDMI video out (which I had to connect to an HDMI-DVI adapter) is a bit too far away from the headphone jack. I ended up digging an old 3.5mm Y-adapter out of my closet which I used as a 6" extension cable and things worked great after that.

Overall Review: I haven't tried the software for customizing hotkeys and selectively switcing audio/video. I also haven't tried the microphone.

Good for the price

ASUS Black 12X Blu-ray Burner SATA BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS
ASUS Black 12X Blu-ray Burner SATA BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS

Pros: * I got it on a good sale, so it was the cheapest blu-ray burner by far.

Cons: * Doesn't come with blu-ray player software. I ended up spending extra money to buy blu-ray player software, but luckily it was on sale, so this drive + the software still ended up being cheaper than other drives that come with the software. * The Optical Quantum BD-R media that came free with this drive was a curse. I tried to burn 3 of the 5, and all 3 failed. One of them claimed to succeed, but when I used diffing software to compare the burn with the original data, there were random differences here and there. A horrible experience that almost convinced me the drive was broken. Luckily I went out to a B&M store and bought some proper BD-Rs to test out, and the drive worked fine. I'm still really frustrated with and disappointed in Optical Quantum and Newegg for the BD-Rs though... I spent hours diagnosing the problem, and in the end, my "5 free BD-Rs" that were supposed to come as part of the price I paid were worthless.