Lazin’ On A Sunday Afternoon

I’ve been doing an inventory around the house, looking at all the parts I have accumulated over the past few years. Some things are solitary, having been bought on a whim and found to be less than sparkling in their performance, while others are found en masse, being true workhorses, and therefore included on nearly every machine in the house.

One of those parts that gets included in most every machine is a Promise drive controller card. Why you ask? Well, I tend to build what I call robust machines. They tend to include more than 2 optical drives, a Zip drive, and a few hard drives. Also, I have a few less than new machines, which do not include an interface as fast as the fastest hard drives today. So many things labeled Promise are found here. Some of them are no longer used, but of value, so I don’t throw them away, like the VESA local bus caching controller with its 16MB of 70ns memory (wow!). I have been using Promise products since the company was new, starting with a DC-200 caching controller, which was ISA based. So anyway, I have 7 or 8 Ultra 100 TX2 cards, a couple of Ultra 133 TX2s, and an SATA 150 Plus - they all work, and have never given me a moment’s trouble.

Another line of products I use with regularity is mice from Microsoft. My first mouse was a Logitech C-9, and it was great (I still have it!), but after getting hold of the first ‘original’ Microsoft Mouse, I was hooked! It saddens me that the quality control has gotten so low at times in the recent past, as Microsoft mice used to be rock solid - oh well, still good, just not indestructible. Here at the house I have 2 original ‘dove bar’ InPort mice, with their ISA bus cards, an original ‘dove bar’ serial port mouse, 3 of the original wheel mice (the wheel is a boon to all of mankind!), 3 wireless Intellimouse Explorer 1.0s, 3 wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0s, a couple of wireless Laser Mouse 6000s, and a wireless Laser Mouse 5000, which is my current favorite. Microsoft certainly gets it right with hardware, even in these times of things like Vista!

Certain products I’ll pay more for, due to the offering of a Lifetime Warranty, and the fewer troubles it portends. So it is with Belkin USB hubs. They do cost more, but they work, and their power bricks always are able to supply the 500 ma (possibly) needed for each port. I’ve seen some hubs, from a supposed purveyor of quality, having a power brick for a 7-port hub rated at only 2000 ma (7 x 500 = 3500…it’s simple math!).

Other things started as something of the moment, but became a habit, like always using Teac floppy drives; although I can tell you about a few dozen crappy Mitsumi drives I had to ‘eat’ once - the last time I ever bought Mitsumi !

I have been using Lite-On optical drives since I bought my first DVD burner, before that I was hooked on TDK CD-RWs (I still have a TDK 16×10x40 that works perfectly, and looks really cool as it has a beige faceplate, with a transparent blue tray). Lately, I have been having more than my share of problems with Lite-Ons however, and the new ones that are working properly tend to sound like a helicopter on takeoff. The last couple of drives I’ve bought were Samsung, and they seem very good, very quiet, and have lost the extra 3/4″ that the earlier models had, which is one reason why I first got hooked on Lite-On. Shorter drives meant more space for large hands to work (mine), and eventually, more air flow.

So as I’m always willing to get a new view on hardware - what has worked well for you, and why would you buy it again?

-

[tags] Promise, Microsoft mice, Belkin, Lite-On, Mitsumi, Teac, TDK, Logitech, Samsung [/tags]

Technorati Tags: Promise,Microsoft mice,Belkin,Lite-On,Mitsumi,Teac,TDK,Logitech,Samsung