Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2007 20:04:06 -0700 From: soralx@cydem.org To: emailrob@emailrob.com Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [ot] seeking usa vendor of two_year_old technology Message-ID: <20070407200406.5027ca8b@soralx.cydem.org> In-Reply-To: <46180F62.6040309@emailrob.com> References: <46180F62.6040309@emailrob.com>
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> i --did-- find one vendor, "ncix", > [...] I'm not saying "stay away", but... Once upon a time, I had an urge to get a working SATA controller before the weekend [cheap, nothing fancy, no fake|not_fake RAID (if possible at all these days), just to make use of freshly acquired WD5000YS]. So on Flyday evening, I buried myself deep in Google, and dug out one site, ncix.com, which had a _huge_ inventory list along with passable prices. "Whoa!", I scratched my head. Then it occured to me that this might be just like the computer junk source "oemexpress.com" I so missed at the new location. So I start up the engine and race to their local "store" minutes beforce the troublesome 'closed' time. What was there to be seen? Anything, but the huge stock I figured! Out of the ~20 SATA HBA's I saw on their web site, they had only one, so I was forced to buy it. Later, whole evening and night were wasted trying to make the damn thing work: first, make FreeBSD recognize it (backport to 5.4-R some code from 6-R, add pci-id, etc), and then figuring out what caused _*data corruption*_ -- driver, PCI bus, the card, or the new HDD? In the end, I restrained my anger, calmly returned that garbage back to NCIX (without too much hassle, to their credit, -- must be a very common procedure to them, I suppose; BTW, at the same time someone was also returning faulty memory stix), went riding around the city and found a friendly small store who don't sell cheap junk, have better prices and _much_ better stock, and got a card that Just Works. A week later, I had to deal with some 'high-end' (performance-wise) workstation that had a cooked power supply. The case showed off a fancy 'NCIX' badge on it, and it was one of the worst cases (both computer cases, and cases of brainless design) I've ever seen (no exxageration here, folks): thin walls, sharp edges, and riveted covers (except one, of course). To replace a PSU, you've got to take the mainboard and everything else out. Very creative design, I tell you. I don't blame 'em for using a poor-quality PSU (almost everyone does), but I'm usure how intelligent it is using using such a crap case on a performance workstation. Maybe the bright color LEDs on fans (WTF???) made it all look in rose-colored light. > rob [SorAlx] ridin' VN1500-B2
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