Newegg's Eggxpert Review Program

you could try remanufactured carts instead
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-PK-HP-ink...8388?pt=US_Ink_Cartridges&hash=item3f20f4b7c4

Well slamscaper, you can't complain too much over something that's practically free. It's nice to know they will replace a DOA review item. I had been wondering about that, so I'm glad you dropped in to share!

I just got another invite myself. This time it's a case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...e=STEAM_CASTLE_(BLACK)-_-11-853-005-_-Product

They call it " steam punk" but I wouldn't call it that.

Yeah I definitely am not gonna complain. They are replacing the printer and that is what counts. It's just that considering how expensive the cartridges are, I was looking forward to getting another set at first. I doubt the refurbished cartridges will work. I read horror stories about them on Amazon.com. They register as empty cartridges and end up causing problems with most printers. In addition to that, they are listed as old generation and the 8610 is a new model. Would be nice though.

That is a different looking case there! I have never been offered a case myself. Are you going to accept it?

A long while back they sent me Crosair's Voyager Air 1TB external drive. It's one of the better products they've sent me. It has a built in battery along with wi fi, Ethernet, and USB 3.0 connections. It has logic built in to act as a media server on it's own, which is really cool. It can stream media to up to 5 different devices simultaneously. Very useful on long road trips, when you might have a few people watching movies on their smartphone or tablet.

I've been using remanufactored carts in a bunch of different printets and never had a problem.
Hp has bascially drm on their carts, once installed they cannot be uses on another printer not only that but the ink has a "timer" or digital shelf life timer that's tells the printer its out of ink even if you never printed a single thing with the carts
The refurb carts once installed will do the usual these arnt official carts blah blah blah, but will work regardless
Some carts the printer has trouble reading the ink levels (maybe done purposely) but they still work fine
All the 8600 series use the same carts (950 and 951)

They are not as bad as cannon though when it comes to ink

slamscaper said:

That is a different looking case there! I have never been offered a case myself. Are you going to accept it?

Click to expand...

Yep, already did.

I gotta say, I don't really like steampunk styled things, and I think this would classify as more of a "dieselpunk" style, which is something I actually kinda like. I don't know what I'll do with a third computer case though... I don't really want to get rid of my Antec 300, I still have mods I want to make to it. And my Corsair Graphite 600T is actually supposed to be for my girlfriend... but I kinda took it over for my Intel rig.

Bulldozer is staying in the 300.

And this new case will get something interesting put in it before long...

Its an intresting design
But I agree thats not steam punk at all, not even sure if that company even knows what steam punk is

I love the 600T. I have the 800D myself. I really need to build a new rig but times are rough for me right now and I just can't afford to.

I'd actually be running a newer X79 build if Newegg wouldn't have screwed up one of my assignments. They offered me an assignment to review an MSI G45 Plus X79 MOBO, which I happily accepted. I figured it would be a good time to build a new X79 system around this board, since I'd be acquiring this $300 MOBO for free. At the time, X79 really appealed to me so I was pretty excited. I went ahead and ordered an i7 3820 (planned on upgrading to 3930K eventually) and some DRAM to go with the new MOBO. Sadly, when the MOBO arrived it wasn't the X79 model I was supposed to receive. Instead, they sent me an MSI G45 Z77 model by mistake, which is a mediocre $100 MOBO. I contacted Newegg about the mistake but they couldn't do much. They just asked me if I could still review the Z77 board. I told them I couldn't because I didn't have compatible hardware, so they just let me slide on the review completely because it wasn't my mistake. Don't get me wrong, I would have liked to build a fast Z77 rig, but not around that MOBO. So in the end I returned the LGA 2011 CPU and DRAM and stayed with my current rig, thinking I would just upgrade later on when the time was right. But money got tight and I never got he chance again...

My current rig:

For some reason I can't upload any pics, but I got the case today. It's sturdy as a brick house which I wasn't expecting, and is a really decent case. I have a few complaints, but nothing much. Still need to check out a few things before I begin writing my review though.

Things have been real quiet for me on the EggXpert front. After turning down my 5th router, it took nearly a month for another item. This time, it was a cheap laser printer that only had USB and really poor reviews; turned that down too citing lack of expertise (already have an HL-2270DW that i love).

Nothing since, that was about 3 1/2 weeks ago.

Turned down another switch, it was a really low end one and didnt have enough ports, and was only 100mbps

I notice it takes 1 month+ to get another review asignment after turning something down, though only 2-3 weeks if you accepted the the last item review

All these powerline adapters and switches are just the mud we must walk through to get the occasional gem of a really good item.

Joe88 said:

I notice it takes 1 month+ to get another review asignment after turning something down, though only 2-3 weeks if you accepted the the last item review

Click to expand...

Since recieving new invites after missing an entire year of them, I seem to be getting an item every month whether I accept it or not.

Aldakoopa said:

All these powerline adapters and switches are just the mud we must walk through to get the occasional gem of a really good item.

Click to expand...

I still haven't ever gotten anything I didn't order, and I'm going to whine about it for a few seconds here. Okay, I'm done.

I haven't even gotten a program invite either.

Maybe I should write more reviews on random stuff I own to appear more knowledgeable? Don't really know how many reviews you have to have written before you are even considered for this program.

I wouldn't mind a switch or two, could use 'em to start building my own computer cluster.

Lost count of the amount of networking gear I've received, switches, routers, powerlines. Thankfully lately they've been sending me storage products. Would really like one of those WD 2.5^2 Black drives.

Edit: about two hours after posting this got offered a laptop cooler. Not A WD drive but heyho.

Aldakoopa said:

For some reason I can't upload any pics, but I got the case today. It's sturdy as a brick house which I wasn't expecting, and is a really decent case. I have a few complaints, but nothing much. Still need to check out a few things before I begin writing my review though.

Click to expand...

I got the same case in white. I have the same first impression as you. My biggest complaint is that incredibly cheap feeling power button. That and they want too much money for a case that is easily beaten by the bitfenix prodigy for less.

I wouldn't say beaten by it. This one supports mATX as well as mITX. Also, it supports much larger video cards than the Prodigy without removing any drive bays.

Personally, if I were looking for mITX, I'd go for the Prodigy. mATX and a very nice case, this one is an excellent contender.

Also, my biggest complaints are no integrated filters (besides PSU), power buttons/usb/etc on the side of the case instead of the front, the fact that placing the PSU on the other side of the case would have made so much more sense that it should be illegal to place it where they did, and the rats nest of wires from the side-panel buttons and ports. Other than that, this case is one of the nicest and sturdiest I've ever seen.

I received a brand new Officejet Pro 8610 on the 9th and a prepaid shipping label to send back the DOA unit.

The new unit functions as it should and I spent a week testing every single feature. I found that the printer performs excellently and I'm very impressed with it. That said, I do take issue with HP's business practices in regards to their ink. Also, the DOA unit I received obviously concerns me.

I just submitted my review yesterday. Hope to receive a new assignment soon, but over the last 4 months they've been trickling in real slow. In the past I was getting two or three assignments at a time...

I have reviewed quite a few routers myself. The wireless routers they offer me are typically premium high end routers, so I always accept those. Right now I'm using TP-Link's Archer C7 802.11ac router, which is a dual band router rated at 1750 Mb/s.

New assignment was offered to me yesterday. It's a decent Gigabyte Z97 motherboard, which I have happily accepted. Only the second time I have been offered a MOBO since I've been an EggXpert. Looking forward to building a new system around this board as I really need a platform upgrade at this time.

man wish i got mobos to review lol would of loved to have gotten that board. I have the Z87 ud5h and love it. Got a deepCool twin tower cpu cooler coming in tomorrow. Looks alot like the frio extreme I already have lol so at least I'll have something to compare it with as well as the stock hsf on my fx6350.

Glad that HP got you sorted out slamscaper, and I hope that Gigabyte is at least half as good as my last assignment. I'm really enjoying my ASRock Z97 board, but it's way more mobo than I'll ever need.

I'm thinking mobos are kinda rare for them to assign. Obviously they're getting a pretty good selection of products now, CPU coolers too now? They've probably had a few but I don't think anyone here has mentioned getting one yet.