OP
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2012
- Location
- North Carolina
- Thread Starter
- #661
Yeah that's mine. Now I'm curious about how many of those they sent out...
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Newegg's Eggxpert Review Program
- Thread starter Aldakoopa
- Start date
slamscaper
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2014
At that price I seriously doubt the vendor supplied Newegg with very many units to send out for review. I'd bet we'll see maybe 10 more EggXpert reviews pop up there, if that. You got extremely lucky on that one.
slamscaper
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2014
Another AC router to review... This is like the 20th router I've gotten from them in the last two years, I swear. I did accept this one though. Strangely there are a lot of bad reviews posted from standard non-EggXpert reviewers, but the specs are wonderful. Surprised to see eSATA support on it as that's not too common these days. Looks like that old Linksys design (kind of ugly lol). I like that it supports open source out of the box. It's no 30TB NAS, but we'll see how it goes.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2004
Good day to get that. OpenWRT finally got a driver they needed for the support that Belkin promised them and took ages to actually deliver.
slamscaper
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2014
A lot of the more reputable sites wrote up reviews on this router and I read through them. Overall it got really high marks. It was THE fastest router when it launched a year ago. Of course it's been trumped since then, but you still gotta drop a lot of cash to get something much faster. ASUS has a few absolutely insane AC routers available (like their tri-band RT-AC3200), if you have deep pockets and a need for one.
LitlJay
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2015
- Location
- Kingwood,TX
I've got to say that the model name and styling are clearly a throwback to the WRT54G days, but that doesn't change the fact that it's ugly as sin. I'm eager to do some reading up on it and see if it lives up to the hype. I have a Tomato'd WRT54G acting as nothing but an OpenVPN host sitting on top of my pfsense box, and it's pretty funny to see that relic mixed in there with all of my modern equipment. Some people actually think it is my router!
slamscaper
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2014
It has some impressive specs, that's for sure. It's definitely not as pretty as the TP-Link Archer C8 I'm using now, lol. But if it performs as it should, I really don't care about the aesthetics.
LitlJay
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2015
- Location
- Kingwood,TX
I've got one too. I'll be posting my review pretty soon. I have half of it carved out as an iSCSI target for my BackupExec server to run backups to and I'm running lots and lots of deduped backups to it so that I can get a good feel for the throughput in addition to using it as a plain smb/cifs share box. Pretty impressive so far.
LitlJay
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2015
- Location
- Kingwood,TX
OP
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2012
- Location
- North Carolina
- Thread Starter
- #670
I only have a couple of (complete & working) computers in the house... This thing is completely overkill for my needs. I'm going to clean it up (I was just doing some drywall in the next room which got dust everywhere), move it to a better location, and see if I can connect it both directly to my main comp as well as my router, and record gameplay videos directly to it.
I also just realized my review was cut short.
Damn that 3000 character limit!
Lastly, I accepted my next invite. A 64GB Corsair USB 3.0 drive.
It shall tremble in fear and shame next to the 30TB NAS.
http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?i...3&cm_re=CMFVYGS3B-64GB-_-20-233-763-_-Product
I also just realized my review was cut short.
Damn that 3000 character limit!Lastly, I accepted my next invite. A 64GB Corsair USB 3.0 drive.
It shall tremble in fear and shame next to the 30TB NAS.
http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?i...3&cm_re=CMFVYGS3B-64GB-_-20-233-763-_-Product
- Joined
- May 29, 2005
to the forums, albeit belated.
LitlJay
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2015
- Location
- Kingwood,TX
That derned 3000 character limit drives me STRAIGHT up the wall. It borks more of my reviews than I care to think about despite me trimming out important details and abbreviating everything I can find, like my review of the Asrock X99 board they sent out (I strangely had to repost it this week. It seems the original never arrived).
I also got the Corsair pen drive offer and accepted it. I have an old CD wallet with a few dozen bootable OS and utility CD's and DVD's. I think a super-cool "everything-in-the-world-in-one" bootable pen drive with a GRUB menu would be awesome and a great way to keep me from being so dependent on that disk wallet (I wish I could tell you how often I have to burn new disks because I left one in a customer's computer). I'll still have to use the wallet for some older machines, obviously.
The trick will be getting things like the XP and Win7 installers to run after booting from a USB3 port. It can be done, it just takes extra work.
I also got the Corsair pen drive offer and accepted it. I have an old CD wallet with a few dozen bootable OS and utility CD's and DVD's. I think a super-cool "everything-in-the-world-in-one" bootable pen drive with a GRUB menu would be awesome and a great way to keep me from being so dependent on that disk wallet (I wish I could tell you how often I have to burn new disks because I left one in a customer's computer). I'll still have to use the wallet for some older machines, obviously.
The trick will be getting things like the XP and Win7 installers to run after booting from a USB3 port. It can be done, it just takes extra work.
Last edited:
slamscaper
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2014
Finally received that Linksys WRT1900AC router today. I'll tell ya what... It's a freakin' beast. Very heavy and big. Feels like quality for sure and it's not nearly as ugly as it looked in the pictures. It's not pretty, but it has mean look to it. I'm looking forward to diving into this one and testing it thoroughly.
LitlJay
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2015
- Location
- Kingwood,TX
OK, if Aldakoopa and I were both caught off guard by how small 30TB is these days, boy was I caught off guard by how BIG 64GB is. The Voyager GS pen drive is a little brick!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/SingleProductReview.aspx?ReviewID=4304081
http://www.newegg.com/Product/SingleProductReview.aspx?ReviewID=4304081
OP
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2012
- Location
- North Carolina
- Thread Starter
- #675
I agree, LitlJay. lol
It's heavy too. Well... for it's size and whatnot.
It's heavy too. Well... for it's size and whatnot.
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2004
- Location
- San Antonio, Texas
I got a review offer earlier today lol. It was for a product I have already reviewed lmfao. I declined of course do need a second wifi extender for my 1000sqft apt lol. I did however mention them that I am ready and able to do something else.
LitlJay
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2015
- Location
- Kingwood,TX
*WARNING* Long-winded post follows:
So I finally got the chance to read this thread all the way through since I first found it a few weeks ago. One of the perks of running a business from home is that I kept my schedule free today so that my wife could chaperone one of our sons' class on a school field trip. I caught up on some paperwork, took a few BS phone calls, and spent a few hours poring over 2 years/34 pages of posts in this thread.
I've got to say that there are some posters with serious sour grapes! Not that they are jealous of the free hardware. They are clearly upset that eggxpert reviews are geared toward consumers and hobbyists, not engineers. They feel that their efforts in other review mediums are diminished
. I'm glad they haven't posted much lately because they were behaving very sophomoric trying to denigrate the work of eggxperts who were putting in sincere effort. I'm an engineer and own enough o-scopes that I could use a different one each day of the week (and a few load generators), but I know that if my eggxpert reviews were that esoteric, the average newegg buyer would glaze over reading it and not get a thing from it. People who want that much detail know where to find it and won't be looking in user reviews on Newegg.
I've been in the program since October of 2012, pretty close to its inception as far as I know. I first heard about the program in June or July of that year, but had been using Newegg since the 90's (My current profile dates back to 2003, probably a move or email address change happened that year that caused me to create a new profile). Wanting an invite, I began reviewing everything that I could, not just everything I have bought from Newegg. You don't have to purchase something from Newegg to review it and I lay hands on a LOT of equipment for business, so I wrote reviews for every piece of hardware that I had within arm's reach that was still available for sale at Newegg and reviewed anything a customer bought from me, even though I have a local vendor who is usually 10%-20% lower than Newegg (they only sell to resellers like us). By the time I got my invite I had an underwhelming grand total of 20 reviews on my profile. I still review a lot of equipment even if it wasn't an eggxpert freebie, so now I'm up to 65 reviews, but I don't think that contributed to my selection for the program. I think that slamscraper is probably right; someone at Newegg keeps (or was keeping) an eye out for good reviews and if they spot(ted) one, they check(ed) the history. If the person has/had demonstrable tech knowledge and writing skills, they got an invite. I have always taken my eggxpert reviews very seriously, but I let myself have a little fun on the unsolicited ones sometimes, as long as I remain informative.
I don't think everyone was taking the program as seriously as newegg intended, because there were a lot of pathetic 2 or 3 line reviews from eggxperts for a while, and I think at first a few crooked users were just capitalizing on the free equipment without writing reviews. The whole program seemed to grind to a halt for a little while until they sent out those new contracts and asked for credit cards. They needed a way to separate the wheat from the chaff as far as reviewers went. I have never been asked to return an item and lately the offers haven't even included a line indicating that the items are mine to keep. It seems to be understood now that they have had a few years to pare out the hucksters. They did lose my contract with my signature on it without me knowing, so I went for most of 2014 without receiving any items until I contacted them, found out the problem, and forwarded the email with it attached from the year before.
I had two reviews that I wrote since late last year disappear into the ether without my knowledge. It surely looked like I had taken off with their hardware (including an X99 motherboard!) but they were understanding when I emailed them about it and I submitted the reviews again. No harm, no foul, and another offer came right in behind them.
I think the eggxperts on this thread should continue to do the good job that they are all doing and ignore posters who are jerks about it. We may be getting free hardware, but you can't buy biscuits and butter with hardware, so our efforts are essentially free labor.
I do seem to recall sending them a poilite "enough with the routers!" email once, after I had done 4 or 5 routers, 2 or 3 wifi adapters, and 3 or 4 switches. (Side note @Aldakoopa: this is all you need for a decent review of a non-PoE unmanaged switch. Don't be shy if you are still reticent.) The bCODA Jak review was fun, though. I still use it more than I thought I would. The only networking equipment I have gotten lately was a wi-fi extender.
I see there has been some discussion of posting a list of everything each person has received/reviewed. Wouldn't it be easier if we just linked to our profiles like this?
<BRAG>
You may find this photo of the corner of my home office interesting:
View attachment 162873
What you are looking at is a Dell PowerEdge server hanging on the wall (I'll brag about the spec's upon request, but it's not all that), the 30TB Seagate NAS Pro that I reviewed recently just below it, next to that are an Obi VoIP interface for our fax, my cable modem, the above mentioned WRT54G OpenVPN server (for the S2S link from our storefront), below those is an HP ProCurve 24-port managed gigabit switch and a homemade PFSense firewall using an Asus E45M1-M Pro mobo and some Intel hardware NIC's. Next to those are the Dell Precision workstation that I mentioned in my NAS review for running BackupExec, a beefy UPS to keep it all running if the lights go out, and a Canon ImageClass color laser AIO (I love that thing, but the toners are a pain in the wallet!). In the foreground you can see an 8K BTU portable air conditioner that I have to turn on sometimes during the day because all that equipment makes the room HOT!
</BRAG>
From the 670+ posts that I read today (along with the associated reviews), I firmly believe that the eggxperts on this thread are a smart, competent bunch with FAR above average writing skills (sadly, the latter is rare). I look forward to having a community to banter with and trade notes on my eggxpert reviews.
*GASP*
So I finally got the chance to read this thread all the way through since I first found it a few weeks ago. One of the perks of running a business from home is that I kept my schedule free today so that my wife could chaperone one of our sons' class on a school field trip. I caught up on some paperwork, took a few BS phone calls, and spent a few hours poring over 2 years/34 pages of posts in this thread.
I've got to say that there are some posters with serious sour grapes! Not that they are jealous of the free hardware. They are clearly upset that eggxpert reviews are geared toward consumers and hobbyists, not engineers. They feel that their efforts in other review mediums are diminished
. I'm glad they haven't posted much lately because they were behaving very sophomoric trying to denigrate the work of eggxperts who were putting in sincere effort. I'm an engineer and own enough o-scopes that I could use a different one each day of the week (and a few load generators), but I know that if my eggxpert reviews were that esoteric, the average newegg buyer would glaze over reading it and not get a thing from it. People who want that much detail know where to find it and won't be looking in user reviews on Newegg.I've been in the program since October of 2012, pretty close to its inception as far as I know. I first heard about the program in June or July of that year, but had been using Newegg since the 90's (My current profile dates back to 2003, probably a move or email address change happened that year that caused me to create a new profile). Wanting an invite, I began reviewing everything that I could, not just everything I have bought from Newegg. You don't have to purchase something from Newegg to review it and I lay hands on a LOT of equipment for business, so I wrote reviews for every piece of hardware that I had within arm's reach that was still available for sale at Newegg and reviewed anything a customer bought from me, even though I have a local vendor who is usually 10%-20% lower than Newegg (they only sell to resellers like us). By the time I got my invite I had an underwhelming grand total of 20 reviews on my profile. I still review a lot of equipment even if it wasn't an eggxpert freebie, so now I'm up to 65 reviews, but I don't think that contributed to my selection for the program. I think that slamscraper is probably right; someone at Newegg keeps (or was keeping) an eye out for good reviews and if they spot(ted) one, they check(ed) the history. If the person has/had demonstrable tech knowledge and writing skills, they got an invite. I have always taken my eggxpert reviews very seriously, but I let myself have a little fun on the unsolicited ones sometimes, as long as I remain informative.
I don't think everyone was taking the program as seriously as newegg intended, because there were a lot of pathetic 2 or 3 line reviews from eggxperts for a while, and I think at first a few crooked users were just capitalizing on the free equipment without writing reviews. The whole program seemed to grind to a halt for a little while until they sent out those new contracts and asked for credit cards. They needed a way to separate the wheat from the chaff as far as reviewers went. I have never been asked to return an item and lately the offers haven't even included a line indicating that the items are mine to keep. It seems to be understood now that they have had a few years to pare out the hucksters. They did lose my contract with my signature on it without me knowing, so I went for most of 2014 without receiving any items until I contacted them, found out the problem, and forwarded the email with it attached from the year before.
I had two reviews that I wrote since late last year disappear into the ether without my knowledge. It surely looked like I had taken off with their hardware (including an X99 motherboard!) but they were understanding when I emailed them about it and I submitted the reviews again. No harm, no foul, and another offer came right in behind them.
I think the eggxperts on this thread should continue to do the good job that they are all doing and ignore posters who are jerks about it. We may be getting free hardware, but you can't buy biscuits and butter with hardware, so our efforts are essentially free labor.
I do seem to recall sending them a poilite "enough with the routers!" email once, after I had done 4 or 5 routers, 2 or 3 wifi adapters, and 3 or 4 switches. (Side note @Aldakoopa: this is all you need for a decent review of a non-PoE unmanaged switch. Don't be shy if you are still reticent.) The bCODA Jak review was fun, though. I still use it more than I thought I would. The only networking equipment I have gotten lately was a wi-fi extender.
I see there has been some discussion of posting a list of everything each person has received/reviewed. Wouldn't it be easier if we just linked to our profiles like this?
<BRAG>
You may find this photo of the corner of my home office interesting:
View attachment 162873
What you are looking at is a Dell PowerEdge server hanging on the wall (I'll brag about the spec's upon request, but it's not all that), the 30TB Seagate NAS Pro that I reviewed recently just below it, next to that are an Obi VoIP interface for our fax, my cable modem, the above mentioned WRT54G OpenVPN server (for the S2S link from our storefront), below those is an HP ProCurve 24-port managed gigabit switch and a homemade PFSense firewall using an Asus E45M1-M Pro mobo and some Intel hardware NIC's. Next to those are the Dell Precision workstation that I mentioned in my NAS review for running BackupExec, a beefy UPS to keep it all running if the lights go out, and a Canon ImageClass color laser AIO (I love that thing, but the toners are a pain in the wallet!). In the foreground you can see an 8K BTU portable air conditioner that I have to turn on sometimes during the day because all that equipment makes the room HOT!
</BRAG>
From the 670+ posts that I read today (along with the associated reviews), I firmly believe that the eggxperts on this thread are a smart, competent bunch with FAR above average writing skills (sadly, the latter is rare). I look forward to having a community to banter with and trade notes on my eggxpert reviews.
*GASP*
slamscaper
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2014
Quick question. I have been in the EggXpert program since its inception, which was well before they came up with the new "Eggxpert" agreement that we all had to fill out and return to them. Back when this program first started, Newegg claimed we had one month to test and product and submit our review. They claimed they wanted us to thoroughly test the product like we would with any product we paid our own hard earned money for, so taking our time made sense.
However, the new agreement stated that reviews were now to be posted within two weeks of receiving the product. This actually seems like a very short time frame. Sometimes I don't even have the time to open up my shipment until three or four days after receiving it.
So anyway, I'm curious as to how long you guys usually take to post your reviews. I know that sometimes I go a little over the two week limit, but it's never by much. I'm starting to think they are penalizing me for it, because the volume of products I receive is nowhere near what it used to be for me. I used to receive multiple assignments at once, whereas now that never occurs. I'm lucky if I get one assignment every two months and I would love to get more as I know I can handle them (just not at two weeks per review).
However, the new agreement stated that reviews were now to be posted within two weeks of receiving the product. This actually seems like a very short time frame. Sometimes I don't even have the time to open up my shipment until three or four days after receiving it.
So anyway, I'm curious as to how long you guys usually take to post your reviews. I know that sometimes I go a little over the two week limit, but it's never by much. I'm starting to think they are penalizing me for it, because the volume of products I receive is nowhere near what it used to be for me. I used to receive multiple assignments at once, whereas now that never occurs. I'm lucky if I get one assignment every two months and I would love to get more as I know I can handle them (just not at two weeks per review).
OP
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2012
- Location
- North Carolina
- Thread Starter
- #679
Slamscaper, I never even got the new agreement, so I never knew about the two week limit. Honestly, it's usually about 3 weeks before I ever write my review and they don't seem to be penalizing me for it in any way.
LitlJay
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2015
- Location
- Kingwood,TX
HA!
I can't remember the last time I submitted a review in less than 5 weeks. I run a business and do the reviews in my spare time, which gets to be a precious commodity during certain parts of the year, especially with a family of five who also demands a lot of attention.
They sent me a $300 motherboard in NOVEMBER, and I unwittingly didn't submit the review until APRIL. They sent me 3 offers in the interim, including a $2500 NAS. I don't think I'm being penalized.
I can't remember the last time I submitted a review in less than 5 weeks. I run a business and do the reviews in my spare time, which gets to be a precious commodity during certain parts of the year, especially with a family of five who also demands a lot of attention.
They sent me a $300 motherboard in NOVEMBER, and I unwittingly didn't submit the review until APRIL. They sent me 3 offers in the interim, including a $2500 NAS. I don't think I'm being penalized.
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