I just purchased this low-cost laser printer for work for less than $300. I have to say most of the reviews I read about this printer is true. It’s slow on startup (about a minute) and noisy when printing but print quality is excellent. The best part, it came with a full cartridge set instead of a starter pack. The cartridge set would cost a couple hundred dollars alone. You can’t really go wrong with this printer for the price.

One thing of warning though. The print server on this printer is wide open by default and the FTP port is also opened (you can print stuffs by ftping stuffs to the ftp port). I would suggest disabling FTP and set up a password if you are on a shared network in case some deadbeats may discover the FTP port and start dumping stuffs there for backup.

I finally took the plunge and bought this drive from Amazon after days of research.  What pushed me over to actually make the purchase is after I used it on a friend’s Macbook.  I hesitated to buy because I read a lot mixed reviews about SSD.  There are two types of SSD.  One type is called SLC and the other type is called MLC.  There are a lot of info about SLC vs MLC out on the net so I’m not going to try to explain the technical difference between the two.  Basically, SLC is the holy grail because it’s fast in both read and write.  MLC is as fast as SLC in read but not as fast in write and most of the MLC drives slow down dramatically with concurrent writes.  SLC is suitable as a boot drive and MLC is generally not recommended to use as boot drive because of slow write speed and performance degradation on concurrent writes. Also, SLC has longer life than MLC.

Currently, Intel is the leading vendor that makes a reliable and reasonably fast MLC SSD.  Some people commented that Intel’s SLC drive is the only way to go for SSD and their MLC drive is only good for data storage.  I have also heard that Intel’s MLC drive is passable as a boot drive.  The SLC drive costs almost twice as much as a MLC drive.  It’s really out of the question for me to even consider a SLC drive.  For me, the 80GB Intel X25-M is the only thing that’s affordable (around $325) with reasonable performance.  Luckily, a friend of mine installed the 160GB version on his Macbook so I got the chance to see it in action.  I was really amazed by its performance.  Photoshop loaded in less than 10 seconds and Eclipse (a Java IDE) loaded in less than 5 seconds.  Both Photoshop and Eclipse used to take about a minute to load in the same laptop when it was running on a hard drive.

I ordered a 80GB Intel X25-M immediately after testing on my friend’s Macbook.  I use Ubuntu myself on a Lenovo Thinkpad X61 (an excellent laptop btw).  My boot time reduced from couple minutes to 30 seconds after I switched to this SSD.  I’m extremely happy with the performance.  Contrary to what some people claimed that the drive would slow down a lot with concurrent write requests, I barely noticed any slow down.  Everything loaded instantaneouly.  I feel like I missed out a lot for spending the past few weeks doing research on SSD.  I should have just take the plunge when the price dropped to $325.  If you are still undecided, I say just do it because it totally worth the money.  It’s not cheap compare to a hard drive but the performance improvement will sure help in your productivity to make up for it.

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The package comes with batteries, remote, RF cable, manual, power adapter and the device itself. It does not come with RCA cable like the Sunkey SK-801 package though.

Front view:

Back view:

Welcome screen when I first start it up:

After the welcome screen, you can choose a language:

Next is channel scan:

Edit channels screen:

Options:

Parental control:

Program info:

EPG:

I like the picture quality of the Artec T3AP more than the Sunkey SK-801. The images look cleaner and sharper, where the Sunkey SK-801 look a little soft. There are noticeable vertical lines on the Artec T3AP image though when viewing up close. You can’t see it when sitting in a normal distant from the TV so it’s really not that bad. The menu looks more elegant than the Sunkey SK-801 and easier to navigate. Features (though no many) are easy to find. As for the programming guide (EPG), it is also a disappointment. This one is even worse than the Sunkey SK-801. It only shows you the next show of the current channel. Again, this is another low cost device so features is not important. Compare between the Artec T3AP and Sunkey SK-801, I like the Artec T3AP more because of the better picture quality and better/cleaner menu.

Meritline currently carry this device for $54.99 with free shipping. freetvsignal.com carries it for $40 but they are currently out of stock. Although I got my order from them with only a slight delay, I still wouldn’t recommend them based on what I read on Fatwallet. I say if you want to buy a converter box, go to Meritline. They are very established company that you can trust. They sometimes have good package deal that come with an antenna.

Review on DtvConverterGuide.com in case you are interested.

Enough talk about the vendor. Let’s talk about the Sunkey SK-801. The package come with a remote, battery, RCA cables, RF cable, power adapter, manual and the device itself.

As you can see, the device is actually quite small. The remote control is also very simple and easy to operate.

Front view:

Back view:

When I first start it up, it gives me this screen to start the set up:

Hitting OK starts the channel scan immediately:

The channel scan finished in a couple minutes. Digital signal is very strong in my area so it has no problem finding all the major channels. Picture quality is quite good. It’s much better than the analog signal. It’s hard to see the picture quality here but you can see signal quality is at 100%.

The EPG (Electronic Programming Guide) is a little of a disappointment. It only shows you upcoming shows on current channel for the next couple hours. This is a very low cost device (free after $40 coupon) so I shouldn’t ask for much.

This is a good product overall if you don’t care much about features. It does exactly what it supposed to do and not more. The menu looks very basic but it’s also very simple to operate. It has closed caption and ratio setting to switch between 4:3 and 16:9 format. This product is perfect for people who just want something simple.

Meritline has a package deal with antenna for $50.99. It’s a very good deal if you don’t have an decent antenna already. Digital signal is all or nothing. Rabbit ear may not work well if you don’t have good signal around your area.

Review on DtvConverterGuide.com in case you are interested.