Empyrean

If you order two of the UniqueTek dials from their website they are $45 each instead of $49.

Brian, I'm not sure as to my usage as I haven't had the time to shoot for awhile with school, traveling, getting engaged and plenty of work at the office. It is going to be my focus to shoot more often as the weather gets warmer. In the last two Saturdays I probably shot 750 rounds between my 9mm and .22 pistols. I actually will shoot more 9mm once I get my load worked up. The .22 I've bee try to get sighted in and practice my shooting technique. Once the warmer weather comes, I will probably spend quite a bit of time outdoors shooting my .223 and my .308 rifles. It would be nice to load a couple thousand 9mm rounds and then convert to .223 to load a couple thousand for that and so on to last me the better part of the season. I just don't have time to reload every weekend. I'd rather be shooting in the few hours I have the time. I think there are probably two types of reloaders. People that just want to reload a bunch of ammo to last them a large portion of the year in the minimum amount of time and those that reload as they need it. I am thinking that the 550 is well-suited for both small and large production albeit slower than the 650. The 650 is well-suited for high production with less frequent caliber changes. That is where I mostly fall I think. Since our conversation, I have been giving serious thought to my motivation for wanting to convert to the 650. I think part of it is the reduction of steps necessary to work the press. Less movement overall with a potential speed increase to boot. The 650 signficantly reduces those steps and I do like idea the auto-indexing feature. As I mentioned to you, I think the auto-indexing feature further reduces the possibility of an incorrec powder charge. I'm still undecided as to whether it makes sense to upgrade. This thread has further confused me as it seems that many people that converted from the 550 to the 650 think it was a wise choice. Two of the main reasons were the auto-indexing and the casefeeder. As I mentioned to you on the telephone, the auto-indexing could make it a safer machine which I'm all for. Obviously, this isn't all that urgent as I have a functioning 550 but I am still mulling over the pro's and con's! I appreciate all of your time and everyone's input. Thanks, AJ

Thanks everyone for all your feedback so far. Keep it coming! It definitely helps me weigh my options. I did want to point out that the new casefeeder for the 550 will only work with pistol cases and not rifle. I didn't know that until today. So far, it seems like everyone that went from a 550 to 650 have no regrets even with the increased time to change calibers.

I had a rather lengthy conversation with Brian today to discuss the idea of replacing my 550 for a 650. As a result, I'm on the fence as to whether I want to upgrade or not. I reload 9mm, .223 and .308. Putting the increased reloading speed of the 650, the benefit of upgrading to the 650 would be auto-indexing and a case feeder that does rifle cases unlike the 550. The downside is slower caliber changes and a more complex machine. I am curious to know whether any of you have gone from a 550 to 650. For those of you that did, do you still have your 550? I would be particularly interested in people that reload multiple calibers on their 650 and if you find it significantly harder to change calibers. Basically, I am looking for any feedback or advice you'd be willing to share. Thanks in advance, AJ

With only one SATA drive, you should NOT have RAID enabled in the BIOS. That is most likely your problem. I think your system sees the drive but it won't enable it because there isn't a second SATA drive to do RAID 0 or 1. Try going into the BIOS and disabling RAID and see if that does the trick.

This is the same type that I received with my new 550 from Brian a few weeks ago. --AJ