Pros: Everything I've tried works so far, even my USB audio interface with old XP drivers. Acer makes a nice screwless case, it's quiet, and it's fast enough for my purposes. I like the keyboard, too. I guess I'm too set in my ways for the "ergo" stuff.

Cons: I was getting a blank screen at any resolution higher than 1280x1024 from the DVI output to my Samsung 204B until I went into the ATI Control Center and checked "Reduce DVI frequency on high resolution displays." ATI knows about the problem, but offers no solution, oddly. I figured it out on my own. I'm new to Vista, and wound up turning off the security while I was transferring stuff from my old system. Otherwise it couldn't get out of its own way.

Overall Review: Lots of eye candy in Vista. The "Windows Experience Index" is only 3.4, but it sure is pretty.

Pros: It works fine with the eSATA connection. I'm using Nero Backup, and it's saved me from a couple of software malfunctions that corrupted files.

Cons: It's VERY noisy. The "ventilation" is a joke, with six under 1/4" holes in the back of the enclosure. They try to compensate by making the enclosure one big finned heatsink, but the poor little internal fan is constantly running full speed. Don't even think of stashing this thing somewhere with poor ventilation, even if it does cut down on the noise.

Overall Review: The huge blue "eyeball" would be an issue if I didn't have it under my desk pointing into a corner. I just wonder what Security thinks when they come through at night and see the brilliant unearthly glow bathing my office in an occult blue light.

Pros: Silent. Installed and booted with no problems. Windows detects it and installs the drivers (but I downloaded the newest ones from Asus anyway). Bumped my Windows "Experience" Index to 6.7.

Cons: The 2D performance may actually be worse than the fanless Gigabyte HD4550 board that it replaced.

Overall Review: I have been trying to improve the performance of my desktop as an Audio Workstation and avoid building a whole new machine. While the Windows Index jumped significantly with this card, I'm not sure that it really did anything for me. I still get audio dropouts when doing simple 2D things like zooming audio tracks. I don't run a Web browser when I'm working, but tried it and get dropouts when loading and scrolling pages. I bumped up the memory clock and that seemed to help some, but I'd about decided to build a new machine anyway. Then Microsoft pushed Service Pack KB976932 this morning which, to my utter amazement, significantly improved my latency numbers. Maybe Microsoft can do something right after all? I'm still getting occasional glitches, but things are much improved. I'm going to upgrade my network card from the on-board Marvell Yukon to an IBM, and if that doesn't fix the last bit of glitching then it's time to bag it and build.

Pros: Plugged it in to my late 2011 15" MacBook Pro and it works.

Cons: No problems so far.

Pros: Plugged it in, Windows recognized it. I went ahead and downloaded the app from Vantec, but it wasn't really necessary for my use.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: I have a multi-channel Firewire microphone preamp from Presonus with a coax S/PDIF input. I bought this card for debugging purposes, to compare with the on-board S/PDIF on my old motherboard. This card, with the VIA Tremor chip, doesn't have as many sample rate options, but doesn't seem to glitch like the onboard frequently does.

Pros: Sturdy (metal) and simple, like a switch should be. Last week, with my old 100baseT switch it took an hour to copy a 10gig folder of recorded audio from my MacBook to the USB hard drive on my Cisco 3200 router. Today with this ZyXel it took 20 minutes to copy an 8gig folder. Still not what I'd call blazing fast, but a significant improvement.

Cons: Too soon to know.

Overall Review: I had a Comcast box, an LG TV, and a Roku plugged into my old Cisco 5-port 100baseT switch. Adding a MacBook made the Roku stop working. I figured as long as I was going to try a new switch it might as well have more ports to accommodate the other equipment that I'm bound to add eventually. I'm pleased to report that everything including the Roku is working fine now.