Joined on 11/27/03
nice - except they sent wrong color
Pros: Super easy, tool-less assembly. Nice looking. Feels solid.
Cons: I ordered orange and received Paris HIlton pink. Gee thanks. If I were a sixteen year old girl I might like it.
Overall Review: I'm not taking points off for the color mix up because there's nothing wrong with the design. Still it's a shame the distributor's quality control is so poor.
Agree with previous reviewer
Pros: the HD 6450 reference design is supposed to be pretty good for video applications, but this card is not a reference design. As the previous reviewer meantioned it uses 512 mb of 32 bit memory. the reference design is either 512 of GDDR 5 or 1GB of 64 bit GDDR 3. (According to Anandtech, GDDR 3 actually has a lower TDP than GDDR 5, so I guess this card would have very low power consumption and generate little heat) It's not a terrible card, but for roughly the same price, you can get a reference design using 1 GB of 64 bit GDDR 3.
Cons: The reason I'm not satisfied with this card is that when using Windows Media Center, it can't keep up with the overlay menus while an HDTV stream is displayed at the same time. I might be able to deal with HD video OK when there's nothing else going on, but, at least with the current drivers, it doesn't seem to be able to do a lot on top of that at the same time. Unfortunately for a premium HTPC experience, I think you need to be able to do that extra bit as well.
Overall Review: I traded this card in for an HD 6570 which now I think is the right card for an HTPC. The GDDR3 version has a pretty low TDB and still has enough oomph to do a few other things like display overlay menus while decoding UVD 3.0 HD video.
better than the others
Pros: Excellent build quality. High quality, quiet fan with manual speed adjustment. Good transfer speeds. Stays cool under load. Looks stylish.
Cons: The glued on plastic feet seem inconsistent with the otherwise high build quality. There is a warning label affixed to the top of the unit with permanent adhesive. It's a pain to remove. A minor annoyance but why permanent adhesive?? (One star off for the cheap feet and annoying sticker.)
Overall Review: I tried an Orico two bay setup and returned it because it had a very annoyingly loud fan that wasn't adjustable. The Icy Dock is a little more expensive than the others but it's definitely worth it. It's more stylish looking too.
Drive died - no response from Mushkin RMA
Pros: It's an SSD.
Cons: Died after only a little light use. Placed an RMA ticket through Mushkin's website and got NO response. Sorry but this is unacceptable. I'll stick with other brands for SSDs from now on.
Overall Review: The only other time a drive died on me, it was a Seagate. When I contacted them, they were REALLY fast and replaced my drive the same week. I will never buy another Mushkin product because their support is so weak. Also, I am out a lot of money and not happy about it.
Excellent
Pros: Holds 2 drives - one 2.5" and one mSATA which allows me to boot to a fast mSATA / mPCIE SSD and also have a 1.5 TB 2.5" drive for lots of storage. (This is the smallest device I could find that allows me to do that) Built in Wireless N. Good enough performance to replace my previous desktop. Very low power and heat.
Cons: I would have liked build in bluetooth, but it's not a big deal.
Overall Review: Get it.
Nice
Pros: Intel drivers are easy to install. Works better with a Bluetooth mouse than others I've used.
Cons: What's to complain about? I guess being wireless N instead of AC is a con, but I don't currently have an N router so I am not concerned.
Overall Review: Installed easily in an older Dell Studio 1558 laptop.
sent wrong color
Other than the horrible pink color, the product is decent and I received it reasonably fast. Still, I am not pleased. If you're going to screw up on the color, please anything but pink! It's too much of a hassle to send back. I'll keep it. But it's the last thing I'm ordering from these jokers.