Pros: Nice solid setup if you just need a mouse and keyboard. Keyboard feels quite good, has acceptable force feedback when typing. Mouse is a click to click scroll style, not free scroll.

Cons: A common problem with the lower priced logitech keyboard/mouse bundles is the mice are often quite small, and feel somehow, cheaper made compared to the keyboards, this shouldn't be a problem for your average user though.

Pros: A learning experience I suppose, about being more thorough.

Cons: This HDD gave me more trouble than I can fit into 3,000 characters, but here's a summary. Was apparently bad from day one, but always managed to throw me off by taking a fresh OS install with no issues. I therefore, several times figured that it was other components (my suspicion was the GPU) causing issues which made the OS non-bootable. Until a few weeks ago when the system this HDD was in, again, decided to misbehave, this time though, a fresh OS install did nothing, because the HDD had packed up for the last time. Overall, this HDD caused me to waste at least 30 hours of my time. Truly diabolical.

Overall Review: Somebody at WD messed up, because they sent me the 320GB version of this drive after the whole warranty debacle had cleared, I'm glad though, I didn't really want the original back, I would have settled for a smaller one honestly. WD also offers special shipping rates for people claiming a warranty on one of their products.

Pros: The same as my previous two Deepcool coolers, all the components are separated based on socket, and labeled numerically so that they’re easy to find and can be referenced in the installation instructions. I have used a DeepCool AIO (All In One) liquid cooler before, almost a year ago. In one year, they've certainly made some improvements in quality. A year ago I said it was a well made AIO cooler, since then, they have made noticeable improvements to the fan included with the cooler, and the tubing. The fans have received built in sound damping, more blades, and just generally, better build quality, and the tubing has been switched to a much more flexible material. The previous point is actually a huge improvement, as it totally knocks one of my cons off the list from the model I received previously. The pump still looks awesome. BENCHMARKS 1 These benchmarks were obtained using Real Temp. Each test was run for 30 minutes. Data points were taken every minute and then averaged. Clock speeds are reported in MHz, CPU temperatures are reported in Celsius and CPU load is reported as a percentage. My test rig was as follows: CPU i7 4770K, MOBO ASUS Sabertooth Z87, Case CM Storm Scout 2, Thermal Paste Antec Formula 7 Nano Diamond. DEEPCOOL CURRENT Idle Clock 3876 CPU1 30 CPU2 25 CPU3 30 CPU4 28 AVG 28.3 Min 22 Max 34 Load 0.8 Moderate Clock 3845 CPU1 44 CPU2 34 CPU3 35 CPU4 34 AVG 36.6 Min 32 Max 49 Load 16.8 Metro Last Light Clock 3816 CPU1 45 CPU2 42 CPU3 45 CPU4 49 AVG 45.5 Min 41 Max 54 Load 23 DEEPCOOL NEW Idle Clock 3870 CPU1 29 CPU2 23 CPU3 28 CPU4 28 AVG 25.5 Min 22 Max 32 Load 0.8 Moderate Clock 3842 CPU1 40 CPU2 35 CPU3 35 CPU4 36 AVG 36.5 Min 32 Max 45 Load 16.8 Metro Last Light Clock 3815 CPU1 44 CPU2 42 CPU3 44 CPU4 47 AVG 44.25 Min 40 Max 50 Load 23

Cons: Although nothing was wrong with the cooler, the packaging was sparser than I would have liked to see. The radiator and heat sink had no additional cushioning besides their semi form fitting cardboard carton. Unlike the previous model I tested which came with a four way fan power splitter, this model does not come with any sort of splitter. If you want to do a push/pull configuration with this cooler then, you're going to be using your own splitter, fan controller, or multiple molex connectors. I guess this can go under cons, some people will certainly see it as such; the mounting bracket that sits on the back of your MOBO is now plastic. My previous model used a metal bracket. Improved is that the long screws which go through the bracket and through your MOBO now sit very snuggly in the bracket. Not so good, is that it's plastic now. It's not flimsy or anything, just would have preffered metal. Benchmarks 2 These benchmarks were obtained using Real Temp and Prime95. Each test was run for 15 minutes. Data points were taken every 15 seconds and then averaged. Clock speeds are reported in MHz, CPU temperatures are reported in Celsius and CPU load is reported as a percentage. An additional data point in these tests denoted as “Time” describes the time taken to reach idle temperatures after a test and is measured in M:SS. My test rig remained unchanged except where denoted with OC. DEEPCOOL CURRENT Stock Clock Clock 3498 CPU1 71 CPU2 68 CPU3 70 CPU4 65 AVG 68.5 Min 64 Max 75 Load 100 Time 0:15 OC Clock 4107 CPU1 98 CPU2 96 CPU3 95 CPU4 88 AVG 94.3 Min 86 Max 103 Load 100 Time 0:20 DEEPCOOL NEW Stock Clock Clock 3498 CPU1 50 CPU2 49 CPU3 51 CPU4 50 AVG 50 Min 47 Max 54 Load 100 Time 0:15 OC Clock 4107 CPU1 55 CPU2 52 CPU3 53 CPU4 54 AVG 53.5 Min 51 Max 57 Load 100 Time 0:20

Overall Review: Overall, the difference in the Prime95 benchmarks makes me wonder if there was something wrong with my old DeepCool AIO that I didn't peg. This new one runs ice cold compared to the old. Even the more realistic "real world" benchmarks point to a slight gain for the new cooler. Installation is time around was simpler (due to additional experience) but still did not go at all as the instructions illustrated. I have the radiator sitting outside on top of my case with one of my own case fans pulling through, and the included fan pushing through from the inside of my case. The more flexible tubing made installation simpler this time around, but there was still a decent amount of fiddling with the orientation of the whole package. A sub point to the above, more of a word of caution actually: be wary of how much space you have inside your case. Realistically, you’ll want about two inches of open space for the radiator and fans wherever you decide to mount them. I’ll save you the research: This cooler has an average warranty. I’ve seen similar coolers with warranties as low as a year, and as high as six. This one has a three year warranty. Came with thermal paste this time around, but, meh, don't skimp, use stuff of a known quantity and quality. Overall, I'd say this cooler is a very welcome improvements from DeepCool's older models. Installation has been made slightly easier, quality has gone up, and temperatures have gone down. Same as my previous DeepCool AIO, it has been running great for the past month. I've not had to mess with it since I finished the installation. I would definitely recommend this cooler if you're in the market for an AIO liquid cooler.

Pros: Sturdy packaging. It’s a hard disk drive, an item not well known for it’s tolerance for shock and impact. The packaging reflects this. Clean elegant aesthetics. The enclosure has a very nice look to it and doesn’t use that awful high gloss plastic that’s only marketable use is for collecting greasy fingerprints. The single LED DOES look nice, and fits with the uncluttered look of the enclosure, but it’s positiong is problematic (see Cons). Plug and play. Pretty self explanatory. The quick set up guide lists two steps: 1. Attach power cable, 2. Attach data cable. Up and running in about 30 seconds. No gimmicky applications included, just a preconfigured external hard drive.

Cons: Indication LED is top mounted, rather than the standard front mount. Why even put an LED on it if it’s just going to dictate where you’re able to place the drive in order to be able to see it? Housing feels like it’s made of very cheap plastic. Very rarely do I receive items for review that I have to give negative marks on quality, at worst, it’s a split, but this whole drive’s housing is made of some very flimsy plastic. I seriously think one major impact to the housing would shatter it. I own another Seagate external drive which is made of much much sturdier plastic, it is a year older than this one however. Only has rubber feet to support it being stood up vertically. Maybe they want to discourage people stacking stuff on it? I don’t know, but depending on where you maybe forced to place the drive, it would be highly advantageous to not force you into one positioning option. Running the included setup application fails to take you to the Seagate product registration page (which is where I suspect it’s attempting to take you based on the URL). Fairly easily worked around, but why do I need to do that? 1 year warranty is a joke. I started buying hard drives back when they came with 5 year standard warranties across the whole industry, a 5 year warranty today would be absurd, but I don’t see the average user using this drive up and throwing it away even inside that span. I certainly don’t think it’s OK for Seagate to throw their hands up and say “Well, we can’t guarantee the lifespan of this product for more than 12 months!”. That kind of rationale speaks volumes more to me than my other (fairly) petty gripes with this product. On top of the above point, the drive enclosure has no visible hardware indicating how it can be opened up. Appears to be non user serviceable, in other words.

Overall Review: Some real world benchmarks. The files transferred consisted of a mix of large single archival files, and lots of small media and data files. The typical mix of things that a user would want to transfer in the real world. My computers C:\ was used for the transfers. It is a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro series SSD. 100GB transfer onto the drive at an average speed of 75MB/s over USB3.0 100GB transfer onto the drive at an average speed of 12MB/s over USB2.0 100GB transfer onto my C:\ drive at an average speed of 90MB/s over USB3.0 100GB transfer onto my C:\ drive at an average speed of 30MB/s over USB2.0 My final thoughts on this drive are simple: the warranty is not to be trusted. The drive I received is perfectly functional and has been working flawlessly for the better part of three weeks, but in a culture of planned obsolescense, I don’t have a great feeling about only having one year of protection for something that easily has a five year useful lifespan, minimum. I went and looked at Seagates offerings for standalone 8TB drives, and they all have the (current) industry standard 3 year warranty. Considering that, my advice would be to buy a stand alone drive and an external enclosure. It’s unforunate, because I like the all in one plug and play package, and besides my beef with the warranty, my other complaints were fairly minor. However, considering the fact I’m sacrificing two years of warranty protection for the plug and play simplicity, I would go a different route.

Pros: The warranty of this mouse pad is competitive. I looked around and found most gaming mouse pads have a one year warranty. The mouse pad came rolled up in a hard cardboard tube which offers great protection from being crushed and folded over and ensures the mouse pad won’t develop any creases or folds during shipping. Build quality of this mouse pad appears to be as good as all the other gaming mouse pads I could gather for first hand reference. Despite having to be rolled up into a tube, it emerged and flattened out no problem. I tried forcefully folding a corner of the mouse pad over to no avail, it simply sprung back to its previous state. I also tried to stretch a corner of the mouse pad out (way more than would ever happen by accident) to try and tear the rubber backing, once again to no avail. Aside from what I mentioned above, the mouse pad feels very well made overall. In a case of “Does what it says on the box.” the rubber base anchors the mouse pad very well. I usually prefer larger mouse pads to keep them from shifting about, but this one is solid in that respect. Mouse movement is smooth, accurate, and responsive.

Cons: All was not good on the packaging front. The tube housing the mouse pad has a very strong chemical smell. Normally this wouldn’t even fall under cons but the smell is very pervasive, and it will cling to the mouse pad for a few hours, and to the inside of the tube for days, even if you try to air it out. I wish Corsair would publish some official care and maintenance instructions about their cloth mouse pads. Really it’s the least they could do, there’s nothing terribly fancy about a cloth surface mouse pad, but they all eventually get dirty, and it’d be nice if the people that made it told you how to maintain it.

Overall Review: I’d just like to state my old mouse pad is very similar to the one from Corsair that was tested, it is a cloth top, rubber base mouse pad textured for smooth gliding. It is however, quite old, and has been fairly worn down and dirtied over the years. Trying to quantify something like this is tricky, however, the way I look at it, pretty much every item out there designed for gaming claims that it will make you a better gamer. Therefore I decided I would measure my performance by playing a game. The game I settled on was Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) for two reasons. Firstly, it’s well known and popular. Second, it has bots, which is important because they ensure a relatively consistent skill level for my opponents. I chose the most popular CS:GO map (I know the layout of it well besides it being popular), Dust II. To eliminate further variables I elected to not do the customary half-time team swap. I played 60 rounds each against expert level bots with my old mouse pad and the Corsair mouse pad. To try and make the data more easily digestible I also calculated my kill-death ratio (KDR). Dust II old mouse pad 60 round totals Kills: 95 Assists: 15 Deaths: 25 MVP: 28 Score: 272 KDR: 3.8 Dust II Corsair mouse pad 60 round totals Kills: 122 Assists: 18 Deaths: 27 MVP: 32 Score: 329 KDR: 4.5 I have to say the results surprised me. I feel I was familiar enough with the map and played enough rounds that I reached my skill plateau early in the testing, and wasn’t simply getting better as time went on. What I see in the results is that I had nearly the same number of deaths, but significantly more kills. What this says to me is that during a firefight, the corsair mouse pad allowed me to be more accurate and come away with more kills. In short, a result in favor of making me a better gamer. Overall, there really isn’t a whole lot to say about this mouse pad. There isn’t much to say about any mouse pad really. What I can say in conclusion is that just like every Corsair item I’ve ever owned, this mouse pad exudes quality. I’ve been using it for about two weeks now and I can say that if you’re in the market for a high quality mouse pad, I would recommend this item. Some may look at the price of this mouse pad and wonder whether it’s really worth it, and it is a subjective matter. If you’re in the market for a high quality mouse pad, I would look no further.

Pros: One of the few positives about this item is its build quality. To be honest, I expected nothing less from Belkin. They’re my main go-to company for cables, surge protectors, and some other items. The bulbs have a good weight to them, feel well made, and are devoid of any loose internal parts. I tried them in several sockets in my house and they fit snugly into every single one. The WeMo Link is also quite well made. The plastic is strong and prevents the LED from bleeding through, has a decent weight to it, and plugged securely into every outlet I tested it in. The only thing I liked about the application was how simply (and to my surprise, smoothly) it would switch from WiFi to a mobile connection, while still maintaining a connection to the WeMo Link. When the app works correctly, which is seldom, it is very easy to setup rules and schedules for your bulbs. Will work as dumb bulbs.

Cons: Unfortunately, the thing which has to support this product, is the thing that ultimately dooms it: its mobile app. First, despite the app having an appealing look, this was done in the form>function manner. Every single clickable button or link lacks proper styling and feedback. This makes it impossible to tell what they are, where they are, and if you’ve managed to click them or not. The former problem is exacerbated by the app’s second major problem: poor response time. I’m not entirely sure how an app that has to do so little can perform so poorly on an HTC One M8 (friends phone, see below), but this manages to do it. Didn’t work on my device. I’m not sure why such a simple application couldn’t have been made compatible with more devices (older version of Android), but there ya go. If you choose not to heed my warning, at least make sure your device is compatible . The setup was frustratingly difficult. Despite the instructions being clear and concise, they make the assumption that everything is going to work beautifully together. Admittedly, the installation did go correctly the first time, but the first thing I was prompted to do was upgrade the firmware of the WeMo Link. The updater said to allow up to 15 minutes for the update, which I did, and then another 15, but in the end, I couldn’t connector to the WeMo link, so I had to reset it and begin the installation again. I guess the firmware update had some effect, because connecting to the WeMo link was extremely hit and miss, certainly not as simple as the first time around.

Overall Review: The warranty is broadly speaking, average. I wasn’t overwhelmed with the number of “smart bulbs” available on the market, but the ones I did find had warranties ranging from 1 – 2 years. Although Newegg lists this item as having a 1 year warranty, Belkin states that it in fact has a 2 year warranty. Packaging was adequate. Belkin wasn’t adventurous in their choice of egg-carton style cardboard to cradle the bulbs and the WeMo Link, but if you go pick up a pack of standard lightbulbs, the packaging won’t wow you either. To save you having to do some math, Belkin claims these bulbs have a 25,000hr lifetime. Color is yellowish to mimic sunlight. I won’t lie, I never really saw this product as being of any use to me, but being a starter kit, I figure one of its jobs was to sell me on the whole “control your home from your phone” idea. Unfortunately, the point where everything broke down was as soon as I installed the app on my (friend’s) phone. It simply doesn’t work right, and it drove me even further away from the idea. Really, when you total up the amount of hassle, time, and money this will cost you, it more than negates any possible convenience that could be provided, especially when measured against just buying a pack of CFLs and flipping a light switch. Even with the build quality being quite good, I couldn’t recommend this product to anybody, even somebody in the market for a product like this.