Pros: The device feels solid. The rubber casing seems waterproof, and mostly shockproof. Read speeds seem to be pretty good. I wouldn't hesitate to chuck this across the room at someone, though I might not want to run over it with my car. I've owned one for a couple months now, and I'm buying a second one for myself and another for one of my technicians. With the rebate, it's an excellent deal.

Cons: I prefer flash drives without a cap (retractable USB port), or with a cap that's attached so that you can lose it. This drive has a removable cab. The write speed is mediocre (see below). The rubber does collect/attract dust. I haven't tried the Vista ready-boost, so I can't comment on that.

Overall Review: I use this to keep data I use for computer service calls. I have tons of utilities, updates, etc., and they were in need of an update, so I figured it would be a good chance for a speed test. Copied almost 7GB of data (14,700 files in 1750 folders) to the drive. It took 70 minutes. That's about 1.7 MB/s. I then copied the exact same files back off to my hard drive. They copied in 13 min, for about a 9.2 MB/s read speed. Certainly enough for storing a few word docs and pictures, but a bit slow for transferring huge amounts of information.

Pros: Simple installation, all parts/cables/cords/screws included. Worked out of the box.

Cons: It's obvious that they had a bad run from the metal factory. Like the previous review, I got a unit with 4 holes drilled on on one side of the bottom of the unit, all in a line within 3 inches of each other. 2 of the holes are nice and counter-sunk and painted, however, they're about 1/2" off from where you'd need to screw them into the hard drive. The other 2 holes were obviously drilled *after* manufacturing, and while they line up with the hard drive mount points, they're not counter-sunk. So, you're left with screws sticking out of the bottom of the box, plus two open screw holes. And, when you're done, you're left with a hard drive secured by only 2 screws, not 4. (Unless you drill your own.) FYI, the instructions say "Fasten the HDD by tightening the four screws from the bay of the case into the HDD."

Overall Review: I understand that Galaxy/Metal Gear probably got a bad run from their manufacturer. But instead of sending them back they just drilled a couple more holes, not even covering up the ones you don't need with a rubber plug or anything. Seems very cheap and amateur-ish. Also, I cannot find anything on either the unit, the box, or the instruction sheet as to where this was made. Isn't that a law or something? That products have to list where they were manufactured? (The power supply says "Made in China".) I've also had mixed luck with Metal Gear in the past. While in general they work fine, I have a couple unites that will just un-recognize and re-recognize in XP. Bad if you're watching a video from the HD, or copying info to/from the drive.

Pros: None

Cons: I don't usually buy refurbished items, but the price was low enough to convince me that it might be worth it. I just wanted a simple radio to put in the garage. I figured I'd buy two since they were cheap, and if one didn't work, not a huge loss. NEITHER radio worked. In fact, one was completely missing a knob (no, it wasn't in the bottom of the box.) When it was turned on, it blasted static at full volume regardless of the setting of the volume control nob, the AM/FM/Weather switch, or the tuning knob. The other one worked for about 2 minutes, then ceased to work entirely. It's obvious that the quality control on the refurbishing process for these is either lacking, or non-existent. I have a feeling that they got them back from somewhere and put them in an OEM box without even testing them.

Overall Review: These were too cheap to make them worth sending back. The only plus was that I was able to pull an antenna off of one of them to put on one of the kids radios that had a broken antenna. This was a relatively inexpensive reminder to me to avoid buying refurbished items. I've had more trouble with reburbs than the cost savings is worth.

Pros: -built-in power cord -low price

Cons: -never worked -pieces missing out of the box

Overall Review: I bought two of these, thinking "how hard is it these days to make a radio?" The rebate made the price reasonable enough that I figured I'd take a chance on something refurbished. I bought one for the garage and one for camping, and unfortunately waited until I wanted to use them to test them out, after the 30 day warranty had expired. The first one no only didn't work, but when you turn the power switch OFF the volume of the static gradually rises until it's blaring at full volume, even while powered OFF. The second unit was MISSING the power switch. The only good thing I can say is that just yesterday I received the rebate for these, so at least they're honoring that.

Pros: Installed this on an XFX GTX 285. The three fans and GPU radiator seem to do the job. After installation, the temps (registered via speedfan) went from 85C to 55C. The fans and main GPU regulator seem to be of decent quality.

Cons: I've been doing computer work for years, and when I read some of the other reviews saying that the installation was difficult, I guess I figured that it couldn't be THAT bad and that maybe people were doing something wrong. They weren't. IT IS THAT HARD. First, the instructions are terrible. Second, the custom aluminum heat radiator didn't match the layout of the voltage regulators on the XFX 285. Third, the other square heat radiators weren't enough to cover everything that the stock cooler was covering. I ended up fabricating something out of other parts that I had around, but it wasn't easy. I had to use thermal expoxy to get things to stick. Also, there's a big metal shield that's supposed to go on the back and stick with just some double-sided sticky heat pads. It's a huge shield (the side of the back of the card) and there's NO WAY it's going to stay on with just these little pads. And, there's no way to secure it with the screws that come with it.

Overall Review: I'm usually pretty good at physically hacking things to make them work. All in all I probably spent 4 hours assembling this, requiring the use of not only thermal epoxy, but also pliers, wire snips, a hacksaw, and a grinder! This thing will make your GPU cooler, but it's DEFINITELY NOT one-size-fits all, even though it says (on other sites) that it's supposed to fit GTX 260, GTX 280 and GTX 285, and definitely not an easy installation.

Pros: I was tired of carrying one portable player to listen to the radio, and another to listen to music or audio books, so I bought this the c240 refurbished at another online site for the same price. Actually, I bought 2 of them thinking that I could leave one to charge and use the other. Also, at this price if one broke, I'd have a spare. I was thinking that I'd have to install RockBox in order to make it do what I needed, but I've been using it for 6 months with the shipped firmware/gui, and it's worked pretty well for me. Battery life is acceptable. I can usually get a weekend's worth of listening out of one charge. (~8-12 hours) I use this for audio books and my biggest complaint about other players was that they wouldn't pick up where they left off, and you'd often have to fast-forward for quite a while to get back to where you were last listening. These units not only remember which track you were on, but where you were in the track. Excellent for audio book listening.

Cons: There are several annoyances. Whenever I copy a .mp3 to the device I get a message saying "The file has one or more properties outside of the device limits. If possible, use a media program that can convert the file before copying it. If you copy the file now, it will be stored on the device, but may not be presented in the device user interface." This happens even when using mp3tag to edit the tag information. If I just ignore the error message everything works. Also, while the FM tuner does provide excellent reception, when I tune into a station and the unit turns off the display, it's like the frequency gets mis-tuned. If I move down a station and then back up, it's fine after that. Still, it's annoying to have to do this every time I turn the unit on and listen to the radio. Also, I'm using 2 GB micro-SD cards with the devices, and you CANNOT switch from one to the other. The songs just aren't recognized. The data is stored onboard and the index doesn't refresh.

Overall Review: I did have one of the two units that had its audio start to cut out, and if I moved the headphone jack around the sound would come in and out. Not a huge deal as I had a spare, but I thought I'd open up the thing and see what I could do. Three tiny screws and a little bit of prying and I had the unit completely apart. I was able to re-solder three joints where the headphone jack connects to the circuitboard and revive the connection. Certainly not everyone would want to do this, esp. since at $13, this is essentially a disposable player, but this problem IS fixable if you know what you're doing. I would certainly NOT pay retail for these, but at $13, I'm buying two more to have them as spares, which also gives me two more batteries. (I REALLY wish these used AAAs) This way I can have a battery charging in my car (via cigarrette USB charger) and one at my computer, and just swap out the battery when it goes low. Definitely a good purchase for the price.