Pros: Allows SATA drives to connect to a PATA controller, also allows PATA drives to connect to a SATA controller. Simple to use- instructions are included. Can accommodate various PATA settings such as Master / Slave / Cable Select. Drive SMART Data can be accessed through this. Compact internal solution to SATA / PATA connection issues. Power and Activity LEDs- green and red. Easy to tell if device or drive is powered and active. A simple way to turn an unused PATA controller on your motherboard into a spare, albeit slower, SATA connection.

Cons: Does require a connection to the power supply. (adapter included) For connecting SATA drive to a PATA controller, has to connect directly to the motherboard- watch your clearance. For connecting a PATA drive to a SATA controller, has to connect directly to the back of the drive- watch your clearance.

Overall Review: PATA drive settings require that the user makes sure that the drive and adapter are set properly (ie: Ma/Sl/CA), but this is the nature of PATA rather than an issue with the adapter. Works with Linux and Windows Vista and appears to be software agnostic with modern Operating Systems. A good solution as long as you have the clearance. Great for attaching an older hard drive for servicing. I have not tested it, but should work for Optical Drives too. Transfer speeds are mainly going to be limited by the interfaces involved, rather than the adapter.

Pros: Small, light, compact. Reliable, durable, will tolerate some abuse. Keys are acceptable for extended typing

Cons: Poor typing angle needs to be propped up. Oddball layout of editing keys can lead to a lot of silly mistakes for someone used to a more standard layout.

Overall Review: The poor angle the keyboard sits at, and it's lack of legs to prop it up are a major issue. Very bad ergonomics can lead to BIG problems down the line for the user. How much do you like your wrists ? Back in the 1980's, many manufactures could claim honest ignorance of these issues, but we are long past that point. Two eggs knocked off for that ! To be fair, the keys have a decent feel, if a little springy and a little noisy by today's standards. I can live with springy, I hate spongy. Unit has proved reliable in service. Change the angle it sits at, fix the goofy edit key layout and you would have a nice little product. I would suggest looking elsewhere. Note: Boot issue noted by another reviewer seems to only happen on some motherboards. While it works fine with the BIOS on my MSI G31 Intel based motherboard, it failed to play nice with an FM1 Gigabyte A75-D3H board. YMMV

Pros: On Linux, simply fantastic performance for heavy VM and multitasking at this price range. Nothing Intel has at this price is even close With the proper motherboard, excellent scaling. Overall, 3.5x the performance of my old Core 2 Duo, some benchmarks as high as 6x With the right Heatsink, BIOS settings and design, power use and thermal issues are manageable and not bad at all. Far more performance per dollar than most other CPUs for my workload. Still games well too ! All AMD CPUs have VM support ! Works well with Mint Linux and lm_sensors if configured.

Cons: AMD would rather play games and act like fools for a month than share a simple datasheet, a once standard practice by chip makers. Intel will offer 500 pages of design information, but AMD treats the now aging FX series like a State Secret of the Soviet Union ! Quit hiding your problems, AMD, you are hurting yourself more. Having to work through thermal issues was much harder than it needed to be, since I did not have datasheets. For non-scaling workloads, or software than does not multithread well, the Intel has superior performance, lower temps and lower TDP for such workloads. OEM Heat sink is really disappointing

Overall Review: The thermal issues for this chip can be handled, I used a Logisys 400 Beta heatsink, Artic Silver 5 and made changes in the BIOS. But this issue would have been easier to deal with, and easier to help others with if AMD did not turn into jerks with no clue as to what customer service is when you ask for a Datasheet. Any other CPU maker who sells to the public makes Datasheets widely available. AMD acts like a child hiding a problem, and if they where more open about, I am convinced the issues could be more easily dealt with. An egg knocked off for AMD being foolish. On Linux, hosting multiple VMs while running programs on bare metal, the FX-6300 really shines ! I have seen Hyperthreading cause issues because sometimes even HT aware Operating Systems cannot "see" the true nature of the virtual cores from inside the VM. The real cores on the FX series are far better and provide a much more consistent performance. No Intel CPU at this price performs like this for my workloads. For gaming the FX-6300 does quite well, a good choice for those who wish to mix gaming with productivity. For "pure" gaming and non scaling workloads (lame MP3 and other things that are "single core" in their CPU usage), the quad core's higher clock speed might be better, or even the Intel CPUs do far better here. With my M5A97 LE R 2.0 motherboard, I can even run as few as 4,2 or 1 core for long overnights spend downloading as I sleep. Performance per watt is not that bad for my loads and thermal issues can be managed. For the money, far more bang per buck than anything Intel makes. Nothing else can both game and scale for multitasking at this price range.

Pros: Fits well within a 4U server case, looks like it will fit in 3U and a number of smaller cases. Cooled better than OEM, by about 15-20c cooler. 35c right now, 100% on Prime 95 will not reach 60. Cleared the space for my memory- unlike many large coolers and blows air on the VRMs Not very loud at all. Inexpensive and compact, but works well. I had no room for the 212 and larger coolers. Nice copper base ! Far better than expected for the price !

Cons: Not for "silent" application, even though it is not loud by my standards. Only rated for 95 Watt or lower CPUs, NOT FOR USE WITH 8-CORE FX ! Not much thermal headroom for overclocking, none really.

Overall Review: If you are an overclocker, look elsewhere, while some have reported good results with 125 watt applications, the stated limit is 95-100 watts. If you use this above it's design rating, it is NOT Logisys's fault, but yours and yours alone. I got 15-20c temp reduction with this and a few BIOS changes. For the price, it is far better than expected. I would encourage the company to expand this part of it's product line. Not silent, but I like to be able to hear the fans to know they are working, but not loud by reasonable standards. If you need a compact, but effective cooler for 95-100 watts, this is a great choice. Nice copper base and you can still change the RAM if you need to. Note, the 212 and larger CPU coolers that are so popular are often poor fits for 4U and other cases, this is good for a small space !

Pros: Works to stated speeds well. A very reputable brand I have used for years, seen the company honor warranties. Company guide on mobo compatibility is conservative, trustworthy.

Cons: Slow, in terms of latency. It's small capacity makes it good for testing purposes on modern motherboards. Will slow down faster RAM it is mixed with on many boards.

Overall Review: I got this as a small stick for testing DDR3 boards. Works fine, does the job for testing.

Pros: Low wattage (for an AM3 CPU) Low price Works with the vast majority of AM3+ Motherboards on any BIOS OEM Heatsink easier to install than Intel OEM Heatsinks Has hardware VM support ! Will do basic productivity and web surfing, will even play old games.

Cons: Ok, it is a single core and rather slow. It would have been nice to have a cheap dual core readily available for upgrading the firmware on my new motherboard, but it is what it is and they are honest in the marketing of it. It is the bottom rung on the AMD ladder, it really is a chip good for using to upgrade a new motherboard for a chip the BIOS might not be able to take.

Overall Review: I used this to upgrade my new M5A97 LE R2.0 motherboard, since not all firmware releases for it support my FX-6300 CPU. So for allowing me to upgrade the board, it did fine. Played with it for a little bit and it ran better than I expected. I suppose if one had a lot of spare parts laying around and wanted to make a cheap box, but needed a cheap AM3 CPU, this would be useful.