Pros: Amazingly functional for the price, power consumption, and footprint. What I love most is that it looks and acts almost exactly like any Ubuntu box on my network. All of the packages are there, and everything pretty much just works (the main exception being some of the harware packages, like lm_sensors). Unless you try to run a bunch of desktop/GUI apps on it (web browsers, etc.), you can get away with just thinking of it as just another Linux box. This thing only burns 2-3 Watts, making it far more efficient than any NAS or even most WiFi routers. You can really afford to leave it on 24/7 without a second thought.

Cons: The only major difference between this and a mainstream PC is that it really is a bit slow. Worse than the CPU speed is actually the I/O performance. Both the SD card or USB seem to top out somewhere around 16-18 MB/sec, and the bottleneck is definitely not the flash memory, which I benchmarked on another system. The RAM size also becomes a significant limitation, if you start trying to use it like a desktop or build large software packages on it. I configured swap, just in case, but I think I'd be pretty sad if it were swapping on any kind of regular basis. I hope they put more RAM, USB3, and a mSATA connector on its successor.

Overall Review: I've had a Pi running Raspbian for about 3-4 months, and it's worked flawlessly. I use it for automated internet radio recording, and I'm about to setup automated HD broadcast recording. I'm also planning to use it to serve up my music collection for in-home streaming to my various devices. It would be great for home automation, too. Note that I've never used its video outputs, so I can't comment on any aspects related to its graphics performance, etc. I log into it using ssh - even for the initial setup.

Comments: http://www.realtek.com.tw The shipping drivers are junk. This product has been out nearly a year, and Netgear had no newer ones on their website! I had to download the RTL8169/8110 drivers from Realtek's site, before I could even get the card to work. The problem I had with the shipping drivers is that the card kept switching to different speeds (even though the 1000mbps led on the card was solid). I tried 2 different cat 5e cables, and different ports on a known-good switch. Disabling auto-negotiation caused the card to go catatonic, unless I set it to 10mbps. Once I upgraded to the Realtek drivers, all of those problems magically disappeared and it's been running stably, at 1gbps, for weeks. However, the reason I'm rating this only 3 stars is because the card runs HOT (can't touch it, after ejecting it), I can't get more than 200mbps (even when a large file is 100% in cache and I'm sending to a server capable of much more than that), and it maxes out my CPU (1.4 GHz Pentium M - though this could be more the fault of my cardbus driver or chipset). Also, it has jumbo frame support, but only to 3 KB MTU (in spite of the fact that the drivers list options up to 7 KB). Still, it's a pretty good deal - particularly given Newegg's awesome prices!

Pros: When you open the package, the build quality is immediately apparent. I have a pair of $150 Audio Technica headphones I quite like, but they're made mostly of plastic that warps over time and gets creaky. These use much more metal and feel precision engineered like a good pair of eye glasses. I've already worn them for about 6 hours, yesterday. Not continuously, but they seemed non-fatiguing to wear. Definitely one of the more comfortable headphones I've owned (and have/had top models from Sennheiser, Sony, Beyerdynamic, AKG, Grado, etc.), though the clamping force is rather tight due to the need to create a good seal. The noise cancellation is excellent. When they seal, it's like the air conditioner was switched off. With no music playing, voices drop maybe 10 dB, which is still loud enough that you can clearly hear them, although they sound a bit thin and metallic - like you're listening over an analog phone or something.

Cons: Perhaps you noticed the collection of industry leading headphones I've had, over the years? Plugged into many good quality sources, DACs, AMPs, etc. So far, I've only heard music on these with the wired connection. It's detailed, yet somehow unnatural. I have difficulty describing it, but I'll see if I can update after listening to more material. This is my first Bose product, and they have something of a reputation (in my book) for sounding unnatural. I'm not deducting an egg, because I honestly didn't get them for music. I just needed a better option for shutting out noise than earplugs. These do the trick, and seem like they could endure several years of daily usage. If so, I'd say they're worth the money.

Overall Review: I plan to get some binaural recordings to play on these. Nature sounds, mostly. Note that they don't support lossless audio compression over Bluetooth. If you use a USB Bluetooth dongle, I've heard it recommended to avoid using USB 3.0 jacks, because USB 3 interferes with the Bluetooth RF spectrum.

Pros: Worked like I hoped & expected. Not a bad deal, considering the performance benefit.

Cons: Dirty contacts. In dozens of memory upgrades, I've never seen this before. I don't know if it would have caused memory errors, but I didn't want to risk it. Deducting one star for that.

Overall Review: I bought two of these. When removing from the package, I noticed a dirty spot on the contacts on the back side of one DIMM. I was able to wipe off the dirt with a few passes of a cloth dipped in 91% isopropyl alcohol. After that, I ran memtest86 overnight. All tests passed. BTW, the max rated speed in my laptop is DDR333. However, the benefit of using DDR400 is that my laptop run it at CAS 2.5 instead of the rated CAS 3. I'm running Ubuntu 13.10 on a 90 nm Pentium M (Dothan). Won't run on the earlier generation, due to lack of PAE. I also installed a Transcend PATA/EIDE SSD. Lots of RAM is key if you're running Linux on a laptop with a SSD. To minimize writes, I have /tmp/, /var/tmp/, /var/log/, and /var/spool/ mounted on tmpfs (essentially a variable-sized RAMDISK). This puts even greater demands on memory capacity. With only 1 GB, I was swapping before I'd hardly run anything.

Pros: I won't bother to repeat all the good things you can read elsewhere, but I will say that the noise it does make is at least pleasant sounding.

Cons: Not as quiet as I'd hoped, at full-speed. I won't deduct a star for that, since I don't know if there's anything quieter that produces a similar amount of airflow.

Overall Review: I bought this because I wasn't satisfied with the Cougar CF-V14HB I used to replace the LED intake fan in my new PC (Lian Li PC-60FN case). Both the Cougar and Noctua fans have similar airflow specs and actually turned out to emit a similar amount of noise, to my ears, when I compared them side-by-side (both at full speed). I do prefer the Noctua, as the Cougar has more of a buzzing/whining character. It might be that the Cougar's blades are quieter, while the Noctua has a quieter motor. Both fans are basically new, so perhaps the Cougar would have gotten better after some break-in period. Although, I should note that, when I held the spinning Cougar fan in my hand, it seemed out of balance. I think that could affect its lifespan. My 120 mm Cougar (bought at the same time) is also like that, so it might be due to an actual design flaw, rather than just poor production tolerances. In the end, the Noctua wolud be my preference, though the overall difference isn't huge. If you're planning to use them at lower speeds, the Noctua might be significantly quieter, since I assume the Cougar's motor noise will simply change in pitch but not volume.

Pros: PWM. Quiet at all speeds. Removable, rubber pads integrated into the corners. Well-made, and includes lots of accessories. Nice packaging, FWIW.

Cons: Could be cheaper, but I still feel like you get your money's worth.

Overall Review: I used this to replace a stock exhaust fan in my Lian Li case. While not exactly loud, it was still the loudest fan in the case. I already replaced the stock intake fan with a Cougar CF-V14HB, because I don't like LED fans. The Cougar is also a bit quieter and moves more air. So, why this fan, which is PWM? Well, the case is a positive pressure design, with removable intake filters. That was a key requirement. I have used a similar case for another PC and found these features to be very effective at reducing dust buildup. However, to maintain the positive pressure characteristic, I wanted to keep the same ratio of CFM between the intake and exhaust fans. I figured that this fan should accomplish that at around 700 RPM, but I liked the idea that it would have headroom to blow more air, during those relatively rare times when the system is running under high load. At those times, I think it's more important to move more air than to maintain positive pressure. So long as it's for a relatively small % of the time, the impact on dust buildup should be negligible. I'm so pleased with the result, that I might even replace the Cougar intake fan with a 140 mm Noctua fixed-RPM fan! BTW, my mobo has plenty of PWM headers. You should check whether yours has any 4-pin headers for the fan you're replacing (assuming you're not using a separate fan controller). Otherwise, you can save a little money and just go with a fixed-RPM version.

Item arrived in new condition, with all accessories, safe & sound. Great deal! Thanks! :)