Joined on 12/17/05
Good card
Pros: The card has excellent price to performance. I like the way ATI's Catalyst Control handles dual monitors compared to Nvidia.
Cons: Runs hot. The default fan setting never goes above 25%. If you set the fan to a more appropriate speed (say 60%) for cooling it sounds like you purchased a jet engine instead of a videocard.
Overall Review: Overall I am happy with this card.
Annoying
Pros: Battery life is excellent, I use 2 AA batteries and they last for weeks! Mouse seems pretty accurate and software allows for customization of controls.
Cons: The middle mouse is very hard to click and it generally annoying to operate. I use a CAD program called CATIA that is heavy on middle click and this mouse is quite annoying. Not enough to get a different one, but definitely a pain. I also have problems with the middle mouse not working for programs like TeamSpeak. I also frequently press the 4th and 5th button (mostly 4th) unintentionally. They are useless to me so I have the disabled. Scroll is not as smooth as my last cheap Logitech Wireless mouse. It scrolled smoothly, while this scrolls fairly rigidly.
Overall Review: I would not really recommend this mouse for others.
Decent Product, good performance increase
Pros: I got this powerline adapter along with a new router, modem, and CAT6 ethernet cables for my new 200mbps down / 20 mbps up connection. I had an old router, modem, and Linksys PLE400 powerline adapter. With that adapter I was about to get about 10mbps down and 20 up (odd that the upload was better than download). With the new adapter, I am getting about 85mbps down and 20 mbps upload. Obviously, this isn't 1Gbit, but I wasn't expecting that. I am happy with the 8x improvement in download speed. Setup was a breeze and encrypting was also easy.
Cons: Don't expect to get 1Gbit and you will be happy.
Overall Review: It is worth noting that my cell phone is able to get 200mbps down and 20 mbps upload over my new router's wifi at the location of my desktop (3 - 4 walls and about 50-70 ft away from the router). So it would of been about the same price to get the ASUS PCIExpress Wifi AC adapter but faster by another 3x. I was going to do this, but decided instead for the powerline because there was a rebate pushing it cheaper than the PCI Express adapter. I may in the future get the PCI Express adapter if the powerline adapter has another use.
Drive Failed!
Pros: High bang for your buck.
Cons: Drive was purchased October 2011 and failed in February 2012. Symptoms: - Noticed a increase in the time that the computer took to post overal several weeks - While gchat videoing someone my computer frozen. I was still able to talk to the individual but nothing on the display would change from its frozen state. After some frustration I restarted the computer. -During boot, again with a very delayed POST, I got an error that no disk drive was found. Debug Attempts: - Tried the M4 in another computer with identical issues (including slow POST). - Tried to "power cycle" per the recommendation. 20 minutes power only, 30 seconds unplugged, 20 minutes power only, 30 seconds unplugged. No success. - Tried to upgrade the firmware to 309. Could not detect a Crucial SSD - Tried to detect the drive in the Windows enviroment, failed.
Overall Review: I immediately replaced the M4 with an Intel 520 SSD. I used to have a X25-M and I elected to go with the M4 because of the price / performance. I now realize why Intel commands a premium.
Great Product
Pros: This is very fast and very quite. As fast as it is, the biggest difference for me is that my laptop is absolutely silent. I love it. Yeah it is fast too. Everything is snappier. I have 4GB of ram but it still increases the speed at which applications and documents open as well as opening "My Computer" is very fast.
Cons: Price
Overall Review: This is the SSD to get. No studdering issues like the cheaper MCL drives have.
Good
Pros: I purchased this for my dad who was complaining about his slow computer at work. I went a looked at it and found that it only had 256MB of memory. This will do wonders in speeding up his computer.
Cons: None.
Overall Review: None.