Pros: Unlike other posts, the drive I have seems to be no louder than any other DVD burner I've had. Burns fast and I've had no coasters yet. So far it seems to be a good drive.

Cons: PLEXUtilities utilities doesn't work out of the box for Windows 7 64 bit. A CD/DVD is only recognized if the PC is booted with a non-blank CD/DVD in the drive. Support was not able to help.

Overall Review: In Safe Mode after removing PLXUtilities the drive worked properly. After re-installing the utility the problem returned. I found an update to the bundle which fixed the problem. Although upgrading the drives firmware didn't help, I would strongly suggest it be upgraded as soon as you install the drive as there are complaints about its compatibility with Windows 7. I've had no problems now that both the firmware and PLEXUtilities have been upgraded. I would have given a rating of five eggs had it not been for the bug and lack of support.

Pros: Known to be a great product and has a very good track record.

Cons: Only supported Windows OS is XP and Win2K.

Overall Review: I was hesitant to purchase this product since the supported OS seems to have stopped at XP and Win2K. I emailed Canopus and asked them when their product would be certified for Windows 7. The reply I got back was: “It has not been certified with Windows 7 yet. So far, reports are the hardware works fine but some users have had difficulty with Picture controller.” If you’re running Vista or Win7, the question you need to ask is: “Do I really want to spend over $400.00 on a product that has not been certified since XP or Win2K? If it doesn’t work as advertised you have a very good chance of being on your own. Also keep in mind that if you’re running XP or Win2K, product life may be short as disinterest in certifying a product usually means it’s going to be discontinued or replaced with a newer/different product down the road. I would either wait for a fire sale or certification before purchasing this product.

Pros: Very fast! Using Windows 7 64 bit Professional, I pushed this CPU (with its stock fan) to the limit running Prime95 in the background. I still got impressive response time while doing other work.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I had to swap out the CPU to a different mobo. On your first build if you’re planning to remove the shipped TIM on your heatsink and replace it with MX-2 for better cooling don’t bother. I tried a few methods of applying the TIM; all had good coverage with the same cooling efficiency as the shipped TIM. Use the shipped TIM on the heatsink.

Pros: Non-electrical conductive, no curing time, doesn't lose its conductivity over time and works as good as the shipped TIM.

Cons: None

Overall Review: I had to swap out the CPU to a different mobo. On your first build if you’re planning to remove the shipped TIM on your heatsink and replace it with MX-2 for better cooling don’t bother. I tried a few methods of applying the TIM; all had good coverage with the same cooling efficiency as the shipped TIM. I’m rating this product 5 eggs as it’s non-electrical conductive while providing the same cooling efficiency as the shipped TIM.

Pros: Great CPU!!

Cons: Excluding price - none.

Overall Review: There seems to be some concern, me included, about how hot this CPU runs so I thought I’d share some information I learned after a swap. I swapped out the CPU and stock fan to another mobo. After the install, even though the CPU ran a tad cooler with the aftermarket TIM, I was concerned about the temp at both idle and during stress using Prime95 64 bit. Since everybody’s build is different I won’t bother mentioning my temps. After searching the web and Intel’s web site, I called Intel support. They told me to monitor the CPU temp and not worry about the individual core temps. The specs they gave me were: * Ambient case temp should not exceed 38C. * CPU temp should not exceed 67.9C for long periods of time. As long as the CPU is not overclocked, there are built in safeguards where the CPU will shut down before damage occurs. If that happens, try reapplying your TIM and reseating the fan. I hope this helps quell somebody’s fear.

Pros: IEEE 1394 interface (USB doesn't cut if for video), ease of use, small in size, uses native drivers, uses IEEE 1394 as the power source as long you're using the 6 pin connection.

Cons: Price.

Overall Review: There's no TBC so it only does a good job on clean video. I put AV Tool’s AVT-8710 in line with the ADVC55 (e.g. VCR--> AVT-8710--> ADVC55--> PC) and for the most part it corrected my problems converting older video. The biggest problem I had was jitter and/or audio/video out of sync. I found B&H Photo to be the cheapest as Newegg doesn’t sell it. I believe you’ll be as happy as I am with this solution but please do your own research before buying it. I use Vegas Pro 9 as my editor. An excerpt of AV Tool’s product description: AVT-8710 TBC is a Multi-system Time Base Corrector/Frame Synchronizer. It eliminates picture jitter and time base errors from videotape playback and insures a stable on-screen image through the use of dual-field full-frame reconstruction. It restores distorted or misshapen vertical and horizontal sync and color burst signals. An integral Processing Amplifier allows the adjustment of Brightness, Contrast, Color Saturation, Hue and Sharpness.