Joined on 03/22/09
Super Quiet
Pros: Very quiet operation. Fit perfectly inside plastic housing that old fan was in. Went into a Dell Dimension 4600 case, Intel DP55WB motherboard. Four pin connector allows fan to be pulse width modulated, increase/decrease speed as needed automatically. Wiring harness has protective sleeve.
Cons: None.
Overall Review: Having a PWM capable board is nice because the fan won't run on high all the time.
Needs Firmware Update
Pros: Great for the price! Burns DVD's.
Cons: Will not play most retail DVD's in win7 64-bit. Plays only home-made and nonprotected DVD's.
Overall Review: Get what you pay for. Struggled to diagnose and to find repair to enable the drive to play retail DVD's. Samsung did not help resolve issue. Samsung kept on putting issue on another person, department, or blamed website for not working. You'll have to download a firmware update from the Samsung ODD website- not Samsung main website.
One Year & Still Going
Pros: Bought this HD just over one year ago and it has turned out to be a great product. Great speed not too slow; see con below. Reliable and plenty of storage with the 1TB.
Cons: Sometimes for some odd reason music, mp3 files, seem to have an undesirable delay when clicked on to play. Sometimes the delay is about an annoying 5-6 seconds as if the HD was searching through a huge database all the way across the globe. Most of the time its instant. Plus it could be something else even though I've built another computer to put this in. So, I'll let this con slide by.
Overall Review: This HD is a secondary one in my system. I run my OS off a Caviar Blue 320GB HD purchased at same time as the 1TB. The reason I put them in this configuration is because I was afraid the 1TB might crash because of its size. Not sure what fooled me because it has proved to be reliable and is used as a backup for my other HD. There is approximately 130 TV shows recorded on this drive and 12 full length movies. Also used as a backup for my laptop. No HD video saved. Over the past year TV shows have been constantly recorded, such as news or football games, and then deleted when done.
Don't Buy
Pros: Free
Cons: Replaced my Microsoft wireless mouse with this model(7000) but the cursor is 80% erratic when navigating. Tried on multiple machines, laptop, desktop, both Windows XP and Vista but the problem persists. Microsoft sent me an identical mouse but it did not take care of the issue. After getting my money back and accepting the mouse for free I am still not satisfied after 6 months. My wrist constantly hurts from moving the mouse because it's "jumpy".
Overall Review: Is worse on mouse pads so I use a hard clean wooden surface. Time to buy a new model or change brands.
ATI software doesn't work.
Pros: Most features work with Windows Media Center in Vista. Tuner card works with Vista media center; tv and radio.
Cons: ATI software doesn't work in Vista. After I installed the ATI media center software I noticed that it doesn't work with tuner card; no tv and no radio. Called tech support and they were no help. Not all remote control functions work in Vista media center.