Pros: Low cost storageSimple: no data encryptionFast enough for me

Cons: With no built-in fan, it runs warm

Overall Review: Bought two 10 gig on sale to build a poor man's RAID1. I'm a recording engineer and I need to backup my WAV files. (You'd be surprised how often I get the "do you still have that recording you made for me 4 years ago" call) I didn't want any hardware encryption ala the My Book Duo and its associated horror stories, just backup. Zip tied two of these together, and use FastCopy to move the files.Since these have no built-in fans, the drives run a little warm. It's probably OK, but my OC nature was looking for reassurance. So with more zip ties, I added a 80mm fan on top of the two enclosures. I used a magnetic bearing fan that runs super quiet (as a recording engineer, I hate loud fans). Wanting to get the fan away from the drives, I zipped the fan on top of a "chimney". (Zip ties: the engineer's duct tape.) Probably not necessary, but remember I'm Mr. OC. The fan runs || with one enclosure's power supply. Looks janky but works great: cool, quiet, cheap. Now I'm just hoping both drives don't die at the same time.

Pros: - Looked almost new. - Came with an old and a new battery. - Old battery still holds a charge. - Windows 7. - Pretty good specs for the money. - Comes with a optical DD, which are getting rare these days.

Cons: - HDD was junk, but worked well enough to be hard to diagnose. - Out of the box runs really, really slow. - Did they really refurb this computer, or just ship it with a new battery? - Mine needed a lot of work to get running.

Overall Review: Bought this for my sister-in-law for her to surf the web and do some simple word processing. Didn't want to spend a lot of money and wanted Windows 7 because I think it's easier to use than 10. First thing when I turned it on, it would not start Windows because there was a problem with the hard drive. I allowed the disk repair program to run which took over 36 hours to complete! Once that was done, the computer would start Windows, but it ran really slow. For example, it would take 20 seconds to respond to a mouse click. I had a copy of Windows 7 so I pulled the hard drive, wiped it clean, and installed Windows 7. After going through various issues getting the OS installed. I finally got the computer running again, but it was still slow. Put a new & clean HDD, re-installed Windows 7, and now it seems to run fine. I shoulda put in the new HDD in the beginning. I gave it 2 stars because it was not total junk, but nobody should have to go through what I did to get "refurbed" computer running.

Pros: Fast enough for my purposes Low $/GB Lots of recording time

Cons: None so far

Overall Review: I'm using this to record WAV files in an 8 channel digital audio recorder, which works out to be about 8.5Mbps. Not very high, but it's all I need and this CF works fine for me. This size CF gives me about 32 hours of 8 channel recording time; that's alotta takes.

Pros: Fast processor, big screen, can accommodate 2 HDDs, still has Windows 7, enough memory, three USB 3.0 ports, big battery.

Cons: Bloatware, but it's not too bad. Heavy. Battery digs into my legs.

Overall Review: I am using this laptop as the basis for a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), and for that it's just about perfect. DAWs need lots of processing power, and this laptop has it. Audio files can be big, so being able to add a 2nd HDD to this laptop is a definite plus. Actually what I did was add a SDD as the main drive, and moved the HDD to the second bay. Now it really cooks. The big screen is great to be able to display many tracks at a time. The lack of a dedicated graphics card is not a problem since DAWs are not very graphics intensive. My refurbished laptop came in pretty good shape. The case was a little bit smudged up, but the rest of it appears like it is new and everything seems to work fine. The battery holds a charge just fine. Battery life is excellent; I am getting 6+ hours on a charge. The battery protrudes from the back such that it raises up the computer a little bit. This is actually nice because it makes it easier to use the keyboard and it helps with ventilation. However, the battery bump plus the laptop weight make it uncomfortable to use on your lap without a lap desk. Since I always use a lap desk it's not a problem for me. I wish the disc drive was LightScribe comparable, and I wish the RJ-45 LAN port was on the right side rather than the left, but now I'm getting picky. I would definitely buy this laptop again.

Pros: No coasters, none. Lightscribe labels look great and give my product a professional look. Good price for Lightscribe discs, but watch out for shipping costs.

Cons: Printing a Lightscribe is slow (about 24 minutes per label!) but that is not the fault of the discs.

Overall Review: I'm an audio engineer and use Lightscribe discs for short run (less than 100 copies or so) CD production. Lightscribe labels look wonderful but are slow to print so I use a Acronova Nimbie NB11S autoloading CD/DVD duplicator. The Nimbie has its problems, but once you get it working you can load up a stack of discs and let it run all day. The label design software I like best, out of the 3 or 4 I've tried, is Droppix Label Make.

Pros: Fast for a USB card reader (1.7 gig in about 2 minutes). The reader is small once you remove it from its outer case. Attached cable is short but great for a laptop since you don't have to hunt for a cable.

Cons: The sliding outer case is silly, but it is easy to remove. Once removed, the card reader has adequate protection and is much smaller.

Overall Review: This is the card reader I now use most often.