Pros: I lost the USB to ethernet that came with my Zenbook. I tried two less expensive models, one for about 3 dollars, the other for 10. The $2.00 one gave me a speed of less than a megabyte on my local network--the $10.00 worked with Linux but not FreeBSD-10.x (though it works with 11-CURRENT). This one worked out of the box on both Linux (Fedora, Debian, Arch) and FreeBSD-10.x I should have bought this one first. It seemed a bit pricey for what it was, but as another reviewer found, often the less expensive ones don't work well.
Cons: $15.00 still seems a little high for such a product, but as mentioned, everything less expensive didn't work very well. It's also a little large--not huge, but a bit bigger than the original adapter that came with my Zenbook. These are minor complaints though.
Pros: Inexpensive, seller responsive to complaints
Cons: Doesn't work consistently. On an Asus Zenbook, I had to reboot once or twice before Fedora saw it, however, once it worked, it worked well. FreeBSD, on both the Zenbook and a Yoga2 Pro, didn't see it. Arch, Fedora, and Debian all saw it.<br><br>The seller offered a refund (without asking for return of the item, which I thought very nice, so I gave them a 5 star rating), however, aside from FreeBSD, it does what I need, Didn't work with FreeBSD-10.x, though it did work with FreeBSD-11-CURRENT
Overall Review: The seller offered a refund (without asking for return of the item, which I thought very nice, so I gave them a 5 star rating), however, aside from FreeBSD, it does what I need, so I am keeping and using it. I find with the inexpensive overseas (from the US) products, it's hit and miss--sometimes, they work perfectly, sometimes they aren't very good. This one, I guess, is somewhere in the middle.
Pros: Very low price, and adequate for many situations
Cons: Shipping took longer than expected (not the seller's fault.). The product itself would sporadically slow down drastically--that is, when copying things between machines on my home network, speed would suddenly go below 1 MB, whereas when using the USB to ethernet that came with my Zenbook, speeds were consistently 10-15 MB.
Overall Review: I might recommend it to someone who isn't in a hurry and is willing to risk quality. I've found with many of these overseas, very inexpensive goods, that it's hit and miss--one can buy two of a product and one will work perfectly and the other won't. The price is low and if your needs, like mine, are minimal, it's worth the risk, but in this case, I think I may have gotten a bad one.
Pros: Much lower price than Apple's version. The second one I got worked perfectly. I wrote the review about the one that didn't work, and unfortunately, I can't edit it. I got in touch with the seller, who quickly shipped another, saying I didn't have to return the defective one
Cons: It took two tries to get a working cable. I get the impression that they get their stock cheaply and aren't surprised if it's defective, but they DO seem to care about pleasing their customers.
Overall Review: All in all, I would use the seller again. Even though both another reviewer and myself got a bad cable the first time, they quickly replace it, and for 6 dollars and a dollar's shipping, I still consider it a good deal. The second cable works as expected.
Pros: Small and unobtrusive. Works, stays connected
Cons: Not the fastest, but fine for normal use.
Overall Review: I got this after getting a laptop that didn't have a wireless card that worked with FreeBSD. This worked almost out of the box (one has to add a line about accepting the license to /boot/loader.conf) and has been problem free for me.
Pros: Great deal for the price
Cons: Somewhat heavy, but that wasn't unexpected. Wireless, doesn't work with FreeBSD, battery life lower than expected
Overall Review: For $249, this was a great deal. Upgrading RAM and the drive to an SSD still gives one a sub $500 laptop. The machine seems in great condition. The battery life is less than hoped for (according to Lenovo, a 6 cell, which this has, should have about 6 hours of battery life, but I've been running it with FreeBSD which often seems to have less battery life than a preinstalled Windows. While I haven't yet been away from an outlet, judging by system commands, the battery life seems to be about 4 hours. I've also found it a bit annoying that the Thinkpads have the function key where a control key usually is, but I can deal with it.. Aside from that, it's a typical Thinkpad, reliable if unexciting and, IMHO, a great deal for this price. The wireless is a Realtek 8188CE, and I couldn't get it to work with FreeBSD (though it did with various flavors of Linux.) However, buying a $7.00 Edimax http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315091, although one has to add a line to /boot/loader.conf about accepting the license, works quite well.
Pros: Low cost and works without problems. Some reviews had me concerned that it was going to be noisy, however, it's nice and quiet.
Cons: None really--the rebate process does seem as if they hope you won't go to the trouble.
Overall Review: I'd been worried about noise from some of the other reviews, however, the fan on the card is quiet. I just needed an adequate card to replace one that had died, and chose NVidia because it's easy to get it working with Linux and FreeBSD. The rebate process was almost comical. First one has to go to a pdf form. They list a website, but it's not a clickable link, at least in two browser on Linux, one has to actually type in the complete link. (As it's a PDF, I wasn't able to copy and past the link either. Then, you fill out a form, make sure to include the label that has the serial number and UPC code (so be careful putting it off the box. You are told that for a dollar, you can get said rebate within 5-7 days of approval, or wait 8-10 weeks. As we're talking $10.00, I chose the latter, since the involved process of applying for the rebate makes me wonder if they're going to take the dollar, then give some reason the rebate won't be honored. As for the card itself, for a low priced video card it's fine. I can watch movies (I'm not a gamer), and it handles that without any issues. I'm quite happy with it.
Pros: I ordered this to use with a tower, and transfer files between said tower and my Nook, which takes a mini SD card. Although the packaging states Windows or OS X as a requirement (and possibly Android, I didn't look very closely), it worked as any Fat32 formatted storage device should work with Linux. Popped the card into the adapter, the adapter into the USB slot on the tower, and it was fine.
Cons: To REALLY nitpick, it would be nice if I could push the card in a bit, then have it pop out. I find that I have to pull the card out--at first I thought I'd broken something. I repeat, that is REALLY nitpicking, especially for the price (and free shipping)
Pros: For about $20.00, one can have a lot of fun with this. It's durable, surviving dozens of crashes. I had it shipped to me at work, and 7 or so co-workers have said they're going to buy one.
Cons: Short battery life, as has been mentioned
Overall Review: For the price, you can't go wrong. I'm beginning to enjoy it so much that I'm seriously considering getting a better, more expensive one.
Pros: See my review below, where I complained about the lack of an activity light
Cons: Light hard to see
Overall Review: I was incorrect, it does have an activity light. However, it's a very dim reddish light that's easy to miss, hence my earlier mistaken review. I'm leaving it at 4 stars, since, unless I'm 6 inches from it, I can't see the activity light. I realize that is a somewhat petty complaint, especially as one reason I seldom notice it is the speed of transfer, even on USB 2.0
Pros: Relatively low price, decent picture
Cons: None that I've seen.
Overall Review: I'd seen some moderately negative reviews about this monitor, but my needs are fairly simple. I wanted a large monitor because I have a lot of xterminals open at once. This monitor works fine for me. Colors seem fine, it did seem a bit bright the first day or so that I used it, but I quickly became used to it. I've used it for watching videos as well, and the color seems fine to me. Note that I have relatively simple needs--I don't know if, for example, a graphic artist would find this monitor lacking, but it's fine for me.
Pros: Low price, quiet operation (save for opening, see below), works quickly and well, works with Linux.
Cons: No cable included (expected, as it's OEM) somewhat noisy opening when finished burning
Overall Review: I just needed something to work, and wanted to play with Lightscribe (in defense to perhaps not unjustified complaints about my handwriting from my lovely wife). This fits the bill. For an economical price, it installs without issue. I use CentOS, so made no use of the driver disk. Both burning and lightscribe work quite well. As others have said, it can be rather loud when opening after doing a burn, but burning, whether actual DVD or lightscribe label, is quiet. I'm very pleased with it.
Pros: It's a mouse and it works. It's responsive. It doesn't cost much.
Cons: Shipping was expensive.
Overall Review: When my old trusty mouse finally began slipping, I was looking around for a simple replacement. I tried one for about $1.00 less (at a local store--also an MS mouse) but found that it was so light in weight, that it didn't feel comfortable. Also, it's scroll wheel was a bit tighter than what I'm used to using. I have read reviews about this mouse saying its scroll wheel is too loose, but for me, it's perfect. I don't do much, if any, precision mousing, being more of a keyboard user, and just needed a functional mouse.
Pros: It's a cable, it connects, it works. Low price.
Cons: None
Overall Review: Looking around at prices for DVI cables, I thought something must be wrong for this one to be so inexpensive. However, it works perfectly. One sees similar items for $30.00 and up, especially at some of the retail stores.
Pros: Small footprint, easy to configure.
Cons: None really.
Overall Review: Firstly, kudos to NewEgg. I ordered it on a Thursday around noon and received it the next day with standard business shipping. I was a bit leery due to several negative reviews, but it works quite well for me. I didn't use the setup software (All Linux, BSD and Mac here) but am fairly familiar with the Linksys web interface. This is a typical NYC apartment, relatively small, and signal strength is fine from the other room and out on a semi terrace. The only thing I did do, (trying a suggestion from Linksys forums about tweaks) was change the default channel to channel 11. (Apparently, some phones, whether in your house or a neighbor's, can interefere with it.) I wasn't having any problem with it before doing that, but thought it was worth doing anyway. All in all, I'm quite pleased. No problems and it works as as expected.
Pros: Lightweight, small footprint, doesn't require power cable.
Cons: Hot key didn't work, mouse and keyboard were iffy with each change. Therefore, I'm returning the item.
Overall Review: Perhaps the problem was because I was using two BSD machines, but the switch didn't work properly. The hotkey switching is necessary for me. (I also tried the numlock key, as mentioned in some other reviews.) Each time I switched back and forth, the mouse would would stop working. It seems that some people have good luck with this switch and others don't. Perhaps it works better with other O/S's.
Pros: As has been said in another review (I'm not sure if it was this card though), if you're looking for a high performance card, you will look elsewhere. My use is general computer usage and viewing videos. This card fits the need, worked perfectly with CentOS-7 and the Elrepo NVidia driver. I posted an angry review--which may not have gotten up here, I don't see it yet, but it was about the way they denied the rebate due to an incorrect billing address. I have to give them credit--I called their rebate center and fixed that issue in 5 minutes. So, if the other review does get posted, (as I don't think I can edit), just ignore it. Anyway, in short, this isn't a high performance gaming card, but is perfectly fine for general computer use, including video viewing.
Cons: None for its class. Not a high performance card, but you knew that already.
Overall Review: As for the optional questions, yes, I'd recommend this card to someone looking for a card for general computing. One doesn't know when NVidia will discontinue legacy support for say, the nvidia-340 drivers, especially for Linux and the BSDs, so I'd rather have a card that uses the latest drivers. Many of the other $40 range Nvidias require use of the nvidia-340 drivers.