Pros: I'm quite hard on my USB hubs: lots o' pluggin', you know? Most of the hubs I've used die within a few months or else never put out enough juice (even w/ external power supply) to run my gear (camera, printer, 2x external drives, mouse, keyboard, etc.) This Belkin is able to handle all the gear pretty well.

Cons: But it doesn't last for long. I've now ground my second one into dust. For the last month it's been running very hot and randomly dropping connection on all ports (mostly the top two.) Finally, I am left with only one port on the back that still works. And this is the second Belkin F5U237 this has happened on. Belkin of course won't take it back after ~8 months of heavy use. So, I'll buy another.

Overall Review: My conclusion is that most USB hubs provide inadequate power to drive as much gear as they make it possible to connect. But this particular hub sucks less - power isn't a problem, only longevity. So, time to order a couple more.

Pros: Great form factor. WDC tech support swapped me drives three times with prepaid return shipping.

Cons: Drive initially worked just fine, but the %$#@# SmartWare pops up every time you plug it in, and there is literally no way to stop it from happening. The downloadable VirtualCD Manager lets you disable SmartWare, but only for that session. Next time you plug it in, SmartWare is back. When I called WDC to confirm, I was told that "SmartWare isn't so bad; you'll get used to it." But I never did and ended up returning the drive.

Overall Review: Nail in the coffin on this one, though, was the fact that upgrading the BIOS on the drive caused it to become non-functional. I did it myself on my iMac the first time and bricked the drive. Called WDC and they sent me a new drive (prepaid shipping.) Tried to reflash a second time with WDC's first line tech support on phone and bricked a second one. They sent a third drive and had me on phone with escalated support as I proceeded to reflash (and brick) and third drive. They finally said "it seems we have a problem." Bottom line: if you buy this drive, get ready to live with SmartWare 'cause you can't remove it. And whatever you do, don't reflash the firmware.