Pros: The external antenna really helps increase the received signal strength. I substituted a short antenna from another wireless card, and the signal strength dropped by several dB as measured by the monitoring utility provided with the card. Put the external antenna back, and the signal increased to the original level. The antenna cable is about a meter long, which is enough for my application.

Cons: The Ralink configuration utility did not work correctly. I removed and reinstalled the card, and chose the Windows XP configuration tool, and it worked fine. If not for this problem, I would have given the card a 5-egg rating.

Overall Review: Uses the Ralink 2561T chipset. As usual, Newegg processed the order and shipped it quickly.

Pros: I bought this to use with a 2.5" SATA SSD in place of a 3.5" IDE hard drive in an old Apple Cube, which surprisingly still has an active enthusiast community. Using a custom mounting sled, the adapter and drive work OK in the Cube.

Cons: For some reason, the 4-pin power connector on the IDE side is reversed or upside-down from the normal orientation of a 3.5" drive. On a standard drive, the 5V (red) lead is closest to the IDE connector. On this adapter, the 12V (yellow) lead is next to the IDE connector. This may not matter in most applications, but in the tight confines of the Cube, it required modification of the power cable to get it to fit.

Overall Review: Pricier than other SATA-IDE adapters, but its components are covered, not exposed like other adapters.

Comments: The first pair of these that I got had one bad module, which failed Memtest86 every time in any memory slot. I RMA'd them for repair, and got another set. One of the new ones wouldn't seat properly in the slot. Turns out the heat spreader was mis-aligned and was hitting the end end of the socket. Rather than RMA another set, and wait a week for a third pair, I took a chance on voiding the warranty, and remounted the spreader myself. Now both modules work, but I can't get them to run stable above 200 MHz FSB, even with increased voltage. I know that's the rated speed, but I hoped for a little extra. Next time, I'll buy something other than Mushkin. Newegg's service is very good. The RMA process works well, and it only took a week from the time I sent the bad ones until I had the new set. That includes shipping time across the country.

Comments: I got this motherboard so I could overclock the Athlon Mobile XP2500+ that I also bought from Newegg. The board works fine, and the BIOS makes it easy to adjust the FSB, multiplier, voltages, etc. However, I have the same complaint as another buyer regarding the heatsink mounting holes. The Alpha PAL 8045 heatsink that I've used on a couple of other motherboards would not work on this one because of the components mounted too close to the holes. I prefer the Alpha because it screws to the motherboard, rather than clipping to the CPU socket. The standoffs required to mount the Alpha would have crushed the resistors or other SMT components around the holes, so I'm stuck using the stock AMD heatsink that came with another CPU. Other than that, I'm pleased with the motherboard. The Mobile 2500 is running at 2400 MHz (200 x 12) with two 512MB sticks of Muskin PC3200 Level 1 RAM. I haven't been able to get it stable above 200 FSB, even with bumping up the voltage, but that may be the memory's fault. No complaints about Newegg's service, though. Free, fast shipping, and it's easy to track the progress of the order.