Eric T.
Joined on 08/09/07
- 11
fix for the heat issue

Pros: It works for the little bit I've used it.
Cons: It does get pretty warm, a bit hot.
Overall Review: Don't know about longevity or signal reception, since I didn't test it much. But, those worried about heat could modify it for air cooling. See that black band that goes around the side of the adapter? Use a small, flathead screw driver to carefully pry the two white pieces apart. Take the U shape black band off. Cut the black band near ends so that it forms a very short U...basically allowing the two long sides to have a gap. Put it back together, carefully examining the seams to see everything fits. It helps if you start the white pieces together at the USB plug end and move on down. Now hot air can flow out of the USB adapter along the long sides where the black band used to be. The modified black band should be at the end opposite the USB plug. It's important the black band is in place here because there are tabs that rest against the PCB board. When you plug it in, the PCB board pushes against the tab on the black band. Also, use the 3-inch USB cable so you minimize frequent plugging/unplugging of the USB adapter itself. If it's still unclear, the modified black band should look like the bracket symbol here: ]
too hard to remove from dock

Pros: Sounds good
Cons: The headset fits really tightly into the dock thing. It's really hard to remove the headset without accidentally hitting the call button. I have to pull it out by the ear plug part, and it feels like I'm going to break it.
Overall Review: The dock/case with battery charging is a good idea. They needed to make it tight in order to force the metal contacts to touch when the case moved around. But there's probably other ways to doing that without making the headset so hard to remove. If I had known about this issue, I would've passed on this headset.
annoying reset button, but otherwise good cheap case

Pros: Pretty easy to work with. It's cheap, but the material and quality isn't so cheap that it's not usable. It comes with the "tool-less" things for mounting drives and cards, but you still have the option of using regular screws if you want to. I like the simple design. It's not over the top with dragon designs or anything. The case height is pretty low profile. As others have mentioned, you can mount a hard drive fan (120 or 80mm) to the front of the case. The hard drives are also mounted so that you can see the SATA cables - many expensive cases have odd setup for hard drives where you're sliding the cables back into the back of the case. This is much better.
Cons: The blue plastic that holds the drives in place for "tool-less" design is really cheap. I broke one of them off. It's not a big deal, since you still have the option to use regular screws. Considering the price, it's fine.
Overall Review: Overall, sensible design, decent quality for the price. I had no problems with this case.
works likes it's suppose to

Pros: Drive is really quiet. Seems to work with HDCP bluray discs. Reads regular DVD's and CD's too. Retail box includes SATA cable and decent bluray software
Cons: none yet.
Overall Review: The drive is pretty quiet. The DVD drives in my other computers make the whirling sound, but this drive is really quiet. I'm impressed. I only tested on one HDCP bluray movie ("300"). It worked. I also have my computer connected via s-video (yeah, old school) to a tube TV, and when I set the video setting to clone, HDCP kicked in and stopped the video playback. Otherwise, regular playback on 1080 resolution monitor is good. When I pause the movie and then come back and unpause, it plays the movie right away. There's no delay while waiting for disc to spin up. I'm not sure if this is a function of the bluray drive or the program that came with it. But I like it. The program that comes with the retail box is pretty decent. Doesn't seem to be any advertising or spamware. Also, the drive also reads DVD's and CD's. This isn't listed on the newegg specification page, but it does. It doesn't burn DVD or CD's, but it'll read them.
works like it's suppose to

Pros: Works like it's suppose. No issues with the one I have.
Cons: none.
not good for gaming

Pros: Good speed, decent connection.
Cons: Not good for online gaming. Every 10-15 seconds or so, it "hiccups" - you'll just freeze for a second in the game. Annoying when you're gaming.
Overall Review: Gave it 3 eggs just for the regular connection interruptions. Should be no problem for web browsing.
