Features

• D-Link Green Technology
• 48Gbps Switching Capacity
• Desktop or Rack Mountable Design
• Non-blocking Architecture

D-Link has implemented several new technologies that help to keep the power usage of their switches down. The first way they save power is by turning off ports that are not in use. This means that if you don’t have a cable plugged into the port, or if the computer that is attached is turned off, then the switch turns off the port.

The second way they save power is by analyzing the length of each cable that is connected, and then adjusting the amount of power to each port. Since shorter cables require less power the switch can lower the power to those ports that have short cables and increase the power to the ports that have longer cables.

The DGS-1024D is also designed for Plug-and-Play and hassle-free installation. Auto-MDI/MDX-X crossover on all ports eliminates the need for crossover cables when connecting to another switch or hub. Auto-negotiation on each port senses the link speed of a network device (either 10, 100, or 1000Mbps) and intelligently adjusts for compatibility and optimal performance. It also features diagnostic LEDs that display status and activity, allowing you to quickly detect and correct problems on the network. Every port also supports a cable diagnostic feature that helps to detect cable-related problems.

Another way that the DGS-1024D helps to insure quality transmissions is through the support of 802.1p Quality of Service (QoS). When the switch receives a frame tagged with an 802.1p priority, it automatically places it into one of four priority queues. Priority queuing is especially beneficial when streaming voice and video on your network.

In order to make this a friendly device for enterprises and data center by making it rack mountable. They do this by including brackets so it can be mounted in a 19-inch rack. The ability to mount this in a rack means that it can replace much more expensive switches.

Accessories

The DGS-1024D is no slouch when it comes to speed either. Featuring non-blocking switching architecture, the DGS-1024D filters and forwards packets at wirespeed for maximum throughput. An 8K MAC address table provides scalability for even the largest networks, while address learning, 802.3x flow control for full-duplex mode, and back pressure flow control for half-duplex mode alleviate traffic congestion and ensure reliable data transmission. Designed using industry standards, the DGS-1024D is compatible with virtually all 10, 100, and 1000Mbps Ethernet devices. It protects your existing network investments while providing you with a straightforward migration path for faster Gigabit speeds.

Design

The DGS-1024D has a very simple design. With dimensions of 11.0in x 7.1in x 1.7in, it is quite large for a desktop switch. It also weighs 4.2 lbs, which makes it fairly heavy.

The front of the DGS-1024D is where all the magic happens. The front houses all 24 ports, and status lights.

Front

Status Lights

There isn’t anything else really exciting to talk about, but on the left side of the switch is a cooling fan, and on the back is the power cable.

Performance

Performance testing for me consists of purely subjective tests. I don’t have any fancy tools for testing actual throughput of a switch like this, but I have been using it for several months now and it is working great. I have not had a single problem since I turned it on.

I really haven’t found any negatives except that the fan is a bit on the noisy side. I solved this by keeping mine locked up in a structured media cabinet in another room. I would consider this much too noisy to be kept in an office. This leads me to the one feature I would like to see added, and that is to have the fan adjust its speed according to how much heat is generated. I would think that the amount of power it uses is related to how much power is being used. Since the DGS-1024D regulates the amount of power it uses based on port usage, I imagine that the less ports you use the less heat it would generate which means the fan speed could be lowered.

Support and Warranty

This switch comes with a 5-Year Limited, but it is only valid in the USA and Canada. This is a fairly good warranty for an electronic device and I have to give kudos to D-Link for having a good warranty. With a fan as the only moving part I would have liked it to be longer.

Conclusion

As you could probably tell I am happy with this switch and that isn’t even taking into account the price. The price of the D-Link DGS-1024D is very reasonable and it can be found on both Newegg and Amazon for only $179.99.

If you are in the market for a new switch and you need lots of ports, the D-Link DGS-1024D is a great option.

Features

• Plug and play: no need to install software.
• Compatible for Mac, Linux, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, etc
• No battery is required.
• Backlighting: Makes text entry effortless – even in low light.
• Light weight: Only with 60 g.

One of the key features of any mini keyboard is that it is easy to setup and use. The EFO Keyboard meets that requirement by only requiring a single USB plug and no software or drivers.

Because the EFO Keyboard does not need any software or drivers, it is compatible with most operating systems, it is even compatible with most gaming systems.

The backlight is nice for when the lights are out. Often when watching TV I turn off the lights and without the backlight I would have to turn the lights back on to see the buttons.

The fact that this is a wired keyboard eliminates the need for a battery, which means there is no need to wait for the battery to charge before it can be used.

Also because there isn’t a battery or wireless transmitter the keyboard is very light weight.

Design

The front is where you find the keyboard, touchpad, and activity lights. There are 5 lights at the top of the EFO keyboard but only the 3rd and 5th actually do anything. They are for input and caps lock. The other three LEDs are only applicable for the wireless versions of the keyboard.

Lights

Lights

The touchpad is quite large when compared to other devices like this, but this gives you lots of room to move around in. Below the touchpad are two buttons which are the left and right mouse buttons.

Keyboard and Cable

The keyboard is very small, but it does has a standard QWERTY layout. The buttons are also slightly raised and that makes them easy to press, but they are also very smooth. Most of the buttons have dual functions, the second function is indicated with a small number or character above the regular one. However, not everything is perfect. Normally, the F and J keys have a raised spot so that you can orient your fingers without looking at the keyboard. This keyboard does not have these, and some of the auxiliary keys are not in their normal location, so looking at your fingers while typing is a necessity. The keyboard is also lacking multimedia keys. For use with an HTPC the multimedia keys would have been very helpful.

The keyboard has a backlight function, but it needs to be turned on and off manually. To turn on and off the backlight the RF key must be pressed.

Backlight

Backlight

The bottom has the USB port, and a power switch, but the power switch does not actually work on the wired version.

USB

Because a cable is required for use, EFO included a USB cord that is 2M long. This give you a little wiggle room while using the keyboard.

Performance

So now it is time to hook it up to my computer and try it out.

Because there is no software to install, setting up the EFO keyboard is very easy, just plug it in.

Once it is plugged in, the computer will detect a new device and install any needed drivers. After that is done the only thing left to do is use it, and using the EFO keyboard is actually very easy.

As I stated above, the keys have a QWERTY layout, so it is easy to find the keys you are looking for. The buttons have a solid feel and give a solid click when pressed. I did not have any trouble getting it to work or using it.

The only big negative is having to be physically attached to my computer. Because of this I would rather just use my full size keyboard and mouse.

Warranty and Support

The EFO Keyboard comes with a 1 year warranty, and you get support through the EFO website.

Conclusion

The keyboard certainly does its job, and it does it without breaking the bank. The low price of $22 makes up for a lot of the missing features. However, if you can afford the more expensive wireless keyboard I would recommend that you get that one instead. Having to be physically attached to my computer is a real pain.

If your looking for a wireless mini keyboard and you are on a tight budget then the EFO keyboard is a great option.

Features

• Perfect Alignment
• The Powermat Sound
• Indication Lights
• Perfect Charge for Every Device
• Auto Shut Off
• Full Charge Check

Perfect alignment is achieved by a magnet in each adapter and charging pad. That attraction between the magnets assures that alignment is precise and the most efficient charging will occur. This is one of the keys to the Powermat system’s ability to charge your devices as fast or faster than the original power adapter.

Each time a device is placed on a Powermat a unique sound indicates that a solid connection has been made and the device is charging. A second, similar sound is heard when the device is removed. The level of these sounds can be changed or they can be turned off.

Each access point has a corresponding light indicator that informs you that your device is charging wirelessly. The intensity of these lights can be changed or they can be turned off.

A Perfect Charge for Every Device is possible because the Mat and the Receiver communicate via RFID. This communication allows the mat to deliver an exact amount of power for the proper length of time so that the transfer of power is safe and efficient and no energy is wasted.

The auto shut off works with the above communication so that when a device reaches full charge, power is shut off to that device to save energy, and to also prevent over charging the battery.

Once full power is achieved and the Auto Shut Off has occurred, the system will monitor the status of the battery in your device. If the battery is used, the system will again start charging until the battery has a full charge.

Design

Powermat makes two different charging pads, Home & Office, and Portable. The main difference between the two is that the portable mat folds up and comes with a carrying case so that it is easy to carry around. The one I am looking at today is the Portable Powermat.

Because of the simplicity of the Powermat, the design is also very simple. The entire device consists primarily of three charging pads that are connected via hinges, which allows the Powermat to be folded. The only real interface is in the back where there are two buttons, a power plug, and a USB port. The buttons are for turning off the charging sound, and lights, the USB port is for charging a USB device, and the power plug is for providing power to the Powermat.

Portable Mat

Buttons

Each of the charging areas allows for only one Powermat-enabled device to be charged at a time. So in all, the Portable Powermat supports charging 3 Powermat-enabled devices and one USB device at the same time.

The Powermat also come with a Powercube, a set of adapters, and a storage case for the adapters. There are 7 adapters included with the Powercube, but the storage case only has space for about 4 adapters. It would be nice if the storage case was bigger so all the tips could fit; however, the chances of needing them all is fairly slim. There are also magnets in both the storage case and the Powercube so they can be attached to each other. This makes them much easier to carry around and there is no fear of them getting lost.

Powercube

Powercube Adapters

The Portable Powermat comes with a travel case that stores the Powermat, and the AC adapter. Unfortunately, the Powercube does not fit inside the case, this means you have to find somewhere else to store it while traveling. It would be really nice if everything could be kept together, this would reduce the chance of something getting misplaced.

Case	Powermat in Case

Powermat also gave me an adapter for my Nintendo DS Lite so I could test the capabilities. The adapter wraps around the bottom of the DS and has a plug that goes into the back. The big square at the bottom is the receiver which then sends the power to the plug that goes into the back.

DS Lite Adapter Box

DS Lite Adapter Front

Performance

So the process of testing the Powermat performs we are checking to make sure that it charges the device properly. I am going to use my Nintendo DS Lite for this test since I have an adapter for it.

Installing the DS Lite adapter was very easy. It snaps onto the bottom and the plug fits nicely into the power slot.

To charge the DS Lite all I had to do is place it on the Powermat. As I place it down I could feel the force of the magnetic field pulling the DS onto the mat. As I mentioned above the magnetic force also helps get the DS lined up correctly. If the adapter and charger are not lined up correctly then the charge will not work.

Once the DS Lite was on the Powermat and aligned correctly it immediately started charging. To let me know that the charging had started the Powermat turned on a light under the pad and emitted a unique sound. I did not notice any difference in charging time while using the Powermat. The only negative is that I could not use the DS while it was charging. Not because it wouldn’t power up, but because it would be impossible to hold it in my hands.

I also tried it out using the Powercube. Using the Powercube offers a bit more flexibility because it does not require the charging device to be in direct contact with the Powermat. So big items like the DS Lite, which might not fit nicely, can be placed off to the side so they don’t get in the way. I did not notice any difference when charging with the Powercube.

Support and Warranty

The Powermat Portable comes with a limited one year warranty. I find this warranty to be less than I expected. With no moving parts I would expect at least a 5 year warranty. I even found a clause in the warranty that says it is not covered if it is taken out of the country. I don’t think I have ever seen that before with other devices. Can you imagine if your laptop warranty was voided just because you took it on a trip to another country?

Conclusion

As I said above their are two versions of the Powermat, Home & Office and Portable. Since they cost the same I recommend you get the Powermat Portable because if you ever need to take it on a trip it will be much easier. At a cost of just $99 it is reasonably priced and very easy to use. Most adapters are price between $20 and $30, and I could not find anywhere that they were less expensive, however the Powermats can be found on Amazon for about $10 off the retail price. The snap on adapters do provide more convenience because they integrate better, but they do cost a bit more. It is also very nice that it includes the PowerCube, this alone will cover most of devices and because no additional adapters are needed it saves money.

If your looking for a convenient way to charge multiple portable devices then I recommend you take a look at the Powermat.

Features

• Featherweight construction
• Durable, semi-rigid EVA molded exterior
• Removable security friendly laptop sleeve
• Full-featured organization panel

When it comes to carry-on luggage it is important that they are as light as possible because I am going to stuff as much inside as possible and I don’t want to go over weight just because the bag adds extra weight.

It is also important that the bag is sturdy because you never know when the bag will have to be gate checked, or something else that could damage a poorly built bag.

The bag is also tech friendly because it comes with a TSA approved laptop sleeve. This means your laptop can stay in the sleeve while going through the X-ray scanners. The sleeve supports up to a 16″ laptop with internal dimensions of 15.2″ x 10.8″ x 1.8″.

Additional features include an organization panel that can store cell phones, mp3 players, accessories, pens and pencils, and also magazines.

Design

The bag is made of EVA material which is very lite weight and durable. This means it can take a beating in case you need to check it in. As you can see from the pictures the version I got is all black.

The front is very unassuming with what looks like just one  zipper compartment; however in the middle of the front is a horizontal line, and this hides another pocket. This smaller pocket is too small for any thing bulkier than a newspaper or a couple of magazines. The zipper also tucks away into the horizontal line so it cannot be seen, but it also makes it difficult to access.

Front

Front Pocket

The larger front pocket has a two way zipper that zips all the way down either side to reveal a rather large pocket. The pocket is divided into two areas, the first is the laptop area and inside here is the laptop slipcase, and a small mesh pocket. The second area of the pocket is about the same size, but it has an organization panel. This panel is divided into several small pockets that can be used to store electronic devices and accessories.

Laptop Bag

Organization Panel

The main compartment also has a few areas of interest. For example on the bottom is a small zipper pouch, and on the door is a zipper pocket for storing dirty clothes. This mesh pocket keeps dirty clothes from mixing with clean. Inside the main compartment are elastic tie-down straps. These are fairly standard in all luggage and it is nice to see that Case Logic did not forget them.

Inside

There is also a zipper that allows the main compartment to expand by 2″, but I would avoid doing that because it will no longer meet the requirements of a carry-on bag.

On the left side is a small zipper pocket which is about the right size for a bottle of water.

Left	Left Pocket

On the left is a handle. This handle is nice because when not in use it lays flush with the bag, but it can pull away from the bag a little so that your fingers don’t get squished when carrying it.

On the top are two handles. The first handle is just like the handle on the left, and the second is a telescoping handle. The telescoping handle pulls out in two stages, the first stage leaves it short and is great for small children, and the second stage goes longer for adults. The handle is also coated is an very soft rubber.

At the very bottom are the wheels. These wheels are very nice because they are much larger than some other luggage that I have had and their size makes them very easy to pull. The wheels are also in-line so they do not add any extra width to the bag.

Wheel

Usability

Using the case is a breeze. As we all know packing to go on a trip is a big pain. Since I am ultra cheap I hate the idea of having to pay to check-in bags. So I do my best to fit everything into a carry-on bag.

The main compartment is as big as possible while still keeping it small enough to be considered a carry-on. I recognize that Case Logic has limits on how big the bag can be and they have done a good job maximizing the space.

I found the front pocket to be a little too difficult to get into. The zipper tucks away inside the case and the opening is really small. The pocket itself is too small for anything substantial so I found that I did not use it very much. Instead I used the larger pocket that is directly behind this one.

The larger front pocket is my favorite because it can be used for so many different things. This pocket is also where the laptop sleeve is. The one thing I would have change is to offer different size laptop bags. I personally use a 13″ laptop and so this bag is way too big. Since the slip case can only hold the laptop and not the power cord it would be nice if there was a separate place to put that. However, since I have a smaller laptop there is extra room at the bottom of the bag and I put the power cord below the laptop.

Support and Warranty

This bag comes with an extraordinary 10 year warranty. For a bag that is going to take a lot of beating I don’t think you can get any better than this. I just wish more electronics manufacturers would take a page from the Case Logic book and also offer nice warranties like this.

Conclusion

As I used this bag I really began to like it. There are a lot of great features that make it helpful for travelers that carry electronics. The only aspect of the bag that I didn’t like is the price. At the time of this review Case Logic lists this bag at $189.99. This is a bit expensive for a small bag like this and I would highly recommend that you look around and find it cheaper somewhere else. For example, Amazon is listing the same bag for as low as $140.03.

If you are in the market for a new carry-on bag and you can afford the price, I really recommend that you go out and pick up the Case Logic 22″ Upright Roller.

Features

• Up to 8x larger than a 40″ TV
• Built-in progressive-scan DVD
• Two 10W speakers with microphone input
• Easy setup – plug, load & play
• HDMI connectivity
• Works with game consoles, iPods

One of the best features of a projector is that the screen size is only limited by the size of the room it is in. With the MovieMate 60 it is possible to have a an 80″ widescreen display by placing the projector only 7.8 feet away from the wall, or 120″ display at 11.8 feet.

The MovieMate 60 has a built-in DVD player. This DVD player is progressive scan, so you can expect good output, but as far as I can tell it does not upscale.

The Projector also has two built-in 10W stereo speakers. These speakers are used for playing all the audio from this projector. However, there is also an audio out so that the audio can be sent to better speakers if you have them.

There is no setup required to play movies with the MovieMate 60. Since it contains a DVD player and speakers, it just needs to be plugged in and a movie inserted. However, if you want to display content from another device (like an Xbox or iPod) then the MovieMate 60 includes all the most popular connectors, including HDMI, and USB.

Design

One of the joys about this projector is the simple design. This projector is aimed at individuals that do not have a dedicated theater room, or don’t know how to wire up a DVD player and speaker system, so simplicity is very important.

The front of the MovieMate 60 simply has the projector lens, and the DVD player. This DVD player is of the slot load variety so there are no drawers that might break off. To the right of the DVD slot is the eject button. To the right of the projector lens is an IR port for the remote control.

Front

The top of the projector is where the manual controls, ambient light sensor, and lamp door are located. Starting at the very front is the lens cover which needs to be open or else the projector will not turn on. Just below that is the focus adjustment. Below that is the light sensor which is under a small clear window. The power button is directly below the light sensor and to the right of that is the source button. Pressing the source button starts the projector searching for an active video signal. The next two buttons are Play/Pause and Stop. These two buttons work directly with the built-in DVD player. Next to that are the volume up and down buttons. The right most buttons are all the menu and navigation buttons. Finally to the right of the buttons is the lamp door. The lamp door is very simple to remove because it only has one screw. Inside you can see the lamp, which has another two screws. Once those are removed the lamp lifts up easily for replacement.

Top

The right side has a handle and a intake vent with air filter. The cover and filter are easy to remove and replace.

Intake

Filter

The left side has the exhaust fan.

Output fan

The back is where you will find all the connectors and the speakers. The MovieMate 60 has just about any connector you could want. These connectors include Component, Composite, HDMI, VGA, and USB. At the bottom, on either side, are the speakers. There is also an IR port of the back for when you are sitting behind the projector.

Back

The remote is fully featured and well labeled. You will know by reading past reviews that having a poorly labeled remote is a pet peeve of mine. The only feature that I would have wanted to add to the remote is zoom, but it is fairly easy to get to in the menus so it is not a big deal.

Performance

So how does it perform? I have been using it for about two weeks now and I think I have tested most of the features. Since this is made for people that don’t have dedicated theater rooms, I tested it in my living room at a distance of 10′ from the wall, at that distance the picture was about 9′ diagonal. I also did not use a screen, instead I displayed it on a normal light colored wall.

Projector

Projected Image

Like I said above, setting up the MovieMate 60 is a snap. Because there is only one cord (power) I was able to get a movie going in a matter of minutes. The hardest decision I had to make was finding a suitable place to put the projector so that it would shine directly against the wall. I ended up using a chair from my dining room and then using the feet to adjust the angle. The projector has the ability to adjust the keystone so you don’t have to worry about it being the correct height, however there is no way to compensate if the projected is off to one side, so it is very important that the projector be directly in front of the wall or screen it is shining on.

The projector is very bright, especially in my small living room. I was able to watch several movies and play some games from my Xbox without any trouble. I did notice that during the day, or when I had lights on, the picture would be washed out and it was difficult to see the dark scenes.

With the speakers in the back it is really important that you sit behind the projector if you want to get the best sound. However, in my living room that is difficult because the room is not very large and I wanted the screen to fill up the entire wall, so I had the projector far away from the wall. With this setup the projector was only about 4 feet from the back wall and that makes it very difficult to sit behind.

Even though I could not sit behind the projector the sound from the speakers was still loud in my living room; however, it was not always clear. Because of the small size of the speakers I was not surprised, but I was still a little disappointed. How is anyone suppose to be happy with this if they cannot hear their movies and TV shows clearly. The maximum volume is 40 and I would regularly have it around 35. I think the ability to change the direction of the speakers would be a helpful feature, but so far that is only available on the MovieMate 72.

The projector does have a zoom feature, but by default it is already zoomed out as far as it can go. So for all intents and purposes it only zooms in and this is of little use to me. I was hoping to be able to place the projector closer to the wall so I could sit behind it, and then zoom the picture larger so it would fill up the wall.

Another issue I had to take into consideration is the max resolution of the projector. The max resolution of the MovieMate 60 is only 540p (960 x 540), which does not stretch to 9′ very gracefully.  This again emphasizes the fact that you want to sit behind the projector, because the closer you are to the screen, the more pixels you are going to see. For example, with my setup above (9′ diagonal screen size) each pixel was about 1/16 of an inch wide and easily visible. This gives us the projector an effective PPI (pixels per inch) of 16. For comparison sake, my 24″ computer monitor which has a resolution of 1920 x 1200 has a PPI of 94.

Pixels

As a side thought, I wonder if this projector would work with 3D shutter glasses. I could not find any information about refresh rates, so I don’t know if it meets the 120Hz minimum.

Support and Warranty

The Epson MovieMate 60 includes two years of toll-free, priority technical support, plus a two-year limited warranty and a 90-day limited lamp warranty.

Features

• Up to 30 ppm
• Up to 600 x 600 dpi (1200 dpi effective output with HP FastRes 1200)
• 16 MB of Memory
• 2 Paper Tray (250-sheet input tray, 50-sheet multipurpose tray)
• Supported Media Types: Paper (bond, light, heavy, plain, recycled, rough), envelopes, labels, cardstock, transparencies, heavy media
• Supported Media Sizes: Tray 1: A4, A5, A6, B5, envelopes (C5, B5, DL), 76 x 127 to 216 x 356 mm; Tray 2: A4, A5, A6, 105 x 148 to 216 x 356 mm
• Hi-Speed USB 2.0, Ethernet

Like I said above, this printer is fast. At 30 ppm it is not the fastest printer in the world, but compared to an Inkjet (set to laser quality), and also my old HP 5L, the P2035n is really fast. For example, my old HP 5L has a max speed of 4 ppm and my Epson Artisan 810 has a max speed of 9.5 ppm in laser quality.

Print resolution has also increased quite a bit. The 1200 dpi resolution that the P2035n uses is double the 600 dpi that my old HP 5L is capable of.

While 16MB of built in memory may not sound like a lot, we have to remember that this is primarily a document printer. If you think you need more memory than you may want to consider the HP LaserJet P2055dn.

There are two paper trays in the P2035n. The first is at the very bottom and holds up to 250 sheets of standard paper. The second is in the middle of the front and when it is open it holds up to 50 sheets of paper.

The printer also supports all the standard paper sizes and types that are referenced above.

There are two ways to connect this printer to a computer. The first is USB 2.0, which is useful if you only have one computer, or you don’t have a network. The second way is Ethernet, and this is ideal if you have a network and more than one computer that will use the printer. I don’t buy printers unless they have Ethernet because I have several computers and I need to have access to the printer from all of them.

Design

Before we begin I should mention that this printer is considered small when it comes to Laser printers, however it is twice the size as my old HP 5L. With dimensions of 14″ x 26″ x 10″ and a weight of 23 lb it is also too big to fit on a desk, but not too big to put in the corner of a small office.

The front of the printer is where both paper trays are located. Tray 1 is at the very bottom and pulls out so you can load paper. This tray can hold up to 250 pages and is ideal for standard 8.5″ x 11″. The left side of tray 1 has a small indicator that tells if the tray is empty or full. Tray 2 is above tray 1 and it open from the middle of the front. It opens by pulling the handle and can hold up to 50 pages. I use this tray mostly for custom paper sizes and envelopes so I don’t have to unload tray 1. Last by not least is the power button and it is found to the right of tray 1.

Front

Tray 2

Tray 1

The left and right sides are the same, which is plain. Except for an air vent on the right side, there is nothing else to mention.

The back of the printer has a bypass output tray for heavy paper, or for paper that may bend when run through the top. It can also be used for clearing out paper jams. On the right are the USB and Ethernet ports for connecting to a computer. On the left is a power plug and a Security Slot.

Back	Connectors

The top of the printer has the obvious output tray in the middle and on the right are a series of status lights and two buttons. The two buttons are paper release and cancel. The six lights indicate paper jams, low ink, low paper, etc. Closer to the front another button that is used to open the printer for toner replacement.

Top	Status Lights

Performance

So lets check out the performance of the P2035n. There is not much to testing a Laser printer like this, so I will cover the setup, speed, and quality of printing.

Setting up the printer is a piece of cake because the software offers simple step by step instructions.

Install 1

Install 3

Install 7

Starting up the printer is quick. It took about 30 seconds from the time I turned it on until it was ready to print. However, because most users will just leave the printer on all the time (it only uses 7 watts of power when idle), the start up is very quick. Turning off the printer will save the extra power, but it will also require a longer warm up time. In addition, during warm up the printer jumps its power usage up to 600 watts for a couple seconds.

Once the printer is on and warmed up getting the first page out of the printer is really quick, usually about 5 seconds from the time the print button is clicked.

During printing the energy usage goes way up. The highest I saw was just over 800 Watts, but then settled down to about 550 Watts.

Printing is also fairly noisy, but because it is fast, the printer will not be on for very long. When the printer goes into standby it is absolutely silent.

As far as quality goes, this printer is at the top of its class. Here are some pictures comparing the P2035n against my old 5L, and Epson’s Workforce 610 in Laser quality.

P2035n text

5L text

610 text (laser)

So the only thing left to consider is the Total Cost of Ownership (TOC) and that includes how much it is going to cost to keep it running. Besides the power that it uses, the only other cost will be toner. The P2035n ships with a sample toner cartridge which is good for about 1000 pages, and new toner cartridges retail for about $89. These cartridges are rated at about 2,300 pages (3.8 cents per page). However, since I never pay retail for anything I did some looking around.

There are a lot of aftermarket compatible, and refurbished (refilled) toner cartridges, but I don’t recommend using those, it’s possible that you could void your warranty and damage the printer if they break open and spill toner. So when I look for toner I always look for new HP brand, and I found some for quite a bit less than retail. For example, on Newegg.com I found the toner for only $70 (3.0 cents per page) and on buy.com it was on $44 (1.9 cents per page). However, I am a little suspicious about the buy.com deal because it is sold by a 3rd party vendor and while it does not mention refurbished, I would ask before I purchased.

Support and Warranty

The printer does not come with a very extensive warranty. In fact it is only has a one-year, return to authorized service center, limited hardware warranty. This means if anything goes wrong within the first year it can be sent to a service center for repairs. After that, you are on your own.

I had my old HP 5L for 10 years, and I only replaced it because it didn’t have Ethernet. I hope the build quality of this new HP printer is a s good as the old ones. If I am wrong and this turns out to be a bad printer I will update this review so that others do not make a mistake.

Conclusion

I am really happy with this printer. It was not very expensive, it runs really well, and it easily connects to my network. When I bought this printer I got it from Newegg for only $224, which I think is a great price (I paid $400 for my old 5L). As I mentioned above the ink can be found for a reasonable price and that makes this printer an even better deal.

If you need things like upgradable memory and auto duplexing, you may want to consider the HP LaserJet P2055dn. I really considered buying this one, but it is quite a bit more expensive ($379.99 on Newegg) and I didn’t think the extra cost justified the features.

If you are looking for a Laser printer for a small home office I recommend the HP LaserJet P2035n. I really think you will be happy with both the quality and speed of all the printing.

Even though Lancool focuses on value they did not skimp on design or features. So as I pull this case out of the box there are 2 things that I notice.  One that it is very heavy and two it looks very slick, smooth corners, sleek design!

Basic stats:

Length: 20″ Width: 8 3/8″ Height: 19 1/2″
Approx. 25 lbs.
4 hard drive bays
5 5.25 bays
2 USB ports on top
1 head phone jack on top
1 mic jack on top
1 140mm fan in the front
1 120mm fan in the back
Room for 2 more 140mm fans on top (not included)
2 plastic cable organizers
Vent with screen below the power supply
Holes on the back for water cooling
Supports video cards as long as 290mm.

This case has lots of bells and whistles for a hard core gamer, however if you plan on transporting this case all over town, be warned the case weigh’s roughly 25 lbs with nothing in it.

One of the most critical features for a gamer is airflow. With the Lancool PC-K58 this is no longer a concern. The case includes 2 fans, a 120mm exhaust fan in the rear, and 140mm intake fan in the front. The front fan also spins at 1000rpm for near silent operation. As an added feature there are built-in dust filters to keep your system clean.

Another important feature is keeping the case silent. From the standpoint of the case this means reducing the vibration from fans and hard drives. To help with this Lancool has put rubber insulators on the hard drive cages, fans, and power supply clamp.

This case is 100% tool less, so if you like not having to run around the house looking for a screwdriver to install your hard drive or PCI card or CD-ROM drives, then this case is perfect for you.

As I open the side of the case I notice the new design of the tool less PCI card locks.  Its a simple lever that you pull up to release and push down to tighten.  I think they did a great job in designing this lock.  Its very simple and works great.  My only concern is that it weights too much and adds too much to the weight to the case.

PCI Slots

PCI installed

Installing the motherboard is very simple, they give you short and long thumb screws so you don’t even have to use a screwdriver.  Makes for a very quick install.

The power supply sits on 2 rubber strips and has a clamp with a rubber strip for vibration, so no need for any screws to install the power supply.

Power Supply

Like I said before this case is 100% tool less and that means in order to install a CD-ROM drive you actually need to take out the 4 little screws in the side.  If its a brand new CD-ROM drive then don’t bother putting the screws in, but if its used and you’re moving it from one computer to another then you will need a small screwdriver to remove the screws.  There is this little long piece of plastic on the side of the CD-ROM tray, just lift up the plastic arm and slide the CD-ROM drive in and snap the arm back down. Move the drive forward or backward till it snaps in place.

CD-ROM Drive

This case came included with instructions however removing the hard drive tray was still very difficult to figure out even with the instructions.  There is a sliding lever with an awkward handle at the bottom to move it up and down.  Its tough to move up and down but that is how you secure your hard drives in place.  Slide it up and remove the hard drive tray.  After you remove the tray then you pull the plastic sides out and put the hard drive in and snap the plastic pieces back in place to secure the hard drive to the tray.  Again you need to remove the screws in the side of the hard drive in order to use this tray.  It also has rubber wheels on the tray for anti vibration.

Hard drive cage

Hard drive cage

Hard drive installed

I love all the tool less feature about this case, it seems like they put a lot of thought into building this case, it only it was lighter it would be the perfect case.

In short it is a great, but heavy case. The price is also great, I was able to find it at Newegg for only $69. So, if you are in the market for an inexpensive, tool less, yet sturdy case, and you don’t mind it having a little extra weight, then I highly recommend the Lancool PC-K58.

I would like to give special thanks to Hampton Technologies for sending us this case. Without their support this review would not have been possible.

Features

• Enjoy music, photos and videos with easy to use buttons & screens
• Control your digital entertainment in the palm of your hand with a simple, intuitive remote.
• Built-in Wi-Fi connects seamlessly to your existing wireless home network, so you can access content on your home PCs and through the Internet.
• 2GB (1.5GB usable) internal memory, Memory card support

Like any self-respecting digital photo frame the DreamScreen is able to display photos, and play music. However, the DreamScreen goes one step further and also add video playback and many other capabilities to the mix.

The DreamScreen 100 includes a small remote that can be helpful for navigating the many apps and options. However, if you can’t find the remote or it is not in a convenient location then you can always use the touch navigation buttons.

With built-in wired and wireless network connectivity it is possible to access Internet content and stream/transfer content from a networked computer to the DreamScreen. You can even pull down Internet radio and Facebook streams.

The built-in 2GB (1.5GB usable) of memory is a good amount to start with, but it will quickly fill up, especially if you save video. When this happens you will have to make use of memory cards for expanded storage. Luckily, the DreamScreen supports 8 different formats, including: Compact Flash I/II + Micro Drive + Secure Digital/Secure Digital High Capacity + Memory Stick & Memory Stick Pro + xD Picture Card.

Design

The DreamScreen 100 has a minimalist design with a slick black finish. This design helps to keep the device very clean looking and makes it so it can fit with just about any decor.

The front of the DreamScreen 100 is dominated by the 10.2″ (15:9 aspect ratio, 800 x 480 pixels) screen. However, hidden in the bottom right corner are 8 touch button.  The reason I say hidden is because they cannot be seen unless you touch the area, which activates them. This is a nice way to keep the buttons from distracting from the overall aesthetic feel of the DreamScreen, but it does cause some problems with usability which I will talk about later.

Contents

Buttons hidden

Buttons shown

If you tip the DreamScreen down and view it from the top you will see one single feature that should be pointed out, the Remote control holder. This is a really important feature because it not only keeps the remote safe from getting lost (as long as you remember to put it back), but it also keeps the remote out of the hands of curious little ones (kids) that may otherwise do bad things to it.

Top

The left side of the DreamScreen 100 is where you will find two memory card slots. As I mentioned above, the two slots support 8 different formats, including: Compact Flash I/II + Micro Drive + Secure Digital/Secure Digital High Capacity + Memory Stick & Memory Stick Pro + xD Picture Card. Finally there is a speaker for playing the various types of audio that are supported.

Left

The right side has a power button, headphone jack, 2 USB ports (mini, and regular), an Ethernet plug, and a second speaker at the bottom (like the one on the left side). I found the inclusion of the headphone jack to be interesting. Unless you have some wireless headphones, I think this is probably a fairly useless feature. First because the DreamScreen is too big to be used as a personal media player, and second because if this were hanging on a wall, it would be nearly impossible to get something plugged in without taking it down.

Right

The bottom is simple enough because it only has the DC power plug.

Bottom

The remote that comes with the DreamScreen 100 is meant to be the primary interface and navigation. There are buttons on the remote for some of the most used functions, like volume (up, down, and mute), navigation (up, down, left, and right), display on and off, back, and option.

Remote

Remote Screen

The DreamScreen also includes a disk with some software on it. This software is used to for transferring media onto the DreamScreen directly from a PC. When the disk is first inserted a menu screen appears which gives has many options. The top option is the one we are interested in. Once clicked, the software checks to see if there are any updates. In my case an update was found, but when I tried to download it I got an error and the install failed. So the next time I chose not to check for updates, but the install would not continue. So I was forced to go to HP’s website and download the latest software.

Installer Main

Installer Update

Update Error

Once the software is installed there are a couple options, with the main option being the transfer of media. The other option, which will save you some time, is typing your username and password for Facebook, Pandora, and Snapfish. This means you don’t have to use the onscreen keyboard, which is a big pain.

Drag and Drop Media

Account Management

Performance and Usability

The DreamScreen has so many options to try out that it is going to be difficult to cover everything, so if I miss something that you are interested in I apologize in advance.

When the DreamScreen 100 is first turned on it displays some info screens and asks for your timezone. After that it displays the main menu screen. On the main menu screen there are 11 area that you can go to (10 apps, and 1 setup area). These 11 areas are Photos, Videos, Music, HP Smart Radio, Weather, Clock, Calendar, Pandora, Snapfish, Facebook, and a Setup screen.

The first thing I did was go directly to the setup screen and connect to my wireless network. The setup was straightforward and easy, except when I had to enter my wireless password. I like long passwords for better security and the DreamScreen does not have any easy way to enter them. When prompted for text entry the DreamScreen displays an onscreen keyboard, unfortunately since the screen is not touch-sensitive the keys must be pressed using the navigation buttons on the remote or the buttons under the screen. So after pressing left, right, up, down, and enter about 20 times I finally finished. Unfortunately for me, I had mistyped (the password is shown in plain text so I should have noticed) and when I went back the password area was empty. It would have been nice if the old password had remained so I could just correct the error and move on. Once the password was entered correctly wireless started up without any other problems.

Network Type

Wireless Networks

Keyboard

After getting the wireless setup (and the trouble with typing the password) I thought that it sure would be nice if the DreamScreen had a touchscreen. This single capability would solve so many other limitations that we will talk about further on.

Once the wireless was fully connected the DreamScreen detected that there was an update to the software. I gave it permission to download and install it. I like to do this so I don’t find glitches that are fixed in updates.

Update

Downloading Update

Updating Software

After all that, I finally started trying out the different apps. The first app is Photos. The main screen for photos shows a thumbnail list of all the photos that are in memory. Across the top are different options for seeing the photos, they include: Dates, Folders, All Photos, PC. If you happen to have a memory card plugged in then it will also show up in this same list. The pictures when they are viewed full screen look great and they can be viewed individually or in a slideshow. The photo formats that the frame supports are JPEG, PNG, and BMP. It would be nice to see a few more formats supported like TIFF and GIF.

Photo tumbnails

Photo

Photo options

Because the DreamScreen has the ability to view photos that are stored on a computer I really wanted to try out that feature. In order to do this the computer must be running Windows Media Player 11 or later and have media sharing/streaming turned on. Setting this up is not difficult.  On the DreamScreen, under photo options, you will see a list of all the computers that are setup correctly. Simply select the one that you want to use and click ok. Once that is done the PC tab will be enabled and when selected will display all the photos on the PC, if you have a large number of photos it may take a while to display. After they are loaded, you have all the same options as local photos. I didn’t have any trouble setting this up or playing photos from my computer.

Photo Options

Streamed Folders

Streamed Photos

Next I tried out videos. The screen is laid out exactly like the photos and has the same options, except it is missing the PC option. This is because streaming Video from the PC is not supported. Instead you must store the video in the internal memory, a memory card, or a USB stick before it can be played. Just like pictures the video looks really good and he sound is loud and clear. There are no multimedia controls for controlling the video, like rewind, pause, and fast-forward, so this is not meant for long movies. In fact, anything over 5 minutes is probably too long. The supported video formats include MPEG 1, 2, 4, H.264.

Video thumbnails

Video

Now we move on to music playing. The first screen under music shows all the music that is in memory sorted by name, artist, and album. Across the top are options to show the music by Albums, Artists, Genres, Songs, and also to show music from a PC. While playing a song the frame can also display a slideshow. This is nice if you want a little music to go with your photos. The music sounded great and could get fairly loud if it needed to. Like photos, music can also be played directly from a PC, but once again a PC must be setup to share. I did have problems with streaming music from my PC. For whatever reason when I clicked the PC tab the software would lock up. I never got to see the list of music from my PC. I tried this several times and it was always the same. The music formats that are supported are MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV.

HP Smart Radio is the next app that I tried out. Since this is Internet radio, an Internet connection must exist before the radio will work. The second step is finding radio stations, and there are thousands to chose from. The built-in search can find stations by location, or by genre. No matter which search I tried there were hundreds of results and no easy way to know which were the best. One feature that would have been nice is some kind of preview of each station as it is highlighted in the search results. Like music the sound was great for such a small device.

HP SmartRadio

HP SmartRadio Search

HP SmartRadio Search Results

Next I tried out the Weather feature. If you don’t have access to a window then this can be a very useful feature. However, I have windows both at home and work, so looking at the weather on the DreamScreen is not very useful for me.

Weather startup

Weather

I tried out the Clock next. It is probably the feature I used the most because it works great as an alarm clock. The clock can be run by its self, in dual clock mode (with two different timezones), with the calendar, or with a slideshow of photos. There are also 3 different alarms that can be setup and they can be set to run once, every day, every weekday, or every weekend day. My only complaint is that it is too bright at night, and if dimmed, then it is too dim during the day. However, as I will talk about below, the brightness feature is a bit flawed. It would be nice if there was an auto dim feature that could be set by the time of day. I did notice that the clock numbers changed from red to blue during the day. If it would dim and brighten at the same time this would really be great.

Clock

Clock Options

Dual Clock

The Calendar is next. While having a calendar is nice, without the ability to enter appointments and special events, the calendar is fairly useless (unless you have short term memory loss and you cannot remember what day it is).

Calendar

Pandora is an online radio service and it requires an online account. I didn’t feel like setting up an account so I didn’t test this feature.

Snapfish, like Pandora, is an online service which requires an account. Once again I am lazy and didn’t want to setup an account for a service that I will probably never use (except for this review), so I didn’t.

The last feature I tried is the Facebook app. Setup is easy (I already have an account), but once again it requires that you enter a username and password and typing on the keyboard is a horrible experience. With the Facebook app you are able to view status updates, and photos. However, all this is read only, you cannot update your own status, upload pictures, or anything else.

I saved the setup screen for last because it really isn’t an app, and changes made here affect all the other apps. I am not going to cover everything because much of it is self explanatory. One option I want to talk about is brightness. I ended up using the brightness features quite a bit because I had to turn it down every night, and turn it up every morning. However, I noticed that when I turned the brightness all the way down at night, the backlight is still bright and the display looked washed out. I can only think that the backlight is not dimming with the screen. This is something that really needs to be fixed because it makes the screen look horrible.

Setup

The screen saver is another setting to take a look at. It can be set as a slide show, clock, screen off, demo video, or disabled. I like to keep it as clock so that at night it does not switch away to something else and if I wake up  in the middle of the night I can see the time.

Another complaint I have is with the touch buttons. I was forced to use the touch buttons because the remote didn’t have a battery, and I didn’t have any available (it takes the big flat watch battery). Having to use the touch buttons helped me see all the quirks. The fact that they are touch buttons, means that they don’t provide any feedback to indicate that they were pressed. In addition, every time an app is started the buttons turn themselves off. This means they need to be turned back on before they can be used. The buttons also turn themselves off after a few seconds of inactivity. Turning off after inactivity is much nicer than turning off when an app is started.

The power usage for the DreamScreen is really low. During all the tests it stayed right around 11 watts. For all that the DreamScreen does this is really good.

Power Usage

So after all my testing here is what I think HP can do to make this an amazing product (and this all has to be done without raising the cost, much).

1. First and foremost is to add touch capabilities to the screen and get rid of the navigation buttons. That has to be my biggest complaint and it continues to bug me every time I use it.
2. Second change the main screen from a scrolling list to a series of modules that will show real-time information. This would be much like the main screen of the HP Touchsmart computer. I could have photos in one module, the weather in another, and Facebook in yet another. Then with a quick glance I could seen everything and I could touch/click one of them to expand it to full screen to see more details.
   
   

   TouchSmart Menu

3. Allow the DreamScreen to navigate network shared folders. All my images and music are stored on a Windows Home Server so being able to scan a network folder would be a better option than setting up media sharing.
4. More control over the backlight.
5. Keep the navigation buttons active when loading an app.
6. Add an Internet browser.

I realize that HP can not add touch capabilities with a software update, but it could be added to their next hardware version. Everything else could be done with a software update, and I think it would make the DreamScreen 100 a much more user friendly device.

Support and Warranty

The warranty that comes with the DreamScreen 100 is a 1 year Hardware and 90 days of software support. With practically no moving parts, this should have a minimum of a 5 year warranty against defects.

Support comes through the usual methods, web, phone, and email.

Conclusion

So overall the DreamScreen is a step in the right direction. The feature set is good, but not quite good enough for the rather high retail price of $249. If you look around it is possible to find the DreamScreen 100 for slightly less. In fact, I found it at Amazon for only $179. While this is not a huge discount it does help take the sting out of the retail price.

If HP wants to make this product much better then implementing my suggestions will go a long way to keeping this product relevant for a long time.

Features

• 18.5″ high-def widescreen with tilt and swivel
• Internal antennas for 802.11b/g
• Integrated 6-in-1 digital media card reader
• Built-in webcam and mic
• Integrated premium stereo speakers
• ENERGY STAR® qualified, EPEAT Silver registered, and HP power-management technology

The Pavilion MS214 features an 18.5″ widescreen display. This display is big enough to see clearly, but also small enough that it could easily fit in small spaces (like on a kitchen counter). Best of all the screen features a matte finish, which means it is not glossy.

Inside the Pavilion MS214 is an internal 802.11b/g card and antenna. Wireless G technology is getting a bit old and wireless N is starting to take over, so I am surprised to see that it is not included.

With different media cards laying around all over, it is nice to have a variety of options in a computer. The MS214 has a 6-in-1 media card reader that supports Secure Digital (SD), MultiMediaCard (MMC), Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC), MultiMediaCard Plus (MMC Plus), Extreme Digital media (xD), Memory Stick (MS) and Memory Stick Pro (MS-Pro). The one format that was left out is Compact Flash (CF). I know that CF is on its way out the door, but my camera uses that CF so I need it, and until I upgrade my camera I will continue to need it.

A built-in webcam and mic are becoming a standard feature on All-In-One desktops like this and the Pavilion MS214 does not forget to include these.

No All-In-One computer would be complete without audio. The MS214 includes a pair of small speakers, under the screen, just for that purpose.

If you’re concerned about the environment (and who isn’t) then you will like the fact that the Pavilion MS214 is ENERGY STAR qualified and EPEAT Silver registered. In addition, the included HP power management software will help to keep power bills as low as possible.

Design

I would argue that the most important aspect of an All-In-One PC is the design. Consumers don’t purchase All-In-One PCs because of their power, price, or portability (for power and price get a desktop, for portability get a laptop). So the only thing left is design, and space saving is probably the most important aspect of that design. With everything built into the back of the LCD panel the space saving is self evident.

The design of the Pavilion MS214 is very simple.The front has only a few points of interest and that helps to keep things looking very clean and classy. At the very top of the screen is where the webcam and microphone are, and at the bottom are the speakers. The only other thing on the front is the power button and that is in the bottom right corner.

Front

Webcam

The left side has a small panel of inputs which include a media card reader, 2 USB ports, a microphone, and headphone jack.

Left

On the right is the DVD drive, eject button, screen brightness up and down buttons, and a hard drive activity light. This is a really odd place to put the activity light because it is impossible to see from the front. In addition, it is impossible to tell what the buttons do unless you are looking right at them. I would recommend to HP that they add labels to the front of the MS214, so that you know what you are pressing when you reach around to push the button.

Right

The back has a bit more going on, including more plugs which are a DC plug, Ethernet plug, 4 more USB ports, and an audio out jack.

Rear Connectors

Also on the back are two removable panels. These panels cover the Memory and Hard Drive. These also happen to be the only two user serviceable parts in the Pavilion MS214. Both are very easy to get to. They only one I had trouble with was the hard drive, and that is because I forgot to undo the screw that holds the drive cage in place.

Memory cover	Memory
Hard Drive cover	Hard Drive

Performance

The HP Pavilion MS214 runs on some decent hardware, it is certainly not top of the line, but it should be enough to get through most tasks. The hardware includes:

• AMD Athlon X2 3250e Dual-Core Processor (1.5 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache, 2000 MHz System Bus)
• 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM memory (2×1024MB ultimate performance)
• ATI RadeonTM HD 3200 Graphics with 256MB graphics memory
• 320GB (7200RPM) Serial ATA hard drive

As you can see the the hardware is not exactly smoking. So with the understanding that this is a low end machine, and not a high end gaming rig, I proceeded to run some performance tests.

Before I run any tests I always like to look at the Windows rating. This gives a break down of how the different parts of the machine compare to Microsoft’s recommendations. As you can see the lowest score is on graphics (2.9). This means using all of Windows 7’s built in graphical goodness might put a bit strain of the system. For the most part I keep those things turned off anyways because I don’t care for them and I like to free up CPU cycles for more important things. I was surprised to see the Gaming Graphics score of 4.1. This leads me to believe that you may be able to do some casual gaming. Also I would think that games would be more stressful on a system than Windows Aero, so why did it get a better score?

Windows rating

On to my first real benchmark. I tested with both 3DMark and PCMark. The results of these tests were very poor, but considering the hardware I am not overly disappointed. I was hoping that the high Gaming Graphics score we saw above would have turned into a good score here, but alas it did not. Since I trust these scores more than the built-in Windows rating, I once again thinking that gaming on the MS214 is not a good idea.

3DMark

PCMark 64

To test the video playing capabilities I downloaded a few videos, in different resolutions and watched them. I was paying particular attention to see if the video was choppy or smooth, and also how good the audio was on the speakers.

I played several different video resolutions, including 1080p and 720p. The monitor does not have the resolution to play a 1080p movie, but if I choose the “fit to screen” option the movie is made smaller. For the most part 1080p played fairly well except for fast action moments where the video would become jittery. With 720p I did not have any problems at all, even when expanded to fit the screen both the audio and video played just fine. However the CPU stayed fairly busy during the video playing. It did not affect the quality of the movie playback, but it does not leave a lot of room for running other programs.

720p movie

The second part of the video test is the audio. Since there are no external volume controls on the outside of the MS214 I was a little disappointed and I immediately thought that this is not going to be good. Speakers that rely solely on the Windows volume adjustments are usually underpowered and not very good sounding. However, I was surprised by what I heard. When cranked up the little speakers filled my office to the point that it was almost uncomfortable to have it full blast. All during the video playing there was very little distortion and the speech was fairly clear and understandable. In the end I found that 80 out of 100 was the optimal volume setting for me when watching videos.

The power usage and heat during these tests stayed very low. This can be attributed to the low end hardware and the HP Power Management Technology.

Idle Power	Load Power
Idle temps	Load temps

For the most part HP also kept this system bloatware free. However the one piece of software that they did load, Norton Internet Security, is a bit of a nag. A popup would appear each time I started the computer, telling me to enable the software. A quick uninstall took care of that once and for all.

Desktop

Support and Warranty

I don’t think that HP has ever been considered generous with their warranties, and the warranty that comes with the Pavilion MS214 is no exception. The base warranty is only 1 year for both hardware and software. With this warranty comes 24/7 technical assistance, available online or toll-free by phone, however all repairs must be done by sending the machine back to HP. If you want to add a couple more years to the base warranty, then be prepared to pay for it. HP offers a 2, 3, and 4 year extended warranties that run $159.99, $249.99, and $309.99 respectively. However, it is possible to get a 30% discount if the extended warranty if bought at the same time as the MS214. I would probably recommend at least the 2 year extended warranty because it include at home service.

If the computer needs a piece of hardware repaired there is a good chance that the MS214 will have to be shipped back to HP. Since the only to user serviceable parts are the Hard Drive and Memory, those are the only parts HP will will ship to the customer, anything else will have to be done by HP. I have never thought that shipping a computer back to the manufacturer was a good option. I would rather have a replacement machine sent first so the customer is not stuck without a computer for weeks. For this reason you should really consider an extended warranty with at home service.

Conclusion

Overall the Pavilion MS214 is a very low end computer, but if you don’t need or want to play games or watch 1080p movies, then this should be good enough.The price is also matched to the hardware. At just under $600 this seems to be a decent price. I actually found it on Amazon for $598 with free shipping and no taxes. If your in the market for a budget All-In-One then the Pavilion MS214 will certainly make a great impression.

As an after thought, if HP would add a TV tuner this would be a perfect TV replacement for a kitchen counter. I have a small TV and computer in my kitchen right now and I would love to replace it with an All-In-One like this. I did review the HP Touchsmart a few months ago, but I didn’t like it very much because it was big and had a glossy screen. The Pavilion MS214 is the perfect size and the screen is not glossy. Please HP, add an internal TV tuner, IR port, and remote, I might actually buy one if you do.

External HD tuners come in many forms including cable and satellite boxes, or ATSC and QAM tuners. The KWorld External ATSC/QAM TVBox is (as the name indicates) an ATSC/QAM tuner. This means it works with unencrypted HD signals from an HD antenna or from your cable provider.

Features

• HDMI/DVI/YPbPr Supports 1080i Video Output
• 1 click PC/TV changeover switch
• Parental Control Function
• Supports ATSC (over-the-air digital TV), and Unencrypted QAM Cable TV
• Supports MP3 / JPG playback from USB storage
• Power Smart Function

With HDMI, DVI, and YPbPr connectors the KWorld External ATSC/QAM TVBox HDMI Edition (SA295-Q DE) has the ability to connect to just about any TV or computer monitor.  This means you don’t have to buy a new TV in order to get HD content on your old TV.

If you connect the External ATSC/QAM TVBox to your computer monitors DVI port then you can easily switch back and forth between TV and your computer with the click of a button.

If you are using the SA295-Q DE at home, then you can use the built-in parental controls to keep your children from seeing inappropriate material.

The External ATSC/QAM TVBox HDMI Edition supports both ATSC (over-the-air digital TV) and unencrypted QAM cable TV.

With playback support for JPG images and MP3 audio files the External ATSC/QAM TVBox can turn your TV into a digital photo frame or a jukebox. These files are played via the USB port on the front.

The SA295-Q DE is also environmentally friendly. The built-in power smart function can be used to automatically power-off the TVBox when its been idle for more than 30 minutes/1 hour/2 hours/4 hours.

One major feature the KWorld External ATSC/QAM TVBox is missing is the ability to record the TV shows that are being watched. Because this connects directly to your TV or Monitor (an not to a VCR or Computer) it is impossible to record anything. If you want to connect something to your computer for recording and sharing you may want to consider a TV tuner card like the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 TV Tuner Card.

Design

The design of the SA295-Q DE is fairly simple, but it has lots of options for connecting to a TV or monitor. The External ATSC/QAM TVBox has a rectangular look with features on every side.

Top

The front is probably the least busy with only a small light on the left, an IR receiver in the middle, and a USB port on the right. The light on the front indicates the current state of the External ATSC/QAM TVBox. For example, when it is starting up the light is pink, when it is in DVI/HDMI or VGA mode the light is blue, and when it is YPbPr or AV mode then the light is red. The USB port can be used for displaying photos or playing MP3s on your TV.

Front

On the left side are a set of component and audio outputs.

Left

On the right are some controls for volume, channel, language, and power.

Right

The back is loaded up with inputs and outputs. Starting with the left there are two DVI ports, one for input and one for output. This is great if you want to connect it to a computer monitor and it only has one DVI port. The SA295-Q DE acts like a DVI switch and lets you choose which signal to send to the monitor. Next to the DVI ports are two audio ports. Just like the DVI ports there are two, and they switch with the DVI ports. The next two are the coax and power plugs.

Back

The SA295-Q DE comes with a lot of extras including a remote, stereo audio cable, DVI-I cable, ATSC Antenna, DVI-D to HDMI cable, DVI-I/F to VGA/M adapter, HDMI/F to DVI-D/M adapter, and a VGA/F to DVI-I/M adapter. Just a warning, the antenna is very weak and very poorly designed, I would go so far as to say it is completely unusable and should probably just be thrown away. Why do I say this? First, it is a very simple telescoping antenna and not very big, also the base is super small and it tips over very easily, so getting it to stay in only place is almost impossible.

Adapters and antenna

DVI-D to HDMI cable

DVI-I cable

The remote that comes with the SA295-Q DE is necessary for many of the functions to work, unfortunately the remote has a few design quirks. The most obvious is that all of the buttons are labeled with icons and they are not very intuitive. For example, at the top next to the power button are two buttons. The first on is a box with a line through it, and the second one is a gridded box. Without looking them up I could not figure out what they do. It so happens that the first one switches the DVI port between computer and HD signal, and the second is for changing the resolution.

Remote

Performance

Well I have to be honest, when I was asked if I wanted to do this review I was a bit skeptical about the product. The reason I was skeptical is that the last time I reviewed a KWorld product it didn’t perform very good.

So with that disclosure out-of-the-way lets get started. Hooking up the SA295-Q DE is not very difficult. I chose to use the component connections to my monitor because my monitor supports PIP (picture in picture) and that allows me to watch the TV and work on my computer at the same time. At first I did not get a signal, and then I read the instructions and found that I had to select the correct output. Once I selected the Component output I saw the setup screen.

The setup screen asks some simple questions like language, timezone, and TV source. Once selected the External ATSC/QAM TVBox scans for channels.

I first tried using the antenna that is included with the SA295-Q DE but it only found one channel and it was so weak I could not get a picture. So I next tried hooking up my cable. Luckily for me, my cable company provides a few unencrypted HD channels along with the analog channels. The SA295-Q DE was able to pick up 38 channels in all. About 20 of those channels were music only, and the rest were a mixture of HD and SD TV channels. I did notice that none of the analog channels showed up.

Once the channel scans were complete watching the channels was easy. The video and audio was pretty good. Some of the channels appeared choppy, but I was unable to tell if it was the signal from my cable company, or the External ATSC/QAM TVBox. Some channels were worse than others and with others it only started after you were watching for a few minutes.

MP3 and photo playback is also easy. I quickly loaded up some MP3s and photos on a USB stick and inserted it into the USB slot on the front of the External ATSC/QAM TVBox. I was hoping that it would automatically switch to USB mode, but it didn’t and I had to use the remote to change the mode. From this screen you simply click on the file or you want to play. If you have things organized in folders it is easy to click on each folder and get to the songs or pictures you want. You can even start a slideshow of all the pictures that are in a particular directory. One thing I was hoping for is the ability to have a slide show with music. However that is not possible, or at least I could not figure out how to do it.

There are other features and settings that may be useful in your home. A couple of include parental controls, close captioning, and the EPG (Electronic Program Guide). The parental controls allow you to setup a limit on TV ratings and then password protect the settings so kids cannot change them. The EPG is supposed to provide the channel listings for today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, but in my setup it did not work. I could not get any listings, and I could not find a way to assign listings to the SA295-Q DE.

Support and Warranty

The KWorld External ATSC/QAM TVBox HDMI Edition (SA295-Q DE) comes with only a 1 year warranty. For a device like this where they are almost no moving parts I would expect at least a 5 year warranty.

Support can be had through their website in the form of a FAQ/online support database, or by contacting their support via email. However, before you can contact their support you must first signup as a member of the KWorld User’s Club. The process is not painful, but it does require you to fill in your personal and product information.

Conclusion

Overall it performed fairly well. I don’t have any major complaints, just a few small ones, and nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a software update. If you are in the market for an HD tuner and you are willing to put up with a few quirks, then the KWorld External ATSC/QAM TVBox HDMI Edition (SA295-Q DE) may be for you. To help make up for the quirks it has a fairly decent price. The KWorld External ATSC/QAM TVBox HDMI Edition can be found on Amazon for only $89 and Newegg for only $79. Just make sure you have access to HD ATSC/QAM channels before you go out and buy this.

If all your TVs already have HD tuners and you are just looking to add HD to your computer, you are better off with an HD tuner like the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 TV Tuner Card.

Features

• 9” x 5.5” and 7.25” x 5.5” switchable working area for wide/4:3 screens
• Creative rolling pad for scrolling in four directions, zooming in/out, volume up/down and brush width
• 4000 LPI high accuracy and sensitivity for a highly reactive cursor
• 1024-level pressure sensitivity for all shapes and thickness control
• Vista plug and play; handwriting recognition compatible
• Pen flicks, digital inking in Office and snapping functions for convenient operation

The G-Pen M609X is a dual-mode multimedia tablet. The two modes switch the drawing area of the tablet. If you have a widescreen monitor use the 16:9 working area, otherwise you use the 4:3 working area for non widescreen monitors.

The tablet features two rolling pads for scrolling, zooming, adjusting the volume, and even adjusting the brush width.

One of the most important features of a graphics tablet like the M609X is accuracy. This is accomplished with a highly accurate and sensitive pad. The M609X features a 4000 LPI (Lines Per Inch) pad, and as far as I can tell that is right up with the best (5,080 LPI seems to be the highest).

Pressure sensitivity is also very important for drawing. This allows the artist to change the thickness of the stroke just by pressing harder. This adds a level of realism, because if you were drawing with a pencil or brush and you pressed harder you would get a thicker stroke. The M609X has 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity, compared with 2048 from higher end tablets.

This tablet is compatible with Windows Vista and 7 out of the box. This means that drivers are not needed. However, you will need to load some software if you want to take advantage of the hot keys and some of the buttons.

The tablet also supports the use of pen flicks. These are small gestures that can be used in some programs to activate certain commands. For example, if you flick the pen down, the screen will scroll down. If you flick to the right the screen will move forward one page.

Design

The tablet has a fairly simple design. Across the top are a few buttons and two rolling pads. As I mentioned above, the rolling pads can perform several different functions. The function of the pads is selected by pressing one of the buttons. Starting on the left the buttons are scroll, zoom, volume, and brush width. As each button is pressed the rolling pads take on the associated function.

Tablet

Below the buttons is the actual drawing tablet. It is fairly plain and there are only two things I want to point out. First and most obvious are the 26 shortcut keys that are around the edge of the tablet. Using the key management software that comes with the tablet, it is possible to assign different actions to each key. The only problem is that it may be difficult to remember what each key does because there is no obvious way to label them. If you remember back a couple months to my review of the G-Pen-F509 you will recall that it came with several templates that could slide under the cover and be used to label each hot key. Unfortunately, the M609X does not come with any templates, and it would be impossible to create your own because the underside of the cover, under the hot keys, is painted black. The only thing you could do is tape something on top of each shortcut key.

The next thing to notice about the tablet are the vertical lines that are on each side. These indicate the drawing area for 4:3 and 16:9 screens. There is a button at the top, the last on the right, that switches between the two modes. Make sure the mode you select matches your screen so you can get the best results.

G-Pen M609X is bundled with PhotoImpact 12SE (Windows only). PhotoImpact is a great program for creating your own pictures, editing photos, or just about anything else having to do with drawing.

Software

The pen that comes with the M609X has its own abilities. The pen uses a AAA battery to power its self, and the battery fits nicely inside the body. The pen has buttons on the side that can be customized by using the same key management software that customizes the shortcuts keys on the tablet. The tip is even replaceable for when it inevitably wears out, and Genius even includes two extra tips.

Pen

Pen open

Performance

You really have to be an artist to fully test and appreciate a drawing tablet like this one and as I mentioned above I am not an artist. So instead of showing you all the great pictures I have drawn I am going to talk ease of use and some of the things I found difficult.

One of the hardest things for me to get used to is the 1:1 mapping of the tablet to the screen. This means if you want the mouse to go to the top of the screen you move the pen to the top of the tablet. I am used to using a touchpad where you have to swipe your finger multiple times to move the mouse across the screen.

It is also difficult to get used to not looking at the tablet while drawing. The screen is where all the drawing takes place and I had to learn to look at the screen while drawing on the tablet. This also means that when you lift the pen off the tablet it may be difficult to find your place again. For this reason Genius made it so you don’t actually have to touch the tablet to get the mouse to move. By hovering the pen over the tablet the mouse will move to where you want it, without drawing anything on the screen.

Despite those two issues, I was able to get used to everything, and I became fairly proficient with the tablet. No matter what I tried the G-Pen M609X always responded quickly and accurately.

The part I liked the most is the textured feel of the cover. It actually feels like drawing on paper. This helps to provide not only a great feel, but also a little friction that keeps the pen from slipping away while drawing.

Support and Warranty

The warranty on the G-Pen M609X is a rather small 1 year. This isn’t nearly enough considering how much use the drawing area is likely to receive. I would prefer a 2-3 year warranty. However, that would probably cause an increase in the price, and currently the price is low enough that if the tablet breaks after a year or two it would be too difficult to buy another one.

Support comes in the form of phone and email. I could not find a forum or other online way of getting help. It would be smart for Genius to setup a forum where users could help each other and the answers to questions could easily be found.

Conclusion

Overall the G-Pen M609X is a good tablet. There are better, but not for this low of a price. The M609X has an MSRP of $149 which in my opinion is a decent price for a tablet with these features. The G-Pen M609X strikes a good balance between quality and price. If Genius could include some way of labeling the shortcut keys, it would go a long way to improving their usability.

At the time of this review the G-Pen M609X is difficult to find and I was unable to find a website that sells it. However, I did find a few websites that sell the G-Pen M609 (previous version) and it runs about $99. If the M609X ends up near the same price then it will be a really good deal.

If you are looking for a mid-range tablet for drawing, then the G-Pen M609X is a good option.

Features

• Laser quality up to 2x faster
• Maximum 38 ppm black/color
• Laser quality 15 ppm/9.3 ppm
• Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking
• Extra High-capacity black and High-capacity color cartridges
• Uses up to 70% less power
• PC Fax – directly from PC

One of the features I am anticipating the most is the laser quality printing. All the other Inkjet printers have had a really hard time producing laser quality text.

The printer is also fast. With a maximum print speed of 38 pages per minute this printer can spit out a lot of pages. This is obviously not laser quality, but it is still fast.

This printer can connect to either a wireless and wired network, which is great if you have more than one computer and you want to share the printer.

The black cartridge is actually twice the size of the colors. Since this is a office printer there is a good chance that printing text will be the most often performed task. Having a lot of black ink will keep the printer from running out quickly and keep your office productive.

Fax is another great feature for an office. Most offices need a fax and since this printer has one you don’t need to buy a separate one.

Design

The WorkForce 610 has a lot of features so it really should be a lot bigger than it really is. The printer has dimensions of 18.1″ W x 22.1″ D x 12″ H, which is really quite small.

The front of the WorkForce 610 has all the controls, buttons, and inputs you need when printing or faxing. On the left side is all the memory card slots and PictBridge. These are used for printing without using a computer. This printer supports CompactFlash, Microdrive, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, MagicGate Memory Stick, MagicGate Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Pro Duo, Secure Digital (SD), SDHC, mini SD, mini SDHC, micro SD, micro SDHC, MultiMediaCard, xD-Picture Card, xD-Picture Card Type-M, and xD-Picture Card Type-H.

Flash slots

To the right of the card slots is the control panel. The control panel is split into 3 sections. On the left are the power and function select buttons. In the middle is the screen and the buttons that control it. Finally, on the right is the keypad, fax buttons, and the start and stop buttons. When I first saw the control panel I thought it was funny how similar it is to the Artisan 700.

Console left side

Console right side

The control panel lifts up, much like the Artisan 810, however, getting it to go back down is a bit of a challenge. To lower the control panel the WorkForce 610 has a hidden handle that is behind the control panel. To use the handle you have to reach behind the control panel, pull down on the handle, and also push in the control panel. Contrast this with the Artisan 810 where all you have to do is press a button that is on top of the control panel, and a spring inside lowers it into place.

Console down

Console up

IMG_5275.JPG

Below the control pad is the paper output tray. This tray is a bit different from other printer trays, and in this case it is not an improvement. The paper tray on the WorkForce 610 is quite heavy duty (probably so you can print lots of pages), but this also makes it hard to move in and out. I actually prefer the thinner paper output tray that the Artisan 810 has.

Paper output tray

On top of the WorkForce 610 is the scanner and automatic paper feeder for the scanner. I really like how the paper feeder can be hidden when not in use. There isn’t very much to say about the scanner, except that it has 48-bit color / 24-bit output, a maximum document size of 8.5″ x 11″, and a maximum resolution of 9600 x 9600 dpi interpolated.

Scanner

Finally, on top, in the back, is the paper input tray. There is nothing special about this input try and it is nothing like the Artisan 810. The Artisan 810 has a paper cartridge that goes under the printer and hides the paper so it is not out in the open. this really helps the printer look cleaner and more professional. I am surprised that the WorkForce 610 does not also have a paper cartridge, especially since paper cartridges have usually been a feature in office printers.

Paper input tray

Under the scanner is another lid that when lifted reveals the inside of the printer. The first thing I noticed is that the printer cartridges sit directly on top of the print head. I liked the way the Artisan printers had the cartridges off to the side and I think all Epson’s printers should do it that way.

Inside

Print cartridge

Print cartridge

In the back are the connectors. The connectors include Phone in and out, Ethernet, and USB at the bottom.

Connectors

Performance

Now we get to check out how the printer performs. One of my favorite and one of my first tests is with photos. Even though this printer is an office printer, and not a photo printer, I still like to see how it does with photos. This gives a good idea on how well it will do with other graphics, like graphs, presentation slides, and documents with images. When I first printed the picture I thought it didn’t look too bad. Then I compared it with the Artisan 800, and I could clearly see the difference.

Original

610 photo

810 photo

Where this printer is suppose to shine is with printing laser quality documents. So my next test will be comparing the quality of the text that is printed with the WorkForce 610 against my trusty HP Laserjet 5L. To help with configuring the Workforce 610 to print laser quality text the software provides an few presets. The setting in question is Letter Document – High Quality and it configures the printer to photo, with text smoothing, and the results? Better than any other ink jet. As you can see from the images below the text from the WorkForce 610 looks very similar to the text from the HP 5L, but not quite as good. I also included an image of what the non high-quality text looks like, as you can see it is quite a bit worse.

HP 5L text

610 Laser text

610 Fast text

The speed of the printer is also something to consider. Printing high quality text certainly takes a bit longer than printing normal text. To find out how much longer I setup the printer to print 21 pages of text and I timed it. I started the timer after the first page finished so I am really only testing 20 pages, skipping the first page gives the printer time to warm up and receive the entire job. So with normal text it took 63 seconds to print 20 pages (~19 p/m), and when it was set to high quality it took 779 seconds (~1.5 p/m). On my Laserjet that same print job took 295 seconds (4 p/m). So the WorkForce 610 is quite a bit faster than my Laser jet with normal quality text, but much slower when printing laser quality text.

Scanning is the next test. I don’t do anything fancy other than scan a few color charts. As you can see from the image, the colors scanned fairly well and I could not find any major flaws in the images.

Color chart

This printer is also capable of printing lined and gridded paper. As with the Artisan 810 the lined and gridded paper is great.

Faxing is also very easy to do and the results are just as I expected them to be.

Warranty and Support

The Workforce 610 includes a two-year limited warranty with toll-free support, but this requires you to register your printer. If for some reason you don’t want to register your printer you will get a one-year limited warranty with toll-free support.

Epson also offers their Preferred Plus Protection Plans. These plans extend service for the printer beginning when the standard warranty ends. You can purchase either a one or two year extension and they can be bought no matter where you bought the printer from. The one year plan is only $19.95 and the two year is $29.95. I don’t really like the idea of having to pay for service on a product that you have bought, but it is nice to have the option. I highly recommend getting one of these, because you never know what kind of problems your printer may have and they are really inexpensive.

Conclusion

The Workforce 610 worked perfectly in all its tasks. However, after reviewing the Artisan 810 I felt like I was taking a step down with the Workforce 610. It may be that I am spoiled or it may be that Epson left features out to keep keep costs down. The WorkForce 610 is less expensive than the Artisan 810, but only by about $70. As of this writing Amazon is selling the Workforce 610 for $129 and the Artisan 810 for $199. So what do you get for the extra $70? How about CD/DVD printing, a duplexer, much better photos (7 color cartridges), a hidden paper cartridge, and a really nice touch screen control panel. I personally think all that would be worth at least $70.

So here’s the bottom line, if you want a printer that can do great photos and print on CDs then get the Artisan 810. However, if you are more concerned about saving a few bucks and getting really great text then get the WorkForce 610. Either way, you are going to enjoy whichever choise you make.

Features

• Plug & play
• Support Window (2000, XP & Vista) and Linux (Debian-3.1, Redhat-9.0, Ubuntu-8.10, Fedora-7.0), Mac OS (with USB port). It can also be used on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii games consoles, etc.
• Applicable for the lecturer, meeting presenter, classroom teacher, sales manager or anyone using a projected image.
• RF interface provides a range of 33 feet in any direction.

One of the key features of any mini keyboard is that it is easy to setup and use. The EFO Keyboard meets that requirement by only requiring a single USB dongle and no software or drivers.

Because the EFO Keyboard does not need any software or drivers, it is compatible with most Operating Systems. It is even compatible with most gaming systems.

There are a whole bunch of different uses for a wireless keyboard. Everything from remote controlling an HTPC, laptop during a presentation (for a lecturer or teacher), or even writing emails from afar.

Instead of the normal IR interface for most remotes, the EFO keyboard uses an RF interface. This RF interface allows  the attached computer to be controlled without a line of site and from any location, as long as you are within 33 feet.

Design

The front is where you find the keyboard, touchpad, and activity lights. There are actually 5 lights at the top of the EFO keyboard and they consist of charging, external power, RF status, battery power, and caps lock/input switch.

Front

The touchpad is quite large when compared to other devices like this, but this gives you lots of room to move around in. Below the touchpad are two buttons which are the left and right mouse buttons.

The keyboard is very small, but it does has a standard QWERTY layout. The buttons are also slightly raised, but they are also very smooth. Most of the buttons have dual functions, the second function is indicated with a small number or character above the regular one. However, not everything is perfect. Normally, the F and J keys have a raised spot so that you can orient your fingers without looking at the keyboard. This keyboard does not have these, and some of the keys are not in their normal location, so looking at your fingers while typing is a necessity. The keyboard is also missing multimedia keys. For use with an HTPC the multimedia keys would have been very helpful.

The keyboard also has a backlight function, but it needs to be turned on manually. To turn on the backlight the RF key must be pressed twice. The only way to turn off the backlight is to let the keyboard go to sleep or use the power switch to turn off the keyboard.

Backlit keys

Backlit keys

The bottom has the USB port for charging, and a power switch. I often found myself forgetting to turn off the keyboard. Fortunately, the EFO keyboard also has a sleep mode. This means that if you are like me and you forget to turn of the keyboard, you don’t need to worry about wasted batteries. The sleep mode automatically activates after 30 seconds of inactivity.

Bottom

Performance

So now it is time to hook it up to my HTPC and try it out.

Because there is no software to install, setting up the EFO keyboard is very easy, just plug it in and turn it on.

Once it is plugged in and turned on, the computer will detect a new device and install any needed drivers. After that is done the only thing left to do is use it, and using the EFO keyboard is actually very easy.

As I stated above the keys have a QWERTY layout, so it is easy to find the keys you are looking for. The buttons have a solid feel and give a solid click when pressed. I did not have any trouble getting it to work or using it.

Warranty and Support

The EFO Keyboard comes with a 1 year warranty, and you get support through the EFO website.

Conclusion

The keyboard certainly does its job, and it does it without breaking the bank. The low price of $40 makes up for a lot of the missing features. For example, the more feature rich Logitech diNovo Mini sells for about $120, thats 3x as much as the EFO keyboard.

If your looking for a wireless mini keyboard and you are on a tight budget then the EFO keyboard is a great option.

Features

• Get the best reading experience available on your PC. No Kindle required
• Access your Kindle books even if you don’t have your Kindle with you
• Automatically synchronizes your last page read and annotations between devices with Whispersync
• Create bookmarks and view the annotations you created on your Kindle

Reading books on a computer is often difficult because of different limitations. These limitations can range from text size being too small, not being able to save your place, or keep your books organized. The Kindle for PC software tried to help with those things by giving users more options.

Ever since I reviewed the Kindle and then sent it back to Amazon I wondered how I would get access to the books I had purchased and downloaded. Until now that was not possible. Now I am excited to say that those purchases are not lost.

As you read on a Kindle or on a PC the devices will stay in sync so that when you open a book it always opens to your last read page.

Bookmarks can be very useful when reading. With Kindle for PC adding these are really easy.

Design

Because the Kindle for PC software is nothing more than a souped up document reader it initially looks a lot like other document readers. The very sparse design is good because it does not get in the way of its primary function (which is reading books).

The very first screen you will see is the Home page. This page shows you all the books you are currently reading. Below each book is a small line that indicates how far you have read in the book.

Home

When you select a book you are immediately taken into the book. If you have not read anything yet, then you are taken to the first page. If you have already started reading you are taken to the last page you read.

Book

From this same screen you have several options that may help reading. By clicking the last button in the toolbar you can choose the size of the text and also how many words are shown on a line. I can see how choosing the text size would be nice, but I am not sure why you would need a separate selector for words per line. Normally this is accomplished by stretching out the window. In addition, shrinking the window causes the text to compress and ignores the words per line setting.

Font Size

Book large font

Book wide

This screen is also where you can set and view bookmarks. By clicking on the bookmark button the software folds the top right corner of the page and lists the bookmark in the bookmark and notes list. It is possible to set multiple bookmarks, and as far as I could tell there is no limit.

Bookmark

Bookmark and Notes

I could not figure out how to create notes. According to the Future Improvements screen this is a feature that is coming later. So for now you can only create notes on an actual Kindle.

Conclusion

If you have a Kindle I really think this software is a must have. It extends the usefulness of the device by allowing you to continue to read your books when you don’t have your Kindle. On the other hand, if you don’t have a Kindle this software is fairly useless. The best thing about the software is that it is free for everyone. So even if you don’t have a Kindle, but you want to by some books you can take advantage of this. Then when you get a Kindle the books will automatically sync for you.

Features

• Up to 6TB of Disk Capacity & Higher
• Multiple RAID Level
• USB and eSATA computer interface
• SMART and Noise-Free Fan module
• Compact design
• Windows /Linux / Mac OS ( OS independent and transparent )

The Axus FiT 300 has 3 drivebays, and by using 2TB disks (the largest available at the time of writing) the Axus FiT 300 can have a maximum of 6TB of storage.

The capacity of the Axus FiT 300 is also dependent on what RAID level you choose. If you are unfamiliar with RAID you may want to check out this page. The FiT 300 supports RAID Level 0, 1, 3, 5 , PM, Large, and Clone.

The Axus FiT 300 may not have quite as many interfaces as other enclosures, but it does have the most important. With 2 different interfaces (USB and eSATA), the Axus FiT 300 picked the best, USB because it is universal, and eSATA because it is the fastest.

The fan that the Axus FiT 300 uses is actually a small removable module. I don’t know why they would make it removable, but in case you don’t want a fan it could probably be removed.

The Axus FiT 300 uses a very compact design that is so small it does not even have room for a power supply. So the Axus FiT 300 uses an external power supply.

Because the Axus FiT 300 uses hardware RAID it is OS independent. As long as your computer has the proper connectors you can use this enclosure.

Design

The design of the Axus FiT 300 is centered around being as compact as possible. If you compare it to other enclosures with the same number of bays you will see that it is considerably smaller. They accomplish this by using both an external power supply and cooling fan. A lot of wasted space is created by trying to stick these two items into a small box and still allow room for circulation.

The front of the Axus FiT 300 is very simple, it has 3 drive bays and a few lights. Each tray that goes into the drive bays is very simple. Putting a hard drive into the tray is very easy and only takes a few seconds.

Front

Drive Tray

The back of the Axus FiT 300 has quite a bit more than the front. There is a big open spot for the fan module on the left, and the two connectors on the right. Below that are a power and RAID switch. Finally on the left is the power plug.

Back

Fan

The switch on the back of the Axus FiT 300 is all you need to set the configuration of the drives; however, the enclosure also comes with some software. The software is Windows only, but if you happen to be using Windows it provides a nice interface into all the FiT 300’s settings.

Configuration

System Information

The Axus FiT 300 comes with several accessories, which include a USB and eSATA cable, external SATA connector in case your computer doesn’t have an eSATA port, and more than enough screws so you can attach your hard drives to the drive trays. Even though none of these items would be hard (or expensive) to get, it is nice when a company thinks of the little things and includes them with their products.

Accessories

Performance

Now that we have talked about the design of the FiT 300 we need to talk about how it performs.

However, before we can test the performance we have to install the drives and setup a RAID. Since the FiT 300 supports several different RAID levels I wanted to test a few to see how they performed.

Setting up a RAID can be done with the software or by using the selection switch on the back of the FiT 300. The software takes presidance, so no matter what you have on the switch it can be changed by using the software.

The software is very easy to use. When the software is first started, the number of installed drives are shown. There is also a list of all the available drive configurations, which includes all the RAID levels. The configurations that do not apply are grayed out. As you can see in my images RAID 10 is grayed out.

So for my first test I choose RAID 0. Setting up the RAID was really easy, all I had to do was select RAID 0 on the left side and then click Apply. After a few minutes the changes were complete and it was ready to be used.

Raid 0

Raid 0 Setup

Raid 0

To test the FiT 300 I ran a program called Disk Thruput Tester. This program creates and transfers large files. According to this program the Axus FiT 300 achieved a write speed of 142 MB/S and a read Speed of 147 MB/S. In my opinion this is really good.

RAID 0 Speed

The next test is with RAID 3. With RAID 3 the Axus FiT 300 achieved a write speed of 139 MB/S and a read Speed of 146 MB/S. Again, these speeds are really good.

RAID 3 Speed

My final test is with RAID 5. With RAID 5 the Axus FiT 300 achieved a write speed of 140 MB/S and a read Speed of 145 MB/S. Which finishes up my testes with great speeds. When compared to my last enclosure this one is much faster.

RAID 5 Speed

Warranty

The Axus FiT 300 comes with a 2 year warranty on the main enclosure. The power supply and power adapter come with a 1 year warranty. The other accessories and mechanical parts do not have a warranty. In my opinion, this is not a very good warranty, with no moving parts the Axus FiT 300 should come with a lifetime warranty. You can find out more about their warranty processes on their website (http://www.axus.com.tw/warranty.htm)

Support is provided by the reseller and not by Axus. Depending on where in the world you live they may have more than one to choose from. However, in North America they only have one (PC Pitstop). I don’t have any experience with that company so I cannot comment on their service.

Conclusion

Despite the rather wimpy warranty the Axus FiT 300 worked without any problems at all. In fact, I had a hard time finding ways that it could be improved. Right now the FiT 300 is not available for sale, but Axus says the MSRP will be $249. This is actually a really good price considering all the features you get. If you are looking for an external enclosure with a pluthera of features then I can really recommend the Axus FiT 300.

I’m not going to cover all the features found in My Movies, just the changes that were made for My Movies 3. If you want more detail you can read my review of My Movies 2.

One of the first changes you are going to notice is that the installer has changed quite a bit. No longer do you have many different installers to choose from, instead all the server, client, and stand alone versions have been combined into one installer. The installer is also quite a bit smaller because things like SQL server are no longer bundled. Instead they are downloaded during the install only if they are needed.

Installer

After the software is installed you are required to start up the collection management software. This step will setup My Movies to connect with your server and also get you to log into your My Movies account. Both these steps are required before you can begin using the software.

The Collection Management software has mostly stayed the same, except for one small but important part, all configuration settings have been moved out of the Media Center interface and into Collection Management. At first I was frustrated because I thought this meant all configurations would be global and shared with all clients. However, this is not true. Each client stores its own settings, so each computer can have its own Default list, Custom buttons, View, and much more.

Collection Management

Options

Since I already have all my DVDs in the database I can skip right to using the Media Center interface. The first time you start Media center you will immediately notice that My Movies no longer asks where you want the buttons installed. Instead, My Movies will always integrate into both the Extras/Program library, as well as create it’s own strip in the start menu. At this point, depending on if you are using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, the start menu strip will have a different look, with different icons. Windows Vista’s SDK does not allow the use of the wide icons used by Media Center’s own menu icons, but Windows 7 does. This gives Windows 7 a more integrated feel because all the buttons are the same.

Windows 7 Strip

Vista Strip

The Start menu strip has 5 options on it, including movie library, trailer library, search, play disk, and copy disk. The trailer library is completely independent from your movie library and you have no control (that I could find) over its contents. The maximum bitrate of the trailers is the only option you have control over. I did find that the trailers that were played from here were very choppy and not at all pleasant to watch, perhaps lowering the bitrate would help on my network. I would prefer an option to turn this off. I really don’t view movie trailers all that much, and when I do, I always go online so I can download the HD version and view them more smoothly.

Trailers

Trailer Details

Probably the biggest change in all the software is with the movie library. My Movies 2 used a combination of the movie cover and title, sorted left to right, and it would scroll up and down. With My Movies 3 you cannot have titles and covers. This new interface is modeled after the Windows Media Center movies list, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. When I showed this to my wife she asked if I could switch it back to the old view. Unfortunately, this is not possible. The only views are Covers full screen, Covers and details, Covers Centered, and List and details.

Covers

Covers and Details

List and details

When viewing covers you can also choose how many rows are displayed. I recommend you keep the number down, because the screen gets really busy if you get too many covers on the same screen. As a case in point, see how long it takes to find the movie U.S. Marshals in the below image (click to enlarge, login to get full size). If it took more than 5 seconds it is too long. I personally set my covers at 4 rows, which seems to be a good balance for me.

Small Covers

The other new features all focus on integrations. For example, My Movies 2 had it’s own integration of HD players, but My Movies 3 now automatically detects ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater 2 or 3, and launches this player directly without the middle layer that My Movies 2 had. Since Media Center plays all the formats that I need, I have not needed to use any 3rd party players.

Overall I am very impressed with the changes. Except for the way movies and trailers are displayed (no titles, and sorted top to bottom) I like the changes. My Movies has come a long way and it is really a useful program. If you are in the market for a Movie management program and you use Windows Media Center then My Movies is what you need.

Since the Artisan 810 and the Artisan 800 are almost exactly the same, this review is going to be very similar to the Artisan 800 review that I did earlier.

Features

• 5 in 1 with Wi-Fi: Print / Copy / Scan / Fax / Ultra HD Photo
• Up to 38 ppm, photos in as fast as 10 sec
• Built-in fax and Automatic Document Feeder
• Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking
• 7.8-inch touch panel, 3.5-inch LCD
• Professional quality CD/DVD printing
• Automatic two-sided printing
• Create coloring books and personal note paper
• Two-year limited warranty with registration
• Ultra Hi-Definition photos last 4x longer than photo lab prints
• Two paper trays always ready to print photos and documents

When it comes to printing options, the Artisan 810 has a pluthera. This printer can print on just about any type of surface meant for printing, from photo paper, to printable DVDs. With the included duplexer, two-sided printing is a snap. Even without the duplexer you can still print on two sides, it just takes a little more effort.

This printer uses Claria Hi-Definition Ink which is currently one of the best and longest lasting inks you can get. Because of this, Epson claims that the photos that come out of this printer will last 4x longer than photos that are printed in a photo lab.

The Artisan 810 has at least five ways to connect it to a computer. First, you can connect it directly to the computer with a USB cable, this is good if you only have one computer. If you have more than one computer and a wireless network, then you can use the second way which is WiFi, or if you have a wired network then you can use the third way which is an Ethernet cable. The fourth way is using an optional Bluetooth adapter, so if you have a phone or camera with Bluetooth then you can print directly from those devices. Finally, the last way is to plug in a memory card or USB stick into one of the memory slots or the PictBridge port.

Not only can you print directly from a memory card or a USB stick, but the printer can enhance and fix those photos if they have problems like red eye or are too light or dark.

Printing photos and text is not the only thing this printer can print. The Artisan 810 is also able to print lined, grid, and coloring pages. All of these things worked out really great. I would only make one comment. The coloring pages can only be printed from a scanned source, or memory card and not from a picture on a PC.

Grid paper

Coloring Page

The printer has a built-in paper tray that functions like two paper trays. The bottom part of the paper tray is for larger paper, it can hold up to 8.5″ x 14″, and the top tray can hold up to 5″ x 7″ paper, which is great for photo paper.

Design

The printer is very compact. On top is an Automatic Document Feeder and the scanner. The ADF can hold up to 30 pages and the maximum size that can be scanned is an A4 document. I really like the design of the ADF because when you are not using it, you can close it up.

ADF Open

ADF Closed

The controls for the Artisan 810 are very unique. On the front is a very large 7.8″ touch panel with a 3.5″ LCD right in the middle. This is a very high resolution screen, and is great for not only displaying the menus and options, but also for showing photos that will be printed. If you are printing from a memory card or USB stick then you can use the screen to preview the images and see what they will look like before they are printed. The screen is not large enough to see a lot of details, but you will get a good idea about the results.

Screen

To the left of the screen are six touch panel buttons. Those buttons are Display/Crop, Menu, Home, Left arrow, Auto, and Back. The Display/Crop button is for printing buttons from a flash card. With this button you can choose how to display the pictures (full, thumbnails, or full with details) and you can also crop the images for printing on photo paper. The menu button will display the menu for whatever screen you are currently viewing. The Home button will always take you back to the main screen. The left arrow is used to scroll through each menu’s screen. The Auto button turns on and off the Fax auto answer. The back button takes you back one screen.

Left Buttons

To the right of the screen are another 7 buttons. The buttons are plus and minus, Clear Settings, right arrow, Start, OK, and View Auto Correct. The plus and minus buttons are for increasing and decreasing the number of copies of each picture you print. Clear settings is self explanatory. The right arrow is just like the left arrow in that it moves through screens. The Start button will start a copy, or fax. The OK button accepts any setting changes. View Auto Correct turns on the auto correction and displays it on the screen.

Right Buttons

To the left of the touch panel are two additional buttons. The top button is the power button, and obviously it is used for turning on and off the printer. Below that is the CD tray button, and it is used for ejecting the CD tray so a CD can be placed on it.

The whole control console lifts up freely. This serves two purposes that I have found so far. The first is to give you a better viewing angle, and the second is to open up a space so you can get to the CD/DVD tray. As you lift the controls up they will lock into place. To get the console to go back down you need to press the unlock button, which is at the top left of the controls, above the power button (it has a yellow stripe). Pressing the Unlock button will lower the display automatically, do not press it down or it will damage the lock and you may not be able to lower it ever again (trust me, I know from experience).

Below the control console is the CD/DVD tray, paper output, and input trays. The first one closest to the top is the CD/DVD tray. Pressing the CD/DVD tray button causes this tray to come out, but the tray does not come out very far, so before you can put a disk on it you must lift the control console up. This opens up a space so you can reach in and place the disk on the tray.

CD Tray

Blank CD

Below that is the paper output tray. It pulls out and can support anything from 4″x6″ all the way up to 8.5″ x 14″.

Output Tray

To the right of the paper trays are the memory card slots and the PictBridge port.

Memory Card slots

At the very bottom is the paper input tray. Actually it is two paper trays built into one. There is an upper and lower section, the lower section is for large paper, up to 8.5″x14″ and the upper section is for smaller photo paper, up to 5″x7″.

Paper Tray

Paper Tray

The back of the printer has a spot for power, USB, Ethernet, and phone cables. There is also a rather large Duplexer attached to the back. This is responsible for automatic two sided printing. The Duplexer can be removed if you are trying to squeeze the printer into a tight space. However, I don’t know why you would, because the Duplexer is one of the new features of the Artisan 810 and if you cannot use it then you might as well buy an Artisan 800.

Connectors	Power Plug
Back	Duplexer

If you open up the top and take a look inside there are really only two spots of interest and one is the ink cartridge holders. Almost all of the previous printers that I have reviewed have had the ink located right on top of the print head, but not with this printer. On this printer they are located off to the side. The small green tab that you see is a kind of lock. It is used to lock the print head into place while being transported. It must be moved before you plug in the printer, failing to do this may damage the printer. The Printer has a special place for it just above so it does not get lost.

Inside	Ink compartment	ink Installed
Print Head Lock	Print Head Lock Removed

Performance

Testing the printer is the fun part. It is where I get to print off and scan tons of different things and see how well it does. The printer comes with a full set of standard ink cartridges and I planned on using it all. The first thing I always like doing is printing out lots of pictures. Printing with the 810 is extremely quick, the Artisan 810 can print up to 38 pages per minute and a single photo can be printed in as little as 10 seconds.

The photos that printed are fantastic. As you can see from the images below. I printed off several photos from different printers to compared the quality of each. I printed photos from the Artisan 810 and the Artisan 800. The first picture is the original from my camera, the second one is from the Artisan 800 and the third one is from the Artisan 810. As you can clearly see for yourself they are identical. This is good for those of you that wondered if the 810 would have better photo printing.

Original

Artisan 800

Artisan 810

One of the features of the Artisan is that it will auto correct photos that are printed from a memory card or USB stick. It can also automatically remove red eye. The first image is the original from my camera, the second one is an auto corrected photo and the third has red eye turned on. I could not see a difference between the auto corrected and regular photos. The red eye reduction, also worked reasonably well, except that it missed one of the red eyes. If you want everything perfect, it is always best to do the touch-ups yourself.

Original

Auto Correct

Red Eye Remover

Printing documents is also very fast. I was able to print 7 full color pages in 55 seconds. By default the pages print in order, which means the first page is on the bottom. Luckily, I found a reverse option which prints the last page first. I think this option is in the word processing software and not the printer drivers. Either way I appreciate having it and I wish it was the default.

Printing DVDs is a lot of fun. I have bought printers in the past just because they could print on CDs and DVDs. The Artisan 810 makes the process really easy because it is all built-in. The quality is also superb, as you can see from the images, it is very easy to see even the smallest detail.

Printed CD

Printed CD

Next, I wanted to test the printing of text. This is where most inkjet printers have the hardest time. I compared the Artisan 810 against my HP 5L laserjet printer. The first image is the 5L and the second one is the Artisan. As you can see the 5L does a better job with text, but the Artisan 810 is not far off. I think you will find that no matter what inkjet you buy, a laserjet is always going to do better with text, that is why I have one of each.

HP5L	Artisan 810 Text

In addition to just printing text I also tried out the Duplexer. I am happy to report that double sided printing completed without a problem. The only thing I would mention is that the printer pauses for about 5 seconds after it prints the first side. This may make you think it is done, but do not remove the paper otherwise the second side will not print. The printer will pull the paper back in and flip it over so it can print on the other side.

To test scanning I have some professional color charts that I like to scan. This gives me a good idea of how well the scanner performs. As you can see it did a decent job, the colors are not perfect, but they are really good.

Charts

Last, but not least, is faxing. To test this I sent a 7 page document to myself. I was very happy to see that the fax did not actually dial until all the pages had been scanned into memory. The scanning was quick, taking about 5 seconds per page. Once they were all scanned the fax dialed the number and sent them to the destination. I was sending black and white pages so it was fairly quick. The whole process took about 5 minutes. I don’t have a second color fax, but I imagine that it would take quite a bit longer, because it takes longer to scan color and color documents would also have more data to send to the destination.

All during these tests the printer was really quiet. Sometimes I had to watch the printer just to make sure it was printing. The scanner is also really quiet and fast, so if you are not paying attention you will miss it.

The Artisan 800 and the 810 both use the same ink. So if you upgrade you can keep your old ink and use it with the new printer. The ink is not super expensive, costing about $9 per cartridge if you buy all the colors together, and $18 per cartridge for the high capacity black.

Warranty and Support

The warranty for the Artisan 810 is simply a two year warranty that covers parts and labor for manufacturer defects. In my opinion this is a mediocre warranty. I would like to see longer warranties for all products, but since I am not in charge I don’t get to make that decision.

My experience with support has been positive. I accidentally broke the lock release for the screen on my Artisan 800 (I pushed it down instead of using the release button) and Epson was very easy to deal with. They sent a new 800 and even paid for return shipping for the old one. No I did not tell them I was writing a review. I spoke to them like a normal customer.

Conclusion

I am really impressed with the speed, quality, and how quiet the Artisan 810 is. I don’t think I found a single problem with this printer other than the text quality, but that is a tough area for all inkjets. The MSRP of $299.99 is not too expensive, but it very easy to find it for a bit cheaper. It is especially nice that the printer comes with a full set of standard color ink cartridges and two high capacity black cartridges, this is about $90 (MSRP) worth of ink. If you are looking for a multifunction printer that can scan, copy, print, and fax then I can highly recommend this printer. If you don’t need faxing or a document feeder you may want to check out the Artisan 710. This printer has clearly taken the top position away from the Artisan 800 and I am giving this printer my Editors Choice award. This is a must have printer and the best printer of the year.

Features

• Up to 8TB of Disk Capacity & Higher
• Quad interface – USB/Firewire 400 & 800/eSATA RAID5
• Four hot-swappable disk module, support 3.5″ SATA II Drive
• Removable Low Noise cooling fan ensures data integrity
• Universal Power Supply: 120-240VAC auto switching
• Unique design, aluminum enclosure finished
• Standard 3-Year Factory Warranty
• Mac OS X, Windows compatible & Linux

iStoragePro claims that the iT4UFER supports capacities of 8TB and higher. However this is not exactly true. The reason for this is because the iT4UFER uses RAID 5 and RAID 5 uses up the space of one of the drives for parity. Another issue I have with the RAID 5 is that if you ever need more capacity you must upgrade all the drives because RAID 5 requires all the drives to be identical. If you are not familiar with RAID 5 or parity here is a link that offers a bit more information.

With 4 different interfaces (USB, Firewire 400 & 800, and eSATA), the iT4UFER will work with just about any computer.

There are actually 2 fans in the iT4UFER. The first one is really small and it is in the power supply, the second is much larger and it is for cooling the hard drives. The fan is very quite and allows the whole system to be nearly silent. In the event that the larger fan fails, the iT4UFER has an alarm that will let you know, so it can be repaired.

Design

The iT4UFER clearly takes design inspiration from the Mac Pro desktops. Everything from the silver color to the large loop handles and the grill on the front, all take inspiration from the Mac Pro desktops. Even the name (lower case i) is modeled after how Apple names their products.

Front

The front of the iT4UFER is simply a door with a grill that covers the drive bays. The door has a lock, which is nice for keeping others from messing with the drives. When you open the door you see the 4 drive bays. Depending on the configuration that is purchased, it may or may not come with hard drives. The model I got (iT4UFER04T) came with 4 1TB Western Digital 7200 RPM drives preinstalled in the removable drive modules. Even if hard drives are not ordered, the iT4UFER still comes with 4 drive modules so you can install any hard drives that you want (as long as all 4 are identical).

Front

Modules in bay

There is nothing really special about the bays, but above them is a small screen with two buttons. This is the first time I have seen a screen on a storage system like this. This screen displays some basic settings and reports, however, I was unable to find anything that could be changed. I had hoped that it would allow me to change the RAID configuration or turn off RAID, unfortunately that is not possible.

Active

Below the drive bays is the power button, fan alarm silence button, and fan failure light. During my tests I never got the light to turn on (I suppose could have unplugged the fan) so I don’t really know how well the light or button work.

Power button

The back is fairly simple. At the top are the 4 interfaces. There are actually 5 ports, but two of them are Firewire 800 ports. The other 3 are USB 2.0, Firewire 400, and eSATA. Below the ports is the cooling fan and below that is the power supply.

Back

If we remove the fan from the back of the iT4UFER we can take a look at the inside and how the SATA cables are hooked up. It looks like there are 4 additional SATA ports and I hope they can be used to change the configuration of the drives. Just be careful reaching inside the case because the edges are sharp. The fan looks very easy to replace. This will be very useful when the fan eventually fails.

Fan out

Board

SATA connectors

The iT4UFER also comes with a cable for each of the interfaces. I really like it when companies provide small things like cables, because this is one less thing I have to worry about.

Performance

So how well does the iT4UFER perform? With four different interfaces it will be important to see how each one performs.

Before we can begin our testing we must install the drives and build the RAID. Lucky for me, my drives came preinstalled in the drive modules, so all I had to do was slide each one in its slot and turn it on. During the start up the screen asked if I wanted to initialize the disks. I choose yes and the screen indicated that it would take just over 2 hours.

Rebuilding

To test the performance of each interface I started by plugging in each one, one at a time. The only one I would not be able to test is the FireWire 800 since I don’t have a connection on my computer for it.

As I tested each interface I ran each test 3 or 4 times to make sure that none of the reading were way off. Below are pictures of the results of each test. As you probably guessed eSATA did the best by far, USB 2.0 was next, and Firewire 400 brought up the rear. I even threw in a performance reading from my two internal drives that are in a RAID 0. As you can see the iT4UFER even out performed my internal drives. I suspect this is because with a RAID 5 it stripes the data across three drives and with my two drive RAID 0 it only stripes the data across two drives.

USB

Firewire 400

eSATA

Internal

During all these tests the iT4UFER remained very quite. I could not hear it at all unless I got really close. The power usage also remained very low. Below are two images, one of the iT4UFER when idle, and one when I was copying many files to the iT4UFER. As you can see there isn’t much difference and even when being used the power usage is very low.

Idle

Load

Warranty

The iT4UFER comes with a standard 3-year warranty. This is good, but not great. With so few moving parts I would like to see at least a 5-year warranty. However, if anything is going to go wrong lets just hope it happens in the first 3 years.

Conclusion

Except for the fact that you are locked into RAID 5 I really like the iT4UFER. When used with eSATA the performance is fantastic. The screen is a nice addition, but I didn’t find a use for it and I could do without it (unless it let me change the RAID configuration).

The only real problem I have with this is the price. I found it online at several stores for about $650 and that does not include any drives. If you want drives you are going to pay extra. For example, if you want the same configuration that I got (4-1TB drives), those same websites tack on an additional $1000. In my opinion those prices are way too high. First off, I would never in my life pay $1000 for 4-1TB drives. These exact drives can be found on Amazon for the amazing price of $100 each, that’s nearly a third what those stores charge. Next, you may remember that I reviewed the Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8M-B 8 Bay JBOD Enclosure. It was not as fancy on the outside as the iT4UFER, it does not have USB or Firewire, and it does not have hardware RAID, but it has software support for JBOD, Spanning, RAID 0, 1, 1+0, and 5. Not only that, but the TR8M-B is only $319.99 and it supports up to 8 drives ($159.99 for the 4-bay version). So if you put it all together you could have a 4 bay enclosure and 4-1TB drives for around $600, much less that the $1,650 for the iT4UFER.

If you feel that the above comparison is not fair because there are too many differences, then how about if I compare it to the LaCie 4big Quadra. It has all the same connectors (USB, FireWire 400 & 800, eSATA), and it also has hardware RAID 5. However, the LaCie 4big Quadra also supports RAID 0, three backup solutions (Time Machine, Genie Backup Manager Pro, and Intego Backup Manager Pro), and Amazon has it for about $700. Even with this comparison the iT4UFER still has less capabilities and it costs more than double.

So if you are budget conscience I have a hard time recommending the iT4UFER, it is just too expensive and the functionality is limited. However, if you have money burning a hole in your pocket and you are concerned about how your hardware looks (especially if you use Mac Pro Desktops), then the iT4UFER will be perfect (just buy the drives separately). The eSATA performance was awesome and the hardware not only looks great, but it also worked perfectly.

Features

• Comfortable, lightweight and flexible for on-the-go performance
• Organic technology uses no power so it extends battery life
• Listen to the noise-free operation of the innovative fan-less laptop cooler
• Outperforms competitors with an impressive 9 degrees of uniform heat reduction

This laptop cooler is very small and lightweight. It is also flexible enough that it could easily be rolled up or stuffed into a small bag (possibly your laptop bag).

The key feature of this laptop cooler is that it is completely green, and I am not talking about the color, this cooler does not use an ounce of power. This is not only good for the environment, but it is also good for the battery life of the laptop (some coolers plug into the laptop for power).

Because it doesn’t use any power it also doesn’t have any fans. This means it will be great for quiet environments like an office.

ThermaPAK makes the claim that the HeatShift laptop cooler provides up to 9 degrees of uniform heat reduction. We will see in the tests if it lives up to its claim.

Design

The design for the HeatShift is very simple. The cooler is simply a square mat that you place your laptop on. Inside the mat are a bunch of crystals that melt when heated. These crystals are what draw the heat away from the laptop. The nice things about the crystals is that they reform when the heat is taken away so that it can be used over and over.

Pad

Laptop

The mat comes in three sizes (13″, 15″ and 17″) and several colors.

Performance

ThermaPak sent me a 15″ laptop cooler and I wanted to find out how well it worked. The test is fairly simple, put my 13″ Toshiba laptop on the mat and get the CPU really hot. I used a program called prime95 to get the CPU really hot and I used SpeedFan to measure the temperatures. After a 30 minutes SpeedFan reported the temperature of the CPU at 93°C. This didn’t seem as cool as I thought it should be, so I let the laptop sit for a while and I ran prime95 again, but this time I didn’t use the HeatShift cooler. After another 30 minutes I checked the heat and it was at 88°C. At this point I thought it was interesting that the laptop was cooler without the pad. So what could be wrong? Well the first thing I thought about was that my laptop is only 13″ and I had a 15″ mat. Another possibility is that somehow the mat is restricting the airflow for the CPU fan.

Toshiba temp with heatshift

Toshiba temp without heatshift

So I tried the whole process again, but this time with a much larger laptop. I happen to have an 18″ ASUS N90 so I put the cooler under that and again ran prime95. Since the laptop was so much bigger than the pad I strategically put it under the CPU so that it would be in contact with the hottest part of the laptop. This time SpeedFan registered the heat at 76°C. This seemed a lot better, but in order to know just how much better I had to run the same test without the cooling pad. So after letting the laptop cool down I ran prime95 again without the pad. After another 30 minutes I checked SpeedFan and it said 70°C.

N90Sv temp with heatshift

N90Sv temp without heatshift

So the problem must have something to do with how the airflow gets blocked. The HeaShift pad has channels that are suppose to improve airflow, but when the crystals melt the pad flattens and those channels loose their effectiveness. I imagine that the HeaShift pad would work really well with laptops that don’t have fans.

Each time I tested the mat I felt the crystals to see if they had melted, sure enough in all the hot spots the pad was a lot softer. After removing the pad it took about 30 minutes or so for the crystals hardened back up.

On a more positive note, the HeatShift pad did a great job protecting my legs from the burning heat from the laptops. No matter how hot the laptops got I never felt it while the HeatShift pad was on my lap.

Conclusion

So I think this pad is a really great idea. There is a lot of potential for heat dissipation technology like this. Even though it didn’t work very well in my tests I recognize that my laptops are probably not the ideal test subjects. If you have a laptop that does not have fans, (or it doesn’t draw in heat from the bottom) then this would be ideal for you. With prices ranging from $27 to $34 this is not going to hurt your wallet. If your laptop does have a fan that draws in heat from the bottom then we hare going to have to wait for ThermaPAK to address this problem.

Features

• 18.4 Full HD (1920×1080) Color-Shine (Glare-type) screen
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M, with 1GB VRAM
• Choice of single or dual hard drives
• Integrated 802.11 b/g/n
• 8 in 1 card reader
• 1.3 Mega Pixel web camera

The biggest benefit of a large laptop is a large screen. The 18.4″ screen on the N90Sv has a native resolution of 1920×1080 which allows it to display a full 1080p movie without any problems. My biggest complaint is that the screen is glossy. I have never liked glossy screens because of the nasty glare they have and how distracting it can be.

The Core 2 Duo processor and the GeForce GT130m graphics chip are what powers the N90Sv. The CPU and GPU are the heart of any system and from the specs they look fairly good.

A very unique feature is that this laptop has two hard drives. This is the only laptop that I have tested that has had more than one hard drive. Since laptop hard drives are notoriously small, having two hard drives certainly expands the possibilities for internal storage space.

As with most laptops these days, this one comes with the ability to connect to all the most popular wireless networks.

The card reader is capable of reading all the most popular media formats including: SD, MMC, MS, MS-Pro, mini SD w/ adapter, MS-Duo, MS-Pro Duo via adapter

The last feature I will mention here is the built-in web camera. The N90Sv includes a 1.3 Mega Pixel camera above the screen. This is not the highest resolution camera that I have seen in a laptop, however, it should be good enough for chatting. To the right of the camera is a single microphone.

Design

When I first saw just how big this laptop really is I was taken back. I was not prepared for the shear size of the laptop.

The outside is fairly simple looking. The top has the ASUS logo, with a swirl design, but it is hard to see in pictures.

Top

The left side has the SD card slot and the Blu-Ray drive.

Left

The right side has an Express Card slot, a wireless on/off switch, dual headphone jacks, a microphone jack, and two USB ports.

Right

The back has another two USB ports, an HDMI and VGA plug, and a network port.

Back

If you flip over the N90Sv you will see that there are two access panels. The first and biggest one covers the CPU, memory, and a hard drive. The second panel covers the second hard drive.

Bottom Open

When I opened it up for the first time I really got an idea of just how big it is. You see, not only does the N90Sv have (what looks like) a full size keyboard, but it also has a separate number pad. Not only that, but to the left of the keyboard ASUS has reserved a large space for several buttons.

Keyboard

Controls

The top button turns on the laptop in Express mode, which allows quick boot up and use of only a few built-in programs. Express Gate is Asus’ answer to the long boot times that Windows Vista is well know for. If you need quick access to your E-mail, Skype, or a few other programs, Express Gate is the answer.

Skype

Chat

Photo Manager

The next button switches through the ASUS Splendid modes. These modes include Normal, Gamma, Vivid, Theater, and Soft. There is one additional mode called my profile, but it can only be accessed by launching the Splendid Utility. My profile mode allows you to configure your own settings.

Normal

Gamma

Vivid

The third button turns the touchpad on and off.

Touchpad Enabled

Touchpad Disabled

The last button switches between the many different Power4Gear modes. The Power4Gear modes include Entertainment, Quiet Office, Battery Saving, and High Performance.

Entertainment

Quiet Office

Battery Saving

Finally, below all those buttons is the volume wheel with a mute button in the center.

Volumn Up

Volumn Down

Mute

The touchpad below the keyboard is fairly standard, except for the button. I say button (in the singular) because instead of two buttons there is one large button, however the left side of the button does a left click and the right side does a right click.

TouchPad

Above the keyboard is the speaker bar and on the far right is the power button.

Above the screen is a 1.3 Mega Pixel web camera and to the right of that is a small hole which is the microphone. To the left of the camera is a green power light and whenever the camera is on it lights up.

As you probably have already guessed this laptop is not designed to be very portable. Because of its size and weight the target market for the N90Sv is people that are living in small apartments and dorm rooms and they don’t have room for a large TV or media center. Because of this, I think the N90Sv would benefit from a built-in IR port and a remote control. It may even be nice if it had a built in TV tuner or cable card capabilities.

Performance

So now we move on to the testing portion of the review. Here are the specs for the system that I was given:

• Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64 bit)
• 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 (1066MHz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache)
• Chipset: SiS 671DX+968
• 4GB PC2-6400 RAM (2GB x 2GB)
• 2 x 500GB Seagate 5400rpm
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M 1GB GDDR2 VRAM
• 18.4″ 1080P HD FHD LCD 1920×1080 (Glossy)
• Optical Drive: BD-ROM + DVDRW+/-
• Wireless: Atheros AR928x B/G/N Wifi and Bluetooth 2.0
• 8-cell 14.8V 4.4Ah 62Wh battery
• Dimensions: 18.4″ x 12.4″ x 1.8″
• Weight: 9lbs 8.3oz
• Warranty: 2-year global, 1-year accidental damage
• Price as configured: $1,799

According to the specs it looks like a fairly powerful system. I expect the N90Sv to perform fairly well in the performance tests.

The first test is 3DMark Vantage, this test puts the graphics chip and CPU through several 3D and gaming related tests. Because of the specs above I expected to get a middle of the road score. So when I saw the score of 1699 I was a little disappointed. I was hoping for a lot more from a laptop this size. To be fair to ASUS this is a multimedia machine, not a gaming machine.

3DMark Vantage

The next test is PCMark Vantage, this test again tests the computer but instead of focusing on 3D and graphics it focuses on things like photo manipulation and movie playing. Because of this I expected the computer to do slightly better than before. The PCMark score of 3646 is quite a bit better, and as you can see from the image it is a lot closer to the center of the pack.

PCMark Vantage

For my final test I tested the battery life on the N90Sv. Even with the 8-cell battery I really don’t expect the battery to last very long because of how large it is and because it has two hard drives. I used MobileMark to test the battery life and when it finished it gave me a time of 124 minutes. This isn’t too bad, but it is just barely long enough to watch a full length movie. This just reiterates the fact that this is not intended to be a portable machine. I had the screen brightness at about half, so you could probably squeeze a bit more out of it by setting it lower.

MobileMark

Conclusion

After all is said and done I think this fits nicely into its niche, which is a non portable, non gaming, multimedia laptop. With the addition of a built-in tuner, IR port, and a remote control it would almost be perfect. I say almost because the price tag is a bit high. With a retail price of $1799 it may be a bit out of reach for the target market I mentioned above. In fact you could get a much more powerful nice desktop for that price, in fact I recently built a new desktop computer and it only cost me $1450. However, nobody pays retail and it is fairly easy to find this laptop for quite a bit less. With just a few minutes of searching on Amazon I was able to find this laptop (with smaller hard drives) for $1399, and an upgraded model (faster CPU and hard drives) for $1633.

If you are in the market for a really large multimedia laptop, and you have $1399 or more to burn, you might want to check out the ASUS N90Sv.