Computer-Case Reviews

The optics and general quality are what to expect for binoculars at one third the price. But image stabilization changes everything. At 18X power, conventional hand-held binoculars, even thousand dollar ones, require support; either tripod or at the very least, elbows carefully resting on a car roof or on both knees when sitting on the ground. (The latter two methods rule out skyward viewing or sweeping views). The base is threaded for tripod use, which serves as a reminder of what you would need if you forgot to put in the two AA batteries. The Image Stabilizer feature is fingertip selective, so that fully comparing the IS image with the non-stabilized image is easy in all situations. The stabilization is not perfect, as there is still some need to hold them steady. But the residual image-shake is less than for 6X power unstabilized binocs, and the effect at 18X is very pleasing, even startling -- binocular Image Stabilization is no gimmick. One-handed viewing is nearly as good as with a two handed grip, something out of the question for ordinary binoculars. A limitation of the IS feature is that when attempting sweeping views, or when following moving objects like airplanes, there occurs minor blurring as the system tends to misunderstand the user's deliberate movement as jerkiness. Thus it is necessary to follow objects smoothly. These binoculars came without lens caps for the objective lenses, a remarkable omission since the objective lenses are not well protected in the shallow recess of the encircling frame ridges. Presumably this is to keep bulk to a minimum. The eyepieces have somewhat oversized fold-back rubber cups. While these cups are not ergonomically shaped, as they could be -- bumping the eye brow while still admitting light at the sides -- they fold back for eyeglass wearers, and offer good incidental lense protection when extended. The soft, padded, lightweight nylon carrying case is adiquit, but could use a waist belt loop for easy carrying. (A premium quality hard case would be a nice accessary.) The carrying weight is not bad, feeling about the same as ordinary 50 mm porro prism binoculars.

I bought the Canon 18x image stabilizer binoculars a month ago and I love them.

The reason I bought these high-powered binoculars is I want to identify all the major landmarks in the San Jose South Bay area. My wife and I ride up to the mid-hill of Mt. Hamilton once a month. Most of the time before we are ready to turn back and coast down the hill, we spend a fair amount of time looking at the spectacular scenery of the San Jose and South Bay area. We want to identify as many landmarks as possible. With our compact Minolta 10x binoculars, we get a clear look at downtown San Jose and of course the Lockheed aircraft hangers. But we could not find the San Jose airport. With the new Canon binoculars, we can identify the airport and many other places. We can even find the street intersection that is only one street away from where we live. The interesting thing is once we identify a place, we can also use the compact Minolta to see the landmark, although with smaller vision. These Canon binoculars make excellent spotter.

The image stabilizer is an interesting high-tech feature. It helps to get a clear and stable view if you press the stabilizer button. However, the binoculars weight 2.6 lbs. I am tired after holding them for two to three minutes. Last time we rode up Mt. Hamilton, we bought a regular camera tripod with us. These Canon binoculars come with a built-in screw thread that can accept a standard tripod quick-release plate. With the binoculars mounted on the tripod, we spent a good half hour looking down the beautiful landscape. The obvious question is, does the use of the tripod defeat the purpose of paying extra for the image stabilizer? How much something is worth is a very personal question. It differs from person to person. I am not going to attempt to answer this question.

We are very happy to own these binoculars. This is a very pricey toy, but we love it. I first saw the Canon 15x image stabilizer binoculars at Wolf's Camera web site and they have a price tag of around $1,200. I was shocked by the price. I told myself some day I might buy it. A year later, amazon.com was carrying this 18x version at a much lower price. I was overjoyed and broke down and bought this toy the following month.

These things are incredible! I received a pair of the Canon Image Stabilization Binoculars as a gift from a friend and was immediately blown away by how well they work. The fact that they don't shake makes it possible to read numbers and signs at great distances. I race on sailboats and the ability to read call letters and names on competitive boats is a real help. I also got the clearest view of the moon I have ever seen last night. The large lenses really capture a lot of light, so that you can see clearly at night as well. They are pricey, but you really get you money's worth with this product.

I agree with the other reviewers, in that this is a very solid built and reliable product. I've been using mine for six months now and have not had to touch it. It performs very well, as I've ran multiple file transfers simultaneously among four computers and it was amazingly faster than when using an older 10/100 hub.

The one complaint that I have about Netgear switches and routers is that many of them have the ports on the front of the unit instead of the back. If you're installing this in some out-of-the-way place like your attic or basement, or if you're installing in a computer rack where you want everything facing front, this is a non-issue. If you want to put this on your desktop it is a major inconvenience, because the cables coming into the switch will either be strung across the front of your desk, or will snake over and behind the unit. In either case, you have cables on your desktop and it's quite unsightly.

All things considered I'm still happy with the Netgear switch, but if I had it to do over again I would have probably bought one that worked better in my home office.

With switch prices coming down to about $10-per-port, it's hard to justify buying anything less than a 10/100-switch for all but the most cost-conscious buyer.

As most 5-port 10/100 switches have the same capabilities and cost about the same, there's not much to distinguish one from another. Still, I particularly like the Netgear FS-105 5-port switch. Like other products from Netgear, this switch is a little nicer than the competition because it has:

- Nice sturdy metal construction instead of plastic. The case also has a grounding tab in case you're using the switch in a (electrically) high-noise environment.

- Connection status indicators built into the jacks, so you can easily tell which cable is connected and is active. (The "vistajack" feature.)

- Right-angled barrel power connector which reduce the likelihood of disconnecting power accidentally.

- An easy-to-access switch to toggle port 1 between station mode and uplink mode. Unlike some hubs where two jacks are wired together, this design prevents accidentally shorting a station to an uplink.

- Screw-mount notches on the underside allows for easy attachment to the wall, underside of a counter, etc.

With a 1000-MAC address buffer and 200 Kbytes-per-port packet buffer, this switch can easily handle the typical traffic load of small- and medium-sized networks.

The Netgear product is not the cheapest 10/100-switch (check out the D-Link Fast Ethernet Switch, for example), but for overall design and value-for-money, I still like the Netgear the most.

With the growing number of PCs and Laptops in my house I decided it was time to install a network. I need a cheap solution that what easy to install and required NO maintanence. The Netgear 5 port switch was the perfect buy for my solution. It sits quitely in the roof of my house with the server and has not failed me yet! It is incased in a hard steel shell making it very strong and reliable. If you're looking into setting up a home network I recommend you buy this switch as you cant go wrong!

If you have a lot of DVDs or CDs these wallets are the way to go. I have over 800 CDs and they were eating up my space. After getting rid of all the jewel cases I can store all of my CDs and DVDs on one book shelf. And since I organized them by theme, it is easy to find what I am looking for. By the way: you can mark the outside of the wallets with a white-out pen. It makes it easy to know what's inside each wallet. For the DVD wallet you will need to do a little trimming for some of the Liner notes. But it is easy to do. Trust me... once you start using these wallets, you'll love 'em. For what you get with these wallets I find the price fair. Even better here on Amazon.com Enjoy

I now have two of these and I'm getting ready to order two more. They store 20 DVDs in about the same space as 5 in their plastic cases. Each sleeve has a clear pocket on the front to insert the cover art so it is easy to find the movie your looking for. We take ours with us on trips with our portable DVD player. There is no way that we could fit 20 DVDs in our carry-on bag without this case.

What better way to organize the digital photographs you have burned to CD? I run thumbnails on 5x8 index cards and put them in the front of the sleeve in which each CD is stored. Just listing the filenames takes less space. Now I can find particular subjects or photos without having to slip each CD into the drive or writing all over the CD itself.

I also like it for it's original intent .. to store DVDs compactly.

What's in each album? I use a commercial labeler (i.e. P-Touch) which sticks just fine and helps me organize the various albums.

I've been looking for a convenient way to play music from my Tungsten T without headphones and this is it. I've looked at other portable speakers, but there were too many wires to them. The sound quality is quite good, it won't fill a room; but for personal listening or a small gathering of friends it works great. It takes three AAA batteries which seem to last quite awhile, I haven't had to change the batteries yet(it's been about three weeks since I've had it-but I don't use it continuously). The only thing missing is something to boost the bass, then again it's not designed to replace a boombox. There is another version with only one speaker built in, but it holds half the CD's. I only gave 4 stars because of the bass, it's still great addition to my collection of CD player, PDA, and MP3 player. Now if they could only come up with one with a multi-player connector...

I purchased this about 4 months ago and the only downfall to it at all is that at higher volume there is a bit of clipping. The battery life is decent (about 8 hours on 3 AA Batteries). convenient layout. Typically I would load 12 CDs along with a CD player as opposed to 24 cds. In doing so my discs and player were kept safe from damage, however with more bass-heavy discs, there was a bit of skipping even though my player has skip protection. When all is said and done though, this is a really solid product. It is of good enough quality that about 10 of my friends followed suit and bought them as well.

This summer my wife bought some travel speakers at Radio Shack for about $10-12. Terrible quality. So in anticipation of a trip to NZ, I did some research looking for travel speakers for my portable CD and stumbled across reviews in UK and Europe for this TDK product. The reviews sounded fantastic. Luckily I found the product on Amazon. They arrived last night and certainly fill the bill for very decent quality travel speakers. In fact, I can fit my CD player and 24 CDs in the softcase. If you consider the price, etc. - this is an excellent buy.

I've been looking for a convenient way to play music from my Tungsten T without headphones and this is it. I've looked at other portable speakers, but there were too many wires to them. The sound quality is quite good, it won't fill a room; but for personal listening or a small gathering of friends it works great. It takes three AAA batteries which seem to last quite awhile, I haven't had to change the batteries yet(it's been about three weeks since I've had it-but I don't use it continuously). The only thing missing is something to boost the bass, then again it's not designed to replace a boombox. There is another version with only one speaker built in, but it holds half the CD's. I only gave 4 stars because of the bass, it's still great addition to my collection of CD player, PDA, and MP3 player. Now if they could only come up with one with a multi-player connector...

I purchased this about 4 months ago and the only downfall to it at all is that at higher volume there is a bit of clipping. The battery life is decent (about 8 hours on 3 AA Batteries). convenient layout. Typically I would load 12 CDs along with a CD player as opposed to 24 cds. In doing so my discs and player were kept safe from damage, however with more bass-heavy discs, there was a bit of skipping even though my player has skip protection. When all is said and done though, this is a really solid product. It is of good enough quality that about 10 of my friends followed suit and bought them as well.

This summer my wife bought some travel speakers at Radio Shack for about $10-12. Terrible quality. So in anticipation of a trip to NZ, I did some research looking for travel speakers for my portable CD and stumbled across reviews in UK and Europe for this TDK product. The reviews sounded fantastic. Luckily I found the product on Amazon. They arrived last night and certainly fill the bill for very decent quality travel speakers. In fact, I can fit my CD player and 24 CDs in the softcase. If you consider the price, etc. - this is an excellent buy.

I've been looking for a convenient way to play music from my Tungsten T without headphones and this is it. I've looked at other portable speakers, but there were too many wires to them. The sound quality is quite good, it won't fill a room; but for personal listening or a small gathering of friends it works great. It takes three AAA batteries which seem to last quite awhile, I haven't had to change the batteries yet(it's been about three weeks since I've had it-but I don't use it continuously). The only thing missing is something to boost the bass, then again it's not designed to replace a boombox. There is another version with only one speaker built in, but it holds half the CD's. I only gave 4 stars because of the bass, it's still great addition to my collection of CD player, PDA, and MP3 player. Now if they could only come up with one with a multi-player connector...

I purchased this about 4 months ago and the only downfall to it at all is that at higher volume there is a bit of clipping. The battery life is decent (about 8 hours on 3 AA Batteries). convenient layout. Typically I would load 12 CDs along with a CD player as opposed to 24 cds. In doing so my discs and player were kept safe from damage, however with more bass-heavy discs, there was a bit of skipping even though my player has skip protection. When all is said and done though, this is a really solid product. It is of good enough quality that about 10 of my friends followed suit and bought them as well.

This summer my wife bought some travel speakers at Radio Shack for about $10-12. Terrible quality. So in anticipation of a trip to NZ, I did some research looking for travel speakers for my portable CD and stumbled across reviews in UK and Europe for this TDK product. The reviews sounded fantastic. Luckily I found the product on Amazon. They arrived last night and certainly fill the bill for very decent quality travel speakers. In fact, I can fit my CD player and 24 CDs in the softcase. If you consider the price, etc. - this is an excellent buy.

At the time I purchased the case, Amazon called it "MID TOWER CASE 380W 9BAY BLACK" and nothing more. This case is in fact the Antec Sonata. It has a low noise 120mm rear fan, front panel usb/firewire/sound, 4 rubber grommet rotated 3.5" drive bays to help minimize hard drive vibrations, a quiet 380W power supply and a front dust filter. It also has 2 blue lights on the front that give the case a cool blue glow in a dark room. My minor gripe about the case is the sides and top of the case are a glossy black that can easily can pick up fingerprints, but luckily the front of the case doesn't have a glossy finish. Overall, it's yet another high quality product from Antec.

I built a computer for my dad with this case. He asked me to "[b]uild the computer you'd build for yourself if you didn't care about cost."

Now I'm jealous and considering a Sonata case for myself. Amazon's price is excellent, especially since the case includes a quieter version of Antec's stable and reliable 380 watt power supply.

This case runs quiet AND cool with the stock 120mm case fan, stock Intel CPU fan and the P/S fan. (2.4P4/Asus/Lite-On CDRW-DVD/80gig Maxtor)

The big, slow case fan, quiet P/S, vibration-damping rubber fan mounts (VERY nice, extras included for a second fan), rubber grommet HD mounts, heavy steel and front door all combine to hold noise down.

The case is well built, the project went together easily, room for a full-size ATX board, no sharp edges = no cuts. Typical Antec quality. Lots of nuts 'n bolts and hardware for whatever configuration you have in mind. Amazing manual, read it. (See Amazon's link to the manual.) Did I mention it's quiet?

I suggest removing the flimsy front-door during assembly to avoid breaking it, it snaps out easily (consult manual) and you can replace it when you're done (or not). I saw no reason for the glaring headlights, so I left 'em unplugged.

But the reason I'm writing this review is to tell about Antec's superb customer service. I've experienced it before and I decided to give 'em a chance to make me happy again. As before, Antec came through with flying colors.

Not satisfied with the slow front USB ports (they only ran at USB 1.1 speeds) I called Antec's Customer Care and grumbled. (The toll-free number is on the front page of the manual - which Amazon has thoughtfully provided a link to, or at Antec's website, use the Tech Support #, ask for Customer Care.)

With NO waiting I reached Tiffany, a gal with a generous heart and a sense of humor, who immediately offered to send me the fix for free (it brings the front USB ports up to USB 2.0). On a roll, I mentioned the lack of a case-speaker and she said she'd include that as well. Still free. (OK, I'm a geek. The case works fine without the fifty-cent 2-inch speaker, but I like to hear the beeps that tell me the computer POSTed correctly - or not, and there are modern motherboards that actually speak and tell you what the problem is if they can't boot - that feature won't work if there's no case speaker.)

Heart filled with joy, I pushed the envelope and tried for more, but when I commented about the tacky front-port cover (the cheesy chrome-plated plastic gizmo that covers the audio/USB/Firewire ports) Tiffany laughed and suggested I paint it black (which I just might do). BTW, sparingly applied WD-40 makes the cover work a little easier if yours is tight.

Bottom line, if you buy this case you get an excellent case AND great customer service. And a tough-to-beat price at Amazon w/ FREE shipping and NO TAX in most states!

I LOVE this case. I just recently had added a 3rd HD in it an it was a snap. Love how the HD's all have thier own slide in/out trays. Even the CD rom drives have rails to slide in and out. The case is very quiet too. The case i hade before this one sounded like a vaccum cleaner compared to this one. The power supply comes with plenty of plugs for all your HD's and any other components you want to add. The case also looks great with it's piano black finish. There is a dust catching screen in the front of the case too. That is a nice touch.

Downside:
- space inside the case is alittle snug. So you will need to plan out your cabling strategy.
- no motherboard slide out tray. Not a BIG deal for me as i don't plan to swap out my mobo for a while. bit it would have been nice.

Overall:
If i have to build another computer, i would get another one of these. It is great.

I bought this cable to hook up my Playstation 2 with a Promedia DD-5.1 (Digital Decoder). The Problem is that the cable I bought didn't produce 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS, just stereo. Read the reviews for the X-box Lightwave 100 cable; they are the same cable except for the color. Some people maybe haven't figured it out yet because they don't use a Digital Decoder, but all they are hearing is Stereo sound. Im pretty upset because I sent my Digital Decoder back to Klipsch thinking that was the problem, but it was actually the cable. By the way the customer service at Klipsch is simply the best, they produced high quality equipment, not like over at monster cable. So beware! If you are paying big $ for a cable shouldn't it at least work or do what it say it does?

Your PlayStation is state-of-the-art in terms of audio quality. PS2 is equipped with a fiber optic digital audio out, enabling you to experience movies and games in Dolby Digital Surround Sound as well as listening to your favorite CDs in crystal clear digital stereo. No matter how you use your PS2, with pure digital audio connection you have access to the ultimate Dolby Digital Surround experience and the best in home audio entertainment.

Digital is the preferred high performance audio connection over analog because it has a wider dynamic range, which results in clearer highs and deeper, tighter bass, without the distortion common with analog connections. Also with digital audio, you don't run the risk of problems like hum and buzz caused by electromagnetic and radio frequency interference.

To start, this is a reasonably priced 3.3M (10ft) toslink-to-toslink cable. Compared to other higher quality and longer length optical cables and you'll see the difference in price. I use this cable but not for my connection to my PS2 since my DVD player functions far better than the console itself.

Now, if you do NOT run your Playstation2 into a receiver/home theater system, it's not a wise decision for you to buy this since it won't serve any purpose for you. (For example, if you don't use this unit to watch DVD movies or pump it through your receiver for 5.1 Dolby Digital/DTS sound. (5.1 Digital Sound has yet to be implemented in a PS2 title.)

I purchased my Z2 and couldn't wait to see the great images it could produce with 4 megs and 10x zoom. What a disappointment! I want my old Olympus 510 back. The color is horrible on the Z2. I could get the color ok by adjusting the white balance in the program modes (not using a flash), however it's not adjustable in the "Auto" mode, which also meant switching back to "Auto" for a flash shot. Also, this camera's size and shape make it totally impossible to just carry around in your pocket. I have missed way too many shots because I didn't have the camera with me.

I've had this camera for a little over a month and so far, I love it. It's got the full-auto (point-and-shoot) mode for the casual photographer/beginner, but it also has a variety of manual modes and advanced features like aperture priority, shutter priority, program mode, and full manual, as well as manual white balance for those interested in learning the art of (digital) photography.

The two built in macro modes (close and *really* close) allow for excellent close-up shots. Despite having almost no experience in photography beyond point-and-shoot cameras, I was taking pretty good macro shots my first day with it (at least that's what mom said ;). The 10x zoom is great for the long shots. The 16MB SD card is useless (pick up at least 256MB). I still carry the 16 for a spare, but at the highest image resolution, I doubt I could fit 10 pictures on it.

Do yourself a favor and buy the lens adapter ring and a UV filter for the camera. The UV filter can be had pretty cheap, won't affect picture quality, and will keep your built-in lens safe from scratches, dirt, and UV rays (evidently pretty damaging to camera equipment). And having the adapter, you'll be able to attach other filters as your need/skill grow. Oh, and get a couple of sets of rechargeable NIMH batteries too. They'll save you a lot of money. I briefly looked into the Konika-Minolta LI battery pack that's made for the camera, but being more than half the price of the camera, decided it was more expensive than I needed. At least for now.

So far, my only complaints are: the battery cover door seems pretty flimsy. I'd like to see something more substantial. And, I'm not sure the idea of the mechanical mirror used to select the view through the eyepiece or on the display screen is wise. It just seems like more mechanical parts to fail in the future. Also, the use of the eyepiece won't prolong battery life as it would in most digital cameras.

So, it's few faults aside, I give the KM Z2 a solid 5 star rating.

This camera will do everything for you except hold it in place. The auto mode does it all. I was very impressed with the battery life and BRIGHT flash. The camera is just perfect, video mode is brilliant, no noise from the camera's AF feature. The zoom, well seeing is believing, you will not believe the details that you are missing on these 2x and 3x zoom cameras. Can't wait for the next generation. Get one!

I was questioning the power of these binoculars prior to buying them. I wanted something lightweight enough for hiking, backpacking and birdwatching so I bought these. I am very pleased with the optics and recently compared these to a small pair of Nikon's my friend had paid double the money for, needless to say, the Canon 8x23's put his to shame. They had much better clarity at further distances, plus there was more viewable area with better lighting. Don't waste your money on other brands, Canon has done a great job with this product and I am going to buy a second pair for my wife. I would put these up against full size Binoculars any day, but not of course a $1K pair! Great buy for the money and you will be pleased.

It is a small but for its size it has a 6.4 field of view. If you want a quility binocular this is a fine choice...

We bought these binoculars at the last minute for our trip to Costa Rica. They are perfect for travelling as they are very light and compact. They were perfect for viewing wildlife, birds and scenery. We were very glad that we made this purchase prior to our trip. I definitely recommend these if you are looking for binoculars that are easy to use and carry.