StarTech.com Aluminium Mesh Top USB Power Laptop Cooler
with Built-in Fan
The aim of this device is to sit underneath
your laptop and keep it cool. It has a pretty standard design, but it gets the
job done. Having the USB cable tuck underneath the tray is a good idea, but the
tray itself is rather small, so most laptops with 15-inch screens and above
will stick out over the edges. Unlike some coolers we’ve seen, there’s no
cushion for using it on your lap - this is for desk use only. Crucially there
is very little noise from the additional fan when in use, and after only a few minutes
the temperature of our laptop dropped a couple of degrees.
Overall, this is a useful, if not stylish
device, much as its name implies.
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Details
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Price:
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$36
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Ratings:
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3/4
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Website:
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www.startech.com
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Gigabyte Force M9 Ice
The Gigabyte Force M9 Ice is quite large,
but comfortable to hold. It’s also reassuringly weighty and feels well made.
The Ice technology means it will work on virtually any surface. We tried it on
wood, glass, cloth and carpet, and it didn’t miss a beat.
The Force M9 Ice comes with seven buttons,
including the usual suspects like two side buttons that by default flick
between web pages. A DPI switch lets you change the sensitivity of the mouse on
the fly, with four presets. You can also download a separate program called Sim
from the Gigabyte website (www.gigabyte.com), which offers more advanced
customisation. Not all the buttons can be configured, however, and you don’t
get the depth of customisation that we’ve seen in other gaming mice.
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Details
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Price:
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$59
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Ratings:
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4/5
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Website:
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www.gigabyte.com
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j5 Create Ultra Station JUD500
The j5 Create Ultra Station JUD500 has a
simple, but ambitious aim: to transform your laptop into an almost
fully-featured PC. It does this by expanding the laptop’s connectivity, with
one USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, along with HDMI, VGA, headphone, microphone
and Ethernet sockets. It’s an easy way to connect a full-sized keyboard, mouse
and monitor to your laptop, and makes working on for long periods of time more comfortable.
It’s not a dock though, so you can’t charge your laptop from it.
One of the JUD500’s best features is the
Wormhole technology, which allows you to turn it into a KVM (keyboard, video
and mouse) switch for two PCs, letting you share a single keyboard, mouse and
monitor between the two without having to unplug anything.
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Details
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Price:
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$150
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Ratings:
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4/5
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Website:
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www.j5create.com
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Creative Ziisound D3x
This is a simple Bluetooth soundbar, and
connecting a device like an iPhone is very easy. You press and hold the
‘Connect’ button to make it discoverable, then pair it with an iPhone by
turning turning on Bluetooth and clicking the speaker’s name. We didn’t even
need to enter a passcode, though some devices might ask you to enter the
default value of 0000.
Once connected, the sound was good and the
diminutive bar was capable of decent volume. There was good bass too - not
enough to shake the walls, but enough to give the music some depth. Elsewhere
the music was slightly flat, and as you’d expect from a single speaker bar, the
lack of stereo gave it a slightly claustrophobic feel. However, the ‘Link’
button allows you to connect a further two Creative Ziisound D3x units, so you
effectively have left, centre and right speakers. You can also add a wireless
subwoofer to increase the sound quality.
So what we have here is an easily scalable
wireless sound system that you can add to as you see fit. However, at almost
$180 a unit, getting three of them and a subwoofer is going to be very
expensive.
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Details
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Price:
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$210
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Ratings:
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3/5
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Website:
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www.creative.com
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KVM switches
Having more than one PC doesn’t mean you
need extra peripherals too. A KVM switch (keyboard, video and mouse) lets you
plug two or more PCs into one monitor, keyboard and mouse. You can then quickly
switch between PCs either by pressing a button on the KVM switch, or through a
keyboard shortcut. Other features worth keeping an eye out for are audio, file
and clipboard switching. Those last two features are great for quickly copying
files and other items from one PC to another.
KVM switches can be great little devices
that save you time, money and space, but a word of caution: in our many years
of testing and reviewing hardware, we’ve found that quite a few begin to fail
after a year or so. We therefore recommend checking out reviews before you buy,
as people who have been using them for a long time and had problems will warn
you.
