Advantages: Boosts N64 graphics to
Disadvantages: Only a few of the later games require it.

...buying one of these games and was upset! So it's always best to check with the N64 computer game boxes if the Expansion Pak is required. You can purchase a special package which consist of Donkey Kong 64 WITH an Expansion Pak. You also get a little leaver to lift out your N64's normal memory pak so you can slot the Expansion Pak in it's place. The Expansion Pak is also very light! The only problem is I had to sell Donkey Kong and my Expansion Pak had to go with it as it was all one package! (Which automatically meant I had to say goodbye to Perfect Dark and Major'as Mask as they both required it). So it's probably best to get a Expansion Pak alone. It is worth getting the Eexpansion Pak if you KNOW you are likely to enjoy the games that REQUIRE it. It isn't worth getting just to enhance games graphics that don't require it as it doesn... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Very well built with good range of features
Disadvantages: none really - but it's not cheap !

...I bought one of these motherboard for a business system build. It was a joy to install and use. This really is the Rolls Royce of motherboards. It has a ‘Dual Bios’ that ensures that even if the first bios fails – usually a total disaster – the other one takes over. Brilliant! There is loads of room for expansion and its has several PCI and ISA slots along with an AGP slot. The manual is excellent and installing the drivers is very straightforward. The motherboard has many useful features that you won’t find on a cheaper board. Push the boat out and buy one if you want trouble free computing. Keep an eye out for any new models that will replace this model also.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Indepth Game
Disadvantages: Not all to Orginal

...Developers: Blizzard Entertainment Producers: Vivendi Universal Genre: Fantasy MMORPG Ratings: ESRB: (T) Teen PEGI: 12+ OFLC: E (Exempt) USK: 12 - Overview - With over 8 million subscribers to the orginal World of Warcraft, you would of thought Blizzard could pull an expansion pack off, and this they did very well. The Burning Crusade seems fitting for this expansion pack, it is a crusade of new features, which bring the game alive again. From the addition of two new races (Dranei and Blood Elves) to the new areas added to the game (Outlands) this expansion looks set to be an amazing expansion pack for the game of the year. - Gameplay - This expansion pack plays the same way as the main game, with a few added features. New spells for each class and new levels (Level 70 is the level cap now, instead of level 60) there is certainly... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good stable board
Disadvantages: Not many PCI slots

...Motherboards are critical to any computer. The selection is wide and the features each contains need to be closely looked at. I was building a new PC and I came across this motherboard. It is a micro ATX board so is alot smaller than any ATX board so therefore has the disadvantage of not having much opportunity for expansion. There are only three PCI slots which is fine if you do not require many but considering that a modem, soundcard and now wireless cards need PCI slots then this does not leave many options if you wish to install these. The board itself has many features and comes with onboard graphics and sound. The advantage of this is that money is saved on needing to buy a graphics card and sound card. The disadvantage of this is that if you do use the onboard graphics it uses your system memory and therefore can slow down... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Silent heatpipe, PCI express, Supports Core2Duo
Disadvantages: Price

...Excellent motherboard. This is the first motherboard that I have installed in a computer before, and did ASUS make it easy for me! The manual is very clear, and tells you where everything is. All the connectors matched up with my Akasa Zen Case connectors, which I thought was great, as since then I didn't have the same experience with a Thermaltake case. The silent heatpipe, makes this a very quiet motherboard, whereas most normal motherboards would have a rubbish little fan that gets clogged with dust and ends up making a terrible noise. If you need to have a fan on the chipset heatsink, asus provide a fan that slots on to the top of the heatsink. Aswell as the chipset fan, ASUS provide loads of other stuff. This includes USB expansion, firewire expansion, SATA cables, and more! Great if you need any of this stuff. Overall I think... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good Quality, Easy to use
Disadvantages: A bit pricey

...The Belkin 4 port USB hub is the ideal way to add additional usb ports to your computer. It plugs into 1 usb slot on your machine, and gives you 4 new ports. With it's own power supply, it can provide proper 500 mA per port power, and each port comes with it's own overload setting. As USB becomes more and more popular, this is an easy expansion method, enabling you to chain up to 127 devices together. Although a little bit more expensive than some rivals, it not only looks stylish, but can be linked together with the Busstation to give you lots of different component options. Installation was easy, as windows picks it up straight away and uses it's own drivers.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: USB sync, expansion capability, improved OS
Disadvantages: Price

...Palm's new m500 is the successor to the Vx. It looks virtually the same, although the shape is now slightly more rounded and the colour somewhat darker. So what are the new features? To list them briefly: USB synchronisation, faster processor, new operating system, and (at last) memory expansion in the form of a Secure Digital / MultiMedia Card slot. In detail: The new USB synchronisation is a long overdue development as far as Palm are concerned. The Handspring PalmOS machines have had USB synhronisation for years. This not only frees up a valuable serial port on your PC, but means faster (a *lot* faster) HotSyncs. The downside is that Palm have introduced yet another form of edge connector at the bottom of the device. There was outrage in the Palm community when they switched from the classic Palm connector (found on every... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: 1Mb cache, good brand, very stable, great chipset, wide support of CPU's, loads of expansion slots
Disadvantages: won't take my Cyrix 433 :(

...supporting motherboards. The VA-503+ is based on one of the most proven, best and reliable chipsets in the VIA MVP3. It has 4 SIMM slots and 2 DIMM slots for more flexbility if your going from an early machine. It is in the baby AT format and does bus speeds of 66,75,83,95 and 100MHz. For overclockers there are settings of 112 and 124 MHz although these aren't guarenteed by the manufacturer. The board has plenty of expansion slots with 1 AGP 2x slot, 3 PCI slots and 3 ISA slots although 1 ISA shot is shared with a PCI slot but then again who uses 3 ISA slots now. Theres only soundcards and modems that come in ISA form and these are quite rare now. Overall I have to say that this is my all time choice of socket 7 motherboards and I would recommend this above all other socket 7 boards. They are very stable and built on the best and most reliable... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: wide CPU range, 4x AGP, cheap, good make, solid board allround
Disadvantages: looks like it's had all its transistors shaved off!

...and 800Mhz. It is based around the very successful VIA KT133 chipset and has a VIA 686A southbridge chipset. There is onboard VIA sound which can be disabled in the bios if you wish to put your own better soundcard in. As for expansion slots, well as you can see from the picture there are 3 DIMM slots capable of taking PC100/PC133 SDRAM upto 1.5Gb (3 x 512Mb). There is 1 AGP slot capable of 2x/4x performance (VIA remain as the only chipset makers who can support 4x AGP). There are 5 PCI slots which is plenty to offer plenty of expansion. This board is a stable option for those wishing to upgrade to a TBird Athlon or Duron. One of the brilliant things about this board is it's very wide CPU support. You could put a 700MHz Athlon or Duron in and you've still got plenty of room to go upto a 1.1GHz Athlon when you need to and the prices have... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: VFM, Build Quality, IBM!!
Disadvantages: Lack of expansion potential

...for the hidden 2nd drive bay. Good utility software. I soon added a CD writer, and 64MB more RAM. Now, that is both of the memory slots taken up (should be ok for a couple of years though), but more worrying - all of the disk bays - 2x3.5" and 2x5.24". The CD used a SCSI card, leaving only one free expansion slot. A few months ago, I bought a digital video editing card (Pyro - see review elsewhere - it is excellent), and the last slot is used. I bought another hard disk last week, completely forgetting about the lack of bays. So I considered fabricating some kind of mounting. But then I noticed there was no spare power lead. Hmmm, buy a splitter I thought. But then I notice the miserly 100W power supply. Come on IBM, give us a little bit of scope please! I am going to buy a firewire disk cradle. That should do the trick, but it is all... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful