All the cool kids are doing it these days, yes it’s 802.11N! We have the need for speed and N is pretty much officially here, but many of our products don’t have N built-into them unless they’re fairly new. My netbook is only  a year old, but it doesn’t have N in it, so I have two choices find a compatible card  and open it up or get a USB 802.11N adapter. Siig has sent me over their Wireless-N USB-Pro Adapter for review and it’s not a bad little product overall. In addition to giving you 802.11N networks, it also has access point functionality built-in so you can allow other to connect to you and access the internet, kind of like your very own little hotspot!

Specifications:

Wireless-N USB-Pro Adapter

Easily add 802.11n high speed wireless to your desktop or notebook computer
Part #: CN-WR0212-S1

Features:
* Compliant with IEEE 802.11n draft 2.0, IEEE 802.11b/g standards
* Supports Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface
* Great for digital home entertainment, HD Video streaming, and VoIP
* Wider coverage and maximum throughput via MIMO technology
* Dual internal antenna with 2T2R feature enhances data throughput with increased transmitting range for all compatible legacy bands (802.11

b/g)
* Special Access Point feature

Specs:
-300Mbps Receiving and Transmitting PHY Rate
-Supports QoS-WMM, WMM-PS
-Supports 64/128-bit WEP, WPA, WPA2
-Supports WPS (WiFi Protected Setup)
-Supports Cisco CCX
-Dimensions: 3 1/4" x 1" x 3/8"

MSRP: $69.99

Unboxing:
This product is a USB adapter so it’s not exactly what one would call exciting when it comes to what’s in the box..

In the box you’ll find the adapter itself, USB extension cable, software/driver disc and a brief instruction manual.

The adapter has the Siig logo on the top and an ID sticker on the bottom:

There’s also a small button on the side that’s used for WPS pairing mode:

and there’s a cap on the top, it’s like a big USB drive really..

Installation, Performance, Comparison
I used the adapter with my Acer Aspire One D250 netbook, since it doesn’t have Wireless N built-in, only B/G.

Specifically it has the Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter inside.

My netbook has Windows 7 on it and when I plugged it in Windows found it and installed the drivers automatically for me, from there I was ready to go really.

There is a little very tiny green LED on it that you can barely see, so I didn’t take a picture of it, but it’s there.

If you put the included disc in, which I had to transfer to USB since the Aspire One doesn’t have an optical drive in it, you’ll find drivers and software on the disc.

The software is interesting in that it can tell you some useful information about your network, and you can change settings of the adapter, but you don’t have to use it.

This adapter though does have Access Point Functionality to it so you can use it to let others access the internet through you. This is a useful function really that I think should be on more products.

Here’s what the interface looks like, there’s several tabs across the top.

You can also expand it to show the connection information:

My network is Gigabit and my 802.11n router is connected directly to my gigabit switch.

Basically to test this I compared the 802.11g card that’s built-in to my netbook to the Siig 802.11n USB adapter.

I used SiSoft Sandra 2010 Wi-Fi Test:

Wireless (WLAN/WWAN)

Benchmark the wireless bandwidth of your computer.

The test uses the ICMP (ping/echo) interface to measure the response time and transfer bandwidth to an access point.

No pretty graphs today, just data.

Here’s the results for the Atheros 802.11G test:

Benchmark Results
Data Bandwidth : 2.75MB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.
Data Latency : 1.24ms
Results Interpretation : Lower index values are better.

Then here is using the Siig 802.11N USB adapter:

Benchmark Results
Data Bandwidth : 3.68MB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.
Data Latency : 7.37ms
Results Interpretation : Lower index values are better.

The latency is a bit higher with the Siig adapter, but we’re talking milliseconds so that’s not too big of a deal.

The bandwidth though is higher with the 802.11N connection, not exactly double, but it’s faster.

The SiSoft Sandra test works, but I wanted a real-world test so what I did was transfer a file from my NAS box to the netbook and see how long took and got the average speed as well.

The file is a 900MB .TS video file.

802.11G:

Average Speed: 2,526.9 KB/s

Time to transfer: 6 min 8sec

802.11N:

Average Speed: 4,711.6 KB/s

Time to transfer: 3 min 17sec

So it took almost exactly half the time to transfer the same file via the Siig 802.11N USB adapter. Not bad.

We all know that the speeds companies say you  should get a theoretical at best and only possible in the most optimum situations. I’ve never hit gigabit speeds on my wired network, no matter what I tried, even with Cat6 cabling I couldn’t hit those speeds. I think effectively doubling the speed when going from G to N isn’t bad at all really.

As far as range is concerned, my router is living room on the first floor of my house.

I’ve never had a problem with range in my home with the 802.11G network, I can go to the 3rd floor, or attic and have a signal. Using the the 802.11N adapter though the signal seemed stronger, really not much of a difference there overall.

I was going to mention that I thought price of $70 for this was a little high, but then I went and priced these things and they range from $20 up to $100 and sometimes more for them depending where you look. This one from Siig though offers access point functionality as well.

Conclusion:
The Siig Wireless-N USB-Pro Adapter works great really, I see no problems with it honestly. It’s small, it’s portable and it’s USB so you can use it with virtually anything. I like the UBS adapter better because it’s not permanent, and I can use it with something else if I need to.

The access point functionality is a nice feature, you can let other connect to your own little hotspot and share your connection. It has all the other common security features as well built right in.

You’re never going to get the rated speeds out of any of these types of networking products, so getting double the speed is good in my book. 

Pros:
+Access point functionality built-in 
+Quick and easy setup 
+Double the speeds of 802.11g

Cons:
-None really

Ratings
Overall: 5 out of 5
Performance: 5 out of 5
Aesthetic: 5 out of 5
Build Quality: 5 out of 5

Disclosure: http://www.bonafidereviews.com/disclosure-policy/

Today I have what I believe is the first review for the product that I have, and that product is the new Arctic Sound S111 USB speakers from Arctic Cooling or Arctic as they are just known now. These speakers are meant to be an accompaniment to a laptop or netbook, or even as desktop speakers and can possibly be used with an MP3 player as well to help take your music on the go. They’re small and portable, but they are well made and honestly they sound very good.

Specifications:

Arctic Sound S111 Speakers

In totally different dimensions, the lightweight ARCTIC SOUND S111 is situated. The 2 * 2 watts speakers are ideal for mobile use: In combination with an ARCTIC POWER C1 Mobile you get a complete, powergrid-independent sound system on the move, e.g. for bringing your music to the beach.

Features:
-Compact dice-shaped speakers – portable, lightweight
-Balanced vocals and bass for natural sound response
-Built-in volume control
-USB-powered
-3.5mm jack – compatible with computers, MP3, DVD, CD players

Specs:
Model Number: Arctic Sound S111

Specification
Frequency Response: 50Hz – 25kHz
Impedance: 4
Output Power: 4W (2W x 2) RMS
Cable: 1m with 3.5mm Stereo Plug

Dimensions: 70 x 70 x 70mm
Weight: 494g

Unboxing:
The Arctic Sound S111 speakers come in a nice little box and they are packaged very well:

(Just an FYI, these are so new that as of now they aren’t even listed on the Arctic Cooling website yet, so the link above just links to their site. When they do I’ll update with the new link of course..)

The speakers themselves are small little cubes with a single large speaker on the front. They are made of plastic so they are lightweight, but they do feel well made.

To give you an idea of how big or how small they are, here they are with my AT&T Tilt cell phone:

The speakers do not come connected together, you’ll have to connect the left speaker to the right one via the RCA style cable. On the right speaker is that input, and the 3.5mm audio jack cable comes out of it along with the USB power cable. On the right speaker you’ll also find a very large volume control knob or disc really. The size of the volume control makes it very easy to adjust the volume without having to look for it, you can just reach back there and feel it for quick and easy adjustments.

Installation, Performance, Comparison
There’s not much at all to the installation of the Arctic Sound S111, the USB is power and the 3.5mm audio jack is for audio obviously. To test them out I hooked them up to my Acer Aspire One D250. The speakers in the Aspire one are not the greatest, but they work, but I like decent sound so using the S111 speakers improved things quite a bit.

Both the audio and USB cords are nice and long so you won’t have to worry about them not reaching where you need them to go.

I really like the very large volume control knob on the back of the speakers, it’s very easy to reach, you don’t even have to look for it, you can easily feel it with your hands.

Now I’m sure you noticed that there’s essentially only one speaker in each housing so you’re not going to get the full range of sound like you might when you have individual speakers in the housings.

Despite the fact that there’s only one speaker the sound is surprisingly good, especially considering the size of the them. They offer decent bass and even a bit  of treble in there, they offer a nice balanced and full sound truly.

The only issue I might have with these speakers is that there is no protection on them like a grill on the front. These are meant to be taken with you, and I’d be hesitant about just tossing them in a bag with other stuff for fear they might get damaged. I would much prefer some sort of protection on them.

Some of the Arctic products are meant to work together, like you can get their USB/AC Adapter, the Arctic C1 to power these speakers for use with like an MP3 player.

Arctic also sent me their new Arctic C1 Mobile solar charger for review as well, that review though will be on another site, but you can use that solar charge with your MP4 player to power the speakers and take your music on the go.

Here are the S111 speakers with the C1 Mobile and my iPod nano 5th:

It works great truly..

Conclusion:
Arctic Cooling is most well know for their cooling obviously, but they are diversifying into other areas like power and sound, and they seem to know what they’re doing.  If they keep producing quality products like the S111 they will succeed surely.

The Arctic Sound S111 speakers offer a nice balanced sound in a small, portable package. I’m truly impressed by the decent sound these speakers can produce. They can get nice and loud with little to no distortion. They would make a great replacement for the mediocre speakers that usually come with laptops and netbooks.

Since the S111 speakers are so small you can easily take them with you if need be.

I’ll be happily using this as an accompaniment to my laptop or maybe I’ll use them with my secondary desktop setup even. I’m not too sure about taking them with me, as I said I don’t like the fact that there is no protection on the front of them.

Pros:
+Decent sound for such little speakers
+Simple and easy to use
+Seem well made
+Small and portable

Cons:
-No protection for front speakers

Ratings
Overall: 4 out of 5
Performance: 5 out of 5
Aesthetic: 5 out of 5
Build Quality: 4 out of 5

Disclosure: http://www.bonafidereviews.com/disclosure-policy/

Today for review our friends at Geeks.com have sent me over a very stylish and well made Notebook bag from Brenthaven. It’s called the Stylis II-XF and this thing is not only very well made, it has tons of pockets so you’ll be able to carry pretty much anything you need for your day or a few days. The entire bag is padded on all side so it offers a great deal of protection for your laptop and everything else inside. It’s a low priced bag with features you’ll find on bags costing much, much more.

Specifications:

Brenthaven Stylis III-XF TV289ZM/A X-Ray Friendly Nylon Notebook Case w/Shoulder Strap – Fits up to 17" (Black)

This Brenthaven TV289ZM/A Stylis III-XF Laptop Shoulder Case is exactly what you need for your indispensable laptop. As careful as you may be with your things, it’s always better to be safe than sorry! This bag comes in a professional black color with a multitude of pockets, which are perfect for all sorts of your personal belongings from your business cards, keys, magazines, pens and CDs to your cell phone!

General Features:
-X-Ray Friendly
-Metallic Zippers
-Pen/Pencil slots 
-CD/DVD media slots
-Completely PVC free!
-Extremely Lightweight
-Media Filing Compartment
-Hide-away cell phone pocket
-Jet Black Durable Nylon Exterior
-Business Card/Identification card slot
-Adjustable Mesh Padded Shoulder Strap
-Custom fit for your notebook up to 17-inches
-5-Side High Density Foam Protection System
-Perfect for the commuter who seeks comfort 
-The perfect combination of style and protection
-Case butterflies open for ease through airport security
-Ergonomic Handle wrapped in leather for easy carrying
-Back pocket with 9-inch bottom zipper for wheeled case
-Front Organizer Panel with multiple pockets for accessories
-Back Slip Pocket accommodates newspapers, magazines and files
-"Zero Impact" which means Brenthaven promises to invest in Green projects

Dimensions:
-External: 13.5 x 17.5 x 4.5-inches (H x W x D, approximate)
-Internal: 11.75 x 15.25 x 1.5-inches (H x W x D, approximate)
-Weight: 2.5 lbs

The Review:
I thought I would do this review a bit differently, it’s a bag and it’s hard to really show you in pictures all about it so I thought a video tour of the bag and some still pictures would work better for this product

The bag just comes in a plastic bag, no special packaging.

This bag has more than enough pockets for everything. There are three large interior pockets and one fairly large outside pocket that has several compartments in it for pens, pencils, ID/Business cards and a cell phone pocket along with other pockets. There is padding all around the bag and in between each of the large interior spaces as well, so you can put your laptop in which ever one you want.

I put my Acer Aspire 15.6” laptop in here and it fit just fine, this bag will accommodate up to 17” in size.

There is a shoulder strap that is padded for comfort. it clips to the sides of the bag with the metal clips. The clips on both the bag and strap seem very strong so you shouldn’t have to worry about that..

So here’s the video tour for you, or video review I guess you could say:

All in all this bag is very nice especially the price, listing on Geeks for $37.99 it’s well worth it. I have bags that cost over $200 and this one is comparable to those, and this Brenthaven bag has more room and more pockets for stuff.

Conclusion:
If you’re looking for a very well made and inexpensive bag for your laptop then you’ll want to be sure to give this one a look.

Seriously, I’m truly surprised by this bag, it offers tons of room and good protection as well. I can easily see this bag selling for more than double the listed price.

Since it’s X-Ray friendly you won’t have much trouble at the airport either, at least you shouldn’t anyway.

Pros:
+Tons of room with lots of pockets
+Very well padded
+Comfortable for long periods of use
+Seems well made

Cons:
-None really

Ratings
Overall: 5 out of 5
Performance: 5 out of 5
Aesthetic: 5 out of 5
Build Quality: 5 out of 5

Disclosure: This product was given to Bona Fide Reviews for review by the company for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for the review, we do not, and never will, accept payment from companies to review their products.

Laptops and netbooks are great products, they allow us to take our computer with us easily to do work or just to entertain us. Like any computer though heat is an enemy and it’s best to keep things as cool as possible.

Today for review I’ve got the NZXT Cryo S Notebook Cooler that works very well at keeping your laptop or netbooks cool. I’ve tested it out with two netbooks I’ve got on hand and it performed very well. The Cryo S is all aluminum and has two built-in 120mm fans along with a USB hub and dual power options. So continue on to learn more…

Specifications/Features:

CRYO S Notebook Cooler

15″ Aluminum notebook cooler

Built with thick, brushed aluminum, the Cryo S houses two adjustable 120mm fans that provide powerful cooling to any notebook up to 15 inches. Its rubber finish lifts the notebook up slightly to remove heat pockets and enhance airflow. The Cryo S can be powered via USB or the included AC adaptor and provides two additional USB ports to give users even more options for media, storage and input devices.

Features:
* Built with 3mm thick aluminum with sturdy construction
* Cools your notebook with two controllable 120mm fans
* Two USB ports for your input and usb thumb drives
* None slip rubberized plastic surface keeps notebooks from sliding
* Tilted surface allows for comfortable and relaxed typing
* Support for all types of notebooks from netbooks to 15″ notebooks
* Ideal for eliminating and reducing heat in performance notebooks

Unboxing:

For the unboxing I’ve got a video for you instead of a bunch of pictures with stuff to read..

I do have still pictures as well though under the video.

Installation, Performance, Comparison:

There’s not much to the installation process, just set your notebook or netbook on it and plug it in via AC power or USB power and then use the USB cable to connect up the USB hub if you wish.

Here’s a few pictures of three netbooks and a laptop on the Cryo S:

For testing I used the OCZ Neutrino and the Acer Aspire One D250 netbooks.

Ambient room temperature during testing was 22C (+/- .3c).

I tested the netbooks first on the table, then on the Cryo S with the fans off and then with the fans on to see what the differences were.

I used CoreTemp to record and log the temperatures and then they were averaged out.

To get the Idle temperature I turned them and and let them sit for 30 minutes doing nothing but running Windows Processes, just like when you turn your system on.

To get load I used Orthos Stress Prime for the same amount of time. Using Orthos stresses the CPU to 100%, so the temperatures we get are the extreme end of the CPU load spectrum. Most likely you won’t be using 100% CPU for 30 minutes straight. Doing this test though allows us to really get an idea of how well the Cryo S cools the netbooks.

First up is the Acer Aspire One D250:

As you can see there isn’t much of a difference between the Idle temperatures, but there is a three degree drop when going from the table to the Cryo S with the fans turned on. The big temperature drop is the six degree difference between the table and the Cryo S with the fans on while the system is under load. Six degrees lower isn’t bad at all.

Next is the OCZ Neutrino results:

Each netbook or laptop is designed differently so the cooling performance of the Cryo S or any cooler will vary between systems. Here we can see a five degree drop for the Idle temperature when going from the table to the Cryo S with the fans on, but only a three degree drop when under load.

Still though a three degree drop proves that the Cryo S does work.

The fan of the Cryo S are a bit loud when turned on full, lowering them to about the middle settings makes them almost silent and really didn’t have much of an impact on performance, about one degree higher actually.

As far as battery life is concerned, the Cryo S did seem to drain the battery a bit quicker than without using it but not much quicker. You can opt for using the included AC adapter instead of power from your computer to run the fans.

Conclusion:
The NZXT Cryo S works well, but it of course depends on the laptop or netbook you’re using. Every laptop and netbook is made differently so your results will vary, but from what I can see the Cryo S does work well at keeping a computer cool.

The Cryo S though is a bit large and rather heavy really to be taking with you, it would work well for someone who intends to leave it in one place though.

The fans are a bit loud on high, but you can lower them and you won’t decrease performance much.

I like the idea of having a dual power option, that way you won’t have to worry about running down your battery at all.

Pros:
+Works well
+Quiet on low speeds with minimal performance difference
+Very well made
+Included AC Adapter for power

Cons:
-A bit heavy and large
-Fans are rather loud on high

Overall: 4 out of 5
Performance: 5
Aesthetic: 4
Build Quality: 5

I would like to thank NZXT for the opportunity to review the Cryo S and for their support of Bona Fide Reviews.