Microsoft Digital Pro Keyboard | Wired Touch Typist Friendly Multimedia Keyboard with Programmable Buttons
Written by Admin on May 10, 2008
The Microsoft’s Digital pro Keyboard is the cheapest keyboard that you may well find in Microsoft’s line of keyboards. Regardless of it being the cheapest, it has one of the best ‘feels’ when typing giving you the confidence not to make mistakes and become a better touch typist. If you’re wanting to learn how to touch type this would be a brilliant keyboard to learn from.
The keyboard also offers a lot of extra buttons such as the play/pause button, the volume button, five other programmable buttons and many others. One of the handiest buttons on the keyboard is the Calculator button which situated next to the numeric pad and the multimedia buttons are great for listening to music while you are working because you don’t have to stop the flow of typing and reaching for the mouse.
One of the great things about this keyboard, apart from its price of course, is the programmable buttons which are configurable through the software provided on the CD, although the Keyboard was first made available in 2004 so it would be an idea to check the website for the updated divers.
If you’re a Mac user, good news as unbelievably Microsoft has allowed you to use it on a Mac with everything working perfectly. The drivers given are fully compatible with Mac and work the same as in a Windows-powered PC. The only difference of course is the buttons that are different on a Mac keyboard, such as the Windows key but that isn’t anything to worry about.
As with any product there are of course draw backs, although they are quite small problems. One that stands out straight away is the position of the cable, it’s on the far left of the keyboard. Depending on how far away your tower is this could cause problems if your computer tower is on the right of you as it will stretch and twist the cable.
More Info on the Microsoft Digital Pro Keyboard
- More info on the Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard on Amazon
- Microsoft Digital Media Pro on Newegg
- Find the Microsoft Digital Pro Cheap on Ebay
Posted in: Keyboard
Kensington Slim Type Keyboard 64365 | Notebook Styled Keyboard with Chrome Finish
Written by Admin on May 2, 2008
If you use notebooks a lot then you might find it hard going back to regular keyboards where you have to press the keys in much further for them to activate. The Kensington 64365 slim type keyboard addresses this problem, needing only light touches to press the keys. This is because the keyboard is incredibly thin standing at 1inch when they stands are up.
The design of the keyboard is incredibly sleek, and with a chrome finish it looks very stylish. Problem is though, with extended use many people have reported that the sliver strip wears off exposing the plastic underneath.
Although the design of the notebook styled keyboard is to be as compact and as small as possible, it is large enough for normal use, unlike notebook keyboards that are cramped and can feel unnatural. The keyboard even has room for extra hot keys that perform functions such as, setting the computer to sleep, opening the calculator, volume control and a few others.
To save room on the keyboard the layout has been shifted a bit compared to a standard keyboard which will take a bit of getting used to. The Insert, Home, Delete, End, Page up and Page Down keys have all been moved to a straight vertical line and the arrow keys have been partially moved bellow the right Ctrl key, this could be problematic to some especially if you use those keys a lot.
Overall its a great keyboard, with some finishing issues. If you don’t mind the the layout change and the chrome color wearing off then this keyboard is great for all recovering notebook users which is recommended by a lot of satisfied customers
More Info on the Kensington Slim Type Keyboard
- Kensington Slim Type Keyboard on Amazon
- The Kensington Slim Type Keyboard on Newegg
- The Slim Type Keyboard on TheNerds.net
Posted in: Hardware
Asus Striker II Formula | High End Gaming Motherboard with Tripple SLI Support 780i Chipset
Written by Admin on May 1, 2008
The Asus Striker II is one of the more expensive and feature packed motherboards on the market, primarily aimed at gamers it has the nVidia 780i Northbridge chipset, one of the better chipsets out there. Its simple and easy to overclock and has three PCI Express x16 slots using the nForce 200 chipset which means that its ready for triple SLI which you can use with the latest nVidia cards the Geforce9800.
There are a lot of cooling features on this motherboard which make it ideal for gaming systems that produce a lot of heat. The Northbridge is covered by a heatsink that uses pin fin technology which is better than the old stacked fin. The Striker II Formula also features quite a large heatpipe and heatsink that begins at the Southbridge , goes around the at the 780i chipset and ends at the heat circuits. Unfortunately there isn’t support for watercooling for the Northbridge, which is a shame since it’s the output for all three chipsets.
With the Asus Striker II you get SupremeFX II which is supposed to be “excellent high definition audio” but I wasn’t really impressed it’s just a slightly better version of standard onboard sound drivers and with you paying a good amount for the motherboard I’m sure you can invest in buying a better sound card.
Overall though the Asus Striker II Formula is good value for money for the features you get, this is considerably due to the massive customer support you get from ASUS as usual. If you’re a heavy gamer and like to have plenty of room to overclock then this Motherboard is likely to be right up your street.
More Info about the ASUS Striker II Formula
Posted in: Asus, Motherboard
