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One thing I appreciate about the quality of products of homegrown brands is that it usually does not let me down. I have used several Creative products over the years - keyboards, mice and even MP3 players. My most recent aquisition is no exception, and I have been very pleased with the audio quality of the Creative Inspire M5300 5.1 speaker set.

As with other Creative products, this product is competitively-priced. Juxtaposed with other equivalent 5.1 surround sound speaker systems, the Inspire M5300 is a good buy. This is especially so after hearing the sounds that it produces. It is retailing now at S$150, which is approximately US$90. This is one cost-effective set of home theatre entertainment system!

Coinciding with the launch of its Audigy sound cards, the Inspire 5.1 was touted as one of the wallet-friendly home entertainment systems available on the market. Even when used with a computer for both gaming and entertainment purposes, this is considered a quality but affordable speaker set, especially when used with a compatible sound card. This stylish speaker set is ideal for use in a medium-sized room for computer usage. The 5 speakers can be distributed to provide even surround sound. According to Creative, best performance can be obtained when used in conjunction with an Audigy sound card.

Installation is a breeze. All the speakers, firstly, have to be cabled to the subwoofer. Next the subwoofer has to be jacked to the on-board sound card for a computer. The jacks are colour-coded so there need not be any worries about plugging the wrong jack into the slots. Using the sound card software on the computer (even non-Creative sound cards), performance of the speakers can be tweaked to the user's preference to maximize audio enjoyment. This set even comes with a wired remote control with a power switch. The master volume and balance of the speakers can be adjusted from the remote, which can be placed in a convenient location, saving the need of having to search out the satellite speaker or subwoofer to adjust volume.

Quality-wise, the Creative Inspire M5300 delivers a decent but not brilliant performance. The subwoofer actually lacks the depth in sound; it does not have that powerful resonating feel. Turning up the bass helps, but tweak it too high and risk the sound quality becoming 'echo-ish'. The subwoofer of the JBL Invader 4.1 system actually performs better than this one. With regards to the satellite speakers, they perform up to standard, providing clear and resounding tones. However, turning up the volume more than 75% will cause significant distortion to sound quality, but this is forgivable in my opinion. Usually, users would not need to tune the volume up that high.

Looks-wise, the Creative Inspire M5300 is a stylish set of speakers. In contrast with JBL's smooth curves and shiny shades, Creative opts for a sinister all-black finish and boxy angles for the speakers. The colour theme would be matching with most computers. The subwoofer also has a wooden enclosure. This was a pleasant surprise, as not only it looks good aesthetically, but wood also improves the sound quality.

Music playback on this system would pose no problems; in fact, it would be rather enjoyable. However, this system might be just a tad lacking for DVD movies playback, especially in the subwoofer department. Watching action flicks are not as enjoyable - the "boom's" are spectacular on this subwoofer. Also, I did not like the fact that Creative did not bother to include the useful speaker stands in the package, but are instead available separately for sale.

Despite certain minor letdowns in the overall performance of the Creative Inspire M5300, it is still an above-average speaker system for the price range. The audio-fussy would be more satisfied with higher end ranges like the Megaworks, but for the ordinary computer home users like me and you, the Creative Inspire 5.1 M5300 would be great value for money.

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Razer Lycosa gaming keyboard - featuring a slick all black exterior and fearsome LED keys, this exclusive Razer gaming peripheral is the best we have seen yet from the world renowned gaming company. Sporting features even the Tarantula does not possess, this keyboard should be on the very top of every gamer's wish list.

Like the Lachesis and Tarantula, this keyboard is named after a type of nocturnal and venomous wolf spiders. The Lycosidae have good eyesight and are capable of rapid movement to retreat as well as to attack.

The first thing that attracted me to the Razer Lycosa was the keys. I find it very apt that this keyboard was named after a nocturnal arachnid. The Lycosa features adjustable backlighting for every single key. Once plugged in, the entire keyboard lights up with a menacing blue hue. The WSAD keys are further illuminated, brighter than the surrounding keys, designed in mind for First Person Shooters (FPS) players gaming in low-light conditions. This unfair advantage in low-light environment can prove to be the deciding factor in competitive games.

Another apparent feature is the Lycosa's compact design. It is less than 47cm long and about 22cm wide inclusive of the wrist rest. It is extremely lightweight, the perfect keyboard to bring for LAN parties and gaming outings. My favourite part of the Lycosa is the non-slip rubber keytop finishing. Unlike the plastic feel of normal keys, Lycosa keys prevent any accidental slipping and hitting of wrong buttons. The rubber finish makes typing and hardcore mashing of keys very much easier and very much more comfortable.

Similar to the Tarantula, all keys are fully customizable. Macro keystrokes as well as other buttons can be bound to each individual key and as such, each of the keys have the potential to become helpful hotkeys. The Lycosa's onboard memory allows the key configurations to be saved to a profile and allow users to load different profiles with the respective programs. Another useful function is the ability to turn off the annoying Windows key. Often games are interrupted by the accidental touch of the Windows key, bringing the user back to the desktop. This problem can be avoided by shutting off the Windows keys during gameplay. Also boasting a touch panel, the Lycosa offers convenient access to multimedia functions. The Lycosa offers users the highly dependable anti-ghosting capability that is characteristic of Razer keyboards. This effectively eliminates lag or unresponsiveness from keys and is a very crucial function in fast paced games like FPSs.

After going through detailed specifications for both the Razer Tarantula and Moshi Celesta in my previous reviews, the Razer Lycosa is actually my favourite choice. The Lycosa is a mix of the pros of both the Celesta and Tarantula - the flat keys, rubber keytop, anti-ghosting capability, customization functions and so on. The compactness of the gadget also means that it will not hog up space on my desk, it even frees up one USB port for my mouse (it has a USB port and headphone jacks attached).

Despite the numerous useful functions and features, the Lycosa does have its rants. On the very top would be the considerable price tag. For a casual gamer, this price tag would not be justified by the uses of the Lycosa. Furthermore, the earlier versions of the keyboard had ridiculous bugs and glitches. The key lighting would dim and fade off by itself, keys would not respond and the keyboard cannot be detected. Luckily many of these problems have been rectified by Razer firmware and users now get to fully enjoy the Lycosa without the irritation of the numerous glitches.

The Razer Lycosa gaming keyboard is one of the quietest keyboards I've ever used, and it has comparable key response times in juxtaposition to high end gaming gadgets like the Razer Tarantula and the Logitech G15. This is definitely a handy asset for gamers and its advantages far outweigh the potential problems that it might cause.

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Many might be wondering why I'm bothering to do a write-up on a 3-year-old, GSM cell phone from Nokia. Recently, my Samsung U700 was sent to service for some hardware problem and I had to rely on my old Nokia 7270 as my only means of mobile communication. Imagine, downgrading from a stylish 3G mobile phone with a 3.2 megapixel camera to a blocky GSM one with only a VGA camera; most people would not be pleased with this transition. However, as I found out, things were not as bleak.

During these weeks when I had to make use of the 7270, I realized that this was a very reliable and durable mobile phone. This phone model was launched in early 2005 - that's 3 years ago! At the current rate that mobile phones are launching and disappearing, being sufficiently useful even after 3 years is actually quite an astonishing feat. SMS functions are standard; this keypad is actually my favourite out of all the phones I have used. I have never used a better keypad, be it in practical terms of aesthetic. There was no problem for me typing text messages without looking at the keypad. Calling functions are standard, with good audio clarity. Call logs and other features are standard functions in a Nokia phone and still remain extremely useful.

To my surprise, this phone actually supports MP3 playback. I remembered during that time, MP3 playback was recently introduced into mobile phones and the feature was so sensationally hyped up. Thus, this phone spared me the embarrassment of using a MIDI ringtone while my U700 was on hiatus. The VGA camera, though, was a horror to use. In this day and age, where integrated cameras in mobile phones are almost or even on par with quality and performance of a digital camera, this VGA produces some photographs of abhorrent quality. Anyone who is still using this phone can give the camera a skip.

One downside that I discovered after a few hours is the incompatibility between 3G SIM cards and GSM phones. My 3G SIM card could hold up to 1000 contacts and profiles, however when used in the 7270, it only displays the first 250 contacts that were saved (non-3G SIM cards have a 250 contact limitation). Also, its extremely limited phone memory means weekly clearing of the message inbox and outbox, this is a particular hindrance if the user is a hardcore 'text-er'.

Despite its humble appearance, Nokia 7270 is a very durable basic cell phone. It has satisfactory calling and messaging features, as well as a GPRS WAP browser. It even has a changeable skin - choose from either black or red velvet skins or just opt for a bare metal outlook. The features are no match for many of the phones in the market today but this remains my ideal choice as a spare, backbone phone.

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Western Digital Raptors have been widely accepted as one of the fastest standard-grade computer desktop hard drives produced. It is the choice of hard drives for innumerable computer enthusiasts as it offers reliable and fast performance and I feel that this range of drives should not just be confined to the realms of enthusiasts. With the remarkable performance boost that it can deliver, I believe that it would be widely accepted by the masses.

To the uninitiated, the Raptors have an average spindle speed of 10,000 (revolutions per minute). This is considerably faster than average drives from Seagate or Samsung (for example) which spin at an average of 7,200rpm. What this means, in simple terms, is that these drives are fast. These drives have above average seek and access times (at 4.6ms), which effectively abolishes problems of lag on slower drives. If you are facing the problem of slow loading times in Windows, or taking forever to open folders, a Raptor would be your panacea.

In the enthusiast/DIY arena, Raptors are often used in pairs, linked with each other in a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) array. In a RAID array, two drives are used in conjunction with each other to perform various tasks. For example, a RAID-0 array links the two drives together, combining their capacities and producing one extremely fast hard drive. A RAID-1 array combines two disks into one, forming a drive with only the capacity of one disk. However, data is mirrored on both disks, which means that even if one disk fails, no data is lost. Installing two Raptors on a RAID-0 is a very popular path that enthusiasts choose. Raptors are already incredibly fast on their own, but leaving them in RAID-0 makes them even faster. As you would have realized by this point, Western Digital Raptors are all about speed.

Of course, the obvious benefits would come at a price. In the case of the Raptor, it comes with various downsides. There are only 3 kinds of Raptor capacities - 36GB, 74GB and 150GB (a 300GB will be launched soon, but will not be covered as it will not be classified under the same category as these Raptors). For storage demands now, 36GB and 74GB drives are abhorrently minute, even 150GB is considered small. However, most users would argue that Raptors are built for speed, not storage, as most would have a second hard drive for storage of data and use the Raptor specifically for programs and the operating system.

Furthermore, the Raptors are pricey - a 36GB Raptor's price is equivalent to that of a 500GB Samsung drive. The cost per gigabyte ratio is horrendously high and some might not feel that this justifies the performance boost. This is especially so when other competitors are constantly improving their drives. While none have been able to match up to a consumer-grade drive of 10,000rpm, modern hard disk drives now are still plenty fast and with a huge storage capacity to boot.

Another minor qualm with regards to the Western Digital Raptor is that it is one noisy drive. Due to its blistering spindle speed, it emits a high-pitched whine every time it seeks out data. Though nothing substantial, it is still an annoyance. Despite this fact, I would still highly recommend this to the average consumers. I never regretted the performance increase, since I do admit that I am an impatient person. I never liked waiting too long for my computer to boot up, and the Raptor has alleviated much of this concern. I believe that the performance increase does make up for the shortcomings and this is indeed a recommended buy. Just remember, do your de-fragmentation of your drives in the day - you would not want to be kept awake by its perpetual whine.

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The Nokia N82 is the much anticipated successor of the highly successful N73. On my first glance, the N82 looked like an oversized, cumbersome piece of shiny candy-bar (I still do think that it is) and without any doubt, the N82 is the most blocky and angular phone in Nokia's N-series. Despite the awkward and bulky appearance, this phone is the phone that I'd recommend to my friends as its rich features more than make up for its ungainly looks.

The N82 features an elongated screen with rows of narrow, rectangular buttons below the screen. It looks cumbersome compared to the sleeker phones from the N-series as well as Samsung's stylish sliders and Sony-Ericsson's sleek and masculine shapes. However, the interface is user-friendly, as is the case with all Nokia sets. The buttons may seem intimidating to text on but they are actually sufficiently spaced out and protrudes from the keypad enough to make typing text messages a breeze. This is definitely an improvement over similarly-designed keys on Sony-Ericsson phones. The all-silver casing is sleek and the weight of the phone is distributed evenly, preventing the problem of it slipping out of your grip.

The most impressive feature has got to be the 5-megapixel camera with auto focus ability and Carl Zeiss optics. The 5-megapixel camera will guarantee focused and excellent photograph quality - edges are sharp and colours are accurate. This camera is similar to that on the more pricey N95 8GB. The camera is further equipped with a Xenon flash, which cements the position of the N82 camera as one of the best ones in the market. Taking pictures in the dark will not pose a problem for this powerful flash mechanism. Also, the video recorder is impressive, recording at a rate of 30 frames per second.

The other significant multimedia function is the music player. The media player can be easily accessed by depressing the multimedia key. Its functioning is simple enough, adding files into the playlist from your library. The N82 package includes a 2GB memory card which will ensure that there is plenty of space to store MP3s for either listening pleasure or for binding MP3 tunes to caller groups.

The Nokia N82 supports the Symbian operating system. The N82 synchronizes easily with your computer through Nokia's PC Suite software - syncing your Outlook email contacts, notes, picture and video files can be done without hassle. If you switched to the N82 from a phone that uses a similar OS, data can be relocated over to the N82 through the onboard Switch application. With the N82, it is possible to read Microsoft Office documents like Word and Excel; however the shortfall of the N82 is that it lacks the necessary software to write and create these kinds of Office documents.

Connectivity and reception-wise, the N82 is formidable. Call quality is clear and crisp with excellent reception. I have found that the N82 could obtain better reception than earlier N-series phones under the same telcos (my friend's N80 could not find any reception to make calls in my estate's underground basement). Web-browsing is also a big plus on the N82. The web-browser allows for full-page rendering of HTML websites instead of the scaled down versions we have seen in previous generation phones. The N82 also has a GPS service and the standard Bluetooth 2.0 capability.

One qualm that most might have is the bulk of the N82. Weighing at 114 grams, it is not considerably heavy but its elongated form and slightly large width might pose a problem as it would not fit into tight pockets. Also, the buttons are a wee bit tiny. Although it is not difficult to press, however, users with large finger size will still meet with some challenge. Accidentally hitting two keys at once will be a frequent occurrence. The only negatives that I can find for the N82 are basically its layout and appearance. This speaks volumes about the depth and quality of the functions that it offers.

All in all, the Nokia N82 is a function-laden and powerful-looking phone equipped with a high-end Carl Zeiss-enhanced 5-megapixel camera. No matter what you use this phone for, be it office work or just as a fun phone, the N82 would not disappoint. This is, no doubt, a worthy successor to the best-selling N73.

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