How good is the WL Spyder 3 host?

I know that WL underspecs a lot of their products, but could anyone tell me exactly how good(or decent) their hosts are, particularly the S3 series? I like the look, feel, and weight of it. If I had a spare Krypton host and knew how to work with lasers, i'd probably take everything out of my Arctic host and put it in a Krypton's, since it's a little longer and would have more room.

Assuming they haven't changed in two and half years, they're actually really well made, as long as you don't plan on tempering with them in any possible way.

Since it's nearly impossible to take them apart, you gotta make do with what you get, even if your "1W Arctic" is spewing maybe some 600mW.

I reviewed a couple some two years back, here.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/y...-iii-laser-review-very-image-heavy-58557.html

Even gave it positive opinion and a reccomendation - as long as you KNOW what you're getting. Price is steep, and output is low, but I'd say the price is justified by the host alone.

I remember reading that great review, but I still want to know about the heatsinking quality. Like you said, it's either really good, or really bad, but I can't tell which.

Well, as we have seen quite a few arctics taken apart since then, I'll say, really good.

Not that the diode heats up terribly, because of lower drive, so that helps matters as well.