I upgraded to a cyclone (a Woodsucker II) a few months ago. As I expected, it collects chips very well. However, it does a couple of things I didn't expect...

Heat
If I run the cyclone for a couple hours, the shop temperature goes up 10-15 degrees. I was initially surprised; none of the other machines in my shop have that effect. The reason that the cyclone does it is that the device is designed to run the motor near its rated horsepower 100% of the time. Machines like saws run at rated horsepower only when they're ripping thick hardwood at a high feed rate. For all the rest of the times, they're practically idling. My 2-hp cyclone is drawing about 11 amps from 230 volts, which amounts to 2500 watts. A plug-in electric space heater is good for only 1500 watts or so. That is, this cyclone is putting substantially more heat into the shop than an electric space heater. Cyclones with larger motors will do even more heating.

Better ripping on the table saw!
With my new big cyclone, I finally hooked it up to my table saw. I refuse to deal with an overarm dust pickup, so I knew the cyclone would collect maybe 80% of the sawdust. However, I decided I ought to hook it up anyway. As it happens, it may collect something more like 90%. At any rate, I built two pieces of furniture with cherry, and noticed I had no burning. That led me to examine the quality of cut as I rip lumber. I do that by holding the cut up to a glancing light and looking at the teeth marks along the face. With the cyclone running, there is noticeably finer marking along the ripped face. My theory is that the teeth marks are there because the blade deflects sideways during a cut. Perhaps it is sawdust jammed in the kerf which is doing the deflection. With the cyclone greatly reducing the density of the sawdust cloud under the saw, perhaps there's less sawdust in the kerf, less deflection, and better cutting. Even if that's not the real explanation, the effect sure is nice.

Jamie