Pros: Plug it in and GO. This little thing blows away my thoughts of what an i3 is supposed to be. For everyday use of mainly MS Office software and 1080p video playback - This does it all and has room left. Energy efficient and doesn't put out a lot of heat especially for being clocked at 3.6Ghz. Paired with only 4 gigs of 1600Mhz RAM and a 120gb Samsung EVO SSD this computer is much quicker than expected.

Cons: Absolutely nothing

Overall Review: I built this system for my wife to use for basic book keeping of her salon business - As well as web surfing and such. She said she didn't need much and she keeps telling me that I built her more than she needs. I was originally going to go with an AMD APU setup at first, but at the last minute decided to go with this Core i3. I had always been an AMD fan and didn't want to switch over to the blue side of things, but I am absolutely blown away with the performance of this processor. The difference between this and the other Core i3's is that this has the HD 4600 graphics instead of the 4000 - I've never used a processor with the HD 4000, but I can tell you that 1080p playback of videos, be it from YouTube or local content is flawless.

Pros: 24 ports of gigabit awesomeness. Plug it in and forget about it. As far as unmanaged switches go, this is great. Sure, you can get cheaper 24 port switches - but they don't have the warranty and product support that ASUS has.

Cons: None - If you're looking for more, then step up to a smart or fully managed switch.

Overall Review: This switch is being used in a small counseling center with ten therapists and three admin users. Running off of this are all of the Ethernet based clients and three wireless AP's. I've got a server with two 1gig ports in teaming mode and I haven't ran into any issues after plugging it in and forgetting about it a year and a half ago.

Pros: Drive continually performs quickly and quietly. I purchased my first drive on a Black Friday sale back in 2012 and it was amazing. I'm using it as a second drive to, what was back then, a 120Gb SSD. Installing the application on the WD drive and having only the OS on the SSD provided amazing results. I was worried about heat, so I also purchased a hotswap bay with an active cooling fan, but it would be just fine without the fan. With my current Samsung 840 Pro SSD, when I copy files to the VelociRaptor, I see a consistent 200Mb/s write times. Western Digital RMA process is simple and extremely fast.

Cons: haha

Overall Review: My first drive failed on me. But that was my fault and by no means an imperfection from the factory. Go to WD site and REGISTER your drive! The RMA process is simple and quick. I had my new drive the NEXT DAY after they received the defective one.

Pros: This board has everything you will ever need. Period. Unless you need the extra PCI-E slots, there's really no reason to get the -E version. I didn't think it would fit into my older Lian Li case, but it's just ever so slightly larger than the AMD board I was replacing. Installing the CPU, RAM and everything else was a breeze. I love how with the Corsair H100i, you don't have to install a back plate, just screw it directly into the 2011 bracket and you're done. The board does take a few seconds to post, during which time it is flashing all sorts of Q codes at you. At first this concerned me, but once it went to "A0" and "AA" you're golden. It accepted all 64gigs of Mushkin RAM and all I had to do was enable the XMP profile and it automatically clocked the RAM at its advertised 2133Mhz speed. It also bumped the processor up from the stock 3.4Ghz to 3.8Ghz.

Cons: There is one major con that can happen if you're unlucky and get older stock. The BIOS - You need version 4306 to run the Ivybridge-E processors (which nowadays most everybody will be). I got a board that had been sitting in a warehouse and had the ancient 0802 BIOS on it. So I did what the ASUS support sites told me to do and started the process to flash the BIOS with the BIOS flashback utility. It never would work. Everything I did it just seemed to laugh at me. I called support, the guy walked me through the exact same steps... Nothing. Finally he said we could either RMA the board or they could ship me a new BIOS chip. I opted for the BIOS chip since I didn't want to take everything apart. Next day, I remove the old and put in the new chip. Same symptoms. It turned out they sent me the wrong one. Ok, fine, stuff happens, they're small chips that are hard to read. They send me another one for free. Next day, I install the new chip. The board doesn't even power on. I call support, they decide it be best if we RMA the board. I send it in. I get it back a week later. The board still does not power on. Not even using the onboard power button. No motherboard lights come on when I plug in the 24-pin power. At this point I'm kinda mad, I've got a $570 processor and $1000 worth of RAM just sitting here and it's been a month since I bought the board and I haven't even seen it post. I call support, they run around and ask everyone what to do. Finally I demand that I just get a brand new board. They agree. I send it in, they overnight me a brand new board. Check the bios and it is the newest (at the time) 4505 BIOS. I install the CPU and RAM and a dinky video card and it POST's! Long story short... If you get an older board with an ancient BIOS, you may have a long road ahead of you. But it is completely worth it in the end. The only good thing about this Con is that ASUS did make everything right in the end. At no point did they say that they were not going to honor the warranty. They even refunded me the $40 for the new BIOS chip and the overnight shipping I paid for. So ASUS warranty service is amazing.

Overall Review: If you've stuck around after the con's section then Congratulations! Don't let the whole BIOS thing keep you from buying this board. I'm not using this PC for anything that it should actually be used for. I'm not running any workstation software, video editing, and I'm playing a game every once in a while. I basically have a 6core/12thread, 64 Gigs of RAM email and internet machine. But - Everything it does, it does very quickly. I'm very glad that I went with this system.

Pros: I've only had them for less than 24hrs and I can already tell they're perfect. The fan does not add any noticeable noise to my desktop. It fit perfectly into my 5.25" bay with no fuss. For $12, this is an amazing price. I wish I had more 5.25" bays to fill them up with these.

Cons: The molex connector is what I would consider to be upside down - The straight edge is on top and the semi-rounded corners are on bottom. If you've ever connected a molex you'll know what I'm talking about. It took about 30 minutes of trying to jam the connector into the socket in a dark, cramped case that I finally tried turning up upside down.

Overall Review: I bought two of these to relocate my 3.5 inch drives after removing the hard drive cage in my case. After looking around at all different types of hot swap and hard drive coolers, I decided on this one. Have not been disappointed yet. Installation was simple, THERE IS A POWER BUTTON - make sure you press the power button on the front or your drive will not spin. It does what it was intended to do, nothing more, nothing less. I did not realize that these had fans in them until after I ordered them. I was somewhat concerned about the added fan noise that I almost cancelled the order. As I said in the pro's section, there is no noticeable fan noise coming from these things.

Pros: Straight forward and simple installation for AMD platforms. Intel users will need to install the back plate and such with the included hardware. Once installed, you never have to worry about it again. It does move a lot of air, and will keep any CPU cool under any condition. It is also quiet, I can barely notice it (I am only using one fan - See other thoughts).

Cons: Insert comment about said product not making lunch...

Overall Review: As stated in the Pro's section, I am using only one fan. AMD installation basically requires you to install this in a North/South orientation - Intel users have the option of an East/West or North/South option. This is due to the socket brackets and in some cases can cause clearance issues if you want to use both fans. The case that I am using (Lian Li PC-9F) has a 140mm fan option that can be installed at the top. So I just have 1 fan installed on the actual cooler blowing air up, and the 140mm case fan on the top of the case is pulling the hot air up. If you are planning on getting this for an AMD platform, make sure that you are aware of this or you will run into issues when installing the cooler. The difference between this and the A50 is that the A70 has 4, 8mm thick copper heat pipes, where the A50 only has 3. Spend the extra few bucks for this one, even if you are only going to use one included fan like I did Great product, easy installation, great cooling power.