Pros: Small size, easy assembly (5 screws), takes 3.5 inch drives, can take 8G memory, interesting heatsink, relatively silent. built-in DVD drive.

Cons: Only takes 1 3.5 inch drive, would prefer for it to take 2 2.5" drives (then I can throw an SSD for OS + a laptop HD for additional media storage) As other posters mentioned, very bright blue power+HD LED, not something you want to look at in the dark, easily fixable with some semi-transparent tape though. single wireless antenna, no DVI output, only HDMI+VGA

Overall Review: Very easy to take apart and put in components, took me less than 5 minutes to put the whole thing together. Heatsink comes with thermal compound already applied. System only stable after I installed Intel's Rapid Storage driver (RST), will crash quite often with Microsoft's default AHCI driver (Windows 7 64bit). Give it a try if you have the same bluescreen problem. It is small, but not as small as FoxConn's ION and AMD E350 boxes, those are book-size. However, the core i3 540 CPU I put in this is far more powerful than the Atom+ION or E350 options from FoxConn. It's a trade-off that I am happy with. I spent below $80 on the core i3 540 CPU + $80 for this unit, hard drive was a spare, so the total cost of my HTPC is just $160.

Pros: Cheap price, light weight, built-in 600W ATX PS

Cons: No manual, flimsy build, could use a few more power molex connectors

Overall Review: The case looks good, but feels like tin-foil when you touch it. There was no manual attached so it was lucky that I knew all the front-panel wiring from prior system-building experiences (BTW, there was no IDE light at the front panel). The first time I turned the machine on the giant side-panel fan didn't turn. After suspecting the wiring and messing around for a while, I finally noticed that two fan blades were actually bent and stuck on the fan wall! easily fixed, but look out for that one. The front case door is misaligned and rather hard to open, I would recommend just taking it off if you don't care about the looks. There are enough power connectors for a normal system, but if you have a power video card like I do that requires extra power, you need to make sure that you have enough power connectors or get splitters. Other than the issues above, it works as advertised and I consider it good for the price.

Pros: Small, light, silent, easy to assemble, does it what is designed to do (HTPC) perfectly. Has built-in wifi and HDMI output. Everything just works.

Cons: requires 1.35v memory. I had hoped to re-use some crucial memory that I had in a different HTPC box, no luck. I went for a chip on Inte's approved list (CT51264BF160BJ) and it just booted right up

Overall Review: I had a Windows 8.1 license and a 128G SSD lying around, so I built this box for about $180 as an HTPC to watch Hulu, AMZ Instant Video and other streaming videos (didn't try Netflix). I took other people's advice and upgraded the BIOS right away. Windows 8.1 installs easily and everything just works. The only adjustment I had to make: if you are using Windows 8.1 and noticed HDMI audio out of sync issue (audio would go on for several seconds, stops suddenly, then continues, then go on for another few seconds, etc). I went to the audio property panel and adjusted the sound output from 48000hz (DVD quality) to 44100hz (CD quality), the problem went away. I suspect this may have something to do with my audio receiver than the box itself, but just in case this might solve your issue.

Pros: Easy to install, no problems encountered. Can support power-hungry devices.

Cons: Speed improvements not as promised. I found it to be only 2x faster compared with USB 2.0 when copying a 1G file to a WD Passport USB 3.0 drive. It could use 2 more ports, too.

Overall Review: I don't know if it's the issue of the adapter card, or USB 3.0 itself is overrated. I know I cannot possibly get the theoretical 10x speed up, I was hoping for 3.5~5x but only got 2x, a little disappointed.

Pros: Speedy drive, stable, no firmware update needed out of the box unlike some other cheaper alternatives. Comes with the 3.5 apapter rails.

Cons: The drive itself is excellent, but the Corsair rebate experience is not so. I have registered the rebate online with them and mailed the form right after, so far it's about 1 month later, their web rebate tracking status page still shows that they "haven't received the mail-in portion of the rebate". I find it hard to believe that's true.

Overall Review: Even though it's a great drive, I regretted not going for a 120G one. Nowadays windows 7 itself takes 20G right after installation and patches (and the stupid WinSXS directory that keeps growing). This hardly leaves much space for applications.

Pros: fast

Cons: could of course always be cheaper...

Overall Review: I bought this to replace my 6-year old Core 2 Duo E6600 box, which has served me well. In video encoding it is truly 6x faster---as indicated by Passmark scores. Couple this with a fast SSD and you will have a great computing experience.