Pros: > PRICE: $25 after rebate is solid. > 80+ Bronze > Quiet fan: granted, maybe I just haven't heard it kick on due to an intake fan feeding into the gap between my gpu and this psu, but I haven't noticed the PSU fan. That's really all you want isn't it? To not be distracted by the mundane operations of your computer? >Pre-sleeved cables (unless you really want to fit a color scheme and sleeve them yourself, but at this price point I don't think many people want that) > plenty of connections (especially if you can get some 4-pin peripheral->whatever adapters) > Good warranty and good experience with customer support (see other thoughts)

Cons: > Some of the cables are a little shorter than I would like (despite being "extra long"), making it difficult to get them positioned how I want. This may be more likely to be an issue with bottom-mounted cases, but in my Antec Three Hundred they don't have any trouble reaching everything on my ATX board around my MSI FrozrV GTX960 and CryoRig H7. > Not modular? Having to find somewhere to stuff all those extra connections can be a bit of a hassle, but certainly not the biggest annoyance overall. > In depth independent reviews have pointed out that this line (CX***) of PSU's from Corsair have trouble delivering the maximum rated power consistently. I can't find the link (it was a website dedicated to PSU reviews and testing), but I remember seeing that the CX line tended to begin showing voltage drops around 85% of the rated wattage. This would mean blue screens and random shutoffs in a computer. Bad. However, as long as you account for this in your build (pcpartpicker.com will help you do that) there shouldn't be a problem. And honestly, for a majority of rigs that are going to be looking at psu's in this price range this will not be an issue. Just leave yourself a little extra buffer like I did by choosing this CX500 over the CX430. $5 difference for a little peace of mind and some breathing room to upgrade in the future ain't so bad.

Overall Review: So I'm sure everybody is familiar with the quagmire that is a typical mail-in rebate. You give them $20 more than you wanted to pay for a thing and they say they'"Don't worry,ll give it back to you." Then they spout some B.S. reason about how you misspelled your mother's maiden name on form 29F page 3 line 44 and as pursuant the terms of the rebate your claim is now denied and oh that rebate is now closed so you can't appeal this we're "very sorry". Well Corsair didn't do that to me, and I really appreciate it. I bought this psu on the last day of one mail in rebate and forgot to download the form until the next day, when a new rebate (which happened to be for the same amount, but a different code) had taken hold. I submitted it with the error, and got denied. I was very confused and chatted with support and she fixed it for me on the spot. I can't remember her name for the life of me, Kelly G. maybe? Kicking myself for not writing it down, but I did give her a good review :) This is so much the opposite of every other MiR experience I've had that I want to give Corsair's customer support team a pat on the back for that.

Pros: Great price, great timings, dem GB's

Cons: This RAM will default to 11-11-11-28 unless your system supports Intel's XMP (i.e. if you run an AMD system). You can change it in the BIOS, but that's a bit of a headache so I took of an egg. Literally the only thing I can complain about this ram.

Overall Review: If you want to change your timings, read "Understanding RAM Timings" at hardwaresecrets.com -- it will explain the most important aspects (but there are like 30 other things you can mess up/around with). Oh, and if you do decide to play with timings I recommend you learn how to reset your CMOS first :)