Pros: Simple, easy to use, works via Kinect IR blaster to control TV volume, much easier to use than the remote and/or voice commands, motion-activate light-up keys.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: Nothing against the voice commands of the Kinect, but sometimes a good old-fashioned remote is in order. The remote has a "guide" button so when you are watching TV through the Xbox One, it operates just as good as the Direct TV remote I am used to, but in some ways better. I love the motion-activated light-up keys, put it down and within 2 seconds the lights go out (saving battery), but as soon as you touch it, the lights are back on ready to go. If you own an Xbox One, I highly recommend this as an additional accessory to the console.

Pros: Great OS with solid features. Smooth GUI interfaces, 64-bit enabled, excellent firewall/security built in.

Cons: Gotta pay M$ to get it.

Overall Review: This is my second purchase of Win7, will not build any computer in my house with anything else at this point. Not sold on an OS (Windows 8) that turns my computer into a giant Windows phone, without the phone. Windows 8.1 was a step in the right direction, but alas, still not a worthy challenger to Windows 7.

Pros: Compared to it's competitors, it's a better price. Good fit with quality sound (so far) and a good design, mostly (see cons). Comes with the new adapter to use with ANY headset, volume control on the adapter is better than expected (no large volume gaps between each level). Helps me not wake my newborn when playing Xbone after bedtime.

Cons: The mic seems a little short for me, although this could because I have such a big head. The first time I was gaming with it on, I was told by some of my friends/teammates that I sounded a little muffled, which was due to the fact that the microphone was about a 1/2 inch behind the corner of my mouth.

Overall Review: Overall, a good product. Considering you will pay $20+ for the adapter alone, the breakdown in cost means you only pay $60 for the headphones. Personally, I could not justify the cost of a good Turtlebeach headset, which I've never used so I probably just don't know what I'm missing, to be honest. I know MS/Xbox meant well by this product given the sound quality and design, but the microphone issue means this product isn't quite ready to compete with Turtlebeach (again, never owned one but have plenty of friends who swear by them). I'm still glad I bought it, but MS should have made the mic (1) longer, or (2) extendable.

Pros: Spacious, USB 3.0 support, UEFI Bios.

Cons: Doesn't do my taxes for me.

Overall Review: This board is spacious. The overall layout is superb. I don't have a lot on this board like some might, but there is plenty of room for just about anything. I'm only running 2 sticks of DDR3 RAM and a single-slot DDR3 GPU, but you could easily configure DDR5 (2-slot x2) Crossfire or SLI on this board. All of the SATA/tower cable power indicator wire ports are away from the major components so you never have to worry about cables crossing over your GPU, memory, or CPU/CPU fan. This is my first board with UEFI BIOS, and I'm impressed. The responsiveness of the mouse in the BIOS is pretty slow, but the menu layouts and ability to navigate is much better than the old BIOS format. I'm not overclocking, yet to do so would be easy. CPU, memory, and GPU all showed up with the correct timings without having to change anything.

Pros: Fast, less than 100W, six cores, a fraction of the cost of Intel.

Cons: No hyper-threading.

Overall Review: Okay, so I'm an AMD fan. The simple fact is that the Intel Core i7 CPU is better than the FX family of CPUs based on benchmarks. The AMD FX-9390 is the top of the line AMD processor running 8-cores at 220W, the Core i7 Extremes are 6-core hyper-threaded to 12 at a much more reasonable 130W. The benchmarks clearly point to the i7 due to it's hyper-threading, but the cost of the AMD is around $330 vs the i7 at $1K+. And therein lies the problem with Intel: cost. The AMD, while not quite as powerful, is sooo much cheaper. The benchmarks don't justify $670+ difference in cost IMO. I didn't need anything that powerful, so I opted for the FX-6300 with 6-cores and 95W which is comparable to the Core i5 family. More specifically, that's $120 for my AMD vs. $180 for the cheapest Core i5 (Core i5-3350P is only 3.1 GHz/3.3 turbo vs. the FX-6300 at 3.5GHz/4.1 turbo). So that means you would pay $60 more for an inferior processor. You would spend over $250 on an Intel CPU to even compete. Sorry Intel, my money is more valuable to me than to you. Now, I don't typically game on my PC, and when I do it's usually low-end older games (does Age of Empires give away my age?). I was running an old Athlon II dual-core CPU before, so this six-core screams in comparison. My gaming method of choice is the Xbox One. Now, before you "true" gamers lobotomize me, let me first clarify that I don't need 4K graphics to enjoy a game. 720p, 1080p, 4K... I don't really care that much. I do care about frame rates (Xbox One is 30-60 consistently) and the gaming experience. Gaming aside, I also care about what the computer can do for me, my wife, and my children. While this CPU was built for gaming (my children game on the PC), it is a great all-around as well.

Pros: By far the best WD drive I have ever used. It's quiet and much faster than any drive I've used in the past.

Cons: Wasn't free.

Overall Review: First, let me disclose that I've used drives from most of the big players for years: WD, Seagate, Hitachi, etc. Of those, WD has been the most consistent, but I've been using their Blue drives primarily. The problem I have with the Blue drives is they seem to corrupt after some time, not sure if it has to do with the power-saving functions, but I digress. The Black drive is more suited for a performance build IMO. I know it used more power, and I don't use my PC for gaming much (using an Xbox One for gaming) but I do leave the computer on for a while when using it. I would recommend the Black drives even if you aren't a hardcore gamer. It's just a more stable drive all around.