Pros: Lot of cores/threads for the money! Low power draw/good temps Strong IPC XFR 2 is actually worthwhile A stock cooler included that isn't worthless!

Cons: CCX design introduces latency relative to Intel Not quite as strong at gaming as the competition Memory compatibility and speeds are still an issue, though its better now Infinity Fabric interconnect VERY sensitive to said RAM speeds, and RAM is $$$$$$ these days Performance improvements over first gen Ryzen are negligible overall, because this still IS first gen Ryzen with some mild tweaks

Overall Review: Coming from an i5-4670K, this CPU doesn't exactly offer earth shattering improvements for my uses at gaming and common tasks. I was gonna wait for "Zen 2" coming next year, but an unplanned event forced my hand. Since I primarily game, the numbers would point out that I needed to buy an Intel Coffee Lake CPU, but I'm a little weary of Intel's grip on the CPU market and the resulting complacency. The performance advantage Intel currently has is MUCH smaller than it was when I built my last PC in 2013. Haswell completely crushed all of the Bulldozer/Piledriver FX chips across the board, which is how I ended up with an i5. Things have changed. Intel's IPC advantage is small (`10% at best) and frequencies are respectable for Ryzen , though Intel still has a sizable advantage there as CL CPUs have a much higher clock ceiling. Toss in the fact I'm gaming at 1440P, and the performance between AMD/Intel is pretty much on par with each other. Plus, for "i5" money, you're getting 6 cores/12 threads versus 6 cores/6 threads on the Intel side of things. No, those extra threads don't do much for gaming at this time, but having that extra compute grunt is not at all a bad thing. AMD has finally gotten off their lazy backsides and re-introduced actual competition to the space! Coffee Lake is for sure a competent competitor, but that's the point, isn't it? One last positive point to make is the AM4 socket and chipsets for Ryzen CPUs will remain viable until at least 2020 according to AMD. If Zen 2 comes out and cranks it out of the park with 7 nm and an overhaul of the Zen uArch, all one has to do is purchase the new CPU, perform a BIOS update on their current board, take out previous CPU and drop in new one! This is something Intel has not been good with at all, even when their socket remains unchanged. They'll just "require" a new chipset, so current board owners are out of luck. Having an upgrade path is nice. All in all, a great value and beastly CPU for gaming, production, and everything else. Definitely worthy of consideration for anyone looking at a new build.

Pros: This PSU was in my last build. I bought it because it was a good deal and I'd heard good things about OCZ. 700W seemed able to provide enough headroom for future upgrades. I got this unit and used it for years, thinking it was high quality.

Cons: Here comes the bad part.... I'd been experiencing random system freezes and reboots. I just blamed it on the OS and lived with it. After a few years of this, it started to get worse. My PC would lock up and reboot nearly daily. Foolish me did not think to suspect the PSU. I didn't find out until I built a new PC for myself, and attempted to "recycle" my old build for a family member. This PSU made the transition to a new case and motherboard. Build completed... and wouldn't turn on. RMAed the motherboard. Same problem. Then I swapped my brand new SeaSonic PSU out of my new build to test a theory out. Fired right up! Needless to say, I bought another SeaSonic from Newegg and launched this thing into the trash where it belongs.

Overall Review: Don't skimp on a PSU. Literally the most important component of any build. I personally love SeaSonic, as they produce all their own units and have very rigid quality standards. Other good brands are Corsair and EVGA, though other manufacturers make their units, SeaSonic included. Don't make same mistake I did, or you're in for a headache.

Pros: - Need I say? Its phenomenal looking. - VERY roomy, being a dual-chamber mid-ATX form factor. - Unique screwless tempered glass notch design. - Plenty of options for cooling. - Build quality is fantastic for the price. - Excellent cable management options. - Front USB-C port, if your motherboard supports it. (Mine does not)

Cons: Not much in the way of cons, but things to be aware of: - That unique screwless design can be.... precarious at times. Be VERY careful with the glass panels and assure they are notched properly every time. - Some weird design choices here and there. Two PSU bays? Mmmm.... kay. At least the second bay doubles as a HDD slot for two drives. - Speaking of storage.... some of the mounting options are clever in theory but executed poorly. See below. - Not the quietest case out there, but coming from Fractal Design's R series cases, I kinda expected this. - Front IO options are limited somewhat, and I have some intermittent issues with USB devices not being detected without wiggling are re-seating the USB plugs. This may just be a mild defect in my unit.

Overall Review: I had a hell of a time deciding on the new case to house my fresh Ryzen 5 build. My prior Fractal Design R4 was solid and a rock and quiet with a ton of features. Flirted with the R6 for a bit, then wanted something more "unique" looking, so decided on the Meshify C before stumbling across this case. The front panel glass design and vertical dual-chambered concept really caught my eye. After some diligent research, I quickly pulled the trigger, as this case seems to be out of stock more often that not. The build process was smooth. There are some nice cable management tools underneath that right panel, and I really love the vertical PSU mount. PSU shrouds are nice, but NO psu visible at all?? Win. Storage mounting is fairly extensive. You can have the option of mounting a standard SSD and HDD underneath the cable crossbar, in the second PSU bay, or utilize the two SSD mounts on bottom of case in full view. The crossbar option, while cool, proved to be overly difficult. This brings me to the main, if not nitpicky, oversight in storage mounting that Lian Li missed. A simple divot or depression to make room for the PSU drive power cables would have been very handy for flat mounting. Drive power cables have that extra bulk and are not designed for flush mounting. So it's impossible to use the case-bottom option or the hidden cable crossbar option and have your drives completely flush and pinned down. Perhaps there are cables out there designed for this, but they are apparently uncommon with most PSUs. (I have a high-end SeaSonic Prime unit) It's not a huge deal, but that simple divot in the metal at the proper place would have eliminated this issue. Maybe next time. Fan mounting is great, though there are NO fans included. There is an "AIR" version of the O11, but you lose the unique front glass panel look. I ordered three Lian Li LED 120mm fans with the case, and it slotted in perfectly with the included controller. I even lucked out with the default AsRock Polychrome LED integration between the fans and motherboard. Magnetic dust filters are included and they stay in place surprisingly well. Cooling seems to be on point, at least given its not a case with air cooling SPECIFICALLY in mind. Liquid cooling is not my bag, but there is plenty of room for radiators on top, right side, and bottom (though you obviously lose the bottom-mounted SSD options). My fans are set up in a super simple pull configuration, where my three side mounted fans pull air into the case and it is passively exhausted via the top and back of the case. I may modify that in the future, but this works for now. All in all, this is a unique and gorgeous looking case with your fully customized LED lighting options and seamless tempered glass panels. It's not a case with form over function, though. That is an unfortunate trend in modern cases, and luckily the O11 Dynamic avoids this pitfall while retaining some truly stunning aesthetics. It's not perfect, but it checks all the boxes and then some. IF you can actually get your hands on this thing, I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a case that breaks the norm. And keep that glass cleaner handy! ;)

Pros: -1440p resolution! If you're coming from 1080p, the amount of screen real estate gained is CRAZY. Much less scrolling involved! -Decent build quality and quick release that attached panel to stand is a nice touch. -IPS panel, so colors are accurate without being falsely oversaturated unless you want that look. Viewing angles are very good, especially given this panel's additional AHVA technology. -144 Hz! This is a must for gamers demanding the smoothest frame rates out there. -Freesync support, with caveats.

Cons: -As is the issue with current IPS displays, there is a fair amount of IPS glow involved. Its only really noticeable when working or playing against a dark background, but it can be distracting depending on the person. -Freesync is hard-capped at 90 FPS with this monitor. Any AMD users wanting to push above that cap will need to disable Freesync. I'm not sure why this is a thing, as other Freesync monitors out there easily push past 90 Hz. Seeing as I own an Nvidia card, its kind of a non-issue for me, but I can see how it would be offputting to others. That said, Freesync is an open and "free" standard that may not quite stand up to Nvidia's G-Sync, but can offer similar quality for WAY less money. I'd like to see a world where Nvidia ditches the expensive G-Sync and supports the ever improving Freesync standard. -TERRIBLE QA (see below)

Overall Review: The apparent void of QA is where this monitor loses an egg. My guess is Asus has decided that the process of Quality Assurance is too costly in terms of manpower and assets, so they have none in place for this particular product. I have seen statements on this very site from Asus as well as other places that they have QA working away on the Nvidia version of a similar IPS panel otherwise known as the PG279Q. The PG279Q includes the pricey G-Sync module, a slightly higher refresh rate, and the ROG tag, therefore it is typically hundreds of dollars more than this panel. Otherwise they are very comparable to each other. Asus had problems with defects and stepped things up for that model. Meanwhile, the MG279Q has apparently been left out in the cold. The first TWO monitors I got had terrible backlight bleeding in the lower right corner, as well as a few other areas. Finally on my third panel, I got one that is acceptable. Otherwise the plan was to get a refund and wait longer for another similar screen to hit the market with some sort of QA process in place. Even so, the panel I decided to keep is not perfect. There are a couple small areas that have backlight bleeding, though they are small and minor enough that I do not readily notice them unless I toss up a totally black background and look for it. Its a mild annoyance I am willing to live with. However, one could argue that paying a premium price for a premium monitor should net you a product that stands up against scrutiny. I gave this monitor 4 eggs because of the above issues. If Asus bothered with QA and had high standards, this would be an easy 5 eggs for anyone in the market for this kind of monitor and willing to drop the cash. However, the QA issues are severe enough that I'd advise caution to anyone looking at this. "Playing the panel lotto", as it has been referred to with this particular monitor, is a very real thing. Sure, you may get lucky and receive a panel with little to no defects the first time out. But why should that be a concern, especially a YEAR after this monitor was released?? The backlight bleeding issues alone are crippling this product. Sure, Asus may advise you to make tweaks to the monitor settings such as the Blue Light settings in order to hopefully reduce BLB, but these tweaks will likely compromise the overall visual integrity. When buying this kind of high end monitor, you should be able to adjust the settings to your liking with no compromise. All in all, I'm happy with my third monitor. Its just unfortunate I had to go through two just to get there, and even now there are minor defects in the form of backlight bleed. Props to Newegg's RMA service... Both exchanges went smooth as can be. I just hope Asus starts taking their QA process seriously with ALL their products, not just with their ultra-expensive ones like the Nvidia version of this panel. Tread carefully.

Pros: This is my first wireless headset, and it's pretty impressive. The sound quality is night and day coming from my old Creative Fatal1ty wired set. The old headset sounds like a muffled toy in comparison. Operating range is good on these, with no loss of signal if I get up and move around room with these still on. The receiver has a decently long cord that makes it easy to plug in and charge during use. Also the level of control right on the headset itself is a nice feature that most competing headsets don't have. There is a mute button, a switch to toggle 7.1/stereo, and customizable hotkeys. The mic flips up and automatically mutes voice on the fly. There's a lot to like here.

Cons: It's no secret that signal quality can be erratic. Much of this is just due to the nature of operating on a 2.4 GhZ wireless network. The strength and quality of your router will make a big difference, as well as the level of interference that is around. The signal drops for me have not been as bad as I feared when ordering these, but they still happen from time to time. I also have experienced some weird occurrences of the headset just shutting itself off for no apparent reason. The battery charge will be fine, and I have to just turn it back on. It's annoying but honestly doesn't happen that often. Also, the plastic-like material on the earcups make this headset somewhat uncomfortable after a while. Not a fan of ear sweating.

Overall Review: All in all, this headset is a good choice. I'm not sure I'd pay the full fare for them. I got these for $70 around Black Friday, which I'd call a good deal. I'm loving the massive boost in sound quality and the freedom of a wireless headset. The build quality is nice aside from the plastic earcup lining, and there's a lot of features. Again, with these utilizing wireless technology, mileage may vary. Best to order these while keeping in mind that you may need to return them if your wi-fi situation is less than ideal.

Pros: This board is a great choice for a mainstream-tier gaming computer. The features for the price are really hard to beat. Great onboard audio with the Purity Sound setup, plus an amplifier for headphones. This audio solution is really nothing more than a top-notch Realtek audio codec and isolation/shielding of the sound system, but it works wonders. Some other standout features are the debug LED, (great for troubleshooting if a component is interfering with bootup) power/reset buttons on the board itself, and dual BIOS chips in case an update flash goes sideways. Speaking of BIOS, the interface is very useful and indepth without boggling the minds of people who aren't extreme system tweakers. A BIOS update can even be flashed from within BIOS itself! Goodbye to the days of hunting down update files and going through a process to flash it properly. One click and its done!

Cons: Considering this is a mid-level motherboard, there aren't a whole lot of drawbacks. The board itself looks a little drab aside from the gold capacitors. There are also boards in this price range that have better overclocking chops. Additionally, it would have been nice to have a switch versus a jumper to toggle between the two BIOS chips as things can get a little cramped unless you have tiny little hands.

Overall Review: I have only used Asus boards in previous systems, all of which have been AMD based. I got this board for $120, and for that price, there was absolutely no other board that could hope to compete. I'm happy so far with this Asrock effort. It's stable as I could wish for and has features that are usually only found on high-end motherboards. As I said earlier, this board doesn't overclock like a champ. Some competing boards beat this one in that category, though this board can still easily handle a moderate OC. People who are REALLY into overclocking would do better to move to the high-end arena, as those boards are built for speed specifically. For everyone else, this motherboard is a start for an awesome gaming computer. I'm impressed with Asrock's feature set and the high quality of the components. This is a board that should be on anyone's short list for a new LGA 1150 build.