Pros: I must say that from my knowledge and experience, this is a very good CPU. AMD always makes good products. Never had a problem with them. With that being said, do not make the same mistake I did. (See other thoughts)

Cons: No L3 cache, but this is hardly noticeable, especially when gaming, which is what I bought it for. In terms of the price, 99$ is not bad. I have seen many other people save an extra 20 bucks and buy an X2 or X3, so that they can unlock the extra cores themselves and save some cash. While I have never tried it, I can tell you that the success rate for unlocking cores is about 50% max. I don't know about you, but I would rather pay the extra 15-20$ and have all four cores for sure.

Overall Review: The problem I encountered was that my motherboard either didn't fully support this AM3 CPU (which is strange because it is on the manufacturers CPU compatibility list), or, I failed with BIOS flashing, which isn't surprising considering it was my first time to flash. DO NOT FLASH UNLESS YOU HAVE TO. ALSO! FLASH YOUR BIOS TO THE LATEST VERSION, BEFORE YOU PUT IN THE NEW CPU. I didn't do this, and the flash failed and my mobo was toast.

Pros: * Fast base clock * Cool * Effecient(?)

Cons: * Can't overclock * Severely limited by power * Can't overclock * Severely limited by power * Can't overclock * Severely limited by power * Can't overclock * Severely limited by power * Can't overclock * Severely limited by power * Can't overclock * Severely limited by power * Can't overclock * Severely limited by power * Can't overclock * Severely limited by power * Can't overclock * Severely limited by power * Can't overclock * Severely limited by power * Can't overclock * Severely limited by power * Can't overclock * Severely limited by power

Overall Review: Nice card - probably the highest factory overclocked 970 out there. BUT STAY THE **** AWAY FROM THIS CARD IF YOU PLAN TO OVERCLOCK! This card is HEAVILY limited by power limits. I don't know why. I've tried custom BIOSes, and even a hardware mod which should have removed the power limits - neither worked. This card does not overclock for S***!

Pros: Decent board for the price. Layout isn't quite ideal for me. but it works. Bios is easy to use.

Cons: DIFFICULT TO FLASH BIOS!!! DO NOT USE THE M-FLASH IN THE BIOS. Download live update from the MSI website, and update the bios that way using a USB flash drive. DO NOT USE M-FLASH! Just use liveupdate > it will tell you exactly what to do with the flash drive. Nightmare with my Geforce 770 GTX. Kept crashing. Finally changed PCIe bus speed from auto to x16/x0/x0, and somehow that fixed my crashing.

Pros: Fast, cheap, reliable.

Cons: None that I can think of.

Overall Review: Don't get the "free two day shipping". It's not really 2 day. They ship ground or air "at their own discretion" so pretty much ground all the time. So you're pretty much wasting the money.

Pros: Idk what to say. It was OK. PCIe 2.0, thats about it.

Cons: When I bought this, there were hardly any AM3 CPU's on the market, so my AM2+ CPU worked fine. But this WILL NOT SUPPORT AM3 CPUS!!! I HAVE TESTED IT. EVEN THOUGH THE MANUFACTURER'S WEBSITE SAYS IT DOES SUPPORT AM3, IT DOESN'T! Oh and the Crossfire hybrid graphics are terrible. Besides, it only works with like one or two models of a low-end Radeon HD 2xxx series or 3xxx series.

Overall Review: Definitely would not recommend buying this mobo. Although I didn't have problems until I installed an AM3 CPU, it doesn't have many features, and the Hybrid Crossfire is terrible once again.

Pros: CHEAP AND EFFECTIVE. This mobo worked right away for me. Threw in a AMD Athlon II X4 3.0 ghz, 2GB DDR3 1600, ATI Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 and it all came together nicely. No problems so far. Lots of features too. AM3 support.

Cons: None really.

Overall Review: Depending on you RAM speed, you may have to manually set it in the bios. I had to set mine to DDR3 1600, because it defaulted to like 1200 or something, but the switch worked and no problems so far.