Pros: ** Got two of them on sale for $85, as of today they're $100 Still spins without the dreaded click of death ** Cheap storage ** Out preformed my SATA-600 - 2TB - Western Digital WD Black WD2002FAEX for half the price !! HDTune results: Min 86.6 Max 194.5 Avg 143.6 Access time 12.8ms Burst 312.4 MB/s cpu usage 3.8%

Cons: 2 yr warranty - but what the heck, the Western Digital WD Black WD2002FAEX only comes with a 3 yr warranty and I paid $163 for this drive in April of 2013. So I'm getting the same space for almost HALF the price of the WD drive.

Overall Review: I'm buying more hard drives than I ever have before due to the miserable reliability of hard drives in general. Time will tell if these drives will last. I've had several hard drive failures lately and it's a dice roll on what to buy now days. Seagate, WD have failed as well as Samsung I have 2 of these hooked up in RAID1 to a HighPoint RocketRAID 2720SGL PCI-Express 2.0 x8 Low Profile SATA controller and use them for media storage. I got tired of backing up my video/movie files so this works perfect. If you haven't checked out that controller card you should, because for less than $150 for this controller card, it's the cheapest fastest alternative to get SATA 600 speed at a fraction of the cost of other controller cards. Just search for that controller and read the reviews and make your own conclusion. I just purchase 2 of the Toshiba DT01ACA300 3TB SATA 6.0Gbs drives and hope I have the same result as this drive. My Build: -------- MB: ASUS Sabertooth X79 LGA 2011 Intel X79 POWER SUPPLY - SeaSonic X-SERIES X-1050 1050W CPU - Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E 3.6GHz CPU COOLER - CORSAIR Hydro Series H80i MEMORY - 32 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 CASE - Armor VA8003BWS Full Tower VIDEO - EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB SuperClocked+ - Model 03G-P4-3663-KR BLURAY - ASUS Model BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS RAID CONTROLLER - HighPoint RocketRAID 2720SGL PCI-Express 2.0 x8 Low Profile SATA-SAS 6Gb/s SOUND - HT | OMEGA CLARO Plus+ 7.1 UPS - APC Back-UPS XS 1500 LCD WIN7 Ultimate SP1 Drives: ------- SSD - 256 GB - SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW SATA-600 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB SATA-600 - 2X Western Digital WD Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 IN RAID 1 SATA-600 - 2X TOSHIBA DT01ACA200 2TB 7200 RPM IN RAID 1 SATA-300 - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS-01G6U4 150GB 10000 RPM SATA-300 - Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-300 - Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS 2TB 5900 RPM SATA-300 - SEAGATE BARRACUDA 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA-300 - HITACHI Deskstar H3IK20003272SP (0S02861) 2TB 7200 RPM SATA-300 - HITACHI Deskstar 7K2000 HDS722020ALA330 (0F10311) 2TB 7200 RPM Misc: ----- COFFEE POT: This is always kept inside my case and is heated by the various components. It helps me move as fast as this computer. Couldn't be happier.

Pros: Seagate was nice enough to send me my 3rd drive even though I was out of warranty. Happy as a pig! Yeah but now the cons.......

Cons: Can you say "I'm having a drive nightmare?" Purchased first drive 08/31/09 with CC32 firmware; it died 12/17/11 so I got a little over 2 years on that drive. Seagate replaced it with a refurb with firmware CC34; that drive died today 8/2/13 so I got less than 2 yrs on that drive. So, even though I was out of warranty I called Seagate and cried. I complained that even a refurb drive can't last 2 years? They were nice enough to agree to send me another drive and warranty it for 30 days.

Overall Review: Fortunately I had no data on the drive. It was just sitting there spinning and suffering a terrible slow death. If a drive could have cancer, this drive has a high risk rate. Just read the other 600 reviews. Seagate is cross shipping the replacement. First thing I'll do is check the firmware and update to CC35 if it's not done already. Second thing I'll do is a full format so if there are bad sectors I can return it for another one. Then I'll let it spin for a month or so and see if it dies. Then I'll read/write small and large files to it and see if it still refuses to die. Then I'll probably actually use the drive but back it up. You never know when cancer will hit this drive. I look at this as an experiment. Had I know that there was a CC35 firmware update I would have done that a long time ago. Too bad there's no way to put in your email and request updates as they become available. I'm beginning to think that purchasing hard drives is a bit like rebuilding a car. Only difference is that a rebuilt car lasts much longer than 2 years; unless your rebuilding a lemon, which, in this case is exactly what we've got.

Pros: Firmware can be DDWRT, Merlin. The bugs are worked out before Asus gets them worked out. Just installed John's [Fork] Merlin 374.43. It keeps some of the channels that have been removed from the later firmware. Plus you get all of the fixes from the newer builds. My wireless connection is nearly twice as fast as what it was with older firmware. Getting 100Mbps on 2.4 and up to 172Mbps on 5G. The thing runs hot. They could have easily designed it better. I'm a bit worried my 32 Gb flash drive will die early because of the heat. I'm gonna buy a short cable to get the drive away from the case. But that's a pain in the rear as I'll have the drive dangling from the body. VPN is supposed to be solid although I haven't dove into that yet. The forums are the best source of information. I've waited up to 40 min when I call Asus support. Figured out most everything on my own by reading. It's hard to brick this thing unless you don't have a clue on what you're doing.

Cons: Rather cheaply built. Heat issues couldhhave been avoided with better design.

Overall Review: Overall very satisfied.

Pros: 1) Rugged build 2) Runs cool 3) 5 yr warranty 4) Relatively "easy" build after insane issue with display card (see cons below)

Cons: 1) Poor BIOS documentation 2) The insane issue with my display card: This wasn't per se an ASUS MB issue but it cost me 5 days! I research all my hardware before I do a build and then pay a techy to assemble the unit since I don't build systems every day. I want my systems to last me at least 3-5 yrs without having any break downs for that entire time. So far, I've accomplished that when I purchased 2 of the P5N32-E SLI Plus WiFi back about 7 years ago. Those boards served me well past my expectations but it was time to upgrade. Even a good car will eventually die unless you replace parts and that's not an option with a MB. My system was working perfectly when I lugged it to my Ford Explorer to make the 30 minute treak home. Then the problems started after I lugged this 70 pound monster up to the 5th floor of my condo unit. This wasn't an ASUS problem but after getting the unit home I started getting the dreaded Nvidea driver error, "Display driver %1 stopped responding and has successfully recovered." I tried a couple solutions including different drivers, reseating the card. I must have spent 50 hours on the phone and doing searches to see what the ***** was going on. This included several calls to both EVGA and ASUS. I finally got tired of losing time and went to a local store and purchase a new video card. The problem stopped immediately. Go figure, the unit worked in the tech's office and a drive home created an insane problem. I'm going to take the old video card to the tech and have him test it in a different unit to see if it is indeed the video card. I staill have the BOOT_DEVICE_LED light that stays on all of the time. I am worried about that even though the tech guy at ASUS told me it wasn't a problem. I dread removing the CPU cooler and looking for bent pins although it doesn't look like I have a choice. It's either that or something may not be grounded properly. You commonly read horror stories about ASUS support. All I can say is that it depends on who you speak to. One tech didn't even know how to reset the BIOS to the defaults. I hung up on him. Another guy spent over an hour on the phone helping me. He knew his stuff. Overall, I've owned 5 different ASUS boards and, although the previous ones have been more than a challenge, this one was the easiest to get set up. If it weren't for the video card issue I would have been up an running 5 days quicker.

Overall Review: My Build: -------- MB: ASUS Sabertooth X79 LGA 2011 Intel X79 POWER SUPPLY - SeaSonic X-SERIES X-1050 1050W CPU - Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E 3.6GHz CPU COOLER - CORSAIR Hydro Series H80i MEMORY - 32 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 CASE - Armor VA8003BWS Full Tower VIDEO - EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB SuperClocked+ - Model 03G-P4-3663-KR BLURAY - ASUS Model BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS RAID CONTROLLER - HighPoint RocketRAID 2720SGL PCI-Express 2.0 x8 Low Profile SATA-SAS 6Gb/s SOUND - HT | OMEGA CLARO Plus+ 7.1 UPS - APC Back-UPS XS 1500 LCD WIN7 Ultimate SP1 Drives: ------- SSD - 256 GB - SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW SATA-600 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB SATA-600 - 2X Western Digital WD Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 IN RAID 1 SATA-600 - 2X TOSHIBA DT01ACA200 2TB 7200 RPM IN RAID 1 SATA-300 - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS-01G6U4 150GB 10000 RPM SATA-300 - Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-300 - Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS 2TB 5900 RPM SATA-300 - SEAGATE BARRACUDA 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA-300 - HITACHI Deskstar H3IK20003272SP (0S02861) 2TB 7200 RPM SATA-300 - HITACHI Deskstar 7K2000 HDS722020ALA330 (0F10311) 2TB 7200 RPM Misc: ----- COFFEE POT: This is always kept inside my case and is heated by the various components. It helps me move as fast as this computer. Couldn't be happier.

Pros: Lasted 2 1/2 yrs -This drive was originally the SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s drive. Original drive had a 3 yr warranty - I just beat the warranty by 7 months before it barfed.

Cons: I'm sure everyone has already noticed that hard drives just aren't what they used to be. While 2 1/2 yrs isn't "too bad" for the life of a hard drive today, I just pulled my case open to find out I still have 2 Diamond Max Maxtors 200 GB that I purchased in 2006! That's 7 years life. They are still humming along at a dreadfully slow pace, but I use them for backups AND they haven't died.

Overall Review: I have changed the way I manage my hard drive inventory and I've also started to use RAID 0. I've ordered 6 new hard drives in the past week as well as a new build. I'm going to keep a few drives on the shelf so that I continue to get my work done. The biggest disappointment I have with the hard drives of recent is they just waste so much of your time in repairs. It's a shooting match when you buy a drive today. In one week I lost 3 drives in the same system and I have a dependable UPS so I know it wasn't a power spike. Also had to return a TOSHIBA DT01ACA200 2TB that was DOA the other day. This is the FIRST time I received a DOA drive so from reading all of the other horrors I consider myself lucky. My Build: MB: ASUS Sabertooth X79 LGA 2011 Intel X79 POWER SUPPLY - SeaSonic X-SERIES X-1050 1050W CPU - Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E 3.6GHz CPU COOLER - CORSAIR Hydro Series H80i MEMORY - 32 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 CASE - Armor VA8003BWS VIDEO - EVGA GeForce GTX 460 FPB BLURAY - ASUS Model BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS RAID CONTROLLER - HighPoint RocketRAID 2720SGL PCI-Express 2.0 x8 Low Profile SATA-SAS SOUND - HT | OMEGA CLARO Plus+ 7.1 UPS - APC Back-UPS XS 1500 LCD DRIVES: SSD - 256 GB - SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW SATA-600 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB SATA-600 - 2X Western Digital WD Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 IN RAID 0 SATA-600 - 2X TOSHIBA DT01ACA200 2TB 7200 RPM IN RAID 0 SATA-300 - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS-01G6U4 150GB 10000 RPM SATA-300 - Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-300 - Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS 2TB 5900 RPM SATA-300 - SEAGATE BARRACUDA 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA-300 - HITACHI Deskstar H3IK20003272SP (0S02861) 2TB 7200 RPM SATA-300 - HITACHI Deskstar 7K2000 HDS722020ALA330 (0F10311) 2TB 7200 RPM

Pros: Excellent support - I haven't even received this drive yet but I was confused on the warranty. Newegg says 5 yrs, the Samsung web site had 3 yrs AND 5 yrs. So I emailed Samsung directly and here's what they said: Dear Customer, Thank You for contacting Samsung SSD support regarding your inquiries. The 840 Pro has a 5 year warranty. We will notify the correct department regarding the inaccurate information on the site. Thank You.

Cons: None - hopefully there won't be any

Overall Review: I was amazed at how fast Samsung responded to my inquiry. It definitely reflects a company that cares about their reputation.

This vendor's shipping was fast. I got my product very fast (Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9000 32 GB Black 3G Quad-core 1.9 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 Unlocked Cell Phone). But I didn't get the 32GB memory card that was supposed to be with the phone! I've called twice as of today and no one answers the phone. If I don't get the memory card I'll just buy one myself and invoice this vendor. Poor service.