Pros: This is an amazingly fast chip. The combination of Hyperthreading and a faster Turbo Boost makes this chip faster than the Core i7 920 in most benchmarks. The differences are especially stark single-threaded applications because the 860 regularly runs at 3.33 Ghz in single-threaded apps yielding a 15-20% increase over non-turbo mode. That means - for regular desktop and game usage- this chip will crush the 920 since most apps are at most optimized for dual-core setups. In addition, 1156 socket motherboards are $50-100 cheaper than 1366 motherboards. I upgraded from a Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz chip and the difference is incredible. I've included some benchmarks below. The Core i7 is highly efficient at video encoding/decoding compared to C2 Duo/Quad chips. See benchmarks below. Excellent power efficiency. Usually runs at 1.2-1.33 ghz with 2 cores disabled on idle. Power usage only slightly higher than some Core 2 Duos. Uses 20-30W less system-wide on idle than a i7 920, and more at lo

Cons: None

Overall Review: Benchmarks: Multithreaded synthetic: wPrime (calculate first 32 million prime #'s) Core i7 860- 8.7 seconds C2D 2.0 Ghz - 40 seconds (4.5x faster) y-cruncher (Calculates first 32 million digits of Pi - x64, SSE4, and multithreaded) Core i7 860 - 14.25 seconds (3.5x faster) C2D 2.1 Ghz - 50 seconds (64 bit) C2D 2.0 - 70 seconds (32 bit) Single-threaded synthetic: SuperPi Core i7 860- 12 seconds (2.1x faster) C2D 2.0 - 25 seconds "Real' applications: Mediacoder x264 encoding for iPod (x64, multi-threaded) Core i7 860- 250 fps C2D 2.0 - 50 fps 1080p x264 decoding (Defiance, 1920x1080 L4.1 x264, 20 mbit avg, 30-40 mbit through tested scene - toughest H.264 sample I have) Core i7 860- 10-16% CPU usage (6.66x faster!) C2D 2.0 - 90-100% CPU usage (frame dropping) Average 1080p x264 Decoding Core i7 860- 10% C2D 2.0 - 60-70% Just for kicks, I ran 3 1080p x264 encoded videos simultaneously and CPU usage still only ranged from 30-33% usage. (3.

Pros: Affordable, runs quietly and relatively cool.

Cons: The first drive I ordered failed several SMART diagnostic tests and had bad blocks. WD quickly cross-shipped me a replacement. While this drive passes all diagnostic tests, and doesn't have any bad blocks, I have had issues with the drive freezing for 30 seconds to a minute while playing movies. The movie will freeze and the HDD activity light will show constant activity. Yet, Windows reports no disk activity on the drive, and at the time, the drive was not being accessed by any other user or application.

Overall Review: I recommend the Samsung 2TB F4. I have found it to be extremely reliable, and it runs cooler and quieter than the WD EARS drive. Newegg reviews also indicate a much lower failure rate.

Pros: - High Capacity - Best value per GB currently I purchased 3 of these drives for my WHS 2011 storage server running FlexRAID. I used two for parity drives and the third for data. In total, I have 16 drives in the RAID, 2 of which are for parity, with a total of 42 TB of storage capacity. All three drives passed a surface sector scan without error and were placed into the RAID array. The parity drives see about 2 TB/day in reads and 1 TB/day in writes. I've written about 1 TB to the 3rd drive. I have not had any issues with any of these drives. Performance is excellent for a 5900 RPM drive. The error scan averaged approximately 170 MB/sec, whereas the 3 TB 7200 RPM drive hit 186 MB/sec. In contrast, this drive runs cooler and has less vibration. I also wanted to comment on Newegg's new hard drive shipping methods. I stopped buying drives from Newegg a year ago when I received two DOA drives, both poorly packaged. However, Newegg revamped their shipping practices and all drives are now shipped in custom-fitted air bladders that provide excellent protection. I can now happily purchase drives from Newegg, knowing that they will be properly packaged. See here for more information: http://promotions.newegg.com/HDD/14-0788/index.html?icid=238512 I will update this review in a year with the current state of all 3 drives.

Cons: - These drives only come with a 2 year warranty, extended to 3 years if you purchase with a credit card (Visa, MC, AMEX, Discover all offer this benefit). In contrast, the NAS drives come with a 3 year warranty and enterprise/WD Black drives have 5 year warranties. These drives are still an excellent value, but the limited warranty period is something to consider. I don't think the price premium on NAS drives is warranted unless you are using drives for traditional RAID.

Pros: Stable, fast enough (500 MB/sec aggregate read during FlexRAID build/validate operations), 3 TB drive support with latest 4.0.0.2010 driver, great for cable management when used with a SAS backplane

Cons: None so far

Overall Review: I'm using an AOC-SASLP-MV8 SAS controller in a WHS 2011 storage server with 16 TB of total storage. I haven't had an drop-outs or other issues with the card despite building parity for 9 TB of data using FlexRAID. For 3 TB support, download the latest 4.0.0.2010 driver which can be obtained here: ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SAS/Marvell/MV8/SAS2 System specs: Norco RPC-4224 4U Rackmount server w/ 24 hotswap bays Asus P8B WS Workstation Motherboard (4x PCI-E 16x slots running at 8x/8x/4x/4x, Dual onboard Intel Server NICs) Core i3-2100 3.2 Ghz Dual Core 1155 CPU 8 GB DDR3 1333 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 Controller 1 TB WD Black OS drive 2x 1.5 TB Samsung F3 2x 2TB Samsung F4 1x 2TB WD Green EARS 2x 2TB Hitachi 5k3000 1x 3TB Hitachi 5k3000 Total 12 TB data, 2TB parity with FlexRAID 2.0 WHS 2011

Pros: Maximum 130 MB/sec read/write speed at beginning of disk, operates at 30C, amazing price after MIR, functions well in hardware RAID unlike consumer drives from other manufacturers

Cons: None yet

Overall Review: Purchased two. Both successfully passed a full disk sector scan in HDTune Pro.

Pros: Great speeds for a "green" drive (130 MB/sec max, 95 MB/sec average), runs silently and cool (33C in my system), and successfully passed an error scan in HDTune Pro ensuring there are no bad blocks. HDTune indicates that the drive spins at 5900 RPM rather than the 5400 RPM typical of green drives.

Cons: None yet

Overall Review: Many people complain that they're only seeing 2.2 TB or 750 GB of space when they format this drive. That has nothing to do with the hard drive. Rather, it's a result of a lack of 3 TB support on many SATA controllers. If you have this issue, download the latest drivers for your SATA controller. These can be found on your motherboard's driver website. If you are using an Intel controller (the first 4-6 ports on most Intel motherboards), you can download the latest driver here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=20215&ProdId=2101&lang=eng&OSVersion=Windows%207%2C%2032-bit*&DownloadType= The latest 10.x series fully support 3 TB drives.