Pros: In the immortal words of Chris Pirillo. STUPID FAST! I added 5.45 gigs of music files AND convert all of them to AAC 128kbps format in less than 10 seconds when it took 35 to 45 seconds on my 10k raptor hdd. 7.2 wei on IDE sata mode, {{ 7.7!! wei rating after enabling ahci in windows registry }}(start, regedit, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SYSTEM, CURRENT CONTROL SET, SERVICES, MSAHCI, rightclick on "Start" and click " modify", then put it to "0" as in the number zero. then reboot, press Delete ( or F 1, or whatever other key for your computer gets you to BIOS aka "Setup", then find the option in your settings that allow you to change the SATA mode from " ide" to "ahci", save and exit and after this automatic boot up attempt it will require one more reboot. BOOM you're done. then follow the recommended ssd tweaks. Using Microsoft AHCI drivers that the win 7 Operating System disc auto installs. I'll see later if this rating states. not sure. hence Avg Tech Knowledge. See Other Thoughts

Cons: this ssd * unlike the 240gig model= around 1.90 or less per gig * is more than 2 bucks per usable gig. of course obviously holidays, black friday, christmas eve are your best deal shopping days 99% of the time. again nothing that anyone hasn't said. This is NOT worth knocking off eggs. It took decades to finally get ssd STORAGE drive technology cheap and good enough for the consumers.lol. good things are worth waiting for eh? MADE ME PERFORMANCE DRUNK off the speed.lol. ME LIKEY ZOOM ZOOM ME LIKEY ZOOM ZOOM!

Overall Review: NEWEGG @#$%$ING ROCKS! :) ordered around 10 a.m. central time Monday morning, receive the drive today Tuesday at 2pm central time UPS no package war scars! yes i selected rush processing but still FREE SHIPPING THAT FAST!?? Yeah Im lucky they had this ssd in/near TN warehouse but either way...(toasts a Sam Adams Light to newegg). --Disable the following to ensure longest life for the ssd: Hibernation, Defragmentation, Superfetch, Indexing. Atto benchmarks 4k write= just under 97mb/sec, 4k read=just under 86mb/sec. 64k files 261mb/sec read, 230 write. yeah alittle less than max but hey I didnt' spend over 900 bucks plus intel mobo money to get that extra 24mb/sec read and 45mb/sec write. good enough for me. Didn't need intel 980x cpu :D. my test rig on this ssd: MSI 785gm-e51 mobo updated bios of course Kingston Hyper X ddr3 1600mhz 6 gig ( 3 sticks at 2 gigs each) Ram athlon IIx4 3.0 quad core cpu stock settings MSI 512mb 256bit 8800gt ( yes i know. It's old now.lol) This ss

Pros: NONE!!

Cons: PLENTY!! MSI!! QUALITY CONTROL INVOLVING repairing or replacing motherboards!!!

Overall Review: Guess what MSI, this board mysteriously died today. no warnings...and the power supply wasn't even plugged into anything...period..It worked perfectly for one measley week! If you're reading this MSI..I have already left a message for " rene" and you have my shipping address, email address, phone number and have 3 weeks from tomorrow 3-20-2013 for me to receive from you all a BRAND NEW am3+ socket motherboard... That is the LEAST you can do for me considering the hassles I have been through with communication before the sale, after the sale, and this epic FAILURE of an RMA process. This board was to go to a customer of mine's pc. He decide to change his mind about buying from me THANKS TO YOU MSI! I am fed up. Can you tell? This is not up for discussion or debate NEW AM3+ motherboard....in 3 weeks from tomorrow..or I contact the better business bureau! No customer should have to deal with two dead motherboards that he did nothing wrong to for them to die mysteriously. Apparently Q C is not in MSI'S vocabulary. Rene...get me the new am3+ board or I contact the b b b again you already have all my information you need. Don't waste my time trying to lie to me or talk me into another used/refurbished board because it's obvious you all don't know how to repair a motherboard..let alone quick accurate honest communication. New am3+ motherboard...3 weeks..Or else I contact b b b

Pros: FAST: shutdown, restart, and system boot up. Native usb 3.0 support. Easy system " restore" options if you're new to pc troubleshooting world. ( I still prefer good old fashion wipe the storage drive clean--and do a custom clean install)

Cons: People who claim somewhat high or HIGH tech knowledge of a product then wine about the SILLIEST and most MINOR of things in which EASY and full variety of resolutions are available ( many of them FREE of charges) just with a few clicks and a google search " waaa. I hate it because I can't boot straight into my desktop and can't avoid the metro screen..waaaa" google it genius Start8 Startisback Classicshell ( aka classic start from ninite dot com) Take your pick of those. There are more than that Also my guess from tried and true customer tech support experence is that handydandy is the type of person that " click click click" to install anything WITHOUT reading what he's installing. He probably doesn't understand that concept along with " selecting CUSTOM install " to actually SEE what the program you really want ..is also trying to put in your pc. My guess of his problem, VIRUS/MALWARE/ADWARE/junkware. People the ONLY reason you encounter such problems is you DON'T pay attention to what you're clicking and actually READ first. Use common sense when getting on a pc. I haven't ran antivirus software since 2002 and the ONLY time I received a virus is when a PURPOSELY tried to get one by going to very weak naughty websites that have no secure servers..no http, etc. While you're at it. Keep little 9 year old susie and timmy off your pc. Common sense? It should be.

Overall Review: My mushkin callisto deluxe with windows 8 pro 64 bit vs windows 7 pro 64 bit with the EXACT same amount of data filling up the drive actually performance very slightly better in iops and sequential reads and writes both 4k and big file sizes. Yes the difference is small and hard to notice, but it is there. The ONLY real reason people complain about windows 8 is because the " windows 7 was my idea" and windows 8 " oh it's just another ME or Vista remake..skip it and wait for 9" because of the metro that they shoved in desktop users faces who couldn't care less about using a Logitech touch pad and were too lazy to GOOGLE such a simple resolution. People complained going from 98se to xp, and 98se to 2000 also. and from 95 to 98. These same people must learn to find something more useful and productive to do with their online journalistic lives than poorly rate a good product. They are such whiners it's really pathetic, and they need to either SHUT UP and learn patience and critical thinking as far as LEARNING about the things they CHOOSE to purchase and use..or they need to learn the self discipline it takes NOT to purchase something that they KNOW they won't have such patience and eagerness to learn about so that they'll enjoy using it. It is simple. If you CHOOSE to vote for garbage to put in the government/whitehouse...then you have NO right to complain when the garbage in power/authority raises taxes ( let alone keeps the fed income tax which is really UNconstitutional) and your and my paycheck shrinks even more the following year. Grow up people. Learn how to potty train yourself and stop exaggerating your level of tech knowledge about a product when you CLEARLY missed the EASY resolution(s) about the things you complained about out of plain laziness.

Pros: Crossfire and SLI compatible ( my 3 slot galaxy version gtx 580 with accelero xtreme plus hsf cooling stock-installed can have another one installed right under it if I chose and I still have one pci express x1 slot above the one card left as worst case scenario. 8 pin cpu power connector will give better power delivery stability than 4 pin ( like my previous 785gm-e51 board had). Thus better cpu overclocking stability overall from what I've researched. Installed everything and booted right up the first time. Although some minor issues and one major issue showed up later. All all sata connected devices ( ssd, 3tb hdd, 3 optical drives) worked out of the box. Usb 3.0 worked out of the box without need to update or install any drivers ( Asmedia usb 3.0 driver auto installed) thus was able to transfer my movies from my wd my book 3 tb external hdd to my 3tb seagate barracuda internal hdd via that connection. Oc Genie II setting worked flawlessly auto set my cpu to a total of 3600mhz and via overclocking the front side bus, northbridge and I think one other thing off memory automatically as result of fsb increase, although not as high an overclock as I could achieve manually of course, and everything appears to run still as stable as before EXCEPT I had to manually set my ram voltage to 1.652 ( kingston hyper x ddr3 1600mhz 9-9-9-24-27 ram meant to run at 1.65v). Henry and John at Msi saved a customer from going to Asus or another competitor from now on with their patience and balanced listening/option giving WITHOUT arrogance. THIS is the type of experience a customer SHOULD ALWAYS receive. I've worked call centers 1/3rd of my life, customer service for at least half of it ( 16 years) and know what customer service is and should be. If any of you MSI customers are at your wits end with Msi's tech and RMA support, John in tech support and Henry in RMA involved support ARE who you need to give chances to. I know it's difficult to believe that if you have already made judgements against a company that has treated you badly, but they have proven themselves to me. Good price for the hardware you receive on board.

Cons: No onboard video, thus if video card dies, i'm s o L LOL Windows 8 Eufi option is useless unless you have a 600 series nvidia card or whatever the other series amd video card. ( gtx 580 here. my video card wasn't the GOP enabled whatever standard it required). I had to clear cmos to remove that useless setting JUST to be able to boot into windows again. -1 egg. Tried Fast Boost, then Msi Fast Boot. I noticed ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE in total boot up speed *includes testing with rebooting the machine & starting it up pushing power button the tower itself to cold boot the machine* I had to clear cmos to restore being able to POST after enabling " Windows 8 Feature in bios ( AFTER I went through h$%l trying to find a bios update ...NO THANKS to Msi's Live update software for claiming I already had the MOST update to date bios...NOT March 2013 version 2.3 is as far as I know. ) Had to clear cmos just to be able to access my bios again upon boot up -1 egg Live Update software it WON'T find the newest bios. Why did this matter to me? 1.11 WON'T let me boot my ( ahci windows 8 pr 64 bit o.s. INSTALLED ssd into windows or even recognize it as a bootable device from post) ssd into windows IN ahci mode where it is MEANT to be. When i installed everything ( win 8 pro 64 was already installed on my ssd when i connected it to this board) it REFUSED to boot as an AHCI device ( enabled it as ahci in bios as it was on my previous board working as it should) thus the ONLY way i could use my pc was to enabled it as IDE. ONLY after I had to search FOREVER all day yesterday did I FINALLY find the correct webpage to download the updated bios which there had been at least 2 more since my 1.11 version that came stock with this board. ( Henry. You hit the rim but the ball didn't go in the basket on that one bud.) I didn't think a bios update would be REQUIRED for my ssd ( o.s. music, games, documents) to function at full speed instead of only 60 to 65% of it's previous speed. -1 egg. My 785gm-e51 board, purchased from newegg 2 years ago & it mysteriously DIED, no warning, no lighting storm, no overclocking..nothing. just died. Went through ABSOLUTE B S dealing with MSI's horrible tech support phone ( see 785gm-e51 review with Libertarian)" John" seems to be the only guy working in tech support as I always got him WHEN i Rarely received anyone. He was nice & helped me rule out other components as being the problem & explained how to jump off my psu to rule it out. After having to threaten to call b b b on MSI to get my tracking number for my RMA'd 785gm-e51 motherboard ( which Henry claimed was a replacement refurbished & not the same exact motherboard-repaired)..finding out in less thsn 4 days later it TOO dies for no reason ( yes I had my pc plugged into a $100.00 monster brand power strip for clean power 1k nzxt 83 amp 12v psu with only 400 ish max watts of consumption pc components connected to it) MSI's QC in their RMA department.

Overall Review: So Henry agreed to search his warehouse ( I really wanted the 990fxa-gd80 v2 board which as front usb 3.0 panel connectors.) for a new board for me and ship it free of charge. I've heard that 990 board has a better power phase & delivery design than this one.) Well the day that I decided on this board & told Henry, He shipped it out, and I received it 7 days later early this past friday morning 9:15 a.m. central time as promised brand new. It could have came with more than two sata gen 3 cables, but whatever. It's not a deal breaker.They are white & black ( which helps my themed build later) with 90 degrees on one end being perfect for connecting them to the straight out facing ports 1 & 2 on the board & can use long pci express cards. Considering that this result is NOT the normal choice that Msi ( or for companies for that matter) will agree to, it is due to the horrendous experience with them that Henry agreed to make an exception giving me a new motherboard. I suppose I'm lucky but the custom support experience is something you don't forget easily good or bad. Henry as promised I'm giving you full applause for saving the day & saving a customer. I've been a customer since 2004 when I purchsed my first motherboard " k8n neo platinum 754 socket amd board back in 2004" from newegg and it's STILL kicking boody on warcraft III, prince of persia, and other older but classic titles with the 2.4ghz clawhammer single core athlon 64 amd cpu. I appreciate all the warning about the VRM overheat

Pros: Still, since christmas 2010, operates at around 10 to 15 megabytes under max reads and writes and the ssd has been 70% full for the past 8 months straight. The obvious ssd advantages that chances are you have already learned about vs the hdd world. PRICE per gig in this high end sata II ssd

Cons: Price lately on THIS sata II model vs the same sized Chronos deluxe model.Why is this drive priced almost exactly the same? Shouldn't this sata II callisto deluxe model be a good amount lower, at least 40 bucks lower?

Overall Review: Rick Soutouras ( I don't have time to look through my emails years ago when I last spoke with him to find his correct name spelling. Sorry sir. Nothing personal) was EXCELLENT in giving me presales customer support answering all my tedious questions about this ssd before I took the ssd plunge for the first time. He is an asset to Mushkin. Phanteks is another company I have had the pleasure of testing their presales support with and will soon purchase the phtc14pe cpu cooler from right here at the egg for my 8350 build hopefully coming up soon. Phanteks has answered both of my motherboard compatibility questions in less than 24 hours with thoughtful and professional responses just like mushkin before and after the sale. Get this drive if you have only sata II connections. Otherwise go ahead and pull the purchase trigger with the Chronos deluxe. That one is the best performance:price ssd ratio that I can find as of writing this review.

Pros: Very little if almost NO flex to the unit itself Nothing else that I can think of that other reviewers haven't already listed.

Cons: Location of side audio ports,etc should be moved to the back of the unit or left side where chances are it would be out of my way as i'm using the naga mouse with it. This is the only reason I'm rating it 4 out of 5 eggs. Imo it was a practicality design flaw in the R & D dept at Razer

Overall Review: those who claim you MUST install the synapse 2.0 software to change backlighting are incorrect. Macros setting and adjustment? yes. Out of the box You can use the function + whatever keys to change audio volume level and back light intensity. I am uncertain of the media function keys as I didn't think to try them until after I already installed synapse 2.0. It was a WEIRD adjustment coming from membrane keyboards all my life. The clickiness doesn't bother me. Odd thing is after typing on it for a few months..My typing speed has went from a daily average of 70 wpm with 85% accuracy to 83 wpm with 90% accuracy . I type pages upon pages of thoughts, reviews, conversation online, etc..not just the one paragraph tests you can do online for free anytime like the old typing shark game back in late 90's. Thus my results are a little more believable. I've been enjoying my Orcha and Kraken headgear as well for months. Solid experiences so far with this company. I look forward to trying the Razer blade gaming notebook soon.