Pros: Price: Even when I purchased this processor almost a year ago at xx dollars more, I still thought that AMD Sempron64's were steals. Overclocking: The Sempron's Palermo core is essentially a Venice core with a smaller cache. By cutting the cache size, the processors can be manufactured cheaper. And while the smaller cache size can have a small effect on performance, there seem to be less power demands therefore higher overclockability over Athlong64's.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Overall, this is a great single core DDR processor. With (2) 1Gb sticks of Corsair XMS and an Asus K8N-E board, I've been running my machine nonstop at 2.6ghz with a slight voltage increase and decrease in Hypertransport ratio. I'd be wary to try these settings on stock cooling though. As a final note, DDR technology and single core computing is really archaic. I would really only recommend this processor for users who already own solid, high capacity DDR. Even my Sempron at 2.6Ghz can't even touch the lowest grade Core 2 Duo.

Pros: uATX form factor: With my non-removable mb tray mid tower case, it was a pain to deal with full-size ATX boards; this thing is tiny! Price: This was about the cheapest am2 motherboard on Newegg, and it's Asus!

Cons: Bios: Not sure what the deal is with the bios, but the VGA bios says "Engineering sample only - Not for Production use." It's kinda scary to think that it is actually a test bios and not the retail! Also the ASUS overclocking is nonexistent. On my old Asus k8 there was an option for Asus' smart overclocking up to 10% and there was also a manual FSB speed adjustment. The "great" overclocking tool on this doesn't actually allow you to overclock anything; you can only DECREASE the multiplier. There is no FSB adjustment.

Overall Review: I bought this board simply to upgrade to AM2 and wasn't looking for any extra special functionality. Well, it is sure stripped down, but no overclocking? Come on Asus... that's not cool

Pros: Price: In terms of dualcore procs, I suppose Intel's answer is the 1.8ghz Allendale Core 2 Duo. With Allendale's smaller cache size (compared to big brother Conroe), I think the 4600+ is a slightly better performer overall.

Cons: Architecture: The Athlon64 architecture is tried and true, but it IS becoming dated compared to Core 2 in CPU intensive applications. For gaming and general multitasking it's still great though.

Overall Review: With Cool n Quiet disabled, the temps aren't exactly stellar for me, and I'm not sure why. With my Scythe Ninja, I was able to keep my old FX-55 under 40 degrees Celsius but my energy efficient X2 creeps up to 50. Not sure why especially considering that the X2 runs at 1.25volts versus thee 1.55 on my FX-55.

Pros: Stability: I've been running this ram on an Asus K8N-E for almost a year now at 215mhz and I've never had any memory issues. Aesthetics: I think the heat spreaders are gorgeous.

Cons: Price: How on earth did the price go up on this? I realize that DDR has been phasing out, but I really didn't expect the price to go up!

Overall Review: Overall, this is a solid performer, but I almost can't recommend this for DDR users given the price. Before upgrading to 2 gigs, I had some Geil value ram and was able to hit almost the exact same overclocking numbers with the same stability.

Pros: Price: This came free in a media bundle! Construction: After picking this thing up for the first time, I was immediately struck by how rigid and solid the shell felt.

Cons: Colors?

Overall Review: To be honest, I think the color scheme is kinda nerdy, but I sort of like it.

Pros: Price: As alluded to in the review title, aside from the bezel, this is a really standard case. However, Cooler Master is a solid company and with prices high competitive with cheaper manufacturers, I don't think that you can go wrong with this one. Bezel: Personally, I think the bezel is gorgeous and allows some nice airflow.

Cons: Bezel: I have mixed feelings about the bezel. While it does "encourage" airflow throughout the case, it lets out a lot of noise, too, if extra fans are running in the case. HDD seeks leek out easily, too. Stock Fans: The 120mm outtake fan is pretty darn quiet for stock and pushes a reasonable amount of air, but the buzzy, low cfm 80mm fan in the hdd bay area is practically useless.

Overall Review: For casual users with mostly passive components and a single hard drive, I think this case is a nice performer, but it took a lot of mods for me to quiet down the case after adding a few extra fans. With that being said, this is a nice cheap box to mod the hell out of, too.