Pros: Popped in worked great. Updated the bios and its been working great since. Haven't worked much on overclocking yet, letting it get burned in, but changed the multiplier and got 2.5 GHz no problem. ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 keeps it at a cool 30 C. Amazing performance

Cons: None yet.

Overall Review: I had to change the setting of clock ratio (multiplier) in the BIOS from "Auto" to whatever value I wanted because it seemed that AMD Overdrive wasn't keeping the multiplier at 11.5 stock. Apparently BIOS overrides what you do in AOD. I'm no pro with the software though.

Pros: Lots of RAM (8GB would have been nice, but 6GB is still plenty,) fast processor, beautiful screen with a great resolution. They backlit keyboard is great in low-light situations. The 5400 RPM drive it comes with is actually surprisingly speedy. I love Windows 8, so that's a pro for me, though I wish it had been the pro version. Despite the list of cons below (which are all extremely nit-picky,) this laptop is an excellent deal and a superb product. I would recommend it to anyone in need of a mid- to high-range gaming laptop.

Cons: It's a tad heavier than I'd have liked, but that's not a huge concern. The power adapter truly is a brick. The thing is massive compared to other laptop chargers I've seen. 5400 RPM drive is a bit of a bummer, would have been a nice option to get this with an SSD in it instead. As others have said, the thing shows fingerprints easily, so if you have greasy hands, this laptop will make sure you know. The trackpad takes some getting used to, but it's not nearly as bad as others have said. It's sort of a bummer that it doesn't come with a DVD drive, but I have an external, so it's no big deal. It is something worth noting though, before you buy. The laptop doesn't have an extra hard drive bay, so you can't use an SSD for the OS and the 1TB drive for storage. That would have been a nice feature on a laptop this size. Doesn't come with installation media. Installing the OS on an SSD was a bad experience for me, details below.

Overall Review: This is what I consider the most important part of the review. Hopefully my experiences are helpful to others. I bought a 250GB SSD with the laptop, intending to replace the 1TB hard drive the laptop comes with. After putting the SSD into the laptop and plugging in the external DVD drive, I attempted to boot up windows 8 setup and get started on installation. The laptop wouldn't recognize my SSD or the external DVD drive. I attempted to install windows to the SSD by putting it into another laptop and going through installation that way, then moving the SSD back to the Y500. Again, no dice. I'm still not 100% sure why this is the case, and this may have been obvious to some who are more familiar with laptops like the Y500, but apparently for this laptop to recognize the external DVD drive and the SSD as bootable devices, you have to go into the bios and change the boot mode from UEFI to legacy. I didn't realize that was necessary for SSDs, but I guess it is. That wasn't immediately obvious to me, so I was a little miffed when my initial attempts refused to recognize the SSD as bootable. Chalking this up to my own ignorance, but hopefully this information is helpful to others who may also attempt to install the OS to a new SSD.

Pros: This monitor is fantastic. I had an Acer 20 inch widescreen with a 19 inch acer using dual monitors, sold my 19 inch to a roommate and bought this monitor (although not from Newegg, $70 cheaper elsewhere). Now i have a dual monitor setup with my 20 inch and this beast of a monitor and, although it might defy logic, my acer 20 inch dwarfs in comparison and overall quality. The color and brightness are fantastic, and it gives a very VERY crisp image. The other monitors were holding me back resolution wise, and this monitor shines like nothing i've ever seen before at 1600 x 1050. No blurry images, the icons, pictures, and text all are perfectly clear. I would recommend this monitor to anyone.

Cons: Not a huge con, but it only has output for VGA, no DVI. Also the adjustability isn't that great on it (like the HP L2045W) but i have it propped up on some old textbooks and it still works like a charm.

Overall Review: Get one. Simple as that. I've looked around for months trying to decide on which monitor I wanted. I really wanted the HP L2045W because of its insane adjustability but I don't regret buying this monitor at all. HP makes fantastic monitors and I can't say enough about this one. just GET IT.

Pros: For the price, the pair of these can't be beat. I don't have much experience with webcams, but these seemed to work excellently for what I use them for. Installed quickly and easily and are a breeze to use.

Cons: A LITTLE choppy. They're really not that bad but sometimes they freeze up for a few seconds before displaying the current view again. Happens fairly often but not regularly by any means and like I said, it's only for a few seconds

Overall Review: Like I said, for the price they can't be argued. If you need some basic visual vebcams and don't wanna spend a Benjamin on logitech, this by far is the way to go

Pros: Amazing Processor.If you're looking to upgrade from a single core to a dual core for your 939 system for a decent price, get this proc. For the money it can't be beat. Overall amazing

Cons: Absolutely nothing, though for future buyers the price seemed to go up in the past couple days, I bought roughly a week ago for fifteen dollars cheaper, so keep an eye out for that.

Overall Review: Amazing performance. Multitasking is incredible. Upgraded from an Athlon 64 3000+, so this dual core increment was much needed. Increased my Vista CPU rating from a 4.0 to a 4.9, which I am very happy about. Should have bought it much earlier. Great proc to upgrade my 939 with for future use yet :D