Pros: - Sturdy, quality construction - Built with overclocking in mind - Large heat sink (probably overkill) for PCIE gen 5 M.2 SSD's

Cons: - Heavy - Expensive - 6 USB type-A ports might not be enough for some users - Large M.2 SSD heat sink has clearance issues with some AIO's

Overall Review: This is a high quality, but expensive board that has everything that I wanted to pair with my new 9800x3d. I don't plan on delving much into overclocking so it's probably overkill for me but I've always used ASUS boards and saw no reason to change things up. This is the heaviest motherboard I've ever handled, although I like that because it is very sturdy as a trade off. If you plan to use an AIO check compatibility first. The large heat sink for the PCIE gen 5 M.2 slots will have to be removed and left out if you plan to use something like the Arctic Liquid Freezer III (although Arctic will send you a replacement compatible heat sink for free). This was a non issue for me since I am using gen 4 drives and could just use alternate slots lower down on the board.

Pros: - The best gaming CPU on the market as of this writing - Very efficient when comparing performance vs power relative to other CPU's on the market, especially Intel CPU's

Cons: - 8 cores/16 threads results in mediocre performance for production tasks that benefit from higher core/thread count CPU's, but this is not the intended primary use case anyway. - Availability is currently an issue due to high demand

Overall Review: Upgrading to the 9800x3d from a great for its time but now aging 10900k has shown a night and day difference in CPU demanding games like Baldur's Gate 3 (act 3), Dragon's Dogma 2, and Space Marine 2 just to name a few. The old 10900k would chug down to the low 50fps mark during heavy scenes in those titles (without frame gen) so I knew it was time to upgrade to latest and greatest to pair with my RTX 4090. The 9800x3d is also incredibly power efficient and cool. Pairing it with an Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 only sees it approach the 70c mark in synthetic tests like Cinebench. In real world use like heavy gaming I don't see it exceed 65c. There's a lot of temperature headroom here for overclocking for those who want to, but aside from enabling the EXPO profile for my RAM that's not really my thing. As a gamer first this CPU is the clear choice over any else currently available. It tops the charts on nearly every gaming benchmark that I've seen. And between Intel's 13th and 14th gen oxidation problems, and the growing pains of the core ultra series causing a noticeable regression compared to 14th gen in overall gaming performance, Intel just doesn't have anything competitive to offer to gamers right now. And that's coming from a guy who has used Intel in his builds for the last 10+ years.

Pros: - Relatively quiet compared to other fans even at 100% speed - High quality materials and construction - Can move a lot of air with its superior design and max speed of 2400rpm

Cons: - expensive - PWM speed toggle is easy to forget about and inaccessible after mounting as an exhaust fan without removal

Overall Review: These fans have it all: quality construction, high performance, and low noise levels. They are pricey, currently sitting at 32 USD a pop but are worth every penny if you are an enthusiast that wants the best. And just as a heads up for others, don't forget to set the PWM speed switch on the back of the fan to whatever your preference is BEFORE you mount it to your case like I did. It's not a huge deal, but hopefully I can save at least a couple of others from having the same derp moment that I did.

Pros: - Came as a free item with a 9800x3d + ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E bundle - Worked fine at rated specs with no issues, including the Expo profile - 6400MT/s is pretty fast

Cons: - This RAM is not officially supported as compatible with the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E - CAS latency and other timings are underwhelming even at the EXPO profile timings of 36-48-48-104

Overall Review: Despite this being a free item and there being zero compatibility issues for me, including the EXPO profile, I'm still going to call out Newegg for bundling this RAM with a board that doesn't officially support it. This is not on Corsair of course. This could cause a lot of confusion and headaches for an inexperienced builder in a worst case scenario where the lack of compatibility causes the RAM to only function at base speed and timings, or not at all. Aside from that this is a solid kit, but gaming enthusiasts like myself will probably upgrade to something with better timings like the Corsair Dominator Titanium which boasts 30-36-36-76 at 6000MT/s to help with those 1% frame rate lows.