Pros: Cheap, effective 4x BD-R disks. Burned 3 with no issues on a new LG GGW-H20L drive. Good to see media coming down in price (Verbatim BD-R disks retailed for $3a.95 back in 2006!)

Cons: Silver backing is difficult to label if you prefer sharpies. Durability and lifespan also unknown.

Overall Review: Full 4x data BD-R disk burns in around 25 minutes.

Pros: Lots of features, nice heatpipe cooling setup. Makes overclocking easy. Looks sharp. Pretty stand-by and power backlit LED setup on the board.

Cons: Many people are experiencing dead boards anywhere from 4 days to a couple of weeks after installation. Mine died about a week into use. I see more than normal "my board just died, CMOS reset not working, removed all components, still dead, HELP!" posts in Asus's message boards. Unless you really like this board, check out the non-deluxe version. I switched to it and have no complaints, so far. The built-in SoundMAX sound is very lacking. Complaints abound about crackling sound quality -- made better by decreasing the WAV volume setting. Apparently the BASS/TREBLE settings were also removed a version or so ago to try and address the issue, but this significantly decreases quality and functionality even further. If you still want the board, consider adding on a better sound card. They're not that expensive, and you get better features, too.

Overall Review: Asus's utility installation program is pretty pathetic. Install drivers one by one, not using their automatic installation setting. Manual is good until you get to the BIOS settings part.

Pros: Good, clean vocals, which is the point with a center channel speaker. Build is very solid. Removable grille is a plus. Ability to flip over and direct sound at an angle is a cool feature.

Cons: Ordering sound eqipment on-line is analgous to getting a monitor or LCD TV without seeing it. The inability to test-drive the speaker may be an issue for some.

Overall Review: Not exactly a "con", but, as with any speaker, it might be difficult to match sound with existing speakers without hearing this unit. Consider adding similar Polk free-standing units with similar drivers. A sub is a must.

Pros: Fantastic cooling, as you might imagine. 8x120mm fans (and a smaller top fan) are almost inaudible (that's "super quiet"). External connectors on side panel are helpful (they're outside the swinging door, which is good design). Design is solid-looking (and feeling) and very pleasing to the eye. Lots of internal space, since it's a full-size tower.

Cons: Minor concerns: * Swinging door looks great but getting at your optical drive trays requires you to open the door. Programs which automatically eject drive trays will either be blocked or forcefully open the door - neither of which is good for the drive's eject mechanism motor. * Case is *so* big, you might need longer IDE cords to reach from a bottom-placement IDE header on a motherboard to the top drive bay, if necessary.

Overall Review: I've traveled with this case a couple of times and it came through just fine. Black case paint seems fairly resilient. Still looks sharp and allows for quiet, easy to configure internal air cooling mechanisms. Best case I've ever used!