Pros: Runs cool, throttles down nicely, works well with ESXi, does a great job crunching when it has to

Cons: They aren't giving them away for free!

Overall Review: I bought this CPU and paired it with a Intel BOXDQ77MK Q77 chipset board to use as an ESXi server to build test machines and beat them up. I could not be happier with the features in this CPU and how well it pairs with the Q77 chipset. ESXi runs like a dream, and I have 13 servers running on the box right now. They're not heavily hit production machines, but they are a mix of Win2K8 Server, Win2012 Server, and CentOS boxes. All of those virtual environments utilize the CPU very efficiently. Couldn't be happier.

Pros: Ships in a box.

Cons: Arrived DOA. Dead power supply. The Intel motherboard I bought requires 9 posts, this one only comes with 6. Drives barely fit inside and rested on the power cable for the motherboard (Intel). Instructions are terrible. Avoid this product!!!

Overall Review: I RMA'd this ($24 in return shipping) and now I need to order another case. This is the first time in a long time that I've received a product DOA, and it's the last time I'll buy anything under this brand name.

Pros: LGA 1155, Q77 Chipset, Dual Gbit NIC, decent expansion, priced right

Cons: They're not giving them away!

Overall Review: I have two of these boards. One is running pfSense and the other ESXi. As a pfSense appliance this board does a lot. It's probably overkill but it's incredibly expandable and I'll never be able to saturate the chipset with four Gbit connections. ESXi runs incredibly well on this board. However, ESXi does not recognize of the NICs, so you'll never get to use that one. That's not the board's fault, that's a shortcoming of ESXi. I have an i7-3770S inside and maxed out the 32GB of RAM. The server hosts 13 virtual host on this single node. The Q77 chipset really lends itself well to any kind of virtualization and coupled with an Ivy Bridge processor it's the bomb! I am very, very happy with these boards and will probably buy a couple more before they're discontinued for something better.