Pros: - Stable out of the box for Intel i7 builds - RAID onboard - passive chipset cooling for quiet operation - intuitive full-featured BIOS with robust i7 options and power management - SLI-capable if you need that

Cons: - HD audio header in really dumb place (under one of the PCIe slots all the way at the back of the board - fan headers could have been more convenient to the front of the board/case

Overall Review: Great base for my quiet, low heat, screaming computation i7 microATX build. My build (goals were quiet, low heat, and screaming fast computation): SAPPHIRE 100277L Radeon HD 4770 512MB EVGA 121-BL-E756-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 Micro ATX SLI Motherboard OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 2x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA (RAID 0) LIAN LI PC-V351B Black Aluminum MicroATX Case Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W PS

Pros: - 40nm process means lower power consumption - 60W at peak is great improvement over 48xx cards - Still extremely capable - fits comfortably in my MicroATX build - quiet cooling

Cons: None

Overall Review: My build (goals were quiet, low heat, and screaming fast computation): SAPPHIRE 100277L Radeon HD 4770 512MB EVGA 121-BL-E756-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 Micro ATX SLI Motherboard OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 2x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA (RAID 0) LIAN LI PC-V351B Black Aluminum MicroATX Case Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W PS

Pros: - DRAMATIC improvement over previous Intel generation - All-new memory architecture makes all the difference - Return of Hyperthreading - Nice quality quiet heat sink/fan on retail boxed part.

Cons: - This is nitpicky, but I had a bit of trouble seating the stock heat sink onto the motherboard, one of the pegs was stubborn

Overall Review: My build: SAPPHIRE 100277L Radeon HD 4770 512MB EVGA 121-BL-E756-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 Micro ATX SLI Motherboard OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 2x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA (RAID 0) LIAN LI PC-V351B Black Aluminum MicroATX Case Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W PS

Pros: Works as advertised

Cons: None

Overall Review: Not much to say - priced well, works great in my build. Make sure you get 3 sticks if you are on a Nehalem platform to get benefit of triple channel memory architecture. My build: SAPPHIRE 100277L Radeon HD 4770 512MB EVGA 121-BL-E756-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 Micro ATX SLI Motherboard OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 2x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA (RAID 0) LIAN LI PC-V351B Black Aluminum MicroATX Case Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W PS

Pros: - Modular cables excellent for compact builds - Very quiet

Cons: None

Overall Review: I wanted a high-quality 80 plus power supply that had modular cables for a compact MicroATX build that was also very quiet. This was the perfect choice. My build: SAPPHIRE 100277L Radeon HD 4770 512MB EVGA 121-BL-E756-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 Micro ATX SLI Motherboard OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 2x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA (RAID 0) LIAN LI PC-V351B Black Aluminum MicroATX Case Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W PS

Pros: - Clean look, no clear windows, fancy lighting or other nonsense - Compact and smartly designed MicroATX case - High quality construction - Ships with noise dampening features like rubber grommets for fans and hard drives, big fat rubber feet, 120 mm case fans on front - overall, very quiet (faint hard drive whirr is all I hear) - Can setup DVD to be on right or left side of case

Cons: - front firewire, USB, audio is fixed on the right side of the case - think about where this case will live if front ports need to be accessible - must remove 6 small screws per side to get inside case - cable management can be tough - not many anchor points for zip ties, nor room for extra cable length

Overall Review: - Use a modular power supply with this case - Having only one 5.25" bay occupied makes cable management much easier - No hard drive indicator light, if that matters to you - Motherboard tray somewhat useless - would have to undo all cables anyway to slide this tray out more than an inch or so My build: - SAPPHIRE 100277L Radeon HD 4770 512MB - EVGA 121-BL-E756-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 Micro ATX SLI Motherboard - OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - 2x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA (RAID 0) - LIAN LI PC-V351B Black Aluminum MicroATX Case - Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem - CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W PS My goal was fast, small, and low heat. This case helped me reach that goal. No major complaints, and it looks great.