Pros: Not only does it look beautiful, the construction is solid, the features are excellent, and I love the full mini-chiclet keyboard. The bloatware is easy to get rid of, and I recommend just uninstalling the useless ones because there are a few system utilities that are worth keeping. Definitely want the GPU selection tool, allowing you to use the i7's GPU when on battery and the nVidia GPU if you need the power or are on AC. I was a little concerned that the white color would get dirty easily, but it's not like that at all. It is also the perfect blend between gloss and matte. Everything about this laptop's design is Acer showing that it has stepped up. And, well, they didn't cut corners on the specs either, with the exception of a normal SSD/HDD, and honestly, I FIND THAT A PRO! Now I can add one of my own instead of paying 3x the price for one to be pre-installed. Also, the screen is bright, vivid, crisp, and even. They took care to make sure it was sealed properly too! My most recent discovery is that if you have an external display connected and you close the lid, the Helios will shut down the Intel UHD GPU and hand off duties to the nVidia GTX 1060 GPU full-time! This was an awesome surprise since I can effectively use it as a gaming desktop with a large monitor, external gaming devices, and not have to worry about sharing GPU time with the built-in screen or the distracting backlight or even worse, having to manually turn the screen off and switch the sound devices, etc, etc. I am really glad I passed on the multitudes of others I looked at and decided to buy this. The Helios rules.

Cons: Not a single one so far. This is a bit of a reach, but I was confused at first looking under Device Manager when I saw the USB3.1 XHC and then downstream a USB3.0 Root Hub. When I looked at the specs again, sure enough it says the USB3.1 port is rated up to 5gbps. This means that the controller will handle the throughput of USB3.1 but the hub should not. Thinking a bit more about this, I would say it's actually a good thing and also explains why the laptop handles USB video outputs (i.e. DisplayLink) very, very well. It is the equivalent of having a router/switch/whathaveyou with a fabric that significantly exceeds the port capacity - you will never saturate it! Given that the laptop has 1 USB-C ([email protected]), 1 USB-A (3.0), and 2 USB-A (2.0), someone with lots of peripherals might connect additional hubs anyway; this allows for it without sacrificing performance.

Overall Review: If I absolutely had to pick something to change about the laptop, I would lose the USB 2.0 ports on the right and get 2 more USB 3.0 instead. I really like the placement of all of the I/O ports though, this is just a "would be nice to have." On that note, I would really like to see a laptop with just all USB-C that includes a few 3 - 6 inch dongles with adapters to USB-A ports. The white has really started to grow on me, too. The green accent lighting on the lid is subtle and elegant. Specs to highlight: Core i7 8750H 6C/12T CPU at 2.2GHz/4.1GHz - One of the best market value CPU's in its class 16GB of DDR4 2666 RAM at CL19 - Pretty decent memory they put in, and I saw noted elsewhere that it's spec'd at 2400? nVidia GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB RAM - Same discrete GPU as in most top of the line gaming laptops; very good 144Hz IPS at 1920x1080 - Fantastic screen, well seated, even around the bezel, no leakage I had come very close to buying a more expensive gaming laptop on several occasions before finding this one, but again I am very glad I waited because the performance value of this is incredible. I added a 1TB HGST HDD in the available bay, but I am planning to swap out both the primary SSD (if possible, little more involved) and the secondary HDD I added for 1TB SSD's at the time when I yank the 16GB RAM and drop in 32GB. I would highly recommend this to anyone. Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-51-757A

Pros: Excellent performance when utilized properly. Granted it is not the fastest SSD in the world (depending on specs of the married hardware - see other thoughts), it IS very good for the price. Price, price, price, price, price.

Cons: People are quite sadly unintelligent. No, this card cannot replace a good old fashioned flux capacitor, although it worked quite well in my ion drive accelerator.

Overall Review: Just because you do not see the rated performance does not mean the drive is bad. 9 times out of 10 it means your tech knowledge is over-rated. If you do not have the proper PCI bandwidth or revision, then obviously you will not get rated performance. If you do not have enough open throughput on your PCI controller (i.e. gaming with heavily loaded gfx cards on shared lanes) then you may see an impact in performance. Overall, after having used many of these for scratch drives and data processing, they are quite satisfactory for the cost. The TB model is a bit pricy but the 400 is about par for the course as far as current market price. PCI SSD's are awesome when correctly set up and utilized. Did I mention that most people have no idea what the former sentence entails? Yay for modern techies who know how to G**gle and W*k*ped*a!

Pros: This monitor is awesome. Features enumerated in previous review. If you get this monitor, you won't be disappointed (unless you get a bad one, I guess)

Cons: Haven't found any that can't be remedied. This review is to counter the lost eggs left by someone who obviously did not look at the pictures.

Overall Review: Yes, this monitor has a self-included stand, or kickstand as it was called. This kickstand is shown PROMINENTLY in THREE (3) out of the seven pictures, and if you want to use it with a regular base, you can use a VESA mount base. Again, I wish the egg would scrutinize reviews more closely and stuff... Anywho, again for those who bought multiples, I left instructions to get the touch working independently in the other review.

Pros: Thin, low profile stand, flexible placement. DisplayPort, LED backlight, DC input, low power. Price, price, PRICE! I was extremely surprised at the price considering it is made by HP, and HP is one of the most expensive non-apple (eww apple) products out there.

Cons: High response time, but it is not distinguishable to human eyes and less so with LED backlights and larger contrast ratios. Yes... it is DP only - but this allows for smaller form factor and less hardware inclusion, as well as TB chain integration.

Overall Review: People should have to take a test before they can list their tech knowledge as "High." This monitor is advertised as DisplayPort input. Just because YOU made an error and bought the wrong item does not make it a bad item, company, or anything else - so don't knock a good product because you can't be bothered to read or learn the difference between DP and HDMI. I plane to buy two of these when I make my next batch purchase as they would be PERFECT for my laptop dock and they take up very little space!

Pros: Very long lasting if you get a good one (see below). Fast HDD, works great in an external enclosure. 32M cache and 7200 RPM.

Cons: Some people had bad drives I suppose, but I have never had an issue with SeaGate. Shipping can damage a hard drive and that is frequently the cause. From a specs standpoint, this drive has no cons. For people who gripe about it, it is only 1.36 TB usable when formatted NTFS.

Overall Review: I use this drive in a LaCie enclosure for movies, so it is on and off quite a bit. Sure it makes some clicks while it is starting up, but that is normal. I bought this in October of 2009 so it has been going for quite some time and I have never lost anything off of it.

Pros: This thing is even smaller than I expected, which is great. It does not get terribly hot, even under load - it will get warm, but not too hot to touch. It is also very usable. It is not a slow machine, and I love the fact that it has front-facing USB3 ports. The built in WiFi works very well also. A brief description of my build is in other thoughts. The memory I used in it works also, despite the rating (see other thoughts). Another incredible thing about this box is that it has a mini-PCIe card slot! Great for adding more SSD storage or a small internal accessory. The tool that is provided for opening the case works like a charm.

Cons: None yet. Setup was a breeze.

Overall Review: I am running Windows 8 Release Preview. It is headless and I remote desktop to it via ethernet. I used wireless previously, but why sacrifice the speed when it sits right under a gigabit switch? This is the second piece of Foxconn hardware I have ever bought and it looks like it was a wise choice for a SFF budget build. 4GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 RAM - Yes, 1600 and recognized as such, even though it states 1333 max.