Pros: After struggling with Vista on my laptop I vowed to use XP as long as I could. After trying 7 for a while, I didn't hesitate to buy it. On a modern system (one from the last few years) it feels just about as responsive as XP. Memory usage is much lower than Vista, drivers are ready this time (only had to install video/ soundcard drivers), and it looks great. I didn't think I'd like the new design, but it looks good with minimal tweaking. I'm mostly a Linux guy, but I'm not afraid to admit this is a great Microsoft release. This is what Vista should have been.

Cons: Though it's lighter on resources than Vista, it is of course heavier than XP. Most 32 bit apps work well under x64, one or two of my games had problems that I have to find solutions for. I still think Windows is very expensive for an operating system. There is still a shortage of native 64 bit Windows programs.

Overall Review: My friend got Windows 7 working on an aging Dell laptop form 5-6 years ago. It's not lightning quick, but it works well. Network activity feels so much faster than XP; my WoW ping time actually dropped after I switched.

Pros: Great looking board packed with nice features for the price. AM3+ ready.

Cons: The Marvell controller on my board seems to be faulty. File transfers over 10 gigs would freeze a minute in. Every so often my system would randomly stop responding with the message "Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort0 was issued" repeating in the log. I tried both the driver on the CD and the updated one from Gigabyte, but both did the same. The controller in the AMD chipset works just fine. Voltage droop is unacceptable for overclocking. I had my CPU voltage set at 1.45 trying to overclock a Phenom X6 and it varied from 1.480 down to 1.40! Needless to say, I gave up trying to overclock this system.

Overall Review: I've been using Gigabyte motherboards for 10 years now and this is my first disappointment.

Pros: Very cheap for a 6 core processor. Good performance increase boost even from my not-so-old 955BE. With multithreaded applications, this baby screams. Encoding video is lightning fast. I think AMD tweaked the stock heatsink fan between my 955BE and this processor. The fan spins about 1000 RPM slower, is actually hard to hear at that high speed, and keeps this processor much cooler than my old one. No more hairdryer in my case. My old temps were 40 idle and 60+ under load with the fan screaming at over 6000 RPM, this runs at 30-35 idle and 45 under load with the CPU fan at half power.

Cons: Still can't compete with Intel for raw core performance. When not using all cores, such as most games, an i5/i7 will still beat the pants off of this processor. It's not very noticeable unless you play a very CPU hungry game that has no/poor multithreading support. MMOs come to mind, especially Rift. Can you really complain when spending so much less on a CPU though?

Overall Review: AMD is still the king of the price/performance ratio.

Pros: Good price, plenty of power and cables, silent operation. It comes with a carrying bag, what I'll use that for I do not know.

Cons: Not modular. I forgot to take that into consideration when I bought this vs. a different PSU that was. I can't take any points off since it's 100% my fault for not checking.

Overall Review: As long as cable management isn't a problem for your case, this is a great buy in this price range.

Pros: -Good air flow -Looks pretty good -Bottom PSU mount -Blue LED fan if you're into that sort of thing

Cons: It claims to feature screwless installation yet the only way I could find to secure any of my components in this case was with the... bags of screws they include. What doesn't help is that the screw holes, especially the ones for securing expansion cards are not aligned/drilled properly. I could only get the screws holding my GPU halfway in, but they seem to be holding for now. I've never had such trouble getting the rear I/O panel in a case as I had with this one. It took me almost 10 minutes of trial, error, cursing, and pleading before it set into place. The metal this thing is made from is so cheap I nearly bent this in two just trying to fit that panel! The fans are worthless and barely move air, if they do at all. Plan on replacing all of them.

Overall Review: I struggled for almost 3 hours with this case before I was done. This case isn't worth $10, let alone the $40 I payed. I knew this wasn't going to be a great case when I bought it, but I at least expected PC components to fit in it! This is my first HEC product and the last.

Pros: Crystal clear sound with no noise at all using the front headphone jack. Even my old Xfi that this replaced had a loud hiss from the front panel jack, but not this card. Sound is crystal clear, bass is fuller and less muddy than before. Movies sound fantastic. I've heard subtle sounds in games that I never noticed before. EAX support is good for the games that support the version this card provides.

Cons: I leave this card in Movie mode because the other presets aren't great. Game sounds alright, but it's hard to tell the difference. The Music setting sounds ok with some music, but has odd sounding results with other songs. Hi-Fi mode seems to do the opposite and muddy up the sound. Front headphone detection is broken. Some people claim that this card can detect headphones fine, some say it detects them when plugged in but not when removed, but mine does neither. I have to manually enable and disable the front headphone jack. I knew this when I bought the card so I won't mark it down, and it's less annoying switching back and forth than I thought it would be. Just be warned.

Overall Review: I don't have a fancy speaker setup, just a good 2.1 setup and headphones, so I can't comment on any surround sound features. I don't record anything (just mic use in games), so I can't comment there. For my needs, this card is the best value out there right now.