Pros: Very quiet when my CPU idles at 26C 1250RPM. Gentle wind noise when under load at 42C 1800RPM. Blows lots of extra air around components near the processor. Overhangs my northbridge and helps keep it cool. 4pin connector lets my MB control the fan speed.

Cons: Very tight fit in my micro atx case. The power connector on my dvd drive bumps the plastic fan surround. Had to slide the fan up the rubber mounts so the dvd player could push it to the side. But worth the trouble for the great cooling. Still gets 5 stars because bad case design isn't really the cooler's fault.

Overall Review: Added a duct so it pulls in air from outside the case. This fan moves a huge volume of air so it helps keep the whole computer cool. The included thermal paste works fine for me.

Pros: All hardware recognized and worked without any fiddling. In kernel drivers work great for everything except video. VESA video driver is good enough for the installation and some basic 2d use. Right now this MB makes a very nice mythtv frontend/backend. If video driver issues get sorted out this will be PERFECT.

Cons: Open source drivers only support 2D at best. No 3d, xv or textured video. They are under very active development so maybe radeon or radeonhd will work well and have 3d and xv in a few months? AMD/ATI have been very active with helping the open drivers so it is safe to bet these features will be available in the near future.

Overall Review: Mythbuntu installed easily with AHCI enabled. But after install, grub failed to start Linux about half the time. Switched back to EIDE compat mode and it boots every time. I have a nearly silent COOLER MASTER RR-CCH-P912-GP CPU cooler which overhangs and helps cool the northbridge. Latest fglrx (closed source) driver in Ubuntu Hardy gets 3d working easily. TexturedVideo/xv works OK after some xorg.xconf hacking. mythfrontend crashed frequently with fglrx problems. Disabling compiz and mythtv opengl menus reduced the crashing. Usable by family this way. I'm using VGA output at 1280x768 to Vizio 37" TV. Using analog stereo sound out to the TV. Did not test digital sound, HDMI, or DVI outputs yet.

I am VERY disappointed with the service from ElectroBrands. On Friday Nov. 8th they sent a tracking number. Then on Monday the 11th they called to tell me they hadn't actually shipped anything! They were out of stock. They offered to send me an open box they claimed had been sitting in a display case. They offered to include an extended warranty. I refused to accept an open box. I asked them to please cancel the order. The guy said they would receive more new ipads on Wednesday. He agreed to upgrade the shipping to 2 day so I would have it by the weekend. I foolishly agreed to this. I kept waiting but I never got a new tracking number. The first tracking number they sent me continued to show nothing had shipped. On Friday the 15th FedEx attempted to deliver but we were not home. How could we know to be home when there was no new tracking number? FedEx did not deliver the package because a signature was required. They left a note with the correct tracking number. See part 2...