Pros: I needed a standard format monitor to go into a PC driven arcade cabinet. Since CRTs are extremely difficult to come by, I went with a standard format LCD instead. The picture quality is excellent on the monitor with great color saturation and darker blacks for an LCD. Pictures don't look washed out, I actually even had to turn the brightness down as it was at a really intense brightness out of the box. Great screen refresh timing so no blurring of moving images with the DVI connection on my system that I could see. Has built in speakers The monitor supports both DVI and VGA inputs should you still need analog support. This also supports VESA mounting brackets which was another requirement for my specific use type, although you can use the provided stand. If you need a standard format monitor, you would be hard pressed to do better than this monitor.

Cons: It's only a 19" display, I wish you could economically get larger standard format LCD displays. Seems like a lot of money compared to 20-23+" widescreen monitors cost these days. Purely a supply/demand thing I'm sure. Not a fan of the OSD setup menus. Feels a little cumbersome to use, although personal preference and really nit-picky for this. You don't have to use it often though, so not a huge deal. The built in speakers are not very high quality compared to what you could get with a small cost investment. Pretty comparable to low cost/OEM throw-in type desk speakers. It'll get the job done, and worked well for testing/installing the OS. You don't buy a monitor for sound though, so it's not something to drop an egg with the rating.

Pros: Title says it all, better thermal compound is a must-buy component when assembling systems. Using better thermal compound will typically drop your CPU temp ~5°C over the standard paste that comes on fans, even with a stock cooler.

Cons: Pretty small tube. You don't need a ton of it, although you won't get many uses out of a single tube.

Overall Review: This material is conductive, so be sure to keep it off of contacts.

Pros: -Supports all the AM3 chips on DDR2 being an AM2+ board -Has easy overclocking abilities, including ACC to unlock cores on your CPU -Supports up to three USB 2.0 expansions -Great board for media center systems -Supports Hybrid SLI if you have an ATI PCI-E video card that does also.

Cons: -Did not pick up settings for G.Skill F2-8500CL5D-4GBPQ RAM correctly, required manual change -On-board video is underpowered for current higher end games -No front panel Firewire or USB 3.0

Overall Review: -Micro ATX, so no SLI/Crossfire, not much expansion card room. -ASUS US website is very slow for driver downloads -For those ordering F2-8500CL5D-4GBPQ RAM, these are the settings I used to actually get DDR2-1066 instead of the detected DDR2-800 (Pulled from G.Skill forums): Memory Clock Mode Manual Memclock Value 533mHz DRAM Timing Mode DCT 0 TCL 5 CLK TRCD 5 CLK TRP 5 CLK tTRP 3-5 CLK TRAS 15 CLK TRC 41 CLK tWR 8 CLK TRRD 6 CLK tRWTT0 Auto tWRRD Auto tWTR 6 CLK tWRWR Auto tRDRD Auto tRFC0 127.5 ns tRFC1 127.5 ns tRFC2 Auto tRFC3 Auto Memory OVER Voltage 2.01000

Pros: -With the full 6MB of L3 cache, this CPU can really fly. -Only 80W on the newer 45nm tech -Higher clock speeds than most X3 and X4 cores

Cons: -Runs a little hotter than I'd like with the stock cooler, somewhere between 95°F-100°F for me at ~3100 RPMs, even with silver thermal paste. Below max temp by a good margin, I'd rather see 80°F temps though. -The CPU is actually on the side of the box, with not much protection for the chip itself during shipping, just a small plastic clamshell. No damage issues, Newegg packs great, just surprising package design that the CPU wasn't inset deeper in the box.

Overall Review: This was an upgrade from an Athlon 64 3500+ for me, so a huge jump in performance by comparison. I'll likely be picking up an upgraded CPU cooler in the very near future, mostly because it runs a little hotter than I'd like to see. Newest X2 CPU runs have four cores with two disabled, sometimes intentionally, sometimes for stability.