Pros: I have been watching the 8800GT/GTS's drop in prices the past month and was waiting for a good promotion / game bundle to come along before I bought one. I am so glad I waited for this one. I upgraded from a x1950XT and scored 50% higher in the basic 3DMark2006 (5538 -> 8277). With the rebate and promotional code this card is the same price as the x1950XT that I bought a year ago so I was definitely convinced that this card was a great buy. The research that I did shows this card outperforms the 9800GTX and is on par with the 9800GTX+ but at a cheaper price so I would say get this over the 9800GTX's unless they come down in price and you are a big nVidia fan (you have to love competition). I finished Crysis several months ago but I am playing it again to check out the Very High quality settings. I am very impressed with how it handles Crysis since I am running at a higher resolution and higher quality than what I did with my old card. I'm even getting higher framerates

Cons: Typically I don't like to see a video card go above 75°C and this card idles close to that and goes above 85°C when under load.

Overall Review: Although the card gets hot it seems that is how video card manufacturers are stating to make cards. As of yet there are no third party utilities out there to adjust the fan speed for this card (ASUS includes one with their card) I found a trick you can do with Catalyst Control Center. You have to enable overdrive, create a profile, and then manually modify and XML file (Google "HD 4870 Fan-Control, Easy Workaround"). Also many people have complained about noise and my power supply fans are louder even after increasing my fan speed. With my x1950XT I used Riva Tuner to crank up the fan to keep the temps under 75°C and it was much louder. My old card also had more of a wine and the 4850 has more of a woosh when it gets closer to full speed. I much prefer the woosh. My next upgrade will be a CPU. I currently have a C2D 4300 @ 1.8 GHz and would like to get a Quad Core. My CPU is most likely starving this card and I could see a significant improvement in benchmarks with a better C

Pros: The case is sturdy and has a lot of space. Cover is easy to remove and I like the vent for the CPU. It can be moved to line up directly over the CPU and has an adjustable height for vairous types of fans.

Cons: Included power supply is a little noisy. I would definitely not call this a silent case.

Overall Review: Any fans internal to the computer will be heard as the side panel has many holes and just acts as a screen. This is good for cooling but does add to audible noise. I also had problems with the lower half of the adjustable CPU vent falling off when I removed the side cover. But I found that the two pieces lock together when you twist them.