Pros: Rock solid functioning during almost three years now (May 2009). Lots of flexibility: handled upgrade to a Phenom II X3 (unlocked to X4) very well, as well as just recently to passive-cooled Kingwin PSU and Sapphire 7750 Ultimate GPU. Will even take some X6's.

Cons: Gigabyte designers seem to have an endemic problem with header placement, sticking most of them (SATA, fans, etc.) at the edges in awkward places and angles, where there's lots of conflict with drives, cards and other cables. Users of their more advanced boards report the same issue. This board could have also used a third system fan header.

Overall Review: The solidness of this board is reflected in the ratings here: 75% 5's and only 5% 1's. How many boards can you find with those kinds of numbers? I'm currently working on a switch over to the Intel side, i5 or i7, to pick up more speed now and for the long run, but that's not because this board is sluggish or in any other way a problem.

Pros: works well for awhile

Cons: After six months, started not to make connection, had to reinsert two or three times with different devices. Then noticed write speed around 20 mb/s on a 3.0 port, which is about half what it should be. storage spot for cap not deep enough, so it often doesn't stay on when stick is being used

Pros: Decent, roomy board to the degree it works, and workable UEFI BIOS. Revision 1.2 is an improvement in board features a little.

Cons: SATA 0 port caused constant booting problems with aftermarket high end audio SATA cable (JCAT) , even though Gigabyte said it should work fine. It worked on other SATA ports. In general, SATA ports in number, location and configuration are not the easiest to use. Reviewers noticed this too.

Overall Review: After most of a year, I had an opening in my schedule where I could send the board back under warranty. After two full weeks, its status hadn't changed from being received, so I called to ask. That got them to swing into action - or it would probably still be sitting there. But then things got worse. Don't know if the board was new or a refurb, although I strongly suspect the latter. Why? It's common to send refurbs and because after puting the cpu in carefully - I've done a number of builds - startup wouldn't post (BIOS), only some fans ran. That's often a sign of cpu problems, so I tore everything apart and sure enough, some base cpu pins were bent and a couple broken off entirely. Now, that cpu pin setup is a bad design on Intel's part - pins used to be in the cpu itself and spaced far enough apart for easy repair. As far as Gigabyte is concerned, I could call and try again, although I'd probably get a fight and maybe even turned down, but why bother. I've used Gigabyte boards for well over a decade, and this is the first board (and cpu install) that's been trouble of any kind. Why fight to get another of the same? Instead, I ordered an equivalent new ASRock z97 board from NewEgg. Hopefully, that will turn out better..

Pros: reliable

Cons: mediocre speed for USB 3.0

Overall Review: It's pretty good for a $25 stick, but compared to some of the better USB 3.0 ones, it's not particularly fast. Testing on a USB 3.0 port Seagate 6 gb/s drives, the stick writes at ~24 mb/s and reads at ~60 mb/s. Compare that with a PNY stick that consistently reads ~39 mb/s and writes in the mid to upper 80s.

Pros: none

Cons: This is a single use design; that is, if you close the lid to store it for the time being, or after mounting a drive inside, the case will no longer open. Instructions? There are none enclosed for using the case itself. I've just belatedly discovered a pdf at their site which explains that closing the cover is permanent (drive or no drive inside). Even if I had known, there's no changing a drive with this one. They even say to format and test the drive before closing the cover. What an awful design! Have to believe that those who gave it four and five stars didn't realize what they were in for.

Pros: Good reception from downstairs to upstairs router; picks up neighbor's routers very strongly too. Soon to test on the road and will update if needed.

Cons: zonetusa.net website has disappeared. If laptop doesn't have a CD/DVD drive, installation requires a machine that does and a USB stick. And forget any driver updates or help until it reemerges, if it does. That's why only 3 stars (NewEgg's been informed, but doesn't appear to have done anything to follow up.)