Pros: Nice RGB.

Overall Review: I have had good luck with G.SKILL DDR3 and DDR4 memory over the years, and have used it in several builds using ASUS Motherboards. Unfortunately this set would not POST when installed on my ASUS Z590-a motherboard. I checked the G.SKILL memory compatibility website before I purchased this set, and it indicated that this set was compatible. I then tested both modules individually, thinking I may have received a defective stick and they would not POST. It is possible that both SDRAM modules were defective.

Pros: Fast. Runs Cool.

Cons: You will need a motherboard that supports PCI-e Gen 4 on your M.2 slot(s) to realize its full speed potential.

Overall Review: I would highly recommend this drive. It supports PCI-e Gen 4 speeds and benchmarks at 2x the speed of Gen 3. Runs allot cooler than the 970 EVO PLUS. Runs fine in a Gen 3 slot but your only going to get Gen 3 speeds.

Pros: For the money I can't think of a better mid-tower case than this. It's not perfect but what case is? It's easy to work on and doesn't have frilly plastic hardware that is hard to work with and breaks easily. Drive expansion is a forte with this case. Fan screens are easy to get to and clean and cable management is a no brainer.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: We use this case for Windows file servers and it has the potential for some serious air flow. The side mounted drive bays, bottom mounted P/S, easy off front panel and fan screen access makes it a joy to work on. They use steel in the frame and side panels.

Pros: No nonsense ATX board that worked right out of the box. I installed a E3-1225 and 16 GB of Crucial DDR3 (see below) and the board posted the first time. The BIOS was the most current version so that helped. No problem with drivers or installing Windows Server 2008 R2. Having two (2) native Sata 6 ports and dual Ethernet make this an ideal board for a low end but capable file server. Although we only use the onboard video it appears that you can run some really sweet multi-card setups on this board (for you gamers).

Cons: DVI only onboard video out is a pain. I had to buy a DVI-VGA adapter so I could use this with our KVM switch.

Overall Review: You can run 1600 Mhz memory on this board but you will need a 22nm Xeon processor. Setup summary: Xeon E3-1225 (32 nm) Crucial BLT2K4G3D1608ET3LX0 Seasonic X-Series 650w Antec 1100

Pros: THX Certified with excellent video quality and power output. This unit also has 7.2 preamp outs, networking and all of the HDMI 1.4 connectivity one might need into the foreseeable future while sporting current 3D, surround decoding and multi-media connectivity features.

Cons: The light on volume knob is irritating but can be dimmed or turned off. The iPod/iPhone dock is extra.

Overall Review: I needed to upgrade from an older Sony ES 7.1 receiver that did not have HDMI switching and decided to try three different mid-level receivers (RX-V867, VSX-33 and the NR709). The Onkyo won the trial hands down. The video performance of the QDEO chipset was superior to the other two receivers by a wide margin. The Onkyo was the only receiver that could deal with the low contrast in dimily lit scenes in BD versions of 'Road to Perdition', 'Kingdom of Heaven' and 'Slumdog Millionaire' straight out of the box with no tweaking of the video settings. I sampled BD versions of the 'The Police-Certifiable' and 'Bon Jovi-Live at Madison Square Garden' to test music playback quality. This time the difference was not as dramatic as each receiver sounded very good sonically, however the Onkyo had the edge in power as I didn't have to get anywhere near reference power to drive my Bose 601's to acceptable levels which was not the case with the VSX-33 or the V867.

Pros: This unit is quiet unless your running it at full speed. I was able to burn 22 GB of data to a BD-R in just under 30 minutes. Works and plays well with Nero and the Blu-ray Disk suite software.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I've been using this unit for six months now although it can get loud when you are installing software like Win7 it is quiet otherwise. No loud spinups like other DVD Burner/Players that I have used in the past. It is reasonably fast and works well with different media. For the uninitiated, OEM usually means no cables or software so don't be surprised when the box arrives with just the burner. Buy the retail box if you want the goodies.

Pros: Works like a charm on my ASUS P8P67 Pro main board. Just set the XMP profile and life will be good at 8-8-8-24.

Cons: None

Overall Review: I liked this memory so much I bought another 8 GB when they went on sale for a total of 16 GB. Life is Good.

Pros: Very quiet, outstanding air flow and PWM control. The fan kit comes with multiple adapters that are useful and well made.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I use this as the primary fan on my Corsair H70 CPU cooler radiator and it delivers good air flow at all power settings. It is very quiet until you get over 1200 rpm and even then it is quieter than the typical LED 120 mm fans out there. Expensive but worth every penny.

Pros: I really like the low profile pump and the CPU attach hardware is designed well. Just buy a couple of good PWM fans, setup your fan profiles correctly and life will be good. Nice alternative to the big engine block type passive coolers out there. Probably not a good fit for serious over clocking but seems to work well for turbo boosted applications like mine.

Cons: Can be a pain to install for the uninitiated. I finally got the hang of it having installed this several times on X58 and P67 main boards. The copper cold plate is OK but could be machined better.

Overall Review: This is my first experience with a liquid CPU cooler and I am pleased with the results. I loaded up the processor(s) with prime95 and noted the following pre-break in results: X58 / i7-950 Turbo 3.3 GHz Idle: 29C Load: 62C P67 / i7-2600k Turbo 3.8 GHz Idle: 28C Load: 60C Of course results will vary with the quality of the install but in general if you use ArtiClean and Artic Silver you should see good results. I ditched the Corsair fans and installed Logisys SF120 Nine blade PWM fans that are very quiet and put out 70 CFM of air at 1500 RPM. Expensive to be sure but worth every penny if you want a quiet system and good air flow.

Pros: Good build quality, native SATA 3 support, Intel gigabit Ethernet and UEFI BIOS support. This board has a good feature set and is a great match for the i7-2600k processor. This is a follow up to my original review. See cons and other thoughts.

Cons: When performing a cold boot or reboot the ASUS/Intel Splash screen flashes twice for no apparent reason before booting windows. The machine does not power reset so that is good but this is just a disappointing flaw in an otherwise good main board.

Overall Review: I fixed this issue simply by turning off the splash display in the BIOS. Once this is done the AMI BIOS splash appears and actually displays some useful information (memory, USB devices and drives) and you can specify how long you want the splash to appear before the machine starts to load windows. If you press DEL during the AMI splash display it takes you into the UEFI BIOS as you might expect. Problem solved. Hopefully ASUS will fix the issue in the next revision of their BIOS. ASUS P8P67 Pro / Win7 x64 Intel i7-2600k / H70 G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series DDR3 1600 PNY GTX 460 OC Intel 510 120 GB WD 600 GB Raptor Antec Signature 850w PS

Pros: I installed this set in my ASUS P8P67 Pro board with zero issues. I set the XMP profile in BIOS and they are running at the rated speed of 8-8-8-24 and a WEI rating of 7.8. The heat sinks are decent and the Blue color matches the ASUS mobo color scheme. What's not to like?

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I purchased these after having good luck with a G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR3 1600 12GB Triple channel set that I have installed on my X58 setup. I will be buying another set of these very soon to upgrade this machine to 16 GB. Life is good. ASUS P8P67 Pro Intel i7-2600k Win 7 x64

Pros: Good build quality, native SATA 3 support, Intel gigabit Ethernet and UEFI BIOS support heads up the list of great features. The build was straight forward with no surprises and a successful POST on the first try. All I had to do after that was set the XMP memory profile, tweak a few BIOS settings and install software. It doesn't get much easier than that. The AI Suite software provides useful utilities for over clocking, setting fan profiles and configuring Bluetooth. Excellent SATA 3 performance when using the Intel SATA 3 driver (Gray ports) that clearly exceed the Marvell capability. On balance this board has a good feature set and is a great match for the i7-2600k processor. Well done ASUS.

Cons: The onboard Marvell controller.

Overall Review: I've been building systems around Intel main boards for years now and decided to think outside the box for my P67 build and I'm very happy with the results. The UEFI BIOS is a step up and other board manufactures need to sit up and take notice. The native Intel SATA 3 controller turned in some very impressive disk benchmark numbers with my SATA 3 drives and I had no problems running both SATA 3 drives from the Intel SATA 3 ports. This was not the case with the Marvell controller which I disabled in BIOS. Overall a great first ASUS experience for me. ASUS P8P67 Pro / Win7 x64 Intel i7-2600k / H70 G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series DDR3 1600 PNY GTX 460 OC Intel 510 120 GB WD 600 GB Raptor Antec Signature 850w PS

Pros: Fast, quiet, small form factor and Intel reliability. Pair this drive with a good P67 main board and life will be good. Intel introduced native SATA 3 support with the P67 chipset and I experienced a nice performance increase over my X58 main board which uses a Marvell 88SE9xx controller to implement the 6 GB/s SATA 3 ports. Intel advertises up to 450 GB/s read performance for this drive and I am getting very close to that number at 426 MB/s. The best I could do with the Marvell controller was 342 GB/s and the Marvell introduces other problems. Don't get me wrong, X58 is good it's just that the P67 chipset with native SATA 3 suport is a better match for this drive.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I moved this drive to an ASUS P8P67 Pro main board to try and solve an issue I was having with the Marvell controller on my X58 setup. The Native SATA 3 driver capability solved a software incompatibility issue I was having with the Intel SSD Toolbox and I also got a nice increase in performance to boot. My previous review of the Intel 510 drive goes into more detail on the Marvell controller issue if you're curious. Life is good. ASUS P8P67 Pro Intel i7-2600k / H70 G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series DDR3 1600 Intel 510 120 GB WD 600 GB Raptor

Pros: Nice feature set and a big improvement over the DX58SO. The tuning software is a nice touch and allows the user to configure processor, memory and fan performance settings without going into the BIOS. Wireless, Bluetooth and 4-pin fan headers set this board apart from other X58 main boards. Excellent SATA and DDR3 performance.

Cons: The Marvell 88SE9xx controller used to implement the 6 GB/s ports on this board is what they call a 'Serial Attached SCSI' device. This means that when you attached a SATA drive to either of the two Blue SATA 3 ports Windows will see the drive as a SCSI drive at the hardware level. This is not a big deal overall but it is worth noting as it will cause incompatibility issues with software like the Intel SSD Toolbox whenever an Intel SSD is connected to one of the SATA 3 ports. This is an issue for me as I use an Intel 510 SSD for my OS drive and have to move the cable to a SATA 2 port to use the Toolbox software and then back to the SATA 3 port when I'm done optimizing my drive.

Overall Review: I had to RMA this board due a bad DIMM slot (channel A, DIMM 1). This is the first Intel board that I have had to send back out of six Intel builds. It happens. Native support for SATA 3 would have been nice as the Marvel controller is lame. For me the pros outweigh the cons and on balance this is a great main board that should please builders looking for stability and a good feature set. Intel DX58SO2, Intel i7-950, G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR3 1600, Win 7 x64, Intel 510 120GB SSD, WD 600 GB Veloci Raptor, Antec Signature 850W PS

Pros: Very fast with impressive multi-tasking capabilities. I upgraded from a Q9550 and did not expect this level of performance. See other thoughts.

Cons: Generates allot of heat when pushed so get a good CPU cooler.

Overall Review: While running Prime95 I was able to open regular applications like Photoshop, Nikon CaptureNX and MS Office applications within 2-3 seconds. Considering that all four cores were already running at 100% this was amazing to me. I even loaded Prince of Persia TFS and once I got beyond the game loader it performed well. Don't try this with your average Dual/Quad core. Intel i7-950 Intel DX58SO2 G.Skill Ripjaws 12 GB DDR3 Corsair H70 Intel 510 120GB SSD: OS WD 1TB Black: Data Antec SG-850 PS Antec 1200

Pros: This is my first experience with G.Skill and I am impressed with the quality. All I had to do was go in and set the XMP Profile in BIOS and they run as advertised at 1600/9-9-9-24 @1.5V. Windows Experience performance rating of 7.9.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I installed this triple channel set on my Intel DX58SO2 mobo and i7-950 with no problems. I may try and bump up the timings at a later date but so far there is no need to.

Pros: Works with all of my flash cards. Nice design. What's not to like?

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I had an older AFT reader and it stopped recognizing my SDHC card. I thought it was a bad SD card at first but it turned out to be a hardware/quality issue. This unit fixed the problem. Hopefully this one will last longer.

Pros: Fast, quiet, small form factor and Intel reliability. The speed increase over my Raptor was not dramatic however there is a definite improvement in OS load time, responsiveness and not having to listen to the Raptor load drivers is nice. I recommend this drive to anyone who is thinking about making the move from spindle to silicon.

Cons: If you are using a main board that is uses the Marvell 88SE9xx controller to implement the 6 GB/S SATA 3 ports on your mobo be aware that the 88SE9xx is really a SCSI controller that has two virtual (2) SATA 3 ports. Any SSD attached to one of the SATA 3 ports will be reported by the OS as being attached to a SCSI device. This will be an issue for people like me that use the Intel SSD Toolbox to optimize their SSD drives. The SSD Toolbox software will detect that the SSD is attached to a SCSI device and then report that the device is not supported. If you move the cable to a SATA 2 port the problem goes away.

Overall Review: I prepared this disk using diskpart and then restored my Win7 x64 OS Ghost Image from my Raptor drive with no issues. The only issue I found (see Cons) was not an issue with the SSD drive but with the way Intel implemented the SATA 3 ports on my DX58SO2 main board which caused an incompatibility with the Intel SSD Toolbox utility that is used to optimize SSD performance over time. The disk benchmarks I ran show a sequential read/write performance on the SATA 3 port as 342/206 MB/s and the SATA 2 port as 268/212 MB/s. The Random read/write performance is actually better on the SATA 2 port. Go figure.

Pros: I upgraded to this board from an Intel DX48BT2 having passed on the original DX58SO board. No issues during the build with a successful POST on the first try. The BIOS applied a mild OC to my i7-950 for 3.2 GHz right out of the box and the new Extreme Tuning software is an improvement over the previous version. The only thing I had to do was go in and set the XMP memory profile, upgrade the BIOS and install software. It doesn’t get much easier than that. All of the fan headers are 4-pin and located in places that make sense. The SATA controller performance is very good.

Cons: A chipset cooling pipe around one corner of the processor socket partially covers one of holes used to attach a CPU Cooler. This prevented me from using my existing Zalman 9700 NT aftermarket CPU air cooler or the newer Zalman 9900 NT because the screws on Zalman attach bracket are too tall to fit under the corner of the cooling pipe. I solved the issue by upgrading to the Corsair H50 water cooler which has a solid back plate and better attach hardware. Problem solved. Intel has a Fast Post option that reduces POST time but they do it in a way that either locks out searching for USB and/or Optical drives and that takes some getting used to. The angled SATA headers are a pain because they force you to bend the SATA wire 90 degrees in a tight spot but this poor design is not isolated to Intel boards.

Overall Review: The DX58SO2 is a welcome revision to the DX58SO with next generation USB 3 and SATA 3/6 GB capabilities, six (6) DDR3 DIMM slots and Bluetooth. You really have to pay attention during the POST because the BIOS screen that shows boot options (F2, F7, etc.) flashes by so fast that it is easy to miss. Intel should take a cue from EVGA and display the CPU temp on the LED code display on the board after a successful POST. For me, this board was worth waiting for and should please other Intel builders or even someone who wants to OC their setup but needs more stability and is sitting on the fence.

Pros: Good build quality. CPU temp readout on the main board and tuning software are a plus. Add in next generation USB 3 and SATA 3/6 GB plus DDR3 triple channel memory and that makes a compelling case to upgrade using this board. My build went off without a hitch with a successful POST on the first try. Windows 7 installed all of the correct drivers automatically. Overall this is a capable X58 main board with a good feature set and if you can live with a few quirks there is no reason not to be happy.

Cons: Quirky BIOS, sub-standard audio performance and a reference manual that lacks detail detract from this otherwise decent product offering. Poor placement of fan and USB pin headers. This board has a 4-pin CPU fan header but only provides 3-pin fan headers for the remainder of the case fans which complicated my build as I use a high volume PWM case fan for my Corsair H50 CPU cooler.

Overall Review: I am impressed with the EVGA build quality, packaging and installation instructions. The Phoenix Award/BIOS goes through all sorts of gyrations during POST which seems unnecessary to me and there is no way to configure a fast POST. I had to go in and tweak the BIOS to get the CPU and memory running at rated speeds. I expected to have to set the XMP memory profile but was surprised to find that the board under clocked the i7-950 CPU at 2.66 GHz out of the box. I had to manually bump up the CPU Clock Ratio from 20x to 23x to bring the CPU up its rated 3.06 GHz speed. I ran a series of disk benchmarks with HD Tune Pro and the SATA performance numbers were not as good as the equivalent Intel X58 board. Not bad, just not as good. Antec 1200 EVGA X58 FTW3 Intel i7-950 G.Skill 12 GB DDR3 1600 Corsair CWCH50 LG BD WD 150GB VelociRaptor WD 1TB Black Intel X25 SSD 40GB Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit - SP1

Pros: Decent solution for older Zalman CPU Coolers designed for Socket 775. It's cheap.

Cons: No Mobo backing plate. Will not work with the Intel DX58SO2 mobo.

Overall Review: This solution will not work with the new Intel DX58SO2 mainboard. This is due to the fact that the screws that are used to secure the clip to the top bracket are tall to fit under a cooling pipe near the processor socket. This will only affect builders using the Intel DX58SO2 mobo. This will be an issue for those considering to use a later model Zalman cooler as they bundle the same bracked with the newer coolers. I went with a Corsair H50 to solve my issue. Zalman chose not to use a backplate and instead included pin and washers. I'm sure this clip will work just fine for most users but wanted to give the Intel builders a heads up.

Pros: Built in timer and good mount for desktop. Comes with a seperate throttle quadrant. USB Drivers installed automatically on Windows 7.

Cons: Cheaply made. Even though the yoke shaft has a metal sleeve the pitch action is not smooth throughout it's range. Roll is OK. Timer buttons are not marked very well.

Overall Review: I assumed that this yoke would be an upgrade from my current CH USB yoke but I was wrong. It does have more features but a professional yoke it is not.

Pros: A nice upgrade over my old Intel 3.2 GHz Dual Core. Plays well with Vista 64. Not so much with Vista 32.

Cons: C1 stepping. This version runs warm when OC'd at 3.4 GHz. I'm thinking the E0 is better but don't know for sure.

Overall Review: Overall a nice processor. It is very fast when paired with the 64 bit version of Vista. I installed Vista 32 and was disappointed in both performance and stability. Even when OC'd (20%) I was not impressed. I'm thinking this is a problem with Vista 32. XP Pro is a better alternative for those folks that don't want to buy Vista 64. Absolutely no issues (stability or performance) with Vista 64 and no need to OC to see good performance IMO. I received the C1 stepping and this processor runs hotter than I would like when OC'd. Prime95 and Everest Ultimate for 5-12 hours showed 34C Idle and 65C-70C (max) when OC'd to 3.4 GHz on Air. I have good case flow and HS. There is a 4-10C spread in the seperate core temps at Idle and 100%. Lapping the processory and HS would probably help with this. System: Intel DX48BT2, Q9550, 4GB Mushkin DDR3 1600, Zalman 9700 NT, WD 150GB Veloci Raptor, WD 1TB Black, Antec Twelve Hundred, Antec Signature 850W PS.

Pros: Fast seek times. Five (5) year warranty. Faster and quieter than first generation 150GB Raptors. Works well as a primary OS/Boot drive.

Cons: Expensive for the amount of storage.

Overall Review: I use this drive as my primary OS/Boot drive in two different PC's and it works well for both Vista and XP Pro. I use a second drive to house my apps and data so the smaller capacity of the 150GB Raptor is not a factor given that I still have over 120GB free after loading Vista 32 or over 140GB free with XP Pro. It makes no sense to me to buy the 300GB Veloci if this is just used as a boot drive. Save a $100 bucks and buy a good 7200 RPM drive for your data and apps. By using this (or any HD for that matter) as an OS/boot drive you can Ghost it and if your drive ever goes belly up all one would have to do is replace the bad drive and restore the Ghost image backup from your old OS drive and your back in business. No more reloading the whole bloody mess and your app/data drive never knows the difference. If this (or any WD drive) goes bad WD's RMA process is best in class (they cross-ship and don't require a receipt in most cases). Buy one and be happy.

Pros: Lots of room inside. Excellent airflow potential. Excellent fan options. Control Panel at top and P/S on bottom of case.

Cons: Installing drives require some effort. Not easy to swap drives once installed (take the front and sides off and loosen screws). Hard drive cage fan wire will be too short for some mobos (e.g. DX48BT2) and will require an extension wire.

Overall Review: Overall good case. This case is deeper that most mid-tower cases so keep that in mind. I own two (2) of these and I'm happy. Not perfect but the positives outweigh the cons.