Pros: Just installed this monster of a card: Installation was smooth. I previously had a low profile EVGA GTX650Ti installed, which is about half the length of this GTX970. I had to make some minor adjustments due to some circumstantial hardware conflicts, I'll talk about that in the cons. Booted and ran smoothly with no driver installation (since it ran on my old drivers) but I updated the driver anyway, for good measure. But the biggest thing is, it's a lot faster than I expected it to be. Witcher 3 at maximum settings with hairworks on a 1080p monitor, locked at 60fps. Nvidia DSR set to 2x (4k downscaled), and its still pushing more than 40fps consistently. This game used to run at about 20fps on medium settings on my old card. ARK: Survival Evolved on Epic + max tessellation, etc, crushing it with 30+ fps, which is amazing for this game, especially considering they recommend a Titan X for maximum settings. This game ran at 720p at minimum settings at 10-25 fps. Seriously, it's fast.

Cons: Doesn't come with any case badges/swag. It really doesn't matter, but hey, I like them. Since I have a micro ATX mobo in a mid ATX case (Antec 600), I had to remove a plastic bracket from the inside of my case, above my hard drive bay - in order to fit the lengthy 970 inside my case. It just barely wouldn't fit, and I could have possibly squeezed it in there, but I wasn't about to take any risks. While doing this, I also happened to cut my finger, but that's user error, and really - this is an issue with the placement of my PCIE slot on my mobo and my case. I absolutely cannot dock this card at all for that.

Overall Review: Bottom line, you're looking at something in this price range probably because you're ready to step up into the higher end cards but you don't want to drop more than $400 and/or you don't feel that top-tier is necessary. In my experience, this card delivers 80-90% of the performance of an ultra-high end card, and while you still have to shell out the money for it, it doesn't venture into "used car" territory, so to speak.

Pros: Worked great till it bricked itself. Beware!

Cons: Died after 4 months of moderate use. I'm a computer repair technician and I always monitor temperatures, etc. I took great care of it, and it bricked itself anyway. First time with an ASUS card, if support doesn't get back to me I'll never buy another one again.

Pros: Worked as it should out of the box. Value is decent.

Cons: Installing Windows 7 with this mobo is a complete nightmare. Since a Windows 7 installation doesn't have USB 3.0 drivers, and this motherboard ONLY has 3.0 ports, you can't install Windows from a flash drive, and you cant use USB mouse/keyboard in setup. The only viable way to install Win7 with this mobo is with a PS2 keyboard and WIn7 DVD. Did I mention there's no BIOS option to make the USB run in 2.0? It's just terribly inconvenient. Going on 4 hours trying to install, really don't want to go buy a DVD drive, DVDRs, and an old useless keyboard just to get Windows installed.

Pros: None.

Cons: Only sound out of the left side. Audio generally sounds far away. Useless. Returning ASAP.

Overall Review: Would not recommend.

Pros: Firstly, I work in a restaurant, and thus I regularly do restaurant quantities of knife prep. I ordered on a Monday with free ground shipping, and it arrived the next afternoon. Very impressed with the speed of the shipping. It has great visual appeal, the hammered surface looks awesome and does what its supposed to do - food sticks to the knife less. Along the edge is a wave pattern where the steel is layered, it looks similar to the edge of a Japanese samurai sword. However, knives are used to cut things, so the cutting performance is (mostly) the only thing that matters. The edge on this knife is immaculate and extremely sharp. It slices through tomatoes on contact - very little slicing motion required. Out of the box, one of the sharpest knives I've ever used in a kitchen. It's worth mentioning that the ergonomic handle is a huge step in the right direction compared to Globals older knives. For example: After several years of the whetstone, my old Global G-61 (note: NOT the knife being reviewed) had lost quite a bit of width on the blade, to the point where it was irritating my knife callus to cut through tougher foods like cooked bacon. (some chefs may call this out to user error, I know how to use a knife) I even developed small blood blisters under my callus on strenuous days. Strangely, after using the Sai-001 for just one day my callus was relieved and the very hard layer fell off. The callus hasn't been giving me any problems since I switched to the Sai.

Cons: A bit on the expensive side - but, I believe if you are serious about your cooking or about your job, you will choose the best product for you based on features, not cost. Are there knives with similar steel quality and performance for less? Absolutely. But, are there any knives that feature the specific set of features on this knife at ANY price? No, absolutely not, and with most things where several professional-grade options exist, most of it comes down to personal preference.

Overall Review: I go with Global for five main reasons: 1. Sharpness of the edge 2. Durability of the edge 3. Balance/fit of the knife in the hand 4. Seamless stainless steel from blade to handle - very easy to keep sanitary. 5. Handmade, as opposed to similar manufacturers who use fully computerized factories. While I'm not knocking knives made in such factories - in fact, some of the worlds best knives come out of them - I deeply respect that Global would rather use their traditional handmade methods than replace their highly skilled labor with machines.

Pros: Motherboard was easy to install and set up. Driver disc didn't work, doesn't matter though because you'd update them anyway.

Cons: The problem with this motherboard is that it seems to be picky about power supplies when you install it for the first time. The pc turns on automatically when you plug in the power supply, and there's no display or anything and the power button doesn't work to turn it off. I bought 2 of these boards and I was able to somehow make one work fine but the other one still has problems. ASRock support claims it's a bad board, I don't buy it though.