Pros: - Very quiet - Apparently quite efficient - Despite it's dimensions, doesn't intrude unnecessarily into other areas of the motherboard (RAM, VRM, etc)

Cons: - Difficult to install or remove fan to install or remove heat sink - Screw mounting of the actual heat sink portion without indicating torque (easy to over-tighten screws and put too much pressure on the CPU/board). - Height of the cooling tower could be an issue in some cases - Vertical orientation of the fan means VRM devices get no real passing airflow (a horizontal fan would blow air towards the board, and pass by the VRM elements).

Overall Review: When the my CPU (i5-8600K) is idling or doing light duty like web browsing, audio or video playback, and the like, the Freezer 13 keeps it at or very near ambient room temp at very low RPMs and very quiet levels. Even doing something more demanding like running multiple VM's, it does not need to shift into higher gear. Under higher load, such as running Fallout 4 (with many, many mods, and the script extender), I've only noticed it ramping up RPMs when the ambient temp is about 80-F or higher. This is with "enhanced" Turbo mode engaged (running all 6 cores simultaneously at the single-core turbo speed). The other two case fans (120mm Cooler Master) rev up the RPM's (and noise) more readily. All fans, save the video card, are under motherboard control, set for "normal" speed/cooling. Case is a Cooler Master HAF XB Evo. I don't anticipate overclocking aside from the enhanced Turbo mode, and so cannot imagine the need for anything more elaborate or expensive.

Pros: -Well laid out with good margins where needed. -More than enough headers for cooling flexibility. -Legacy PS/2, COM, and LPT ports (!); Would slot right in with a KVM/management console from the late 90's/early 00's. -Very good heat-sinking of the power supplies and chipset. -Plenty of USB support- and supporting charging while system is powered down (found this out by chance).

Cons: -NOISY analog audio output despite the so-called Audio Noise guard; more on this in the other section... -No rear-panel accessible digital audio output (optical or coax). -Have to keep SATA port 0 unused if you plan on using the upper M2 slot.

Overall Review: I've always been a fan of no-frills boards. I really don't care for fancy lighting (I'm the only one who ever sees my system); I'd rather the money be spent on better components or better layout. So, the Z370XP SLI seems to be the Core "K" capable board for me. It mostly does what it says on the box, and has a couple vintage surprises thrown in to boot. The UEFI interface is okay, but some of the settings could use better explanation, and some of the translations are poetic. It gets the job done though. All the headers are cleanly and unambiguously labeled, and the diagnostic LEDs are helpful. Being branded as "Ultra Durable", I expect it to last at least as long as my old MSI Z68A-G43 (which was purchased towards the end of 2011), but time will tell. Reading some of the other reviews is not encouraging when they're split almost evenly between negative and positive... Now to my BIG gripe, and the ONLY reason for the 3/5 score (it is perfect in my estimation in almost every other regard...), and that is the analog audio output. When the system is under load (playing games and such), there is an audible whining and buzzing that comes out of the speakers connected to it. For a system billed as possessing an "Audio Noise Guard" this is quite unacceptable, and would be unacceptable in a system that didn't even sport such a "feature". This is certainly the mobo causing this, as it changes in pitch dependent on the load, and the audio outputs are otherwise silent when simply playing music out of iTunes or streaming video/music online. Whether there is some grounding issue from the "isolated" audio paths or some board component is out of whack, I can't say, but I've never had such an issue with my old MSI board or the Asus or Intel boards I routinely used before that. For reference, I'm using the board with a Core i5-8600K (no overclock, yet) a GTX780, and 16GB of GSkill Ripjaws DDR4-2400 RAM.

Pros: - So far, no problems

Cons: - None I can find, really

Overall Review: When a product does what it says on the box, it's easy to take for granted. I've only ever had one problem with memory (an RDRAM RIMM included with an old Intel 850-chipset motherboard), and I've found in 20+ years of IT experience, if memory gets past the first day, baring something catastrophic (lightning strike, mobo failure, etc), it'll almost always last the life of the system. This is the first time I've purchased G.Skill RAM, and it looks like it's going to follow suit.

Pros: -A worthy successor (so far) to my legendary and diamond-solid i5-2500K. From what I have read, it has similarly strong OC potential for those who care about such things. -Have my 6-core cake and get to eat single-threaded performance too. -Price is right. -Decent motherboards are now cheap and plentiful (I'm using the Gigabyte Z370XP SLI).

Cons: -Initially unstable (unusable, actually); bad first impression -No included HSF; not a big deal, as the Arctic Freezer 13 is quite superior to any Intel unit, but still... It's not as if an Intel "95-watt" HSF unit is all that expensive, though I guess this is the trend. So allow for another $30 or so for a half-decent HSF.

Overall Review: My last major upgrade was over 6 years ago when I plunked down for a Core i5-2500K and MSI Z68A-G43 motherboard and a then respectable 8GB of RAM. That combo has served me well since, but I wanted to get something more up to date in anticipation of future Bethesda RPG's (if they haven't stopped making them). Initially, I was looking at something like a Kaby Lake i5-7600K, but for not much more, I could get a newer processor with the same single-threaded performance, but two additional cores, slightly lower stock speed, and slightly higher turbo speed. It was an easy choice. Once it arrived (along with the new mobo and RAM), and I got everything installed, however, it was a different story. The system would not post and would continuously reboot. The diagnostic LEDs on the mobo indicated a CPU fault (the Z370XP SLI having fault indicators for CPU, RAM, Video, and simply no OS). After moving DIMMs around, removing and reseating the CPU multiple times, double-checking all connections, etc, the system finally posted to the UEFI, where I changed a couple settings, including enabling XMP for the RAM (which the CPU, mobo, and RAM all support). Windows 10 (April Update, clean install) was installed, but the system seemed unstable, randomly hard-freezing or rebooting. Disabling XMP didn't have any effect; I figured I would give it a couple more hours (while I installed other software) before giving up and contacting newegg for an RMA. In that couple hours, though, the system remained perfectly stable (almost as if it knew what was going to happen). After a bit, I ran CPUz's stress test and then half an hour of 7-zip benchmarking where there was not so much as a cough. It's been a couple days since, and with about 4 hours of Skyrim SE and 7 hours of FO4 and no problems since. Possibly, things just needed to settle in. Where it not for the initial instability, it would be a 5/5. I had considered AMD's offerings (particularly the Ryzen 5 2600X), but here Intel's near monopoly over the past decade and ensuing software optimizations (not to mention better single-threaded performance) tipped the scales in its favor. Perhaps next upgrade cycle, if AMD still holds the multi-threaded bang-for-buck crown.