Pros: So many pros, where do I start? Wireless - fantastic: no one can beat Logitech's Lightspeed system. It's ultra-fast and rock-solid. Battery life - fantastic: you get 34 hours of battery life at maximum (100%) brightness, over 130 hours at minimum (25%), and 1100 hours with no RGB lights. That should put to rest any fears about going with wireless, even in an RGB keyboard. Switches - fantastic: I was definitely concerned about whether the Kaihua switches in this model could compete with the big name switch manufacturer, but indeed, they are great, and a huge step up from the Romer-G switches in Logitech's previous wireless mechanical keyboard, the G613, which were super-mushy. Design - Fantastic: gone is all the fantastic plastic of every previous Logitech keyboard, replaced by beautiful aluminum and a svelte 22mm-thick profile. A total win.

Cons: So here's the deal: this isn't the best gaming keyboard I've used. It's not because there's anything wrong with the wireless system or the switches. It's because the keycaps are too small, too slick, and too flat. I just couldn't get a really good "grip" on them during gaming. For typing, however, they're excellent. The other issue, and this isn't limited to the G915, is that Logitech's GHub system has a lot of trouble staying connected to wireless devices. It's not that the keyboard drops from the PC, it most definitely doesn't. It's that GHub is clearly still beta, despite having been released in early 2019, and it has a lot of trouble keeping its device list in order. Very annoying, but at least it can be fixed some day.

Overall Review: I love this keyboard. It's really a powerhouse in terms of the tech - there's simply nothing else that offers what the G915 does, and that's because no other company could achieve it. I love the clicky feel for typing - it makes me more accurate for sure. It's fine for gaming, although there the responsiveness of the clicks isn't as important as the feel of the keys, and that's where the G915 shows its weakness. This is the ideal keyboard if you're mainly using it for professional office purposes, and want to game on the side.

Pros: Corsair has really stepped up its game with its new "2018" line of AF120 fans. Unlike previous models, these use hydraulic bearings, and I could tell that this fan was far quieter than previous Corsair fans I'd used. The lighting is also quite striking - four bright white LEDs are mounted in the fan hub.

Cons: This is a 3-pin fan, which is pretty unusual these days. It was perfect for use on my GPU liquid cooler, which only has a 3-pin connection to the PCB's fan controller, but some users may be surprised to find that it's not a 4-pin PWM fan.

Overall Review: The overall light dispersion of this fan is pretty different from most fans, where the lights are at the base of the hub. The hub is very bright lit, while the blades just get some ambient light shining off them. I think it looks cool, but it is different even from other Corsair RGB fans I have in my system right now. If you want a consistent look, you'll need identical fans.

Pros: - great cooling for a 240mm cooler. Beats the competing RGB 240mm cooler I'd been using by about 2C in quiet mode, and 8C in extreme mode (which is really loud). - very nice addressable RGB effects - the cycling colors on the faceplate are particularly cool - the ML-series fans used on this cooler are Corsair's best, and arguably the best in the industry - zero-fan mode! - yes indeed, this mode has been added to the iCUE control panel, allowing you to shut down the two fans entirely (or have just one operating) during idle period. The pump still runs, however, so this isn't exactly a "zero-noise" solution, but it's as close as you'll find in a liquid cooler

Cons: - price, price, price. You are paying a HUGE premium for the ML fans and addressable RGBs. This is the most expensive 240mm AIO every released by a major manufacturer. - given the cost of adding the addressable RGBs, it's simply inexcusable for Corsair to continue to work only within its walled garden of iCUE peripherals. The whole point of addressable RGBs is to provide the ultimate in customization, but if I can't sync with my motherboard or case, what's the point? - I own Corsair RGB RAM, but the cross-peripheral "Lighting Link" presets don't work on it. I could get "spiral rainbow" to work on my Corsair K70 RGB keyboard and H100i cooler simultaneously, but the command has no effect on the RAM. Not even setting a Lighting Link static color worked on the RAM. Totally lame. In other words, despite Corsair limiting you to sync'ing only with its own products, even these products don't always work together. Even the way certain presets work is different: "color shift" on the cooler only allows you to choose two colors, while color shift on RAM allows seven. That virtually guarantees they'll never be in sync. - there is an absolute mess of cables coming out of this cooler - two cables for each of the fans (power and RGB), and then four cables coming out of the block (USB for control, SATA for power, plus the connectors for the fans. It's a mess, and while RGB does require more connections by nature, the fact that Corsair is using its old proprietary system instead of ARGB headers makes this worse - ARGB headers actually provide power too, so the extra SATA power would likely be unnecessary. As an example, an ARGB cooler I have from a competitor does NOT need any SATA power to run. The pump is powered by USB, while the lighting is powered by the ARGB header.

Overall Review: It's hard to fairly rate this product. Sure, the performance, both in terms of cooling and acoustics, is excellent for a 240mm cooler. But it costs more than most 280mm coolers, let alone every 240mm cooler on the market, and Corsair's insistence in sticking with its proprietary RGB system is coming back to haunt it. Standard ARGB controls and connections are now better than what Corsair has to offer, so why bother paying a premium for a proprietary solution? Frankly, assuming you're using a case that can fit a 280mm cooler, you're almost certainly going to be better off saving money by going for a competitor's 280mm RGB offering than Corsair's smaller 240mm ARGB offering. You might even be able to pick up their ARGB 280mm products for less than this 240mm cooler.

Pros: Good price versus competition, sleek styling, compact, and true USB 3.0 speeds. I recorded 130MB/s write speeds over USB 3.0, and 35MB/s over USB 2.0. This is a very fast drive over USB 3.0.

Cons: The backup software isn't all that useful, as it creates image files that can only be accessed via restoration. So if you're looking for that one photo you need, you're not going to get it that way. Also, it's excruciatingly slow, because it's creating the bulk recovery file as it backs up. I backed up about 200GB of data in just under 2 hours, at an average speed of 23.5MB/s. That's just not acceptable. Don't buy the hard drive for the software.

Overall Review: This is just a few dollars more than the Canvio Basic model, and the three main differences are the styling, an extra year of warranty, and the included software. While I didn't think much of the software, the styling is very cool, particularly the soft white LED power/activity light. Plus the warranty alone is worth paying a few dollars for.

Pros: Likely the fastest external drive you'll find, it uses Samsung's very best SATA-derived internals, but connects it with a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface. Plus it includes both a Type-A and a Type-C cable to avoid potential frustration.

Cons: Here's the problem: the USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface is experiencing serious growing pains. It's not available on that many PCs, and even where it is, the performance just isn't where it should be for the "10Gbps" spec. That's 1.25GB/s, and this drive isn't even coming close. In my real-world (read: not synthetic benchmark) testing, this drive only achieved write speeds of 108MB/s over USB 3.1 Gen 2. This pales in comparison to the Samsung 850 Evo I'm running in the same system. Part of the blame could be placed on Intel, which hasn't supported the USB 3.1 standard on its chipsets, and thus requires third-party controllers, which are notoriously unreliable. I tested on a Gigabyte Z270 motherboard that had a built-in USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port. Using a USB 3.0 port (aka USB 3.1 Gen 1), the drive was actually faster. I achieved write speeds of between 110MB/s and 140MB/s. In other words, just because you have a Gen 2 port doesn't mean you'll actually get faster speeds from this drive. And you likely will never see the kind of numbers listed on the spec sheet.

Overall Review: While the T5 boasts similar specs to the Samsung 850 Evo, and in fact likely *is* the 850 Evo, simply in an external chassis, the performance is not equivalent, despite the higher cost. I like that Samsung is pushing boundaries with external storage, but I consider this drive overpriced. Yes, it's small, and yes, it looks fancy, but the sparkly aluminum shell shouldn't add an extra $30 over the 850 Evo M.2 drive Samsung sells for PC use. Alas, in a world where SSD prices just keep going up month after month due to NAND shortages, Samsung doesn't need to keep prices down even it can.

Pros: Corsair gets a lot right with this new model: (1) Very fair price for a Platinum-rated 750W unit. (2) Big fan means low noise levels, and it doesn't even spin under certain temperatures. (3) Exceptionally efficient - cut 5W off idle and 15W off the gaming load versus my previous Gold-rated 850W unit from one of Corsair's biggest competitors. The Platinum rating really does mean something. (4) The updated white graphics look really good in any system - particularly cool under RGB case lighting, as it reflects the colors nicely. Grey fan provides some visual interest, but it would be even cooler if it were white too. (5) Unique single/multi-rail switch potentially adds option for better over-voltage protection.

Cons: A number of little things keep this from being perfect: (1) down-market packaging. Sure, Corsair has the obligatory "velvet" PSU bag and case badge, but doesn't include stuff that really matters, like a quality cable bag (the one in the box is cheap feeling), a power-on self tester, and quality velcro cable straps (only plastic zip ties are included). And the brown cardboard box it comes in is cheap-feeling and hard to open. For a high-end Platinum PSU, this all feels like penny-pinching. (2) there is no indication in the manual how users should use the rail selector switch. It does at least mention the switch, but it would be nice to know under what circumstances users should use multi-rail vs. single rail. Given that this is a unique feature of this lineup, it's surprising Corsair doesn't spend more time explaining its value. (3) the naming scheme simply has to change. The HX 750 was a well-loved PSU... introduced in 2009. Why is Corsair reusing the name? The fact that the first google hit for "Corsair HX 750" brings up that discontinued PSU proves that Corsair just isn't thinking this through. (4) most PSUs with zero-fan modes have a switch to force full-time fan mode. This one doesn't. Perhaps zero-fan mode is reliable enough to trust its sensors to protect the PSU, but some purists may not agree. (5) The big fan means a big chassis. As competitor's PSUs are getting smaller, this one feels like a model from a bygone age, despite the updated graphics and beveled edges.

Overall Review: Corsair is now playing catchup in the PSU market after taking a big lead years ago. While I applaud the effort it's making with the competitively-priced HX 750 Platinum, it may need to do more to really win the hearts and minds of enthusiasts.

Pros: - RGB lighting worked on both my Z270 and X99 systems using CorsairLink software. - lighting looks really good and is very bright - removable heatsink cover if you want fully-exposed light bar

Cons: - CorsairLink sometimes loses sync with one or two of the four sticks and must be restarted, and sticks often start out of sync at startup, likely due to each getting powered on at slightly different times. - Lighting control not currently supported on the AMD Ryzen platform, and while two sticks ran at DDR4-2933, four sticks required DDR4-2133 speeds on my Gigabyte AM4 board. - Clocked at their max - could not get these stable at DDR4-3200, 16-18-18-38, even with 1.4V, suggesting this really is slower RAM than the next step up in Corsair's typical lineup.

Overall Review: While Gigabyte has announced support for Vengeance RGB through its Fusion RGB app, the only Gigabyte Fusion board I had for testing was a Ryzen AM4 platform, and it did not function with the RGB RAM - the RAM simply wasn't detected in the app (nor could CorsairLink detect it). It's too bad Corsair hasn't released a DDR4-3200 version of this RAM yet, as it would be the ideal match for X99 Broadwell-E platforms, which can run RAM that fast but typically not faster, and really don't match up as well with DDR4-3000 due to limited mulitpliers.

Pros: - I've been using this board for several weeks with a 7700K clocked at 5GHz, not a single crash, even under a full AVX stability test at 5GHz. It might be cheap, but it's got what it takes to run if you have a lucky chip. Mine takes 1.35V to hit that, which does require good air cooling at a minimum. - it's a decent value when compared against boards from Gigabyte's biggest competitor, given that it offers ALC 1220 audio and a nice array of USB ports, including USB 3.1 Type-C. - the Gigabyte UEFI is easy to use, and the Windows software is even better this generation than in the Z170 generation. I particularly like the SIV fan utility.

Cons: - This board is identical to the cheaper GA-Z270XP-SLI other than the I/O port cover, which makes it a worse overall value - The board is narrower than standard ATX, meaning it will not be properly supported on the right side in most cases, which in turn makes securing the 24-pin ATX power cable difficult - the motherboard heatsinks use typical Gigabyte spring pins, meaning they're barely on - lousy punched metal I/O panel. I really dislike these, especially at this pricepoint.

Overall Review: The problem with boards in this price range is that only $20-$30 more buys you a heck of a lot more in terms of features (like dual M.2 slots, more fan headers, RGB controls, etc.). I don't think those boards will perform any better, but I do think this board is a bit slim on features at the $150 pricepoint.

Pros: This printer is very fast for an inkjet, reasonably quiet, and has a full-featured touchscreen as well as ample networking features. Following the setup process even allows you to secure a dedicated e-mail address for the printer, allowing you to send documents via e-mail directly to the printer! While the big selling point of this huge printer is the ability to print 11"x17" documents, I particularly like the ability to scan such documents, because it allows you to scan both pages of many books in a single pass and share the scan as a single one-page document..

Cons: There are three major issues I've identified with the printer: (1) I could not get the device to scan from its automatic document feeder. This is despite the fact that the ADF would grab the sheets, the screen would indicate that documents were loaded, and the ADF worked just fine if I selected copy. Every time I selected scan from the touchscreen, it would attempt to scan from the flatbed, which of course was empty. Perhaps this was just a glitch in my sample, but I consider it a pretty big problem. (2) photo printing is well below average for an inkjet. I've tested a number of much less expensive inkjets from Canon and Epson, and their photo quality was much better than this model's. Now, I realize this isn't being marketed as a photo printer, but it is an expensive inkjet, and buyers will probably expect that it can top photo inkjets at half the price. It cannot. And to be clear, I tested the printer with HP's most expensive premium photo printer paper. (3) Despite its enormous size, which you can see for yourself from the specifications, this printer has no internal paper output tray. I was shocked that I needed to use a flimsy flip-out tray to keep printed pages from shooting right out onto the floor. You really need to add another 6" of depth to position the printer on a table such that you won't risk walking into those extended trays.

Overall Review: I've owned a lot of inkjets, and none of them have impressed me all that much. There are a number of reasons for this: (1) They are slow to start up, often needing to clean their spray heads for minutes at a time before printing a single page; (2) they are slow to print, especially anything with color; (3) they are loud, especially when they shake back and forth during printing; and (4) ink dries up fast when not in use, and is expensive to replace. The Officejet Pro 7740 is a lot better in some regards, including startup time, noise, and the ability to print without shaking its foundation. But it's also bigger than most laser printers, even some color laser printers, and it costs quite a bit given its output quality.

Pros: Decent price given the capacity - just slightly more than most standard 2TB laptop drives (typically $100). Basically no premium jumping up to this drive. Very slim at 7mm. For repeated tasks, like launching the same game several times, this drive is slow the first time, but very good in subsequent runs. Launching DOOM 2016 took 87 seconds the first time, but 38 seconds each subsequent time, even after launching another game (Fallout 4) in the interim. This is actually much faster than most true SSDs can manage. The SLC cache used by this drive is very, very fast. It's just a shame there isn't more of it...

Cons: Performance is incredibly slow when data isn't cached. In back-to-back tests against a true 1TB SSD and Seagate's original 1TB SSHD released in 2013, this new drive was a disappointment. For example, the first launch of DOOM 2016 took 87 seconds on this drive, 84 seconds on the older Seagate SSHD, and just 52 seconds on an SSD. In subsequent launches, it tied the older Seagate SSHD at 38 seconds, but did not beat it, suggesting the caching algorithm is identical. If you routinely launch a number of different applications, you'll quickly lose the benefit of the limited cache on this drive, and it will perform like the very slow hard drive that it is. In another test, I used Steam to allocate disk space for a game install. With the true SSD, this took 50 seconds. With the 2013 Seagate SSHD, it took 104 seconds. With the brand-new FireCuda 2TB drive, this took 168s. That proves that the underlying hard drive is far slower than the drive used in the 2013 model. This allocation of disk space is entirely write based, and cannot use the SLC cache. Furthermore, it's a task you would not repeat, so even if it were read-based, the cache could not help.

Overall Review: I tested the original Seagate ST1000LM014 1TB Laptop SSHD way back in April 2013, and after 3.5 years time, I would have expected this product to be more of an improvement. In fact, it only has two advantages: it's cheaper per GB, and it's thinner. But the reason it's cheaper is that it uses an inferior recording technique (shingled magnetic recording or SMR), versus the PMR method on the older Seagate SSHD. So it's actually a downgrade versus the original in non-cached tasks, and given how much time has passed since that drive was released, this just isn't acceptable. A slower hard drive mechanism, same cache, and a slightly lower price do not make this a winner in 2016 and beyond.

Pros: Low profile, heatsink only extends about 1mm above the PCB, making it ideal for use with CPU coolers that overhang the RAM slots.

Cons: Not stable at DDR4-3000. I had doubts that a second-tier vendor could actually come in and provide a DDR4-3000, 15-15-15-35 kit for much lower cost than the first-tier competition, and indeed, this kit just isn't stable at DDR4-3000 CAS 15. I previously used a G.Skill kit with the same speed and timings in my Asus Z170 board and it worked perfectly.

Overall Review: Currently running at DDR4-2800 CAS15 on 1.35V, after weeks of struggling to keep it stable at DDR4-3000. Only reason I'm sticking with this RAM is that the competitors' high-speed RAM won't fit under my CPU cooler.

Pros: Benchmark speed was very good - I tested this against another Seagate external drive I have on hand, which is a USB 3.0 model. It reached 198MB/s sequential read and 185MB/s sequential write, besting the USB 3.0 model's 142MB/s and 137MB/s. In terms of random performance, which by the way is not what you should be buying an external backup drive for, the Innov8 only hit 0.651MB/s read and 7.876MB/s write, which was about 50% slower than my Seagate USB 3.0 external drive in terms of read, but 10x faster in terms of write. That's overall pretty good, especially considering that random reads are the last thing you should use this for (i.e., running an OS).

Cons: In a test copying 5GB of JPEGs onto this drive from a fast SSD, I found that it wrote at 48.6MB/s. That's not particularly fast, and I would have expected it to be faster based on its sequential write speed of 185MB/s. Also, this is very much an "Apple"-style product, pushing tech forward at the expense of customers and existing standards. In its effort to be as streamlined as possible (i.e., include no bulky external power connector), Seagate has limited the Innov8 to USB 3.1 Type-C only, which means 99% of PC owners out there are not going to be able to use this drive today. Overall, you're paying a big premium for USB 3.1, and I'm just not convinced that it makes sense at this point to pay significantly more for a USB 3.1 drive than a USB 3.0 drive, given that USB 3.0 really isn't the bottleneck when using mechanical storage (my USB 3.0-powered external SSD runs circles around this device, for example). The only true advantage for this application is the lack of a power adapter, but that's not all that critical for desktop use.

Overall Review: While performing a test involving copying a large directory from one folder to another on this drive, the drive failed, leading to drive errors. While this is a scenario you likely won't be encountering much if you use this as a backup drive, it does make me wonder if the USB 3.1 drivers for my particular motherboard aren't quite ready. And given that Seagate has to depend on motherboard manufacturers to properly support USB 3.1 Type-C, it may be a while before this is the most reliable drive out there.

Pros: Achieved a 248Mbps download speed and a blazing 399Mbps upload speed on my fiber connection.

Cons: My two USB 3.0-based 802.11ac adapters from another major manufacturer actually provide higher download speeds, while this model (and the T9E) provide higher upload speeds. The fact that the USB models are easier to install and cheaper make them an all-around better choice. In addition, this adapter did not work well placed in the last PCIe slot in my PC, which may be the reason so many people are saying they have a poor 5G connection. the 2.4G connection worked fine from all slots. For users getting little or no 5G connection, try a different slot before giving up on this product.

Overall Review: I had no problems whatsoever getting this to work on Windows 10, and I suspect that people who are having trouble simply didn't download the driver ahead of time. It's true that this WILL NOT work unless you load a driver. A DVD is included in the box, but I did not load the driver off of it, as it's always best to get the latest version from the manufacturer website.

Pros: Amazing efficiency; ultra-quiet fans; good price/performance ratio, cool white LEDs and nicely-styled backplate

Cons: Now the bad stuff: - Unimpressive overclocking headroom: only got +63 on the core, translating to around 1975MHz in actual games. Pascal overclocking is weak because Nvidia pushed these cores hard to justify price increases over past x70 cards! - questionable Nvidia marketing led to expectation of a $380 card that does not exist. In the past, EVGA's SC editions have been $10-20 over retail, but retail is not the false $380 promised by Nvidia, it's $450. Sure, the SC is better than the FE at that price, but it should have been cheaper.

Overall Review: Equaled my EVGA GTX 980 Ti at 1440p across six games I tested, max OC to max OC, while using 120W less power. Overall, that's a nice lateral move, but not an upgrade.

Pros: The main selling point of this card is its price. It undercuts the competition in the U1 market. It's rated at up to 85MB/s, and I benched it at a fairly impressive 76MB/s sequential read speed.

Cons: As with many low-cost flash products, the speed used in marketing is sequential read, and its sequential write doesn't even come close. In my benchmarks, this SIlicon Power product hit a mediocre 17MB/s sequential write speed. That's better than what I achieved with the similarly-priced big-name competitor. But compared to the microSDXC performance king from the leading vendor of SD cards, this Silicon Power product doesn't stand a chance. Its much more expensive competitor hit 83MB/s read and 78MB/s write in the same test. Those are the kind of numbers you're going to want in a high-performance still or video camera.

Overall Review: Don't bother using this for SLR photography or high-res video. It would, however, be a good low-cost upgrade for a smartphone or a point-and-shoot camera.

Pros: Before I ordered this product, I had spent a lot of time with Linksys AC1900 and AC2400 routers. Both were good, but this is much, much better. I figured the extra speed rating was mostly marketing, and I was more interested in the three radios to give my 802.11n 5GHz and 802.11ac 5GHz their own dedicated, full-speed links. Well, guess what... this router has far greater speed AND range than my earlier Linksys products. That was the real surprise. Devices that struggled to stay connected at the far reaches of my house now had no trouble, and the range was so good that I removed my range extender entirely from my network. I get a stronger connection on my back deck via this router than I did with my much closer ranger extender! Even my 802.11n 2.4GHz devices got a serious boost in performance, and due its greater range, I actually use the 2.4GHz band more now than I did before, particularly for my smartphones that don't need extreme speed.

Cons: Price, obviously. Size, although I just propped it up on its front edge to keep it out of the way.

Overall Review: I'm on 1Gbit fiber, and unfortunately even 802.11ac can't keep up with it. Maximum throughput I've seen with my best 802.11ac clients was about 270Mbps download and 350Mbps upload. I've used the router with about twenty connected devices for over a week, not a single drop. I'm surprised at other negative reviews in this regard.

Pros: I've used just about every mechanical keyboard out there, and Corsair's is among the very best, for two main reasons: (1) it looks great. There's just no question it has the sleekest design of any of the major manufacturers out there. (2) you're getting real Cherry MX keys, as opposed to the knock-offs some of Corsair's competitors started using, which are simply inferior.

Cons: MX Red switches are what they are: great for fast-paced gaming. They are not Cherry's best keys for typing, due to the lack of tactile feedback. While the lack of feedback does make them a bit quieter, they still aren't what I'd call quiet, and it's just too easy to mis-type versus the MX Browns, which I views as the best all-around switches. Also, a note on the backlighting: at full power, it's seriously blinding, making for an annoying distraction while typing or gaming. And even at minimum brightness, it's still fairly bright. I think this may be an artifact of Corsair using the same backlighting levels as previous K70 models despite new keys that let more light through... see below for more details on that.

Overall Review: The "Lux" version of the K70 has three changes versus the standard K70: (1) the MSRP is $10 lower, likely due to the serious competition that has entered the market since the original K70 was released. (2) the font on the keys has been changed in order to make better use of the backlighting. It's much larger now, and you may or may not like the font itself, but there's no denying it lets a lot more light through. The keys are VERY bright. (3) Corsair has removed the Backlight Program key in the top row of buttons, which previously allowed you to program in the backlighting of certain without entering the CUE software. In truth, the CUE software does allow a lot more options. It's just a bit cumbersome to use.

Pros: I'd read the reviews (both user and professional) on this drive, and was expecting to be underwhelmed. But frankly, this drive is fantastic. You're getting a huge amount of capacity for the dollar, and furthermore, the performance is exceptional. In back-to-back benchmarks against my Crucial MX200 1TB and Samsung 850 Evo 500GB, the OCZ Trion 960GB won in all disciplines against the Crucial and beat the Samsung in 3 of 5 tests. Here are the Trion's bench results: Seq Read: 565 MB/s Seq Write: 543 MB/s Random Read IOPS: 102863 Random Write IOPS: 83708 10GB file copy: 1min, 11sec This was with the drive half full. Keep in mind that empty-drive tests are not accurate.

Cons: Unlike competing drives from the two biggest SSD vendors, this model does not include cloning software. If you need to clone an existing drive, that alone may push you to look at some of the other brands.

Overall Review: I've used and tested more than a dozen different SSDs over the years, and I know that OCZ ran into some issues early on. While my original OCZ Agility 2 is still running, I have no doubt OCZ earned its bad name, but it's a brand-new company now, backed by Toshiba, so what's past is past. This is a solid product.

Pros: No other way to say this: the Gaming 6 is awesome! Here's what I liked about it: - Fantastic USB port selection, including USB 3.1 and USB 3.1 Type-C - Booted up instantly with my 6700K. I used the EasyTune application to set a 4.4GHz/1.24V overclock, which is simply exceptional and far better than I was able to achieve on a competing board. - the matte black finish, with very limited visible circuitry, is simply breathtaking. It looks so much sleeker and future-gen than competing Z170 board. I'm really not sure how Gigabyte did this!

Cons: - The AutoTune extreme setting came up with a 4.6GHz overclock at 1.31V, which was OK, but it tuned by 3000MHz memory down to 2133MHz. I passed on that and stuck with the pre-set EasyTune 4.4GHz overclock on my 6700K. - The only difference between this board and the Gaming 5 is the additional shroud over the I/O ports. Not sure that's actually worth the price premium, but it does look a whole lot better!

Overall Review: I've been sitting on this board for a while, waiting for the chance to upgrade from a similarly-priced board from a very big competitor of Gigabyte's (the biggest, actually). Seeing a highly-negative review of the Gaming 6 on a reputable review site ([H]OCP) gave me the push I needed. They said they actually had trouble booting the board, and I just couldn't believe it could be that bad. Sure enough, they were wrong. This board booted instantly, is packed with features, is well built, and frankly looks better than any board I've ever used, and I've used a lot!

Pros: I compared this cooler back-to-back against the original H100i cooler on the same system. In short, Corsair has tweaked the design to optimize it, but it's not radically better. Basically, the radiator is more efficient and the fans run at lower RPM. I found that in Quiet Mode (using CorsairLink's presets), the temperatures were actually 2C higher both at load and idle, while noise levels were the same at idle but 2-3dB lower at load. The real changes are in "Performance" mode, which was intolerably loud before. Now Performance mode yields temperatures similar to the previous cooler's Quiet mode, but with slightly lower noise levels.

Cons: Don't kid yourself - lower RPMs do lead to higher temperatures. There is no way this cooler can match the old H100i with it's ultra-loud 2700RPM fans. Also, while installation has been simplified versus the H100i (much better bracket, no SATA power cable), the hoses are so thick that they actually have become hard to bend. And because of this issue, I found that they basically touched my rear 120mm case fan. This wasn't a problem with the older H100i. Finally, despite being the same size class, this cooler is actually thicker than the H100i. Whereas the H100i fit perfectly in my Corsair Carbide 500R's radiator compartment, the H100i v2 is too thick to fit without the case's top panel bulging.

Overall Review: Interestingly, by removing the SATA power connection that the older H100i used, the H100i v2 now draws power directly from the fan header, and it seems that motherboard controls will affect both fan speeds and pump speed. I didn't find anything in the manual regarding whether this is safe, but typically, coolers do not allow you to slow down the pump. Doing so most definitely allowed amazingly low noise levels at idle, but long-term this could cause a problem.

Pros: Works as spec'd out of the box. Corsair offers best-in-class support, and even throws in an extra XMP profile for the tweakers out there: DDR4-2800, 16-18-18-37, at 1.35V.

Cons: Don't expect to get anything more out of this kit at 1.2V. It's maxed out, and unfortunately often comes in at a higher price than other kits with 15-15-15-35 timings or 15-17-17-35 timings. I tried both those settings and it didn't post.

Overall Review: I suspect this is the same kit as Corsair's DDR4-2133 13-15-15-28 1.2V kit, so owners of B150/H170 motherboards that can't access frequencies higher than 2133MHz may want to use this kit, since it's sometimes cheaper than the 2133MHz kit.

Pros: Tested with a Core i7-6700K, GTX 980 Ti, 4x4GB of DDR4-3000 RAM, and a Samsung 850 EVO M.2 drive. Easily OC'd the 6700K to 4.4GHz with a simple change of ratios, no need for extra voltage. In fact these Z170 boards (this is my second) are coming from the factory with pretty high default vcores (1.28V), and I undervolted the board by 0.1V to hit the overclock. Easily accepted my fast DDR4 kit, even four sticks of it (using 2N command rate). M.2 drive didn't work until switching a setting in the UEFI, as SATA lanes are shared between it and the SATA Express port. But Asus programmed in a helpful bootup warning about this.

Cons: Really not feature-rich for the price, and some obvious physical cost-cutting: (1) heatsinks are secured with spring-loaded pushpins. They move at the slightest touch, suggesting a weak contact (2) the back I/O panel is disgraceful on a board this expensive - it was nearly impossible to get the ports through it due to all the hanging metal - a padded panel like those included in other Asus boards around the same price would be a welcome addition. Asus knows how to do better. (3) the heatsinks are actually sharp, and I got a pretty serious cut on my thumb handling the board by the heatsinks while struggling with the I/O panel (4) no other board anywhere near this price relies on the cheap ALC892 audio codec (5) very limited number of USB ports (six), although one is a forward-looking 3.1/Type-C.

Overall Review: The Asus "-A" line of boards has been very reliable for generations, and Asus likely fine-tuned this board for optimum stability for the price, not features. Everything just worked for me, and Asus makes it easy to set up, except for that silly I/O panel... Tweakers note: CPU-z is not reading voltage correctly on Asus boards with the 6700K - use the excellent Asus AI Suite included with the board to read voltage. Also handy for overclocking within Windows.

Pros: Solid typing experience, better overall than my Razer that sells for the same price. This is a very personal thing, however, and it's a subtle difference. The red switches have no tactile response, so they are quiet, but some people might want the feedback. I just like that they are very snappy - no drag at all, and of course not mushy like a standard membrane keyboard. Red lighting is cool, particularly like the red LED stripes on the side. Very nice touch. USB pass-through at the top of the keyboard is great for mice.

Cons: Corsair has made a habit of bringing out great hardware, like its liquid coolers, backed up by unfinished software. The same is true here: CUE is just way too hard to use. Yes, you can read a manual, but just navigating the software is a chore. I also had a glitch where the keyboard would not be detected in the UEFI or even in Windows until I started CUE and let let it re-detect the keyboard. This happened not just at installation, but about 1 out of every three cold boots, and it makes me wonder if the USB drivers aren't quite ready for prime-time. I don't have this issue with any other keyboard. Tested on a new Intel X99 system, by the way. Another minor annoyance - no sleep button, not even via function keys. I use that way too much to not be able to reach it via my keyboard. Finally, I really don't like that the keyboard performs a scrolling lightshow when the PC is off. That's just silly. Furthermore, it's drawing a good deal of power from my PC, measured at 1-2W by my watt meter, when the PC is turned off. Did Corsair really intend for this to be a "feature"?

Overall Review: Overall, the hardware is very nice. I'm a bit concerned about the failure to detect the board as well as the silly lighting scheme when the PC is off. I'm sure Corsair will provide support to anyone who has the USB detection issue, but the off-state lighting (and the awful CUE software) probably aren't going to be remedied any time soon. With the higher-end K70 model so close in price, I might go with that simply based on it being a more proven (and stylish) design.

Pros: I've used just about every product out there, from bridges to extenders to powerline, and this is one of the best solutions I've found for extending the reach of my 802.11ac network. Compared to 802.11n extenders I've tested, this unit from Linksys is far more powerful, and was able to provide a 70Mbps connection to a directly-connected PC 100ft away from the router. This is an area where most USB WiFi adapters simply could not work reliably. Of course, it also extended the network, allowing me to use WiFi outside my house, on the opposite end of my lot from the router. I had never even bothered to take a device outside before since I couldn't previously cover even the full interior of the house. And perhaps most surprisingly, near the extender, the extended network available to my wireless clients was far faster than what the clients themselves were able to pick up directly from the router - proving that the dual-antenna array and powerful electronics inside this device actually are more capable than what your typical smartphone or laptop are equipped with.

Cons: Price, price, price. Look around carefully, and you'll find four-port bridge/extenders for less than this one-port extender. Yes, this is a bit sleeker, as it plugs right into the outlet, but it isn't small, and it still draws a lot of power (it stays warm all the time). Also, note that the RE6700 seriously reduced the bandwidth available to PCs that were well within the range of my router previously. In other words, it actually lowered performance to all PCs within both its range and the router's range. I highly, and I mean very highly, recommend that you use the robust firmware included with this router to rename the extended 802.11n and 802.11ac networks to something other than your existing networks. That way it will not interfere with devices that already have a great signal in your home.

Overall Review: This device absolutely does the job it's supposed to do - extending an 802.11ac network while providing a very fast connection to a single Ethernet-connected device nearby. The speed I was able to achieve at that location was far beyond anything I've achieved before. But it comes at a cost - devices that are already within the range of your router will suffer, which is simply a byproduct of how extenders work (they effectively halve available bandwidth). Luckily, this model lets you switch from the default naming scheme which simply clones your existing network SSID to a naming scheme of your choice.

Pros: This is the second smart hub lighting system I've used, the other one now being obsolete. The WeMo improves upon the older system by allowing you to locate the hub anywhere in your house - it is not hard-wired to your router, but rather connects to it wirelessly, which means you can, for instance, place it in the middle of your house, even if your router is on one end of the house. That gives you a better shot at controlling all your devices, and doesn't take up a port on your router. I also love that you can individually program bulbs to turn on together but turn off at different times. This allows you, for instance, to have all lights come on at sunset, and then gradually turn off during the night. The other really neat features is the fade in/out. This just makes so much sense, and is made possible by the LED technology used in the bulbs. It looks so much better from outside when lights aren't flicking on and off suddenly.

Cons: Setup is awkward, to say the least. You have to connect to the WeMo hub through your phone, and that requires making changes to your phone's WiFi settings to allow it to connect to the WeMo hub as a router. Once you gain access to the hub, you program it through the phone to speak to your router. It's a slow, confusing process. Things got worse when I changed my router. The WeMo hub was stuck looking for the old router, and would not allow me to reprogram it from my phone. It took me a while to figure out that you must go through the factory restore feature to allow the hub to again be reconnected to the network. What really threw me off is that the WeMo hub takes a long time (3-5 minutes) to show up as a network, meaning I basically gave up on it, thinking it wasn't working, only to find it had shown up as a network when I looked at my phone later on.

Overall Review: It's a shame these systems need to rely on smartphone WiFi to control them, given that it's really forcing a square peg into a round hole. Using WiFi as the communications method is really clunky. Perhaps Bluetooth would be a better alternative.