Pros: To all those confused with activation, please see my "other thoughts." Like many have said, if you need to modernize, this is the only stable version of Windows since XP Sp2. Personally, the switch over was cake. I enjoyed win 2000 for a long time, eventually went with XP, (avoiding ME and Vista), and now run a mix of XP and 7. Make sure you get 7 pro or higher, so you get all the functionality of networking and emulating XP. Windows 8 is tanking and worthless in a non tablet / touchscreen environment. Don't fret too much though, if you are forced into windows 8, as long as you have pro, you can always freely exercise downgrade rights to get back into windows 7 Pro. Every so often Newegg has a 20$ off code, which really makes it a more reasonable deal.

Cons: Its expensive in my opinion. They make too many versions and the average user gets in trouble not knowing what they are getting at the store (which is always "home" versions) which then you have to upgrade to get alot of domain / networking functionality.

Overall Review: Its OEM people. Newegg isn't pulling your chain. Microsoft isn't out to personally mess you up. Not specifically anyway. OEM is designed to be cheaper, because its meant to be installed in a fresh system that is being sold to someone else. To get around these requirements all you need to do is "prove" you purchased it with a new system. MEANING: Buy a stick of RAM or a Hard Drive with your OEM purchase and you are golden according to Microsoft. This is not meant to be used for a preexisting system and/or an upgrade from another OS. That being said, it will allow you to install as an upgrade (doing a full wipe/install) and will license just fine. To all those having problems, you are doing it wrong. Install this on a freshly formatted drive and you will have zero issues activating it. This version can not (legally) be transferred to another system. If you want a copy of windows that you can basically do whatever you want to with it, you need to get the "RETAIL" version; which is usually at least $50 more. I don't like these practices by Microsoft, but its how they have been doing it for the last 10 years, a little late to blame them or Newegg for not understanding what OEM is and how to properly use OEM products...

Pros: cheap.

Cons: cheap. Dunno, because I have burned tons of blu-ray disks and never had any problems. I got a pack of these and I think 1/2 turned out to be coasters. Even though my burner firmware allows it, burning at over 4x resulted in a coaster every time...fine, so I stuck with 4x...still made coasters, at 80c or so a pop, not worth the risk

Overall Review: I probably just got a bad batch, but I won't get buying these anymore. after using 3 other different brands of 15 packs and buring all just fine, these were shockingly difficult to get a good burn. I'm using nero 11, windows 7 ultimate, i-2600k processor, 16gigs ram, and a 128gb ssd III drive running my os and a dedicated 128gb ssd III scratch drive for burning disks...its definitely not a buffer issue...

Pros: Over the last 2 years I have purchased 4 SSD drives. This was my first, yet fastest. I didn't run alot of speed tests or benchmarks, but running windows 7 this drive booted in what seemed like real time. I have a few other of the Sata III 6gb/s SSD's and this one booted windows the fastest. Low heat, was a workforce.

Cons: Died! Like most solid state memory, it just dies, you have zero warning. Its been 1 year 10 months and its dead. Was my OS drive, so didn't loose much data, but just the annoyance of recreating windows and installed programs and such. Running drive diagnostics, shows a chip and/or sector as bad. My guess is one of the chips gave out.

Overall Review: Windows started crashing, would be slow to install programs, kept getting blue screens after 20 or so minutes. Figured I had installed something that wasn't agreeing with windows, however, turns out the drive had gone south. Crucial is good and I'm sure it will be fairly painless to RMA it, even after a few years (too bad I can't just do it through Newegg). Don't let this deter you though, this drive was amazing.

Pros: Quiet, can't hear it over my system fans, even playing games (but not necessarily maxed out). Not that my gigabyte 6850 got all that loud either. Instant noticeable screen clarity difference; brighter, but in a good way. Games run smooth. Windows experience index went to 7.7 to 7.9, if that matters to you. (Sata III SSD, Win 7 ultimate, i7-3770k, 32gb ram, 850w psu). Since I was going from another ATI card, driver install was a breeze. Didn't uninstall anything, just swapped cards, turned on computer and downloaded latest catalyst drivers.

Cons: To install (and play) free games, you have to register and download from Steam, Origin. Don't really like either, but its how things are done these days. It means that if either of those services ever go belly-up, you don't get to play your game anymore.

Overall Review: This card is HUGE. No, not BIG...HUGE. Its about 2.3 slots high (as the fan area is raised) . Somehow, its even a few inches longer than my 6850. Course by now, everyone should know these things are long and big. I have a full tower case, so even this huge card was a complete breeze to install. There is still about 4 inches between the card on the drive bays on the other side. I'm guessing most mid tower cases would not fair so well though. The card is quite heavy too, really needs a retaining bracket on the end by the fan so the PCI slot doesn't have to hold up 1/2 the weight. I do alot of gaming at 1920x1200 (16:10) so even though the GPU power jump from 6850 to 7870 wasn't massive, the extra gig of ram really shines through. Don't get me wrong, its definitely a quicker card too. Like all cards you will ever get, its fairly old news by the time you install it. This one is still a good price point when on sale, so I picked one up.

Pros: For the millions who loved the ARPG that started this all off, Diablo and Diablo II, you now have the next in line; after 12 years, DIII is among us.

Cons: They dumbed it down so pre-schoolers could play it. They took most of the RPG elements out of the game, its mostly an action game. There isn't an offline mode. You can't create specific games or roam the acts. The game is so linear its a joke. They copied everything from D2, loot and creatures, except for (and this is strange) they took everything you didn't like about D2 and made it the strongest part of D3.

Overall Review: Besides even the initial poor server planning and a ton of ninja hot fixes added to alot of patches already. Loot is a joke, the grind is worthless. They turned it into an unrewarding MMO that only 4 players can play at a time...

Pros: They are blue, which is actually pretty nice, because my huge collection of dvd's are silver. So seeing blue makes it easy to know its a blu-ray. Not one coster, burned at 8x on my LG drive. Super easy to use, but hey its a blank media disk...

Cons: One disk I burned was perfectly fine for a while, then when I went to play the movie a few weeks later, the blu-ray playing attached to my tv had a hard time reading it. After reinserting it a bunch of times, it worked and the video looked fine. No idea if it was the disk, the burn, or my player being stupid and it only happened to 1 disk...

Overall Review: The guy who said they only burned at 4x, burning speed is directly related to the firmware on your burner, it will say how fast any given type of disk can be burned out. 4x is probably safest for data longevity anyhow, but if you want a higher burn rate, flash your firmware.

Took a bit longer to arrive than expected, but it's a marketplace purchase so I know there's lag there. For the original retail price, the cables should be longer, had to buy 2 extenders and I have standard size plumbing under the sink. Install was easy if you've done one before. As for the faucet, it's awesome, sensor, auto on when using retractable hose... All the modern features that would usually cost double this price. Seems solid, hopefully lasts a good number of years.