Pros: Its 20 pin connector plugged right into the GA-970A-UD3 motherboard's connector. Much faster transfer of photos from CF and SD cards than with my prior USB2 card reader. Front panel USB3 port provides USB3 speeds for my WD 1TB My Passport portable HD; much more convenient than plugging it in the back of the PC in the motherboard's USB3 connector. After install, I saw no problem with bootup or anything else using Windows 7. Definitely provides USB3 speeds for unloading memory cards and connecting USB3 portable hard drives.

Cons: CF port is a little shallow and doesn't provide enough guidance to the card when it is plugged in; I took off 1 egg for this. Would be better if deeper; given the product is not very deep into the case, I don't know why they didn't make it with a deeper and design a better CF port. If they had, this product would be a slam dunk. I read the other's comments regarding this problem before I bought it, so I have been very careful each time I plug in a CF card to make sure it is going in straight and I don't bend a pin. However, if the product was better designed a user would not have to be so careful. I agree with the other reviewers that the front panel green LED is a waste. I already know my PC has power. I don't see any purpose for it; maybe for PCs that power down the USB ports when idle??

Overall Review: I don't find the "upside down CF port" much of an issue (once you know it is that way). I think they did that on purpose so you can read the user label on the backside of the CF card when the card is plugged in. Which is actually a feature :)

Pros: Huge speed improvement booting Windows 7 over the original HDD. Made installing apps or otherwise having to reboot the PC a joy instead of the painful wait it had been. Used as boot/app disk, kept data files on other HDDs.

Cons: Died just over 3 years to the day of going into service. No warning, just stopped working. The PC is on a UPS, so it wasn't any power surge that hurt it. While I enjoyed the speed, I'm not enjoying the sudden death. Given the sudden death, I will think twice about keeping any data on a SSD without having a good backup.