Pros: I've been buying Gigabyte motherboards for 10+ years now, but this has been my first Intel motherboard from Gigabyte. I bought it as an everyday Core i3 Windows box with Mac OS X installed on a second partition. And, as usual, it works perfectly right out of the box. Easy to install, easy to configure, 100% functionality, came with all of the parts, can't complain. It was my first experience with UEFI, so that took some getting used to, but that's about it.

Cons: I am not a huge fan of the location of the various headers/connectors, especially the CPU power connector, the front-panel audio connector, and the case fan connector. But I knew exactly where they were going to be before I bought the motherboard, so I have no right to complain. No real overclocking functionality, but if you are looking to do that you should be looking at the GA-Z77N-WIFI.

Overall Review: For those planning Linux/Unix builds, the Wifi/Bluetooth chip is an Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230. I personally am not using Linux, but I know Linux drivers for this specific wireless chip is difficult to find (depending on your distro). For those planning Hackintosh builds, the Bluetooth works out-of-box but the Wifi will NOT work. That said, everything else on the board works 100% without any DSDT work. At any rate, the Bluetooth/Wireless chip is simply a half-height mini-PCI Express card that can removed and exchanged with any other half-height mini-PCIe card on the market. I personally swapped mine with a wireless card from a Dell laptop that works out-of-box with both Windows and Mac OS X.

Pros: It's slim, and it works perfectly for what I want it to do. Fits perfectly inside my SilverStone Sugo mini-ITX case.

Cons: DVD tray is extremely flimsy. So flimsy that I'll have to replace it same day because I truly cannot see this thing lasting forever. I thought by buying a Samsung labeled drive that I would get the usual Samsung warranty, which is typically above average warranty service. But, this labeled as a Toshiba & Samsung Storage Tech drive, which is an OEM joint-venture between the two companies. So.... the drive does not qualify for the normal Samsung warranty.

Overall Review: I bought a DVD writer for the ultra-rare (twice a month at most) occasions when I do to read or burn a CD/DVD. So it is perfect for me. But, if you are a heavy DVD/CD user or someone who needs to burn DVDs and CDs often, I DO NOT recommend this product because it simply won't last. Keep in mind that the DVD/CD uses the slimline SATA connector, which is obvious for those of us that regularly deal with laptop drives, but completely obscure for those of us that don't. I bought an adapter manufactured by Silverstone and it worked great. Note that it is a slimline (also called "slim") SATA connector, NOT a micro-SATA connector. Another reviewer said they had gotten the tiny mounting screws with their drive. Not sure if NewEgg messed up on my order or not, but I did not get the mounting screws. Wasn't a big deal for me--I already had screws.

Pros: Easily the best motherboard I've ever owned. As my first ASUS motherboard, I was a bit worried to take the plunge. But I'm glad I did. The entire package feels like a premium product. Such detail went into every piece... even the box. I was worried at first that the LEDs would be a bit over-the-top and gimmicky. But they look extremely nice. It is clear after getting the product why the price is so high. In terms of overclocking... awesome so far. I've taken the CPU and GPUs as far as they could go on air, and the motherboard is rock solid. The UEFI/BIOS screen makes overclocking extremely easy. You can tweak just about everything you can think of, and ASUS even has auto-overclocking features (which I have not tried yet). Can't wait to get water into the system and see how far I can take it.

Cons: The ONLY con I have is the included DAC that fits in a 5.25" bay. This motherboard is clearly a "showpiece" motherboard. The target audience for this motherboard is also the same audience that would likely ditch the 5.25" drive slots altogether to get a streamlined look. This is also the same audience that is likely to build a custom water loop in a case that doesn't even have 5.25" drive slots. So why ASUS opted to include a DAC that fits in a 5.25" drive slot is beyond my understanding. Would of been amazing to have had an external housing for this DAC so the user could choose to stick it either internally or externally.

Overall Review: The firmware that originally shipped on the motherboard's two BIOS chips is total garbage. Easily the worst BIOS I've ever encountered... I don't even know how it passed the QA testing phase at ASUS. Luckily flashing to a later version was extremely easy, and I personally have found the latest version (v1003 at the time of this writing) to be solid. If you do buy the motherboard, the very first thing I would do is flash a new BIOS on it. As long as you do that you should be happy.

Pros: Yet again another high-quality Seasonic power supply. The third I've bought from them over the years, and year after year they keep bringing the absolute best quality.

Cons: The power supply has a "hybrid" mode. While in hybrid mode, the power supply's fan will remain idle unless the power supply gets too hot. After it reaches that temperature the fan will click on and start cooling the power supply. Super neat feature if you are looking for a whisper quiet system. There is a switch on the back of the unit to turn hybrid mode on/off. On my particular unit, that switch is BACKWARDS from the label. Not a huge deal once I figured it out, but I initially thought I had received a unit with a defective fan because of it.

Overall Review: Honestly this power supply is fantastic, could not be happier with it. If this was any other power supply this would easily get a perfect score. That said, I decided to took off an egg for two reasons: The first is due to the backwards switch on my particular unit. The second reason is because is because their so-called "Flagship" product is missing some premium features that they could of added to take it over the top. The power supply itself looks great, but the modular cables are the typical modular cables they ship with the majority of their power supplies. For a flagship product, I would have liked to have seem some premium cables. Perhaps individually sleeved cables or at least sleeving on the typically visible connectors, such as the motherboard & PCIe power cables. It is just missing that extra "oomph" to really make it feel like a Flagship premium product. But otherwise... couldn't be happier.

Pros: Managed to pick this cooler up on NewEgg's Flash website, so I was able to obtain it for cheaper than normal. BUT, I would have bought it again at full price if I needed to. Temperatures are on-par or better than every other popular air cooler I've used, and the fan is whisper quiet. As an added bonus, the cooler itself looks fantastic. Easily the best looking air cooler I've ever used.

Cons: Instructions could absolutely use some improvement. They combined the instructions for both of the Intel sockets (LGA115X/LGA2011), and the AMD socket into a single set of instructions. The pictures are especially confusing, as they illustrate all three installation types in a single image. The instructions weren't bad enough that it required me to search Google or look at a YouTube video... but I did have to take a few minutes assembling the cooler in a few different ways before I was able to figure out how they meant for you to assemble it. Luckily, once you do figure it out, the installation for LGA2011 / LGA2011-3 is rather easy.

Overall Review: My only other criticism is the non-standard fan size. be quiet! opted for a 135mm PWN fan, which from what I can tell, cannot be purchased separately. Just by looking at the bracket, it seems like you *might* be able to attach a 140mm fan if you bent the bracket a little bit, but I personally haven't tried it. It isn't a huge deal, as I am perfectly happy with the stock fan they provided. But I would feel more comfortable if the option to replace the original fan with a standard-sized replacement was available should the original fan suddenly go bad.

Pros: Bought yet another Gigabyte motherboard (been buying Gigabyte since the Athlon XP days), and once again very happy with it. That said, I usually buy more workstation-oriented motherboards, this was my first motherboard marketed toward gamers, so I figured I would give it a shot. The two selling points of this motherboard are the Killer E2201 NIC, and the Sound Core3D chip: The Killer E2201 NIC is cool?... I guess. Wake-on-LAN works (which is all I really needed), and with the driver software you can prioritize certain applications over others. To be honest I can't notice any real difference in performance when you prioritize an online game over every other app on your computer. Is the driver software working? Who knows, I can't tell. Just seems a little gimmicky to me. But it works just as good as the Intel NICs, so who am I to complain? The Sound Core3D chip, however, is nice. I am by no means an audiophile, but I do work with professional audio engineers on a daily basis, so I like to at least pretend to know what I am talking about. The sound is very good for a consumer-level product, and the software is identical to that found on Sound Blaster's Z/Zx/ZxR series sound cards. The motherboard gives you the ability to swap operational amplifiers, but I have yet to do so. Gigabyte's own Op-Amp kit is hard to find (not sold in the USA?), and I haven't felt the need to look elsewhere for one. The motherboard itself is *slightly* smaller than ATX, which should give you more room in your case. Because of this, you won't be able to use the right-most mounting holes that you typically have with a standard ATX motherboard. The compensate for this they give you an extra mounting hole on the middle row to help support the motherboard when plugging in DIMMs. But I for the life of me can't figure out which standard uses that mounting hole (it isn't ATX, micro-ATX, or mini-ITX). At any rate, my Define R4 case certainly doesn't support whatever form factor that it was meant for, so I couldn't use that extra mounting hole. But I supported the bottom of the motherboard with my fingers when plugging in my memory and everything went well. The UEFI/BIOS is essentially the same UEFI that Gigabyte uses with all of their Z87 motherboards, with a green Sniper-themed skin applied to it, a nice touch. Everything else is pretty standard for an overclocking capable high'ish-end motherboard. It all works well, but nothing terribly exciting in my opinion.

Cons: By far my biggest pet peeve is the location of the USB3 header. Instead of along the bottom of the motherboard like every other header, they decided to put it next to the 24-pin power header. Nearly all of Gigabyte's motherboards (maybe all motherboards from every manufacture?) of late put the USB3 header there... and it drives me NUTS because you have to bend that ultra-long, ultra-inflexible USB3 cable to fit into a place that it clearly was not designed to go. Cable management nightmare. I also don't agree with the configuration they went with for FlexIO. I personally would rather have seen a single PCIe x4 and a single legacy PCI slot while sacrificing the necessary two USB3 ports. Instead they opted to have two PCI slots, six USB3 ports, and an unused PCIe lane. But, just my opinion. Sound Blaster's driver software leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion. They aren't BAD drivers, but instead just seem... empty. All of the advertised features are there and work well, but I guess I just expected more. Beyond that, no real complaints. Gigabyte's AppCenter software (@BIOS, EZ Setup, EasyTune, On/Off Charge, etc) is terrible, but hey--it has always been terrible (like most motherboard software) and I fully expected it to be terrible before I bought it. I will say that the new look for the applications is significantly better, so Gigabyte deserves a gold-star for effort. But all of those applications are simply added-bonuses anyway and truly do not affect my overall opinion of the motherboard. That said, if you are buying the motherboard because of the included Gigabyte software, don't.

Overall Review: With the exception of the Killer E2201 NIC, this motherboard is 100% stock Intel Haswell Z87 platform. Not extra USB hubs, no extra SATA controllers, not PCIe controllers, nothing like that. Flex IO is set to six USB 3.0, six SATA III, and six PCIe 2.0 (one of those six lanes seems to be unused). Very much a no frills setup. I "side-graded" to this motherboard from a GA-Z87X-UD4H. I was having issues with my Razer mouse and keyboard, which I had (incorrectly) assumed was caused by some of those extra frills in the UD4H. The goal was to get a super simple, yet capable motherboard while having the added bonus of freeing up some case space by ditching my old sound card. Combined this with a 4770K, 16gb of RAM, a Radeon R9 290, and a simple water cooling setup and I ended up with a fully capable gaming system with decent overclocking potential. Couldn't be happier. I've noticed a lot of people have complained about the positioning of the SATA ports. I don't really know why, they seem fine to me. Perhaps there are issues with some cases that I didn't encounter with my Define R4, who knows.