Joined on 08/23/02
Shenanigans, awesome awesome shenanigans

Pros: Clocks to 4.3Ghz with a modest air cooler and no voltage adjustments. Just "oh, I'm sorry I meant to put this at 43x instead of 35x" and BAM. Stable as a hauling mule. I declare shenanigans. Intel deliberately put these in a lower bin knowing good and well how they would overclock. As a result enthusiasts would come and give them 5 eggs. Well played, Intel. Well played.
Cons: I really want to say price but I just can't. It's a fair deal. Just to come up with something I'll say the i5 *might* be a better deal as they simply lack hyperthreading. Seeing as I don't own an i5 I can't say for sure how they clock.
Overall Review: I bought this for Planetside 2. It's the most demanding game on a CPU I've ever seen. 2560x1440 with 4x AA graphics.. you would think GPU bottleneck right? Uh-uh. CPU. I came from a 3.07 Ghz i7-950 which would dip to 10-15fps. So how does this CPU run? No idea. I've never had so much as a stutter or dip in performance to make me look down to see what my framerate was at. Mission accomplished.
Hit or Miss

Pros: Excellent price, very compact design. It won't set the record but is definitely fast on the USB 3.0 interface.
Cons: Bought one from Newegg, One from another vendor. One of them is working fine, the one from Newegg has slow I/O and disconnects randomly. (wasn't a refurb or anything so Newegg got the unlucky one it seems)
Overall Review: It comes formatted as a full 128GB in FAT32. If you choose to reformat using FAT in the future Windows will only offer exFAT as an option. To format with FAT32 again will require a free 3rd party utility. NTFS would be preferred and exFAT is fine as well but if you need FAT32 compatibility (in my case for a BMW vehicle) then the added step is needed.
Software is scary

Pros: - Fast like you would expect a 4070 Super to be. - Notably quiet. Sought this card due to this feature and was not disappointed. You can find the db ratings on review but I'll just add my own subjective observation. I have an open case computer and noise is a big factor for me. Fantastic.
Cons: I hope you like a very bright blue light because that's what you have. The color controlling software as well as the fan/oc software is broken and ... get this... unsigned. Yeah in 2024, the age of state actors, we are asked to install unsigned software with kernel level access to our systems? Nope.
Overall Review: If you need quiet, get this. Expect a bright blue light shining straight off the top of the card, and don't expect to control lights/fan/OC.
Bad Customer Support

Pros: Lightning fast boot times. Great UEFI Bios and overclocking options. Dual bios, external clear cmos switch, power/reset buttons on the board. Lots of goodies for enthusiasts. A-Tuning software is impressive. It's overclocking options pale in comparison to the more impressive UEFI bios but the "auto overclock" is hassle free if you don't intend to take things far. Fan-Tastic software has got to be the envy of other mobo makers. Excellent onboard sound. Decent cables, pretty attractive board in person despite that not being a focus for this model. They also went with the slightly higher end intel NICs.
Cons: Minor gripe: Fan-Tastic settings only take effect if A-Tuning is run. My gripe is probably more towards the jet-engine air cooler I bought that so dearly needs Fan-Tastic. Shipping bios is unstable and locks up if a mouse is connected. New bios remedies but I would expect shipping bugs to be more subtle. Three different sets of PC2400 only managed to make it to PC2133 tops. Perhaps a CPU limitation? Circumstantial evidence against: That CPU would clock to 4.3Ghz on air. I'm not taking an egg off for this. 2400 can be tough to hit at aggressive timings and it's still possibly a memory problem even after that many sets. All lost eggs are for the remaining gripes: Primary SATA controller supports 4 devices even though it has six connectors. Unable to get clarification from ASRock if this is a defective board, or that 4 device limit arises when not leveraging slots for RAID. Luckily though there is another 4 device controller. This segways into.. Cursory customer service. I fixed my own problem and might never buy an ASRock again. How does someone in support accomplish that? I mean problem resolved but lose the customer?? Good Job, "Eric".
Overall Review: If it weren't for the SATA and customer support issue this would get 5 stars for the engineering and performance. Digest this review accordingly.
DOA

Pros: Can't think of any. The price is nothing to faint over. It was a painless RMA though. Thanks Newegg!
Cons: None of the sticks would work at rated speed. 2 of the 4 sticks failed at 1333. I stopped testing beyond that before I got irritated. Cross shipping is not available on memory RMAs but I wouldn't have asked for the same stuff anyway. I went Mushkin who has served me reliably in the past and has great customer service.
Overall Review: They test every stick? Right. I suppose when it comes down to the sheer number of transistors in 24 billion bits of memory it's got to be tough to hit 100%, but sheesh.
Beauty with only modest brains

Pros: Looks even better loaded with components. PSU placement allows backwards and/or upside down placement. (I'm pulling air from outside, not inside) Manufacturing tolerances are very precise. Attention to visual detail is outstanding. Motherboard rotation allows for a nice airflow from bottom three fans straight up and out the top. Back fan flows over GPUs, Center fan feeds the CPU cooler, front fan feeds the HDDs. This same rotation makes for a nice visual display of components and also reduces GPU weight on the mobo since it essentially hangs from the slot. The black "frame" great for routing cables in and out of (if they reach...) Comes with it's own tools to assemble in a really nice leather roll-up. I found this a really nice touch.
Cons: The price set a high bar. The combined gripes warrant a one egg drop but when I fork over this sort of dough it's going to be two. I expect a PCI slot mechanism or at a minimum, thumbscrews. Thumbscrews are provided for fans but you'll be using a screwdriver anyway. The mobo shield has nothing to attach to on this case. At least gravity will be on your side. Mobo rotation will lead to some unsightly cables protruding from the top. There is some room to keep it neat though. The biggest gripe is with the oversight in component placement. Component placement works fine...so long as you don't want cables connected to them. 3.5" hdds can only be mounted downward with the cables attached at the top of the cage. mounting upward sticks cables right into the front bottom fan. The PSU being mounted essentially outside the case in the back is going to stretch things a bit. They'll reach but you'll have no slack to route cables in a desired fashion (frankly a bit messy at points and completely exposed by the glass) Front bottom fan also has this issue...distance is long enough that you'll end up running in a messy fashion across the board without an extension. Real bad: 2.5" drive placement is too close to the mobo to allow a cable to be hooked up and then duck under. Alternately you can again stick the cables into the front fan. I had to mount my 2.5" drive to the back of the plate. This cannot be accomplished with a 2nd 2.5" drive as the front ports component intrudes into where a 3rd screw would go on the 2.5" drive. Reset button is too "recessed for safety" to be used without resorting to some small object or tool. Blu-ray / CDrom placement only allows it to open with the disc dropped in from the left. (btw.. the manual shows it flat out backwards, opening inside the case..but you'll figure that out. Be sure to load the CDRom into the cage before attaching) I'm still delighted with this case and would recommend, but again IN WIN dinged themselves two eggs by combining less than perfection with the given price.
Overall Review: Limited edition: Yep. it's 8/16 and mine shows it is number 360 out of 500. Base your order timing appropriately if interested. I paired this with the same PSU that In-Win used to show this thing off at the trade shows. Ran into the aforementioned cabling limitations. Zalman CNPS9500A with a 125mm height fits with plenty of room to spare. As others have said the instructions to assemble are so-so. Hint: recessed "black dot" locations are for mobo and components. Non-recessed "tiny dot" screw locations are for cabling loop screw attachments.
Shady
I will avoid this seller in the future.My order quickly moved to an "In transit" state. Tracking details show "label printed" but do NOT show the item was picked up by the shipper. Other unrelated items from other sellers in my order began to arrive but not this item. (An In-Win case)So I contacted them.I was told they in turn contact the OVER SEAS customer service about my issue. Note: This item was clearly shown as "ships from united states" in the item description.They told me my item was lost by the shipper. Reminder: Tracking shows it was never provided to the shipper. They offered to send me a completely different computer case as a solution. (um... NO! )I asked they ship another one. At this time the item is still showing available for purchase.I also reach out to new egg to complain.I got another email from the seller offering an unrelated item instead and at a discount. Also lots of declarations that this is somehow not their fault. (Protip: own mistakes, I'll respect that)Then suddenly I get a refund and the item lists as out of stock on the website.I'm out of luck and have blown weeks on this. A little boy is gonna get a brand new computer with no case for his birthday. Thanks Newegg!