Pros: The core count is great, if you throw proper work loads at it. AMD has done a decent job with updates. The processor isn't an energy hog, despite the core count. IPC is actually within a reasonable distance of Intel (good riddance to Bulldozer). Most importantly, there's enough PCI-e lanes and interconnect to build a modern platform with.

Cons: Ryzen is unlocked, but not really open. I was not a winner of the silicon lottery, given that I could only reach 3.7 GHz (under 1.35 volts) and memory in the 2933 15-15-15-36 timings (despite ratings of 14-14-14-34). I'm told this is not uncommon, but I didn't think the binning between X and regular would be so...unforgiving. This said, my biggest issue is the half-finished state of the Ryzen release, even months after it showed up. Memory compatibility is still roulette. Code updates are still coming with enough frequency to warrant some trepidation by new users. Most importantly, it seems as though Ryzen 2 and Threadripper are where AMD are hanging their hats. The former to address lingering issues, and the latter as a first real crack at the server market for the first time in a decade. All of this is generally tolerable given the huge leap forward, and forcing some competition from the Blue team. I voted with my wallet, and I'm actually less disappointed than I was with SB on socket LGA 2011.

Overall Review: If you encode, and do a bunch of things at once, get this CPU. If you're gaming on a 1920x1080 monitor skip it. The 1600 is so much better on the cost to performance ratio it isn't funny. I would buy this again. I'm actually looking forward to upgrading my CPU in another 3 years (18 months to release Ryzen 2, 18 months until the release after, and catching the "old" processors at a discounted rate). That's something that I have never said about the competition. From the 2xxx to the 7xxx lines, there's been no reason to upgrade. Run the platform until it dies, or the feature set is too old. As PCI-e 3.0 is still better than GPUs can output, and storage prices are still astronomical, a new "consumer grade" platform upgrade is largely a waste of money. Ryzen is the most interesting platform in years. It isn't the fastest. It isn't the best for 90% of consumers (read: IPC is not directly competitive). What it is, is more cores at a reasonable price, on a reasonable platform. For a price comparable to the competition you get a bit more PCI-e lanes, up to 50% more cores, and a platform that will be supported in the future. AMD has a track record of long term support for an underlying platform, which is unmatched. You need only look at the AM3 and AM3+ sockets to see that in action.

Pros: Decently comprehensive set of tools. The included tools are generaly on the side of higher quality.

Cons: There are some really weird choices on inclusion here. The pencil soldering iron is bizarre, and toes the line of minimum wattage to melt solder. The inclusion of magnetized tools baffles me to no end. I was expecting triwing bits that would be smaller (electronics repairs usually require much smaller screws), but the included ones aren't exactly going to fit into tiny places.

Overall Review: I don't get the product, and that's why I'm having trouble with this. If it was for PC techs, you'd focus on getting into the PC and cracking open any modern tablet devices. If the thing was for electronics \, then you'd focus on fabrication and soldering tools. What you get is a smattering of fabrication tools (tweezers, part pickers, soldering wick, etc...), another hand full of maintenance parts (light, screw drivers, bits/drivers, etc...), and no unifying logic that I can determine. Between the odd assortment of tools, and varying quality levels on some components, I don't know who to recommend this to. If it's on sale, pick it up for the fabrication parts; if it's more than $30 just buy what you need.

Pros: The thing is what it is. Highly adjustable, slightly wonky (the new translucent body lights up red), and comfortable. It came faster than expected, was what was ordered, and was a fair price. Great. I've never had a bad R.A.T. mouse. I have had too much and too expensive...but this is neither.

Cons: It wasn't free? I've got nothing bad to say here.

Overall Review: Would I buy again? Yes. Are there caveats? Not really. It isn't as featured as the high end, but it's got more than enough features for the price. Would I recommend? Absolutely. It's the middle ground between an (good) entry mouse and a high end monster. It's priced well, and it has enough core features to choose over something like the old R.A.T.s which required a hex head driver. If you have any taste, this is good. If your average plastic recycling add-in is fine, then maybe this will be too expensive for your taste. To be fair, I have a cheapo mouse for travel...and while it works, coming home to a good mouse is...just fantastic.

Pros: Solid frame, for a heavy monitor. Good picture. Depth of the blacks seems a little shallow...but more than tolerable for anything short of a dark room playing a game with no real color. 144 Hz performance is buttery smooth...at least coming from a 60 Hz lock before. The best part of all for me was the thing is set once and done. It doesn't have a dozen different modes for different viewing conditions, it doesn't have more than a minimal amount of balance tweaks required, and pairing it with a twin gives more screen space than I thought I'd ever need. I would say this was a 5/5 purchase for the most part. If the advertising was less...fluffy...then I'd say a genuine 5/5. Unfortunately an otherwise fantastic experience was marred by a feature they sold this thing on...so it's only great.

Cons: The one real sticking point I have with this is the rather silly speakers and the refresh rate. The former is...well, why in hades would you buy a high end screen and expect 10 watts of speaker to be anything near reasonable. Just chuck them, and save the money on the unit. Finally, the refresh rate. Ran at 170 Hz...and there were issues. Ghosting, artifacting, or just simple issues I do not know. I manually changed the thing to 144 Hz and it's fantastic. The images are clearer than ever before, bigger, and the motion is so smooth that even games locked to console frame rates don't make me want to hurl 10 minutes in...it took about 30 before the locked FOV made my head thump. My issue then is the advertisement for 170 Hz is great...but in practice it's a wonky mess. I have plenty of muscle to run games...so it's all down to the "overclock" feature being less useful than advertised.

Overall Review: Would I recommend? Yes. Would I buy again? Yes. If you want 4k...in two monitors...this is a great purchase. It's been great to see such a huge gap between 1k 60 Hz and 2k 144 Hz. If you are willing to spend the money to drive this thing it'll be a great investment. Just be warned, the unique feature of this should be turned off...so don't buy it for the weird 170 Hz overdrive. Buy if for being a good 144 Hz monitor.

Pros: The pricing is decent, the aesthetics are decent, and the instructions are easy enough to follow.

Cons: So...the materials quality sucks. The metal is fine...but based on thin walled tube construction I'd recommend against anything heavy. Likewise, the laminate seems to be made out of a compressed core of wood pulp and polymer glue that is surprisingly sensitive to both heat and moisture. Let me explain. I've owned the thing for a few months...and assumed it was fine. I rest my forearms on the table at the same points...around a keyboard. About three weeks ago the laminate outer layer started falling apart where my forearms were...and it started to blister up. The edge separated, and exposed a black goo. I took a knife to the edge, seeking to peel enough out to refill it with super glue and secure it back in-place...but kept getting what looked like fine stranded paper pulp and some sort of black adhesive/polymer that was so easy to scratch that it couldn't be adhered to. I'm not happy...but thankfully this was cheap flat pack. I'll likely be making my own replacement out of some fiber board and an epoxy coating to give me a more durable surface with some texture in the future. If this was more expensive I'd be genuinely disappointed.

Overall Review: Do I recommend? No more than any other flat pack. Would I buy again? No. I think I could do better on local auction sites or an IKEA. This is definitely a product of its price bracket and expectations. If that's what you're looking for, then I would fully suggest you purchase. I don't want to discourage...but when I cannot trust a working surface to remain after a few weeks then I'm stumped. I think my next purchase for this will be more expensive than the whole thing was...but I'd also hazard that it'll provide more usability than the default purchase. Glad I still have any wood working tools and skills...even if it's to fix something I should expect at this price point.

Pros: So, there are a few sheet of what appears to be low density polyethelyene foam. It's a very simply noise damper...and it appears to be effective to some extent. I'm not really going to call this a noise dampened case, and instead call this a case with some noise reduction. The HDD trays are nice. Three screws to hold them, and easy to shift up and down. They're simple to use, and simpler to pop out during building and ignore until everything else is routed and right. Finally, the layout. Rubber grommets in any hole designed to pass PSU cables through, an open layout, rounded metal edges, and 5.25" drive bays. Fantastic. One 5.25" bay gets a USB 3.0 expansion hub, and the other gets a Blu-ray drive. Hard to find that in modern cases...but much appreciated for those who still love having their media backed up properly...not to mention those 3 HDD bays basically making this a fantastic option for a semi-passive cooling server and media storage monster.

Cons: The fan hub sucks. Remove it when you can, and either put in a real hub or run "silent" fans on full bore constantly. The wiring is already pulled together? I list this as a con because you'll have to crack it all loose before starting to build...but that's just a con because it's a bear to get at. It wasn't free, and the tempered glass is...prone to picking up scratches. The unit I received hadn't been treated gently by the shipper, and there were some scratches and scrapes. It's nothing to write home about, given this is going to be a media server. That said, I'd have preferred to plow that tempered glass money into getting enough drive bays for all of the spaces, or a couple of fans for the top. Either option would have been a better use of the money.

Overall Review: So, here's what I did with this thing. Remove the 140mm fan in the front, install 2 140mm fans to replace it, and install 2 140mm fans into the top panel of the case. This leaves you with 4 140mm fans moving air in at the front, and out at the top. Now, the 120mm fan in the rear, the GPU fan, and the PSU fan form a much slower loop. Not an issue, because a 1050ti repurposed as the GPU gives you enough power to decode video...and a 750 watt PSU is going to more than cover your power draw with 3 HDDs, a low end GPU, and enough 140mm fan airflow to make a functional joke of the other cooling. Finally, install a large tower cooler on the CPU, undervolt the CPU, and only run it at rated speeds. It should never hit throttling temperatures, and run constantly without any issues assuming you install anything like a capable Linux distro. Now, why frame this as such? I love this case. It's simple, does everything correctly, but also does so at a price point that...well frankly I don't know how they're making a profit on this unless the entire thing is somehow being used to alleviate inventory of obsolete parts that otherwise would be scrapped. Joking aside, I recommend it. There's little reason that I'd say a single negative thing about this, beyond not being designed to draw attention. It's not a gaudy RGB mess. It's not designed to be a glossy finger print magnet. It's not a anything designed to be form over function....with the exception of the fan speed controller. Seriously. For the same price I've purchased blood drawing black sheet metal. I've purchase cases that required surgery to remove miserable lights. I've had to drill through thin sheets because they expected me otherwise to route motherboard power connectors over the CPU. If this is what the standard is supposed to be, it's spoiled me to other options. Really, a fantastic case for those who want function, without having form get in the way.