Pros: Sleek design, zippy gaming, loads of space, hybrid drive, and decent sound. I didn't realize how thin this laptop was until I pulled it out of the box. It's really thin and sleek. That said, it still seems like a durable design. The screen hinges are stout, and the overall quality feels real solid, which is impressive given how thin it is. It is also very easy to open up for upgrades. 7 screws and 4 hidden clips, and you have access to the ENTIRE computer. Innovative and effective cooling. No optical drive! - yes, I consider this a pro. The only time I used the optical drive on my previous laptop was to accidentally eject it, then push it back in.

Cons: Windows 8. It's for tablets, not computers. Many have cited the screen as being a con, and I cannot disagree, but it's not as terrible as some make it seem. Yes, it's best viewed straight on, so it's bad for multiple viewers, but from the optimal angle, it's a good picture. Fingerprint city. If you want it to always look pristine, keep some wipes nearby. It's still sexy, even with the fingerprints, though.

Overall Review: I immediately replaced the 1TB hybrid drive with a solid state, and downgraded (read: upgraded) to Windows 7. I've been very happy with the performance of this laptop, especially given I got the dual-core model. Most games run quite well on medium-high settings. I also do a lot of LAMP development, and C# development. Jetbrains and Microsoft IDE's are both very crisp and responsive on this machine. NOTE: For those of you having issues with video drivers upon re-install of the operating system, you MUST install the Intel HD Graphics 4600 driver BEFORE the nVidia 860m driver. Also, the nVidia 3DVision driver component at the time of this writing is faulty and causes blue-screens whenever Chrome runs Adobe Flash (which is all the time). It probably has other issues as well, so opt for 'Custom Installation', and disclude the 3DVision driver when installing the nVidia drivers. My overall feeling of this laptop is that I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good machine in this price range. It multitasks well, and games well. Newegg rocks. The end.

Pros: Performs as expected when it's working

Cons: Stopped working correctly, and the RMA process has failed me.

Overall Review: The screen would blank briefly after the computer being on for a while, with greater frequency the longer the computer was running. Tried different monitor, same problem. Put card in different computer, same problem. I put another IDENTICAL Gigabyte 1050 card in this same computer, and the problem goes away. Put this card back in, and the problem resumes. This card is bad. Managed to get approved for RMA, and I appreciated the paid postage. I received an email from the service center ([email protected]) after they had received it, informing me the card is fine and is being returned to me. So I responded to the email trying to add any additional details on the problem in order to help them reproduce the problem. Maybe they weren't using a 4K. Maybe they weren't letting it run long enough, etc. The email bounced immediately (address not found). There was another email address listed in their email ([email protected]), so I attempted to send my message to that address. Bounced again after 10 minutes (domain not found). Today the card reappeared on my doorstep, and is worthless to me. I don't know if I should attempt the RMA process again or what. It's one of two identical Gigabyte products I own, and while I'm happy with the product's performance, they're risky on account of the non-thorough RMA testing process and the black hole that is their email addresses. I'd recommend going with a company that has a proven RMA track record.

Pros: - Well built - Reliable operation, even when saturating 2 disks with rsync for prolonged periods - No built-in hardware RAID!

Cons: No cons whatsoever

Overall Review: Many negative reviews refer to the device's RAID, which suggests they're reviewing the wrong product. This device has no RAID built in, which is precisely why I bought it. I use this for external encrypted backup running Linux Software RAID 1, with a LUKS disk encryption on the set. I have 2 WD Red 3TB disks installed, and for the 10 months I've owned this it has been a reliable workhorse.

Pros: Looks fine, air flow seems okay. Checks these boxes: ITX 315mm+ GPU ATX PSU

Cons: This case is very flimsy. Everything, even the frame, is built out of very thin metal. It's nicely powder coated, so it's not sharp, but it just feels so cheap. The right side panel is held on by a screw in the back, but a snap in the front. So your cable management needs to be super tight if you don't want it popping out and looking real ugly. I fought with this for a while. Even still, the side bulges out with even the slightest pressure from the cables. Just an extra 1/4" width on this case would really help with this problem. The 3.5" drive rack (sold separately) is set too deep, so unless you have very flat SATA power connectors, you're going to be pushing the case panel out, or risking pinched wires. I would have paid more for a better case, but there are very few options for a case that's ITX, supports at least a 315mm GPU, and takes a full-size ATX power supply.

Overall Review: I've had other cases from Phanteks, and they are usually pretty good. I'd skip this one, though, unless you have real specific requirements like me where it's kinda the only option.

Pros: All the on-board hardware is supported out of the box with the 3.13 kernel on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. This includes the LAN, WiFi, Bluetooth, sound, USB 3.0, everything. It all worked on first boot. With the i7-4790K and a Sandisk Ultra SSD, this is one of the fastest booting Linux machines I've seen. From the post screen to the desktop login is ~3 seconds, and some of that is probably the monitor switching modes.

Cons: Some extra fluff that maybe I didn't need to pay for? X-Fi MB3 is a non-factor, as is the APP Center, and LED lit motherboard traces are a gimmick. Red glow is leaking out of my case in weird patterns.

Overall Review: While I'm a long time user of linux as a server platform, this build marks the first time I run Ubuntu as a main desktop/development machine, with a little gaming on the side. I'm very pleased with this board and how effortlessly it runs Ubuntu. Borderlands 2 and the Pre Sequel, as well as Bioshock Infinite run flawlessly on highest settings in 1080P. Skyrim looks gorgeous under Wine at 4K. GIGABYTE GA-Z97N-Gaming 5 i7-4790K Quad-Core 4.0GHz 16GB G.Skill Trident X PC 2400 Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Sandisk Ultra 2 120GB SSD WD Black 1TB HDD EVGA Hadron case

Pros: Trayless, and you don't need all three SATA power connectors connected for all the drives to power up. Ask me how I know.

Cons: The doors are cheap and flimsy. The latches are lousy. There's no indication that they've latched until you stop pressing and they stay in or not. Drives have to be pressed in hard to get them to connect with the backplane. Due to the eject system, the drive is only seated when the door closes, so it involves pressing much harder than seems safe on the flimsy doors. I'm using WD Red drives. The drives bind sometimes when installing, but it's real easy to tell this is happening before you need to press them in. The buttons for powering off the drives are EXTREMELY cheap, and poorly positioned. One of the buttons was faulty out of the box. Only playing around with it for a while was I able to make it go. This is a problem if you're swapping drives on a running machine. Also, their location and operation make it likely that some cases will not work with the buttons. They're on the outside edge of the front of the enclosure, and I'd wager that on some cases they would get stuck when being depressed. Bad chassis material. I'm always very careful about how much torque I apply when mounting things in computers. However, it took no effort to strip out the screw holes using the included screws. Also, it was painted/powdercoated after the holes were tapped, making it difficult to start the screws.

Overall Review: I've had nothing but disappointment with this drive cage. Reading other reviews I went into it carefully, expecting lowish quality, but they cut too many corners for me to recommend it to anybody. 2 eggs, because I got it mostly to work for now. Barely. I broke one of the power connectors when installing it in my case (Athena Power RM-DD3U36E708). Power plugs needed to be plugged in before it could be mounted in that case. All 5 bays still work with just the two plugged in. Totally my fault, and it ruins my chances of a refund. Bah. I'm buying a different (non-trayless) enclosure instead, and this one is going in the garbage the moment it arrives.