Joined on 08/29/02
Simple with no extras
Pros: This was almost exactly what I was looking for in a motherboard. No built-on sound, limited built-on video, dual gigabit NIC, and 8 SATA ports. After running for a week, everything seems solid running Windows 8. The UEFI was different to deal with, but kind of cool. My RAM is running at 1.35V with the correct timings, so in my opinion this board is very good. Wish I could utilize some more of the Q87 chipset features like remote console over Ethernet (haven't figured out how to do that yet).
Cons: The only thing I've had a problem with is understanding some of the BIOS settings. The majority are your normal BIOS settings, but some have different acronyms than I'm used to seeing and the manual doesn't really explain anything about the settings. The ASMedia SATA ports are not RAID 0/1... I saw another motherboard with the EXACT same chip on it that supported those RAID levels so I figured this would. However, it doesn't. Those two ports are just standard AHCI. It really wasn't a big deal because I just wanted a mirrored array and software RAID 1 is nearly as good as pseudo-hardware RAID 1...
Overall Review: If you're using RAID 5 on an Intel RST motherboard, DO NOT install Windows 8.1. You will get frequent BSODs. I installed WIn8.1 before I got this motherboard (on an H57 chipset board) and got a BSOD about every 15 minutes when my RAID 5 was plugged in. Tried new drivers, but nothing helped... Tried installing Win8.1 on my new board and got the EXACT same behavior. Even tried wiping the drives and rebuilding the array, but that didn't help either. So it's not he board's fault... It's Microsoft's and Intel's problem. I'm back to running Win8 without issues (side note... Start8 is worth $5 to make Win8 good). I can't figure out why they chose to put PCI on the board. Why not PCIe instead or at leas one PCIe 1x and one PCI. Oh well, I don't need the ports anyway. Not sure why they didn't include a display port/hdmi/dvi port instead of the VGA port. The processors the motherboard supports handle those so it seems silly to do an analog signal instead of digital.
On par with an Antec P180
Pros: Having had experience with a lot of cases over the years (mostly Antec), I have to say that this is a nice case. Not as well built and sturdy as a my old Antecs, but definitely better than Thermaltakes and some other companies. There is tons of room in the case and being able to route the cables behind the motherboard tray really cleans up the inside which helps with air flow. The black metal is also a nice touch. I completely removed the hard drive racks from my case (they're held in by 3 thumb screws) so I have way more room than any case I've ever had.
Cons: Like others, my new Seasonic PSU had one screw hole that wouldn't line up. That's very odd. While the screwless design is convenient for installing stuff, I found that the 5.25" bays would wiggle around so I ended up putting screws in anyway. Also, the 5.25" devices end up off center leaving a gap on the left side (the side with the screwless feature). As for the 3.5" trays, I can't say much since I'm not using them, but I had a few grommets come loose when I removed the box holding the screws... The Corsair fans installed in the case are ok, but in comparison to many other fans, they aren't as efficient for their noise level. I stole the ones I had for my P180 and they're quieter and move more air. Another unfortunate part of the fans is the filter covers. They are WAY too easy to accidentally bump and have them come off when you handling the case. When I was putting the case together I just had to put them to the side... My biggest beef with the case is the front door (one of the main reasons I bought the case). It's very nice looking and well built. However, it shuts too close to front of the external bays. My 4-in-3 hot swap device has latches on the front to open the doors. These latches stick out maybe 3-5 mm and it makes it so the door can't close. I ended up having to push the hot swap bay back past the screwless latch in the case. As a result my bays are not secured in the case. Other hot swap bays have different handles, but it's something to keep in mind. Another problem with the door is the cheap latching mechanism. It has 4 cheap little plastic clips on corner. Every time I open the front I'm afraid I'm going to break it.
Overall Review: This is a very quiet case. It is on par with my old P180 The panels on the P180 don't flex like the side panels on this do, but this case also has more cooling. The most annoying feature of the P180 was the weird 3.5" external bay and fan in the bottom chamber. This case has neither of those problems. I don't know who thought that mounting the hard drives sideways was a good idea, but it needs to stop. Yes, it makes installation easier, but it destroys your cooling. The front fans blow right into the hard drive rack. That's something Antec figured out a long time ago. They have removable hard drive racks with rails and/or silicon grommets. By rotating the hard drives, there's much more open space for the air to pass. Don't get me wrong I really like this case. I plan to utilize the 240 water cooling capability very soon. It's just not as much of an upgrade from the P180 as I thought it would be. It's more of a lateral move.
Was great until I got 5GHz devices...
Pros: When this router worked, it had pretty good throughput. Lots of features (DLNA, SMB, Print Server)
Cons: Hardware Quality Size
Overall Review: I bought this router after having a WNDR4000 for a year with great success. Should have waited longer so I knew about Netgear hardware quality. About 6 months later the WNDR4000 started being flaky, but I didn't know it was the router until a couple month ago when I switched to PFSense. The R6300 however, seemed to be going just fine for the past year. Everything I had was 2.4Ghz and was getting pretty decent speed. My wife just got a 2nd gen Nexus 7 (802.11n 5GHz) and I got the new HTC One (802.11ac). Come to find out the 5GHz channel isn't functioning on the R6300. The router reports that its working but it's not. Now I'm a couple months past a year since my purchase and Netgear says I'm out of warranty to repair or replace. I'd switch to my WNDR4000 (which I bought before change to the lifetime warranty) but my network has lots of errors once that router is plugged in. My last two routers were Trendnet and Buffalo routers. Both routers lasted between 3-4 years before they started acting flaky on WiFi. My first router was a D-Link and I had a very bad experience with it. I've avoided D-Link ever since. Looks like I'll be avoiding Netgear from now on too.
So far pretty impressed
Pros: Love having the full modular. Having that many cables just hanging in my case always annoyed me. On my other modular power supplies they always had a some that weren't modular and I'd end up zip tying them up. This thing is super quiet. I've never heard the fan come on since I installed it. Running a bunch of USB devices, 8 hard drives, a Haswell 4771, 5 120mm fans, a USB 3.0 expansion card, and a 660 GTX with power to spare and the platinum certification means it's doing it efficiently...
Cons: Strange number of power cables. I actually needed one more long IDE/Molex style connector cable. All my hot swap bays use those connectors instead of the SATA style power connecter. It wasn't a big deal because I had a converter, but it just seemed odd that you'd get 2 CPU power cables and like 6 PCI-E power cables and only 2 IDE/Molex ones. I know they're pretty much going away, but most case fans use them or come with an adapter for that style.
Overall Review: Gotta love the 7 year warranty...