Pros: Fast, no problems at all. Running great at 5-5-5-15 @ 1066, 2.0V. The stickers on my pair actually say 2.3V, but I have zero problems running at 2.0V. Blue color perfectly matches my motherboard's RAM slots.

Cons: I should have waited to buy, DOH! I had to send in for a rebate check that may or may not come in 8-12 weeks. Less than a month later, Newegg's price is now even lower than my hopefully post-rebate price.

Overall Review: SPD on this memory is set to the JEDEC standard 5-5-5-18 @ 800, 1.8V. Some people call this a con, but in reality, it's exactly as Kingston intended. Kingston even mentions it on the spec sheet if you check their website. It's a simple matter of changing your BIOS settings to get the higher speed. If you absolutely must have RAM that plugs-n-plays at 1066, then look elsewhere.

Pros: Great looks, at least when new (see cons). Plenty of USB 3.x ports, very stable, extensive UEFI setup (though it could be organized better), USB BIOS flashback. AI OC feature worked well for me, running my 8086K at 5.1GHz with 1.31V, which seems quite reasonable given my air cooling setup. Plenty of fan headers and options for liquid-cooling later down the road.

Cons: Coming from a Maximus VI Formula, the audio section of the XI Formula is quite disappointing. My trusty Maximus VI had dual differential LM4562 op-amps with film capacitors driving the stellar TPA6120A2 headphone amp. The new Maximus XI drops down to just an RC4580 headphone amp and forgoes any film caps. The RC4580 is a competent part, but it's very much entry-level as audio op-amps go. The result is an unexciting, noticeably lower detailed sound that doesn't put a smile on my face the way the VI Formula could. RGB ligting effects are quite dim, nowhere near as bright as the digitally-enhanced marketing pictures would have you believe. The effect is elegant, but the brightness is so low that the motherboard RGB gets drowned out by nearly any other lighting inside the PC. The mirror-finish on the various plastic parts is very soft and easy to scratch. My motherboard came out of the box with micro-scratches already on the lighted USB/SATA part (no protective plastic applied there), and I scratched the mirror-finish on the VRM waterblock by just barely touching it while plugging in the ATX 12V cables. Better to leave all the protective film on until your build is 100% finished!

Overall Review: Brand new and still in the box, my motherboard arrived with dirty fingerprints, dust, scratches, and even some gouges on the plastic. I also found a couple human hairs trapped between the CPU socket and dust cap! It would seem that the assembly plant for this product is not kept clean, and the workers are not being careful. My board came with gouges in the plastic armor near the M.2 heatsink, clearly indicating that the worker's screwdriver slipped while attaching the M.2 heatsink screws. Instead of fixing the problem, they just shipped it damaged. Yes, it's cosmetic, but for the price paid, I am disappointed by the production quality. Overall, the Maximus XI Formula is my third generation of Formula-series board from ASUS, and sadly, it's the first that has left me with regret. Given the extremely high cost, with a major audio downgrade compared to my VI Formula, dim scratch-prone RGB lighting, and careless assembly, the Maximus XI Formula just feels like an upper-midrange motherboard at an ultra-premium price.

Pros: Performance is decent, and the 8GB cache helps as long as your workload is highly repetitive. Drive is quiet and has minimal vibration. Seems robust: it works for now, despite Newegg's attempt to destroy the drive by shipping it loose in the box.

Cons: For a 2TB drive, 8GB cache is too small (less than 0.5% of the drive capacity). It's helpful mainly if you reboot a lot or run the same few applications all the time. If your workload actually spans large data sets, the cache doesn't help that much. 32GB cache would be much better. My warranty probably is void due to Newegg's poor packaging.

Overall Review: Horrible packaging by Newegg. The bare drive was shipped to me loose in a small cardboard box without any protective padding at all. The drive bounced around enough to poke several small holes from the inside of the box. Seagate needs to send some training materials to Newegg to teach them how to properly handle and package hard drives.

Pros: So far, totally stable and no functional problems. Very good layout overall, with some minor issues (see below). Lots of fan headers, some with extensive software control (CPU and CHA_1,2,3 headers). Excellent on-board audio when using the front-panel jack. ROG armor looks nice, but that's very minor since I'm the only one seeing it.

Cons: The CMOS battery and socketed ROM are underneath the plastic ROG armor, so replacing these parts will be extremely painful (armor is secured by screws on the back of the motherboard). ASUS should have built a hatch into the armor to allow access to these parts. mPCIe area is extremely crowded and difficult to install. You have an OPT_FAN header, 4-pin CPU power, mPCIe slot, and two WiFi antennas all competing for the same tiny space. NGFF slot only allows for small cards (2242 officially, though 2260 might fit) and offers only 1X PCIe 2.0 lane, so a high-performance NGFF SSD will be bandwidth constrained.

Overall Review: The best parts of the SupremeFX audio (CS4398 DAC and TPA6120 amp) only apply to the front-panel audio jack (AAFP connector on the board). The rear-panel green jack is driven by the Realtek ALC1150's internal DAC and a NE5532 op-amp. You will want to use the front-panel headphone jack on your case for best sound quality. I have a large CPU cooler (Zalman CNPS10X), and it overhangs the first DIMM slot. I am unable to use DIMMs with high-profile heatsinks due to the close proximity of CPU socket and DIMM slots.

Pros: Totally dependable, silent at most times (no coil whine on my unit), and fully modular. After installing this PSU, I've never had to think about it or worry about it powering my dual GPUs and overclocked CPU. Voltages are all stable and well within ATX specs.

Cons: Looking through the rear grille, I can see that my PSU is missing one of the screws that attaches the circuit board to the casing. I'm disappointed that Seasonic's QA would miss something like this. When I mount the PSU with its fan facing downward, I can see some bending of the circuit board due to the missing screw.

Pros: Highly effective tower design. Allows for dual fans and includes brackets for the second fan. The included fan is 4-pin PWM controlled and offers a wide operation range - roughly 600 RPM up to 2000 RPM.

Cons: Installation can be a bit tricky, and the instructions (mostly drawings with very minimal text) are not much help.

Overall Review: A couple installation hints: the bolts that go through the motherboard have D-shaped pegs. Be sure to line them up to the D-shaped holes on the backplate. No need for any force. Before installing the top X-bracket, make sure its spring-loaded pegs are in the proper positions. Otherwise, the pegs will not line up with the bolts when you try to screw it down. You will need to pull up on the spring peg in order to slide it to a different position. Again, no force needed here. Be sure to take note of the notch at the center of the X-bracket. It must align with the pin on the heatsink base. If the bracket seems to be applying uneven pressure, it may not be aligned, so you may try rotating it 90 degrees to align the pin and notch.