Pros: Allowed me to install windows 8 from an optical disc. It plays DVDs. It plays Blu Rays. It hasn't broken yet. It's quiet enough. It was inexpensive.

Cons: doesn't come with a SATA cable, or software.* This isn't really a con. It's listed as OEM, which means no software or cables included. It is a bare drive.

Overall Review: It's still working, and will be a 5 star item unless it does break sooner than one would expect. It doesn't come with software to play Blu Ray movies, but I figured I'd want a drive that can read that format in case all discs are printed on Blu Ray someday. Also, software can be found online for blu ray playback. Use Google wisely, you'll find it.

Pros: Price - Was waiting for a good deal on a 7950. On sale plus rebate was an awesome price. Gaming - Runs all the games I've tried in 1080p on max settings. This includes Bioshock Infinite, Saints Row 4, Dirt 3 and Metro 2033. Frame rates drop below 60 sometimes, on maxed out settings, but the games never "chug". I did not overclock the card past factory settings. GPGPU/Distributed computing - One of the main reasons I bought this was to contribute to the scientific community (my old card did not support double precision computing). It tears through work units on BOINC. Very satisfied in this respect. Power Consumption/Temperatures - awesome. I didn't wanna destroy the power bill just to do distributed computing and some gaming. I have a power meter (Kill-a-watt), so here are a couple test results. Keep in mind, the house has about 65 degree F ambient temps at the time of this test: -> Idle: 80-85W. 25C temp. My old card was a 6670, and my system consumed the same, if not more power using the old card. Pleasantly surprised. -> Kombustor stress test: Using OpenGL 4, Reported 99% GPU usage, entire rig is consuming ~190W and stabilized temperature at 43C -> BOINC computing: (OpenCL I assume) Again, reporting 99% GPU usage, entire rig is consuming ~210W. Temps stabilize at 54C -> Kombustor DX11 stress test: 99% GPU usage, ~250W, temps @ 60C Noise - Great. I can't hear it over my case fans/CPU fan. It does get loud, though, when I cranked the fan up manually. But the card stays so cool, the fans never need to go that high. Maybe if you play in a 100 degree room, the fans will get loud... Stability - No crashes yet, but I haven't messed with OCing, and don't plan to. Styling? - I really couldn't care less about this. I guess it looks cool, but it's in an opaque case, so who really cares... I'm not the type that wants an awesome looking rig...

Cons: I tried to select FarCry3 as part of the Never Settle bundle, and I received a code that didn't work in Ubisoft's (disliked) Uplay service. I emailed ubisoft, no help thus far :( It was the only game I really half cared about out of that bundle, too... I'm not sure how I felt about their latest game bundle. I'd rather have one good game than a selection of old ones that I already chose not to play. I was so non-excited about this bundle, I might have bought this card without anything bundled with it at all.

Overall Review: When doing GPGPU computing, I get strange artifacts in some programs. Original nintendo style blocky-ness. No crashes. Doesn't bother me, I actually find it kind of cool for some reason. Minimizing and maximizing whatever window I'm in fixes any display errors. Weird, but understandable considering I'm redlining a display adapter. I have not, and do not plan on overclocking this card... at least until I stop caring about its longevity. It did not plug and play, and my system wouldn't even show the Motherboard's boot screen, but after some tinkering, it worked just fine. Was completely due to operator error and/or a low quality motherboard/BIOS setup. Makes me wonder how many DOA cards aren't actually DOA... Pertinent system info: CPU: AMD 965 BE Mobo: biostar 880gz OS: Windows 8 8gb kingston blue ram "conventional" hard drive 500 watt OCZ power supply* *plenty of juice for typical CPU/GPU usage during gaming, although if everything on my rig was consuming max power at the same time, I'd start to worry a bit...

Pros: -Sturdy -Lots of places to put fans -Very easy tool-less design for installing 5.25" and 3.5" drives -All wires clearly labeled -Options for cable management are good (I didn't make use of these options - it's kind of a mess in there lol) -Comes with 2 fans (120mm and 140mm) -Bottom mount PSU Great bang for the buck. I'm sure there are better cases out there (this is my first build), but I don't see why anyone would need more from a mid tower, or want to pay more for a case.

Cons: The side panels are held on by screws. But really, who cares? It takes like 7 seconds to unscrew a pair as opposed to 1 second for a quick release panel. Not really a con; I knew they were the screw type when I bought it. Didn't care then, don't now. -The front panel USB jacks are upside down. Not a big deal, but kind of odd... -The 140mm top fan that came with this case is pretty loud running at max rpm

Overall Review: I like the look of the case. It's modest. I didn't want it to be see-though or have a ton of lights on it; I have no desire to "show off" my computer. A lot of people do, though, so the styling of this case might be a turn off for them. Also, kudos to NZXT's customer service. They called me to let me know my rebate was being processed in record time. Nice little piece of customer service there. All in all, It would be tough to make me much happier with this case. My gripes were minor and the case has exceeded my expectations for the price I paid.

Pros: Works well Inexpensive Decent onboard Graphics ps/2 connector Sound Quality - the onboard sound on my old Dell laptop was complete garbage. It's nice to hear things the way they're supposed to sound.

Cons: a bit wonky BIOS... It's not that big of a deal... I mean it's not totally intuitive, but you get used to it. Plus, after you get your PC set up, how much do you REALLY mess around in the BIOS. I'm sure some do, but I'm not an overclocker or too much of a "power user". I do wish this board had a dedicated button to access a boot menu, rather than having to go into bios, change boot priority, then restart. Also, the onboard graphics work, but they're nothing to write home about... It wasn't current enough (either in hardware, drivers, or both) to run the Windows 8 version of Movie Maker. I ended up getting a discrete card, which I planned on doing eventually. One last thing... there is only one 3 pin fan connector on this board. I ended up buying a fan controller, when it would have been much easier to just plug multiple fans into the MOBO

Overall Review: There is a lot of text under "cons" in this review, but they're really minor gripes, just warnings about things you might not have thought of when purchasing the board. Heck, I wish the thing had USB 3.0, but I can't knock off a score for something that I knew wasn't included. I'm still very satisfied with this board, and it works as advertised. It was a good price as well, which was nice. I do, however wish I would have gotten a standard (non micro) ATX board. After installing a graphics card, I have no unblocked pci slots, and a full sized card would have also have more fan jacks. Again, not a knock on this card, just thoughts from a first time computer builder. My system: -Windows 8 is the OS I'm running. I am not using any of the touch screen features of the OS, and cannot comment on how this board would handle that. -NZXT elite 210 -Kingston hyperx blue ram (2x4GB) -Radeon 6670 by Gigabyte -LG Blu Ray bare drive -Various Hard drives have been recognized and used (as well as an old IDE drive connected by a converter) OCZ modstream 500W AMD Phenom II 965BE Bottom line - great board for a budget(ish) build.

Pros: Used this in a budget-ish build. My computer is running great - no weird power supply related issues. It's modular, which is nice. (comes with all the cords you could need) 80 plus certified Got a pretty good deal on it with a rebate and a promo code.

Cons: none, unless it breaks unusually quickly.

Overall Review: It's powering: 5 fans a Blu Ray drive 2 Hard Drives (one 3.5" drive, one 2.5" drive) 125W AMD Phenom II 965 AMD 6670 graphics

Pros: Worked great Put my 2.5 inch laptop drive into it. Then I put that assembly into my 3.5" drive bay in my case. What more could you ask for?

Cons: none