The system's free drive bays--one 5.25-inch slot and four 3.5-inch slots--use screws to secure devices in place. All of them are fat thumbscrews, however, freeing you from having to reach for the tool box to modify your system's loadout. You can mount hard drives using one of two handled pull-out bays--a convenient and unexpected touch for the aspiring upgrader.

You'll find plenty of free PCI slots inside, including three PCI Express x1 connections and two PCI connections. However, the PCI Express x16 connection on the Erebus GT's Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 motherboard runs at x8 speeds, not x16. (Bandwidth sharing at its finest, folks.)

The Erebus GT doesn't skimp on the essentials, especially in light of the various devices you might connect to this performance PC. On the front are four USB ports (two USB 2.0, two USB 3.0). On the rear are six USB ports (four USB 2.0, two USB 3.0), as well as connections for DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, HDMI, optical S/PDIF, eSATA, FireWire 400, integrated 7.1 surround sound, and gigabit ethernet.

And that's just the motherboard. The Erebus GT's AMD Radeon HD 7970 comes with a DVI port and an HDMI port, as well as two mini-DisplayPort connections. Combine those with the desktop's Blu-ray player, and all you're missing is the popcorn.

Our review system shipped with a gaming mouse (which basically means the inclusion of side buttons, for those of us used to more standard mouse designs). It's wired, just like the keyboard we received with the Erebus GT. We appreciate the keyboard's function buttons, which deliver quick access to favorite applications.