One of the biggest pluses to not sewing your blocks into long strips is only having to sew with the whole top together once. Even before that you are only dealing with a quarter of the top at a time and two halves once and the whole thing once.
Another tip, when you put your first border on sew with the border strip on top. That way if there's any slight easing the top is eased into the borders and not the other way around.