Thanks for joining us past the cut! Let’s get into those internal components!
Motherboard: Winner: ASRock Z390 Taichi Ultimate: This is a category that we struggled with since it depends entirely on your platform. For us, however, we had to highlight the ASRock Z390 Taichi Ultimate. The sheer amount of features, amazing sense of style, and value of this board deserves an award. ASRock is well known for delivering tons of value per dollar and the Taichi Ultimate was no exception. Plus, it’s the only motherboard we’ve seen that looks downright dangerous!
CPU: Winner: Ryzen 7 2700X: When it comes to value per dollar, the Ryzen 7 2700X is simply top of the pack. Featuring 8 cores and 16 threads, the 2700X is a substantial improvement over the 1700X and has the horsepower for all of your high-end gaming, video editing, streaming, and multi-tasking needs.
Runner-up: Intel i9-9900K: For sheer performance, Intel’s i9-9900K is the clear winner. It truly is the best processor for gaming and its 8 cores/16 threads will more than deliver for your content creation needs. The only thing holding it back from winning is that high price point - still $539.99 as of this writing.
GPU: We know we’ll be disappoint with this one, but we just couldn’t choose a “best” GPU this generation. We could say the 1080 Ti, which likely offers the best value per dollar, but doesn’t support raytracing. We could say the 2080 Ti which clearly offers the most performance but costs as much as a teen’s first car. We could say the RX 590 from AMD but then, it’s more Polaris. This was a year of trade-offs and plateaus in the GPU world and so we call it a wash.
NVME SSD: Winner: Samsung PRO 970: The minute Samsung was challenged for king of the NVME hill, they stepped up and staked out their claim as market leader. You’ll pay a bit more for an EVO or PRO 970 but the speed, endurance, and reputation make up for the cost difference.
Runner-up: WD Black NVME: The WD Black offers the best price to performance ratio on the market. If the ever-so-slightly higher speeds of the Samsung 970 line don’t justify the bump in price, the WD Black is the next best option and, for gaming, will offer virtually identical results.
SATA SSD: Winner: Crucial MX500: The Crucial MX500 is one of the best deals in SATA SSDs today. It offers great speeds, self-encryption, and an even better price.
Runner-up: WD Blue 3D NAND: Along with the WD Black, WD released the Blue 3D NAND drive. Like the MX500, it offers great speeds and reliability, vastly outperforming its predecessor.
Memory Kit: Winner: HyperX Fury RGB DDR4: RGB has taken over the industry and DRAM is no exception. Like all things, however, there are big differences in quality and sometimes performance takes a back seat. Put your mind at ease with the HyperX Fury RGB DRAM kit. It offers excellent performance across the board and is a veritable light show. This kit also offers infrared syncing to keep your lighting effects synchronized.
Runner-up: ADATA XPG SPECTRIX D41 DDR4: Coming in second place is the XPG SPECTRIX D41 kit from ADATA. Not only did this kit offer great performance but the large RGB diffusers are the best we’ve seen all year.
Case: Winner: Fractal Define R6: Seeing the Define R6 win this category should come as no surprise. The Define series has been a consumer favorite since its debut and inspired countless imitators. The R6 offers a number of improvements, including a modular internal design, wide tempered glass side panel, power supply shroud, and intelligently design channels for cable management. Unlike many “quiet cases” on the market, it also features excellent airflow.
Runner-up: NZXT H500: On the other end of the pricing spectrum we have the NZXT H500. We were impressed by just how many features NZXT could pack into such an affordable package. It looks good, is easy to build in, features a tempered glass side panel, and, best of all, comes in at only $69.99.
RGB Gear: Winner: NZXT HUE 2 Lighting Kit: NZXT impressed us this year by delivering one of the best lighting kits on the market. The HUE 2 kits offers a controller box, four LED light strips, and AER RGB fan compatibility to make your whole system glow. Used behind a PC, it can even offer intelligent screenspace backlighting for a truly neat bias lighting effect.
Runner-Up: Corsair LL120 Fan Kit: From Corsair this year, we saw the new LL120 and LL140 fans, packaged together in lighting kits with the included controller. This fans offer dual light loop rings and simply look fantastic. They don’t come cheap, however, so picking up the kit is advised.
Specialized Accessories:
For Streamers:
Winner: ElGato CamLink 4K: If you’re a streamer looking to take things to the next level, you need a CamLink from ElGato. This device allows you to take the feed from an actual camera and send it through to your PC. Since the CamLink is recognized as a webcam, it will work with any software you were already using. This year’s revision offers 4K support for crispy images.
Winner: Yi M1 Mirrorless Camera: This was an interesting one for us and the review is upcoming, but since we’re looking at a CamLink, we decided to explore some affordable options to get that live feed. Now, unfortunately, the video output isn’t a good fit for streaming but for pre-recorded footage, the Yi M1 is about the best value mirrorless camera you can buy. It offers a high quality micro four-thirds images sensor and 4K30 video capture. Plus, it includes a lens for as low as $249. For the money, we were extremely impressed.
And that wraps it up for us! Congratulations to all the winners. What tech stood out to you this year? Let us know in the comments below!
