Best of 2002
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OcPrices Awards 2002
Another year has passed by, so we thought we would take a
look back over 2002's products and present exceptional manufacturers
awards in their respective categories. These are all based on the personal
opinion of the OcPrices team. Enjoy!
Mainboard Manufacturer: Abit
With their fantastic MAX ranges of boards, and the excellent BD/BE series
for those who still need legacy devices, Abit have snatched the #1 spot for
enthusiasts. Without a doubt, Abit deserve our Editors choice award.
CPU Manufacturer: Intel
Difficult to believe Intel would win this award just a year ago, but with the
Northwood Pentium 4, Intel have truly stamped their mark on the fastest CPU in
the world. The new 3.06GHz chip with hyper threading is certainly peerless, and
AMD will have a tough job pulling back the performance lead they enjoyed last
year.
Memory Manufactuer: OCZ
After a difficult time at the beginning of the year, OCZ have bounced back
with their EL-DDR products and have produced a killer product. With our stick
hitting a majestic 500Mhz, it left big names like Corsair, Mushkin and GeIL
coughing in its dust.
Graphics Manufacturer: ATi
With the Radeon 9700 Pro and now the budget 9500 Pro ATi find themselves with
a product line-up that nVIDIA simply cannot compete with. The GeForce FX will
have to deliver - and deliver now if they do not want to be left in the dark.
Hard Drive Manufacturer: Seagate
Super reliable, super quiet drives, a recent chat with a data-recovery
service informed me that Seagate have by far the lowest failure rate in the
industry. In the SCSI market, Seagate's newest drives have no peer. Special
mention also goes to Western Digital for their super-fast Caviar IDE JB drives.
Case Manufacturer: Lian Li
Lian Li have revamped their tired range of PC cases and have produced a new
range of superb looking and innovative cases to challenge even the prettiest
CoolerMaster range.
Monitor Manufacturer: Samsung
With their 171 and 181 ranges of LCD screens, Samsung deliver unbeatable
aesthetics, performance, response times and overall quality. Looking for a
monitor to replace your CRT but don't want to sacrifice gaming performance? Look
no further.
Best New Comer: Albatron
With an exceptional line up, Albatron have already set them selves up as one
of the industries big hitters in record time. Coming from nowhere, Albatron have
scooped no fewer than 3 OcPrices awards this year.
Best Sound device manufacturer: Cambridge Sound Works
The 510D speakers from Cambridge / Creative are by far the best PC speakers
available. Forget the likes of Klipsch, Altec Lansing and Bose, these 500W
monsters deliver when only the best will do.
Best Cooler manufacturer: Swiftech
With their fantastic line up of products, you get what you pay for with
Swiftech. With the MCX4000 Swiftech offers the best cooling for the Pentium 4
platform by a country mile.
Best Product of 2002 Award: Vapochill Mark 2 Premium Edition
The most difficult of all the awards to decide, I ended up choosing the
vapochill Mark II premium edition as the overall best product we had the
pleasure to review in 2002. A cataclysmic improvement over the previous product,
and a far better quality product than competing Phase-change devices, the
Premium Edition Vapochill allows you to take your overclocks to a new level.
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