We asked, you answered. Here are the results of the Vortez Best Of 2013, as voted by YOU the reader. Click to find out the winners!
It’s the time of year again for the Vortez ‘Best Of’ Awards. We asked you, our readers, to choose 2013’s best PC technology from a shortlist drawn up by our editors; unlike other end of year awards they’re unique to the Vortez community, your preferences and interests.
This past year saw the release of Intel’s Haswell and Ivybridge-E CPUs, huge new GPUs from both NVIDIA and AMD, and further refinement in everyday and niche products. Sectors which on the surface may not appear to have changed built up value-added features, whilst the most competitive have gone on a development spree to try to make both value and premium products stand out. In none is this more evident than case manufacture, where the range of available designs has never been more comprehensive.
Some of the following results may have seemed like a forgone conclusion, whilst others will no doubt be contentious. Such is the magic of user-voted awards. So without any further ado, lets get to it…
Best Of 2013 – CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K
Last year told the story of Haswell and Ivybridge-E, Intel’s latest generation of CPU’s for mainstream and enthusiast sectors. It’s no surprise that these CPUs dominated the forum votes, and the flagship Intel Core i7-4770K won out. A quad-core processor built on the same 22nm process as last years’ winner, the 4770K combines with Intel’s Z87 platform to be the weapon of choice for legions of gamers keen on out-the-box performance.
As far as raw power goes, the Core i7-4960X deserves huge plaudits. Although vastly more than most common users requirements, it’s fulfilling a role for extreme overclockers keen to move their rig to the bleeding edge. Granted Vortez Elite status for absolute performance, it perhaps missed out on the top step due to its eye-watering price.
Best of 2013 – CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S
In a huge upset, Noctua dethrones Corsair this year in the best CPU cooler category with the NH-U14S. A slimline cooler and the first in the U-series with their own 140mm NF-A15 PWM fan, it beat out stiff competition from the likes of Corsair and Silverstone who entered the fray with two excellent closed loop CPU coolers.
Noctua’s awesome reputation for air coolers was a major factor in their favour, but ease of installation thanks to their SecurFirm 2 mounting system and the use of premium fans can’t be underestimated. It achieved both Creative and Silver at the time of review, which along with today’s ‘Best Of…’ totals three for the year. Not bad for an air cooler. Noctua will no doubt be back next year to defend their title.
We’d also like to make special mention of newcomers Rajintek and GamerStorm. Entering into such a competitive market is a daunting task, but both the Erebos and Lucifer coolers were strong performers offering excellent value.
Best of 2013 – Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VI Formula
After a tight race in the CPU cooler stakes there was one dominating winner of the best motherboard reviewed at Vortez last year: the ASUS Maximus VI Formula. Here’s what Mishima said in his original review of this Z87 powerhouse:
ASUS push the boat out with the Maximus VI Formula. Every conceivable feature finds its way to a truly stunning masterpiece. Formula triumphed in our benchmark tests, demonstrating that it is a contender for the Z87 crown.
We gave it our Gold Award due to overclocking performance which trumped many competitors, allowing us to push out Core i7 4770K to higher frequencies on lower volts, but the feature set of this ASUS ROG board is mind-boggling. The striking looks and out-the-box VRM watercooling support may have turned a few heads, but getting the most out of your other components will be what puts it ahead of the pack.
Memory, Peripherals And Audio
Best of 2013 – Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum
Well, they couldn’t be kept off the top-spot for long. Taking home the prize of 2013’s best memory kit is the Dominator Platinum from Corsair, designed for the Intel X79 platform. You voted for these winners ahead of excellent kits from Kingston and AVEXIR, demonstrating how much of an impact Dominator had on our readers.
Rich reviewed a set of 32GB (4 x 8GB) Dominator Platinum which targets a healthy 2133MHz operating frequency, and summarised it as ‘the best of the best’. Devilish good looks, great overclocking performance and backed by Corsair lifetime warranty; he could find no downside to using this premium memory in your rig. The one issue was price, but the hefty hit to your pocketbook wasn’t enough to discourage our expert from granting it the prestigious Vortez Elite and Platinum awards.
The year ahead is sure to be an interesting one in the memory market. Not only are prices fluctuating drastically, but after a first public showing at CES DDR4 may well be the talk of the town at next year’s awards. Keep an eye out for that along with Intel’s Haswell-E, the first desktop platform expected to use DDR4 memory.
Best Of 2013 – Peripherals: Corsair Vengeance K95
One arena in which we were absolutely spoilt for choice this year was our nominations for best peripheral of 2013. Many great keyboards and mice came through our doors from powerhouses CM Storm, ROCCAT, GIGABYTE and more, but yet again Corsair were not to be denied.
Despite strong competition Corsair took the crown with the Vengeance K95 mechanical keyboard. Constructed with an aluminium unibody plate and including per-key backlighting on each of its keys – which by the way featured Cherry MX Red switches – we assessed it to be a cut above in both engineering and looks. It appears that our readers agreed as voting saw the K95 beating out the CM Storm Mech and even Ducky’s accomplished SHINE 3, adding the title of Best Peripheral of 2013 to its Gold and Creative Awards.
Mechanical keyboards were certainly the trend for 2013, and it’s unlikely that anything will change in the next year. Corsair are set to bring RGB lighting to the mechanical switch, and it’s likely that high-quality options will continue to filter down to lower price brackets. However we must not forget mice, where steps have been taken to make buttons more consistent and add synergies on the software side. Great strides are being made, and as a consumer it’s good to see.
Best Of 2013 – Audio: SteelSeries Siberia v2 – Kingston HyperX Edition
As with last year there was a bumper crop of audio devices released, and we shortlisted five of the best headsets for the end-of-year vote. Amongst them were BitFenix’s great value FLO and veteran Creative’s EVO ZxR, yet SteelSeries obviously resonated with our readers the most. It no-doubt helped that they were ably supported by the popular Kingston HyperX brand, but one cannot discount their E-Sports credentials:
Backed and endorsed by those in the top flight of esports, the SteelSeries Siberia v2 – Kingston HyperX edition is a great opportunity for gamers to experience the pinnacle of gaming audio. Quality throughout in a breathtaking metallic blue aesthetic, this should be one on your wishlist!
Those were Tony’s words on the Siberia v2, and they certainly seem to agree with reader sentiment.
SSDs, Graphics Card and External Storage
Best Of 2013 – SSDs: Samsung 840 EVO
SSD prices have tumbled this past year such that these days the very best upgrade you can make to any PC for the money is cheaper than ever before. None embodies that principle more than the Samsung 840 EVO, an updated version of the 840 SSD offering excellent performance at competitive prices and now in a wide range of capacities.
Whilst relative performance might be close the voting certainly wasn’t; Samsung’s consumer drive were runaway winners with an almost 70% share. That’s no wonder when you consider that they also provide cloning and disk management software as part of the retail package.
The Samsung EVO mSATA has just been released, so keep your eyes open for that if you’re running a mobile or desktop system with that capability.
Best of 2013 – Graphics Cards: NVIDIA GTX 780 Ti
The lack of an AMD R9 290-series representative on our short-list was always going to prove controversial, even though it was populated with some of the best cards released this year. The reason why is summarised in Rich’s conclusion to the Radeon R9 290X review:
[The R9 290X’s] speed however comes at a price, not the one you pay at the checkout which is actually quite reasonable but the one you will pay later in life when your hearing fades!
No surprises therefore that the winner from our graphics card shortlist this year is the reference NVIDIA GTX 780 Ti. With performance topping even that of the GTX TITAN and a reference cooler that quietly hums away rather than wail like a banshee, the 780 Ti stole Rich’s heart as the fastest single-GPU card on the planet right now. AMD will have a chance next year as all the non-reference Hawaii GPU-based cards with third-party cooling will be eligible, but for now NVIDIA’s flagship rules the roost.
Best of 2013 – External Storage Solutions: Corsair Flash Voyager GS 128GB
Whether it be brand recognition or excellent performance and value figures, Corsair was once again the winner in our external storage poll. The Voyager GS claimed read/write rates of 250MB/s and 90MB/s respectively, and easily topped those numbers in many of our synthetic tests. Complementing the numbers were a peerless build quality and price which, at ~£90, was lower than the cost of many 120GB eSATA SSD solutions available at the time.
We should also mention Synology. Their vote was split between the DS214 and DS213air, both of which made it onto our shortlist for very good reason. We have been continually impressed by their products over the past year, surprising us not only with their usability but also the continual drum beat of software development. Those already sporting a Synology NAS device should look out for DiskStation Manager 5’s beta, starting very soon.
Cases And Final Thoughts
Best Of 2013 – Cases: Corsair Air 540
Our final award for case of the year is taken once again by Corsair, but this was by far our tightest race. Phantek’s deluxe debut chassis the Enthoo Primo was a shock contender, and the ever reliable NZXT brought us the classy full-tower H630, but Corsair weren’t to be denied. Gaining their fourth 2013 award thanks to a unique and innovative design, the Air 540 is ideal for air cooling and use with Corsair’s own range of closed loop liquid coolers. Dave sums it up:
Corsair have boldly stepped into new territory with the Air 540 and have certainly pulled it off. A unique and innovative computer case can be found in the Air 540 – those who demand great air cooling for their enclosure should definitely consider this rather interesting and exciting new offering.
The Enthoo Primo is worthy of being singled out for special mention too. An ultra-high-end chassis similar to 2012’s Cooler Master Cosmos II, it’s a fantastic option for EATX systems and bespoke water cooling. Costing only £200, it’s also great value when you can expect to pay 50% more for similar features in competing solutions.
Final Thoughts – A Quick Year In Review
It was always going to be difficult to follow 2012 in terms of innovation and a challenging PC market could have spurred some conservatism amongst cash-strapped manufacturers. Thankfully 2013 still saw some distinct highlights for technology enthusiasts and value fiends, whether it be paradigm-shifting graphics performance from both NVIDIA and AMD or the continued downward trend in SSD pricing.
A definite disappoint for has been the relentless march of higher prices in memory; DIMMs which at one stage could be acquired for a pittance now command a premium price, greatly increasing the cost of budget systems. That has been offset somewhat by a normalisation of storage and motherboard pricing, but it has nonetheless made building a system a little more expensive than it might otherwise have been.
NVIDIA certainly called down the thunder with the GK110-based GPUs, beginning with GTX TITAN and finishing with the GTX 780 Ti. For a moment it looked as if AMD couldn’t respond and instead would concentrate on the mid-range and APUs now that the next-gen consoles had launched, but Hawaii took the world (especially the Bitcoin mining portion of it) by storm. Although we weren’t quite as full-throated in our plaudits as some publications, we’re nonetheless looking forward to partner versions in the first half of this year.
It seems that Intel are unchallenged in CPU performance, and they certainly seem to have taken their foot off the throttle in the desktop arena. New low-power chips from them are expected this year along with Haswell’s first revision, but when AMD can’t compete with the i7’s of this world it’s hard to imagine Intel really pushing the boundaries. Great things are expected of Kaveri, and we shall see more of that APU in time.
With that said, the most significant technologies and trends to look out for next year may not be the components themselves, but rather game-changing bonuses they may bring. NVIDIA have G-Sync monitor technology, whilst AMD’s Mantle may give their new APUs genuine gaming potential. ROCCAT’s Talk technology may finally gain some traction, and Corsair are releasing a full-colour mechanical keyboard in conjunction with Cherry. Finally there is the Steam Machine, a project backed by Valve, Intel, NVIDIA, AMD and supported by small form factor system manufacturers such as ZOTAC and retailers like SCAN.
There may be few explosive gains to be had in 2014, but it should still be an interesting (and at times challenging) time for the industry.
We’d like to thank our sponsors for this years awards, NZXT and Overclockers UK and more widely all the manufacturers and associated partners who are gracious in supplying us with products to review for you. Despite often heated disagreements over the merit of their innovations, we’re privileged to have an excellent relationship with so many. It’s this relationship that’s allowed us to bring you this years exclusive reviews at launch, trusting us to give an in depth and above all unbiased assessment.
Finally we’d like to thank you, our readers. We do our best to bring you the latest products with an unbiased eye, yet for all the cool technology which comes through our doors we simply couldn’t operate without a consistent readership. All comments and feedback are valued so don’t hesitate to leave them, and well will endeavour to bring you even more exceptional products in 2014.
The Vortez Team leaves you with this year’s competition winners. Congratulations to each of you:
Austris Bokmanis
Hoa Tran
Kyle Fraser
Alexander Haslam
Kane Haywood Rogers
