The past year has been full of up and downs like every year. Here at LanOC we have been chugging away like always. In the past year we hosted two awesome LAN parties, revamped the entire website, and survived two big launches from Intel, a launch from AMD on the CPU side, and big launches from both AMD and Nvidia on the video card side. Last year when I did my recap we had published 116 reviews for the year. For 2013 we bumped it up to an impressive 158 reviews thanks to a helpful staff and great companies. To start the New Year, I wanted to revisit the products that I gave my personal seal of approval on with the Editor’s Choice award to see if they are still my personal picks.
Poetic Atmosphere Nexus 4
My Nexus 4 is still in perfect condition, that alone is reason enough to still love this case. Even after a full year I would still pick the Atmosphere as the best case of all of the Nexus 4 cases we tested. I know when I go to get my next phone; it will be on a short list of cases I will be interested in (assuming they make it for my next phone)
Steelseries Flux In Ear Pro Headset
Ironically, after months of no use through the middle of this year the Flux In Ear Pro’s got use again with the Shield and even more recently my new laptop. I was reminded quickly as to why I loved them in the first place. Of all of the headsets we tested this year, this is still the only set that ended up with an Editor’s Choice award and it is still well deserved!
Logitech G710+ Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
Logitech’s first mechanical keyboard, the G710+ is still in use today here in the office on the Lunchbox 3. I don’t pack it up for LANs due to its size, but it gets a lot of use day to day. I have heard of a few of our readers picking up G710+s and ending up with issues with the backlighting. Although I haven’t had any issues and still love the keyboard, I would keep that in mind if you are on the market for one.
Asus Maximus V Formula
Our last Z77 motherboard sure did cap things off for the platform. The Formula is still a very impressive motherboard with its built in water cooling. I have a feeling that even if we look back years from now it will be one of the few boards that we remember specifically, much like the SR-2 and SR-X motherboards for their uniqueness. If for some reason your Z77 motherboard dies and you are looking for an upgrade I would still recommend it but obvious with newer CPUs available now it wouldn’t be on my must have list with a new build today.
Nvidia GTX 780
There is always something exciting about a new video card launch, especially when it starts a whole new series like the GTX 780 did. It really doesn’t seem like it was long ago when I took a look at the GTX 780 and its impressive all metal design. With the price dropping between now and the launch it is a card I would still be looking at. In fact, after swapping to Nvidia in my personal rig with the GTX 780 Ti I have been considering swapping the Ti out for two of the GTX 780’s for a little extra power.
Nvidia GTX 770
The truth is the GTX 770 is a lot of the same as the GTX 780. But I was so happy with its price point at the time as well as its build quality that it ended up with an Editor’s Choice award. The build quality and performance hasn’t dropped, but the price has, so the GTX 770 is still a card I would highly recommend. In fact one of our writers just picked one up!
Intel i7-4770 Haswell
Intel launched Haswell this year as their latest consumer focused CPU to mixed reviews. Specifically a lot of people who have upgraded in the past few years didn’t see a reason to run out and rebuild, but those who were planning to upgrade were very happy with its performance. No matter how you feel about it, the i7-4770K was and still is the fastest CPU you can pick up when you look at it’s per core performance. Because of that it still deserves its spot on this list, at least until next year’s model comes out!
Asus Z87 Pro
Asus changed things up in 2013 with the introduction of their gold motherboards. A lot of people haven’t been a big fan of the colors, but there have been a few awesome case mods popping up taking advantage of the gold styling as well. With the Z87 Pro, I was impressed by all of the features they packed in at a good price point. This is the board I would be looking at simply for its features, but obviously for styling it would depend on if I could work it into my theme.
MSI Z87 MPower
Frankly the MPower is/was the first motherboard from MSI that really impressed me. They have been making good boards for a long time now, but the MPower stepped it up, especially with its styling. The all flat black PCB with all of the markings hidden on the back side of the board would really look good in any build. The yellow trim could be recolored to match any build as well. This is one of the boards that I just really wish I had a reason to build another PC, because I could really go crazy with the MPower in there.
MSI GTX 780 Gaming
The GTX 780 Gaming was a monster card at the time. I loved the quality of the TwinFrozr cooling especially. Looking back I think if I could pick I would prefer to go with the GTX 780 Lightning, simply because they went over the top with it. But the GTX 780 Gaming was still the first GTX 780 that I didn’t miss the reference cards all metal fan shroud on.
OCZ Vector SSD 256GB
OCZ might be having financial troubles but I can’t deny that they managed to put out a nice drive with the introduction of the Vector SSDs. Looking back, If I were publishing this review today I wouldn’t include the Editor’s Choice award with it simply because I would be a little worried that the warranty included with it might not be worth anything in 2014.
MSI GTX 760 Hawk
What can I say, MSI really stepped it up with their cards in 2013. As much as I loved the Gaming model mentioned before, the Hawk was even more impressive. Both had the same TwinFrozr cooling, but the Hawk had a very impressive overclock as well. All together it made for a great card that is still just as impressive today as it was when I reviewed it.
Intel i7-4960X Ivy Bridge-E
After just talking up Intel’s Haswell CPU, how can I sit here and stand behind the 4960X as well? Well with two more cores, the 4960X was still the fastest CPU launched in 2013 and for the time being it still is. The price is more than most can afford and overall the Haswell CPUs are better bang for the buck, but if you need to have the best this is what you are going to be looking at.
Asus GTX 670 Direct CU Mini
Asus took their time with the GTX 670 Direct CU Mini, so long in fact that it came after the next gen cards that replaced it. Even so, I gave it our award because they created a product that no one else was making. The same can be said for Asus’s Deluxe-I motherboards as well. Both the motherboard and the Direct CU Mini have gotten use in our Lunchbox 3 build that we featured late this past year.
Asus Matrix R9 280X Platinum
Although the Sapphire card came close, the Matrix Platinum ended up being the only AMD card with an Editor’s Choice this year. The Matrix was impressive because of its performance as well as its build quality. I hope to see more manufactures stepping it up with cards like this in 2014, if they do everyone will benefit!
Nvidia Shield
The shield had to be the most exciting product that I had coming in 2013 for me. I only recently published my review so my opinion hasn’t changed to date. I do still really enjoy playing on it and have actually picked up a few more games through the sales on the Play store for the holidays.
