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.
