Tom's Hardware Readers' Choice Awards 2014
[Editor's Note:We're posting this again just to make sure everyone's voice is heard. Thank you to the thousands who have already voted! We'll be closing up the voting on November 23rd. Also note that our sister site, Tom's Guide, is doing the same, and we've added links to those categories further below.]
Over the course of 2014, as with previous years, Tom’s Hardware has reviewed hundreds of products. We take pride in how reserved we are with award recognition, but we still manage to hand out a few to the best products in class. From our prestigious Tom’s Hardware Elite status, to the price-for-performance Smart Buy awards, and even those quality products that have received the Tom’s Hardware Approved award, we don't arrive at our choices lightly.
Now, the choice is yours.
It’s the time of year again when we kick off our second annual Tom’s Hardware Readers’ Choice Awards, selected by you, our most vocal and attentive fans, biggest critics, enthusiast builders and loyal readers. We want your help in recognizing the best of the best.
We acknowledge that over the course of a year, many changes in technology can occur, and so we try to keep our lists and picks updated. While we believe the initial products populating each categorical list are relevant and worthy of your consideration, we’re also giving you the power to add products to the list if we missed any. As with last year, we realize that we are leaving out an entire month’s worth of potentially game-changing hardware, so December 2014 will count toward our 2015 awards.
The categories this year include those where we've done the bulk of our testing and review work: Cases, Motherboards, Storage, Graphics, CPUs, and Displays. Please see below for links to each of the Reader’s Choice threads hosted in our community, and dive right in. We’ll pull the best-ranked product from each category at the conclusion of the voting and showcase it in a feature piece announcing the results. We've also included a few links to some resources that might help jog your memory in the categories below.
May the best product win!
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* You can vote for your choice of best monitors/displays here.
And you may find it helpful to review some of the selections summarized (and linked to) from our Best Computer Monitors page here.
* You can vote for your choice of best graphics cards here.
And you might do well to look at some of our summaries in our monthly Best Graphics Cards For The Money page here.
* You can vote for your choice of best CPUs here.
As a reference, consult our Best Gaming CPUs For The Money page here.
* You can vote for your choice of best PC cases here.
You might want to rely on Thomas Soderstrom's elite case manifesto, part 1, or part 2, or part 3. Or visit our Case tag page here.
* You can vote for your choice of best motherboards here.
We also recently published our Best Motherboards For The Money page here, which could come in handy.
* You can vote for your choice of best storage here.
As always, we have a Best SSDs For The Money page here, which could help guide your selection.
Similarly, our sister site, Tom's Guide is also hosting its Readers' Choice awards. We encourage you to make your voice heard there too.
You can vote for Smartphones here.
You can vote for Tablets here.
Vote for Streaming Devices here.
Vote on best Chromebooks here.
Vote for best Laptops here.
You can vote for best Gaming Laptops here.
Vote for DSLR Cameras here.
Vote for AIO PCs here.
Vote for best Gaming Keyboards here.
And finally, vote for Gaming Mice here.
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bloodroses75 This doesn't really seem like a fair competition as there are too many different categories to try to lump them into just one sum of "Best Hardware". Are we looking at best performance for the price? Best overall performance? Best for Mini-ITX form factor? The list goes on.Reply
From that, I can see different parts in each category depending on the users need. -
wtfxxxgp @bloodroses75:Reply
If you add too many categories then it sort of defeats the purpose of a "best of" list, doesn't it?
Besides, people will vote according to what they feel is the most important aspect of each item to them. -
chimera201 I never understood the concept of Reader's Awards. It's more like "Popularity Awards". The thing which is more popular wins which is not probably the best thing in the category. How can one person own more than 10 different products in the same category to actually analyse and vote for that category?Reply
(I don't think NZXT H440 is the best case available) -
alsmith It's all too subjective. Each vote depends on each persons circumstances and needs. As an example who would choose a 17" monitor over a higher resolution 22" or 24" HD resolution monitor? My brother- that's what his computer desk/storage desk allows. Different people have different budgets, different uses. It's all so pointless, it's just a way for the site to suck people in to gain traffic- is there any other *real* reason for these 'surveys'?Reply
People will always practice self-justification and defend their purchase decision even where there are other better options out there, it's human nature. They don't make mistakes, know best, and buy the 'right' parts. Anyone who buys anything else is clearly not getting the best thing.
If there really was only one best thing then price could drop as manufacturing costs would drop significantly by building one standard item. We'd lose innovation and choice, but hey- we'd all have the 'best'.
It boils down to these surveys being only useful for one thing- increasing web site traffic so advertising revenues increase. Which, oddly, helps those who enjoy participating in pointless surveys......