[OCWORKBENCH] Readers Awards 2004 Results (3)

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OCW Readers' Award 2004 Results (3)
Bluetooth / Shadow 28 Dec 2004

Best Graphics Card (C/P)

In 2004, XGI has put up a pretty good show of its capabilities. The Volari V8 is accepted as a mid range solution. If XGI is able to speed up its drivers development and resolve some of the bugs and compatibility with certain games, it will be well accepted in the coming years.

When it comes to cost / performance ratio, the XGI series is the definite choice. The second place goes to the Gainward 6800GT Golden Sample and third goes to Gigabyte 9800XT graphics card. As you can see, 2nd and 3rd placing goes to a 6800GT and 9800XT. It looks like our users are rich ;)

Best Graphics Card (O/C)

In terms of overclocking, Sapphire 9800SE seems to be the top choice of our readers. The 2nd and 3rd goes to ASUS Radeon 9800XT and Chaintech Volari V3.

The 9800SE is quite popular due to the fact that it can be modified into a 9800Pro through software. That is also why it is so popular.

Best Graphics Card (Packaging)

Every manufacturer has different packages with their graphics card. In this category, we are not talking about the paper box, rather we are referring to the items that comes within. In this category, the Gigabyte 6600GT won the Gold, Chaintech Volari V3 second and HIS Excalibur won the Bronze.

Best Buy PSU

Our Readers have picked the 3 power supply units as their top 3 choices. In choosing a PSU, we will usually go for the power rating. Branding actually comes next. In our top 3, we noticed that the more well known Enermax is not the most popular choice. Coolermaster and Thermaltake is able to get a share of the PSU pie.

Best Buy HDD (SATA/IDE)

In the HDD poll, we see Seagate scoring the top among the nominated items. Seagate 7200.8 is a SATA HDD which supports Native Command Queue. Seagate HDD are quiet but not necessarily the fastest. The runner ups are WD WD800JD and Hitachi 7K250.

Best Buy Memory Module (DDR)

Corsair CMX512-3200XL is Corsair series of pair of RAMs that are tested for overclocking and comes with low latency like CAS 2, 5-2-2. The Kingston Valueram is also the common choice among our readers. The Kingmax DDR500 is a new comer and is gaining grounds as a well acceptable choice.

Best Buy Heatsink

What are your criteria for choosing a heatink? Users would go for quiet, compatibility with all socket types. In this poll, we found that the choices are mainly based on this two criteria. The Coolermaster Hyper 48 won a gold and Gigabyte 3D Rocket Cooler being able to adapt to many socket types won the Silver together with the quiet Zalman CNPS 7000cu.

Best Buy DVD Writer (+-RW)

The LiteOn SOHW832s is a very popular brand/model among enthusiast. In fact, a lot of models out there are actually OEMs of the LiteOn DVD writers. Probably because of its branding, it score the most number of votes and won the Gold. The 2nd and 3rd goes to NEC ND3500A and LG GSA4160B.

Best Buy LCD/CRT

Samsung being a house hold brand and a maker of LCD monitors scored the Gold award. The 2nd and 3rd goes to BENQ LCDs.

Best Buy Printer

As we can see, printer brands are still the few after all these years. It is either HP or Canon. HP Deskjet 6540 won the Gold and the runner-ups are Canon Pixma IP4000 and Canon Pixma IP3000.

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