2002
During the course of 2002, we've had the opportunity to look at a ton of products. some of them blew us away, and some of them just blew. With 20002 in the books, we look back at the products we loved, as well as looking back at some products that disappointed us in a major fashion.
We are sure you will agree or disagree with our picks, and we invite you to pass by the forums when you're done reading this article and giving us your input.
CPU of the Year: The Year of Beez
AMD: Athlon Thoroughbred "B"
Simply put, the initial batches of the TBred left much to be desired. They didn't run all that cool, and AMD seemed to be having some problems with their 0.13u process. Things worked out by the time they launched their 2700+ and 2800+, as the chips ran faster, cooler, and overclocked a lot better than the previous TBreds. These new TBreds also rode the 166FSB bus, matching it perfectly with PC2700 ram that is so popular nowadays. The real gem of the group is the 2400+ though, as it's a lot cheaper than the faster TBreds, and has proven to easily overclock to the speeds of its faster brothers.
Intel: Northwood "B"
This was a year where Intel pretty much did everything right. Their Northwood "A" was approaching maturity, and were much better CPUs than the Willamettes. The Northwood "B" brought the 533FSB (133MHz, quad pumped) to the Intel platform, and as with the Northwood "A", they proved to be extremely fast, and overclockable as well. With Hyper-Threading, released late 2002, in the 3.06GHz+ Pentium 4s, SMT is now pretty much free for users who have SMT enabled applications.
Chipset of the Year
AMD: nVidia nForce 2
VIA designed the KT400 to compete with nvidia's nForce2 and managed to fail miserably. The nForce2 brought Dual-Channel DDR400, Dual-LAN, 6-Channel Audio and 8X AGP capabilities to the table, along with support for AMD's new processors based on a 166 MHZ Frontside Bus. VIA's KT400 had terrible DDR400 support, AGP 8X issues, and lacks any decent audio or LAN capabilities. Hands down, nVidia makes the best chipset currently for the AMD Athlon platform.
Ed. Note: Although I agree that the nForce2 was definitely worth waiting for, I would not be so quick as to totally brushing the KT400 off. I will state that the KT400 was disappointing somewhat as it didn't provide huge gains over the KT333.
Intel: Intel i845E/G/PE/GE
The Intel 845 Chipset brought along 533 MHZ Frontside Bus support, and boards that utilized the Chipset offered better overclocking options than any competing Chipset. Several reincarnations of the chipsets have offered new features, and better performance. But the fact remains, the 845 and all of its incarnations were the best Chipset for P4 users in 2002.
Ed. Note: Certainly, the i845PE/GE are also my picks for the top Intel chipsets. I do think Granite Bay (released late 2002) is worth consideration, but the pricetag may be prohibative for some consumers.
Case(s) of the Year
Custom Case: Stratagem Case
I had to slip this in somewhere, since we've had it sitting in the labs for quite some time. The review of this bad boy is going to be up next week, but for now, take some sneak peeks from . The case features a built-in fanbus, three Panaflow fans, custom windows, and a mirrored motherboard-side bottom panel. The case comes in at around $350, so be sure to have your credit card handy.
Aluminum Case: ATC-201A-SX2
Another review upcoming, but at Comdex 2002, Cooler Master overhauled their popular ATC-201 with some new features. Returning features are things such as a case paint job, and ATC technology, and the new stuff are improved cooling, stronger aluminum construction, and an Air Guide. The Air Guide is designed to help lower CPU temps, and although it won't make dramatic changes, it does work as advertised. Look for this review next week.
Game Of The Year: Battlefield 1942
The graphics weren't spectacular, and the game was a bit buggy, but the ability to control realistically modeled military vehicles on some of the best multiplayer maps ever created was something that only Battlefield 1942 was able to provide. I look for the game to continue its run of popularity well into 2003.
Ed. Note: The most disappointing game this year has got to be Soldier of Fortune 2. If linear gameplay is your thing, pick this up, but if a dynamic storyline and plot twists float your boat, you're best to pick up Jedi Knight 2.The graphics are nice in SoF2, and things do go boom (as well as splat), but the novelty wears off after 15 minutes.
Heatsink of the Year: Swiftech MCX462+ & MCX4000
When it comes to efficient design, nobody beats the Swiftech MCX462+ and the MCX4000 heatsinks. The MCX462+ is a Socket A cooler, and the MCX4000 is the Pentium 4 counterpart. Both units are based on a multi-helicoid pin design, and feature thick copper cores. They may come in at a high price, but any Swiftech owner will tell you that they are worth every penny.
Ed. Note: Honourable mention should go to the Vantec Aeroflow coolers (AMD and Pentium 4), as they provided great performance, at reasonable prices.
Memory of The Year: OCZ
You are going to be shocked at this mention, because nobody else is going to give them this award. OCZ is getting my award for best memory of the year, as they have made some excellent products. Their PC2700 Revision 3.2 memory allows overclocks up to 100 MHZ over stock at semi-aggressive timings. While Corsair memory may be just as good, OCZ won this award because it has a definite price advantage over Corsair.
Peripheral of the Year: iRock 530
If you're a person on the go who loves your MP3s, you'll need a MP3 player. Why spend $300, when you can get a very functional iRock 530 for just $129. The lightweight iRock comes with 128MB of built-in memory, and produces very good sound. The unit is under 3" tall, and comes with everything you need to get started.
Video Card of The Year: ATI R300
In 2002 we saw the impossible happen. ATI overtook longtime competitor nVidia in the 3D Gaming sector. With ATI already controlling market share in the workstation and portable markets, it is almost impossible to consider nVidia the 3D Graphics leader anymore.
The Radeon 9700 came in with 128MB of memory, AGP 8X and DirectX 9 support, as well as several ATI innovations. ATI managed to maintain their legendary image quality with this product, all the while destroying the TI4600 from Nvidia in pretty much every benchmark.
Look for ATI to shock the world in 2003 when it stops any momentum Nvidia will gain when the release the GeForceFX by dropping the R350 on us, which is supposed to better the specs of the GeForceFX, which actually aren't all that impressive in my opinion.
Ed. Note: I will actually go so far as to say that the GeForce 4 deserves an honourable mention for 2002. The Ti4xxx series have created a wealth of great gaming cards, from low end to high end, and has shown to be very stable and scalable with increasing CPU speeds. Late in the year, ATI pretty much put an end to this with their 9500 and 9500 Pro cards, but nothing is wrong with having a choice when shopping.
The most hyped launch this year has got to be the Matrox Parhelia. It was not a bad card, as its image quality, and triple head support were cool features (among a few more others), but let's face facts. Matrox hyped the card's triple monitor gaming, which would put it in the "gaming" catagory of cards, and it was simply humbled by the competitor's previous generation cards.
Worst Trend of the Year
Paper launches. For those who don't know, the big offenders this past year has been nVidia, and AMD. When the nForce2 and Athlon 2800+ CPUs were announced, these items were only available via a few OEM manufacturers. DIY system builders would end up waiting a couple months before either items were available. Adding insult to injury, the nForce2 in question (Asus) was a pre-production sample, so it wasn't really ready for primetime yet. nVidia didn't just stop with the nForce2 though, as the GeForceFX was another paper launched product, and at this time of writing, there are still no samples available for testing by reviewers. In defense of both AMD and nVidia, at least they didn't hype their products like BitBoys and Duke Nukem Forever.
Final Words
Thanks for joining us for our Best of 2002 Awards. Please come visit us in our forums to discuss your feelings on this article.
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