2014: Year in Review

May

Noctua NH-D15

Noctua has always been a force to reckon with when it comes to CPU coolers, and last year the Austrian company finally updated its flagship NH-D14 cooler to the NH-D15. It is of course an absolute monster of a cooler, with two large fin stacks joined by two even larger fans (and room for a third). Unsurprisingly, it dominated our CPU cooler performance charts, putting even some of the best all-in-one liquid coolers to shame given how quiet it stayed. This, along with outstanding craftsmanship, easy installation and even a meticulously packaged set of accessories means you'll struggle to find a better air cooler for your CPU if you've the room for it.

Asus Maximus VII Ranger

In preparation for its Devil's Canyon and Broadwell desktop parts, Intel released its new 9-series chipsets (Z97 and H97) in May last year. These chipsets were for the most part unexciting and identical to their 8-series counterparts, with one key exception: integrated support for PCI-E based storage in the form of SATA Express and M.2. As such, the motherboards we looked at, and that we've seen since, were not all that exciting. However, one board stood out above the rest, and that's Asus's Maximus VII Ranger. The Ranger is a new SKU in the ROG line-up, which has always been considered highly desirable by enthusiasts for the premium looks, components and features used. By stripping away just a few relatively unimportant features from the Hero SKU, Asus was able to bring ROG to a new, more affordable price tag with the Z97 launch without sacrificing the good looks, overclockability or unique ROG features.

SilverStone Raven RVZ01

SilverStone's case designers have always been masters of optimising their use of space, as cases like the Fortress FT03 Mini and Sugo SG10 have shown in the past. However, the RVZ01 took this to new levels. In spite of its small dimensions and low volume, the RVZ01 can house a seriously powerful mini-ITX system, with room for a full length, dual-slot graphics card, an optical drive and four internal drives. With the right hardware, you can even install a custom water-cooling loop inside! Of course, the case is not without its limits – it's only compatible with SFX PSUs, slimline optical drives and low-profile CPU coolers, but it's an outstanding design nonetheless. Furthermore, with its strategically positioned slimline fans and positive air pressure cooling design, the Raven RVZ01 has the best out-of-box cooling for both CPUs and GPUs that we've ever seen from a mini-ITX case. Even better news is that the all-aluminium Fortress version, the FTZ01, is due for release very soon.

News

• DisplayPort gets G-Sync like Adaptive-Sync tech
  
• Oculus VR picks up Google Glass engineer
  
• Microsoft announces Surface Pro 3, Surface Mini MIA
  
• Novena open laptop smashes crowd-funding goal
  
• Valve delays Steam Controller to 2015