Bit-tech, Bit-gamer & Custom PC Award Winners Announced

Bit-tech, Bit-gamer & Custom PC Award Winners Announced

As the year starts to draw to a close and retailers start telling us that it's almost Christmas, even though it clearly isn't, it's time to once again reveal which companies our readers were the biggest fans of this year. There was some stiff competition this year as companies competed for awards such as 'Best Motherboard Manufacturer' and 'Best Retailer'.

So, if you want to find out what how other readers have got on with what they bought this year, then take a look at the list of finalists below.

Best Motherboard Manufacturer - Asus

Asus won the award for best motherboard manufacturer, beating both Gigabyte and MSI to the punch after a year of strong releases. One of Asus' latest products, the Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z, left us particularly impressed this year - check out our Gene-Z review for more information about that!

Best Graphics Manufacturer - Asus

The award for best graphics manufacturer is one of the most coveted prizes we give away and this year was gladly claimed by Asus, which edged out MSI and Sapphire in our reader voted awards. This year's three finalists were only separated by a few votes; an indication of the level of competition in the graphics market.

Best Memory Manufacturer - Corsair

It's been a busy year for Corsair, which has branched out into gaming peripherals for the first time. That hasn't affected the company's performance in the memory market however, with Corsair beating Crucial and Kingston to win this year.

Best PSU Manufacturer - Corsair

We said it had been a busy year for Corsair and we really meant it, as the company had to find the time to collect an award for best power supplies, as well as best memory. The runners up in this category were Antec and Cooler Master.

Best Case Manufacturer - Cooler Master

Despite SilverStone and Fractal Design releasing some truly fantastic cases this year, the readers' case manufacturer of choice was Cooler Master, with Antec and SilverStone taking second and third place in your hearts.

Best PC & Laptop Manufacturer - Asus

Asus' third reader-voted award recognises the company's work in the manufacturing of whole PCs and laptops; an area in which the company has enjoyed enormous success thanks to the strength of the EEE brand. Asus just managed to beat Scan and Alienware for this award.

Best Retailer - Scan

Winning the best retailer award for the third year running, Scan managed to beat both Amazon and Ebuyer this year.

Overclocking & Cooling Award - Corsair

Corsair managed to sneak ahead of Arctic and Cooler Master this year. Corsair's new range of CPU coolers, especially its pre-filled water-cooling loops, has been especially popular.

Best Modding Manufacturer - Thermaltake

In a repeat performance, Thermaltake managed to pip both Dremel and Zalman to the post and grabbed this award for the way it's supported the modding community this year. Thermaltake's products can be seen in some of the most impressive mods this year too and, with the Mod of the Year competition on the horizon, there's never been a better time to check out our Modding Index.

Best RMA & Service Award - Scan

Scan's excellent customer service was probably a contributing factor in it winning the Best Retailer award, so it's no surprise to see the company win again here. In fact, Scan even runs its own support forum on bit-tech, which no doubt helped the company win its second victory over Amazon and Ebuyer.

Breakthrough of the Year - Be Quiet!

This year's Breakthrough of the Year award was very closely fought between three companies; Be Quiet! for its brilliant CPU coolers, Wargaming.net for its awesome free-to-play game World of Tanks and Corsair for its excellent speakers. In the end, though, there could only be one winner, and that is Be Quiet! for its superb debut into the CPU cooler market.

Best PC Game Developer - Valve

The PC gaming market has been quite quiet so far this year, with most of the big games being held back for the lucrative Christmas market. However, many of you clearly agreed with Joe's words that Valve's Portal 2 'is a truly fantastic game, a worthy sequel in almost every way and a joy to play.'

Best Console Game Developer - Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts has had an interesting and incredibly successful year so far, with games such as Crysis 2 appealing directly to the hardcore gamer in terms of tone and technology. What's especially interesting to note, however, is that the publisher's biggest release of the year, Battlefield 3, wasn't even out when the voting took place.

Editorial Award for Technical Innovation - Intel Sandy Bridge

Intel won this award for its power-efficient Sandy Bridge series of CPUs, which were also the first processors to include an on-die GPU. Other nominations included the AMD Bobcat, Neptune's Pride for being utterly evil, World of Tanks for Clan Wars and the GeForce GTX 580 for its mix of high-speed and low-power transistors that tamed the Fermi architecture.

Editorial Award for Elite Hardware - MSI N580 GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition

This award is given to the one piece of kit we'd buy if money wasn't an issue. MSI won this year with its MSI N580 GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition, because of its awesome performance. Other nominations included Intel's Core i7-2600K, Corsair's SP2500 speakers and Asus' Maximus IV Gene-Z.