The Best Hardware of 2016

March

Fractal Design Define Nano S


While certainly not to everyone's taste thanks to its relatively large dimensions for a mini-ITX case, the Define Nano S does many things right. As with most Fractal cases, it's solid, neutral in the looks department, easy to work with, and very competitively priced. Its water-cooling support is also virtually unmatched. In short: It's an excellent choice for an easy route into the small form factor world, especially if your build includes a radiator or two.

Cooler Master MasterKeys Pro L and Pro S


Cooler Master may have been a little late to the mechanical RGB keyboard party, but we'd argue it was fashionably late rather than why-even-bother late, as these two keyboards prove. The design is as simple as they come, but these MasterKeys boards ooze quality at every turn, from the real Cherry MX switches to the detachable, braided cable and the awesome, hardware-based, plug-and-play control scheme that flew in the face of the dependence on software we were used to from competitors like Corsair and Razer. Here, the software is totally optional and used to refine rather than define the colours you use.

Xtrfy XG-M2-NiP


March certainly seemed to be a month of companies showing that less can be more when it comes to peripherals. This mouse done away completely with software and ludicrous levels of customisation in favour of an extremely comfortable design, a practically flawless sensor and features that are actually useful to games like on-the-fly sensitivity adjustment. It wasn't ground-breaking on any front, but its combination of simplicity and quality was hard to argue with and won us over.