OC3D Awards
Awards Explanation
If you are wondering the details of why a particular product received a particular award, then this page is here to explain the rationale behind each one.
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The Aesthetics award is all about looks and build quality. As the ability of manufacturers to get their products correct is now almost a given, so the aesthetics, the looks, are vital to separate one product from another. This award is for those peripherals and hardware items that wow us with their levels of want. |
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Enthusiast could be taken to just be something that performs to a high level, but we have the Performance award for those. Instead this Enthusiast Award is for something which has enormous capability but requires some effort on the part of the owner to get the most out of it. A case which is easy to mod but only great if you mod it would be a perfect example. This is an award for those products that you cant help but want and end up having to explain why! |
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The Gamer award pretty much does exactly what you expect. It’s for those bits of hardware that are best used by those of you who almost solely game on your systems. A keyboard with multiple macro buttons isn’t much use for a typist but perfect for gamers. |
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Innovation is our rarest award and is given to those products which move the whole market forwards. The Tuniq Tower changed air cooling, and the Asetek AIO brought water cooling to the masses. Those are exactly the type of product ripe for the Innovation Award. |
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OC3D Approved is a more general award, suited to those products which do everything well without being particularly outstanding in any one area. It’s perhaps best expressed when you’ve seen something that caught your eye and you were curious as to whether it’s worthy of consideration as a purchase. This award demonstrates that it is. |
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Performance Award is one of our oldest awards and does the same job it always has. It’s for those hardware items which, money no object, get the job done. If you want to test the very limits of current technology, these are the products for you. |
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Silence is an award which, much like the Gamer Award, does exactly what it says on the tin. As hardware has become ever more efficient so noise levels in our systems have reduced. There is nothing worse than having a fan whining away even at idle, and this award is for those items which will make your system suitable for a monastery, even under heavy loading. |
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Finally our Value Award. Most of us have fiscal restraints and need to extract the best possible performance from a limited budget. This award is for those pieces of hardware which go above and beyond their price point to deliver fantastic value for money. |