Best PC components of 2024: our top picks for upgrading your rig

With new technology looming on the horizon, it won’t be long before we’re thrust into the next generation of graphics cards, displays, and whatever else CES 2025 throws at us. However, before we can truly appreciate what’s to come, we first need to reflect on everything 2024 had to offer. Safe to say this year has kept the team here at Club386 pretty busy.

The big three didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, but each managed to raise the bar for CPUs and GPUs. Nvidia reconsidered its value with a Super refresh of its RTX 40 Series, AMD introduced its new X3D-clad Ryzen 9000 Series processors, and in perhaps the most surprising move of all, Intel redefined the budget graphics card market with Arc B580.

Of course, these aren’t the only players who aimed to change the game. Using our expert analysis, we’ve picked out our favourite components throughout the year, highlighting only the best each category has to offer based on our tests. Let’s take look:

Best CPU

Winner: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
Runner-up: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
Honourable mention: Intel Core Ultra 9 288V

In a year chock-full of disappointing processors, Ryzen 7 9800X3D serves as a reminder of just how exciting CPUs can be. Combining AMD’s Zen 5 architecture and 3D V-Cache technology makes for a potent one-two combo, but it’s the smart design changes under the hood that truly separate this chip from its predecessors and peers.

Shifting 3D V-Cache to underneath the chip’s eight CPU cores rather than atop nets several seismic benefits. This design provides better heat dissipation, in turn affording breathing room to turn up clock speeds and voltages that each push performance even higher. Overclocking also becomes a possibility for the first time on an X3D processor – a win-win all around.

Excellent as Ryzen 7 9800X3D is for gaming, it’s only right that Ryzen 9 9950X receives some flowers for its productivity prowess. It handily proves itself the superior processor in the majority of applications relative to its competition, both in terms of efficiency and performance. A 3D V-Cache replacement of sorts is undoubtedly en route but for now there’s no mistaking which chip rules this particular roost.

While Intel’s desktop Core Ultra 200S CPUs fell flat due to weaker performance and we’re still waiting for a fix, it’s not a complete wash for Team Blue. Instead, its efficient mobile Core Ultra 9 288V processor is a landmark for laptops and gaming handhelds, doubling battery life over 13th Gen alternatives and steering x86 into the future.

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Best Graphics Card

Winner: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super
Runner-up: Intel Arc B580
Honourable mention: Sapphire Pure Radeon RX 7700 XT Frostpunk 2

Three’s a crowd, but GeForce RTX 4070 Super manages to stand out the most relative to its two Super Series siblings. A 22% bump in core GPU specifications relative to the original RTX 4070 sees performance greatly increase, often surpassing RTX 3090 and snapping at the heels of the now-retired RTX 4070 Ti. For $600, it’s difficult to fault this graphics card’s value.

Truly, the only thing holding back this midrange marvel from proper perfection is its 12GB VRAM capacity. Within this constraint, GeForce RTX 4070 shines at FHD (1080p) and QHD (1440p) resolutions. However, the card can reach for the lofty heights of 4K (2160p) in a pinch with DLSS Super Resolution and Frame Generation backing it. Here’s hoping Nvidia can take its imminent GeForce RTX 50 Series successor that extra mile.

This year’s runner-up, Arc B580, is a welcome fresh face in a stagnant budget market. Intel has successfully upended the lower-end of the price spectrum with its B Series offering, bringing the value of its competitors firmly into question. XeSS 2 looks impressive too, but it needs time to cement itself alongside competing solutions. With patience, the seeds of Battlemage and its technologies should germinate into a beautiful bloom.

Sapphire deserves an honourable mention for giving Radeon RX 7700 XT a fresh coat of Frostpunk 2-themed paint this year. It’s a graphics card we’re all familiar with, but holds up plenty fine in 2024, pushing around 131fps in Black Ops 6.

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Best Motherboard

Winner: MSI MEG X870E Godlike
Runner-up: MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi
Honourable mentions: ASRock PG Z890 Lightning WiFi, Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice, and MSI MEG Z890 Unify-X

There’s no motherboard money-can-buy more magnificent than MSI MEG X870E Godlike. It’s spectacular in specification and in its showpiece-like qualities, offering plentiful blazing-fast I/O and robust VRM behind a splash of tasteful LEDs and eye-catching LCD. There’s no avoiding that you need exceptionally deep pockets to afford one but there’s simply nothing better out there for those with the means.

For the more sensible, value-oriented among us there’s MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi. Its affordability comes with few noticeable compromises, enhancing the base offering of its chipset with a cornucopia of welcome features that novice and seasoned system builders will appreciate. Regardless of which processor you pair with it, be it Ryzen 9000 or 7000, this board makes for a properly solid foundation from which to build an AM5 PC.

Our honourable mentions go out to the Z890 motherboards we tested this year. The LGA1851 platform has clear value in its support for Thunderbolt 4 and faster memory transfer speeds than X870. Pick from any of our review stock and you’ll find a sensible choice to centre your Core Ultra 200S build around.

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Best Storage

Winner: MSI Spatium M580 Frozr 2TB
Runner-up: MSI Datamag 20Gbps
Honourable mention: WD My Passport Ultra Emerald 6TB

The speed and prevalence of PCIe 5.0 SSDs both grew exponentially in 2024, but none impressed us more than MSI’s Spatium M580 Frozr 2TB. Its impressive 14.6GB/s sequential read speeds make it a class-leading drive, topping the charts of most tests we threw at it. Importantly, though, it manages to keep its cool while blazing a trail too, thanks to its awesomely large passive heatsink.

From the powerful to the portable, Datamag 20Gbps has become an invaluable part of Sam’s workflow. It’s hard to resist the pull of its magnetic backplate as it makes marrying the SSD to a laptop, smartphone, or other device for that matter a breeze. It’s spacious, speedy, stealthy, and stylish storage, what more could you want?

Shiny as solid-state drives are, we have to give a shoutout to My Passport Ultra Emerald 6TB. WD’s My Passport range has been carrying our data to and fro for 20 years now, still rocking hard-disk drives underneath the chassis to this day. There’s no ignoring the steady decline of mechanical storage but there’s still life left in the technology today, especially for those who need space over speed.

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Best Memory

Winner: Kingston Fury KF560C36BBEAK2-64
Runner-up: Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5 CUDIMM

There’s one RAM kit that continues to serve Club386 without issue, Kingston’s Fury Beast DDR5 RGB memory (KF560C36BBEAK2-64). These two 32GB modules run in dual-channel at 6,000MT/s as part of our AM5 test systems, ensuring that the Ryzen 9 7950X3D at the heart of each PC is free to perform its best. They’re also one of a growing number of sticks to offer both AMD EXPO and Intel XMP profiles, making them an ideal choice for either brand.

Looking to the future of memory, our runner-up spot goes to CUDIMM. Through this shift in design, systems everywhere will come to enjoy RAM that’s both faster and more reliable than ubiquitous UDIMM kits. Support for the standard is currently exclusive to Z890 motherboards, but given a generation of chipset or two and it’ll undoubtedly become the new gold-standard for both AMD and Intel CPUs.

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Best Chassis

Winner: be quiet! Light Base 600 FX
Runner-up: Fractal Design Mood
Honourable mention: Fractal Design North XL

It’s tough to imagine what more a chassis can do, but be quiet! shows there’s always room for improvement. Debuting its first panoramic PC case, Light Base 600 FX left us starstruck with integrated RGB, a gorgeous white option, and three styles in one. It solved the headache of flipping a reversible chassis by making it a ten second job, while also bringing the horizontal orientation back in fashion. This showstopper still sits beside Damien, giving a window into his Intel Core i9-14900K build, and there’s a larger Light Base 900 model for those requiring more room.

For the more size-conscious among you, Fractal Design Mood demonstrates how it’s done in the small form-factor (SFF) arena. Swapping tinted glass panels for cloak of fabric, the Mini-ITX case boasts a distinct vertical aesthetic that looks more like a router than a PC. This clever decision-making helps it blend into any room and gives it enough space to wiggle a 240mm AIO and graphics cards up to 325mm – including the beefy RTX 4090. It’s not all form over function, though, as the accessible open frame makes building a breeze.

Following in the footsteps of the original, Fractal Design North XL deserves an honourable mention being the same wonderful wood-adorned chassis but with plenty more room. Now, you can fit a 420mm cooler, E-ATX motherboard, and the biggest graphics cards on the market into the same elegant earthy wrapping we fell in love with back in 2022. After all, what’s the point in fixing what’s not broken?

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Best Cooling

Winner: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420 ARGB
Runner-up: Noctua NH D15 G2
Honourable mention: be quiet! Light Loop 240

Proving that size does, in fact, matter, Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420 ARGB is a dazzling display of what an AIO cooler can do to rein in insatiable 253W processors. A trio of 140mm fans promise lower noises than 120mm alternatives while keeping temperatures cooler, all in exchange for a bit more space in your case. Simply comparing it to the 360mm model, you can save 7.5°C and still keep it quieter. We loved this beast so much that it became our go-to cooler in all three of Club386’s 2024 test benches.

As much as we love cranking the dial to 11, sometimes all you want is a tried-and-true air solution, and you can’t get any better than Noctua NH-D15 G2. The second generation of its beloved brown and beige blower has been ten years in the making and feels like it’s sculpted by the gods themselves, offering an average of 8% extra performance over its peers. All three flavours built for AMD, Intel, and general use cost a premium, but G2 believes every single degree counts.

Eye-catching AIO coolers are a dime a dozen nowadays, which makes it all the more impressive that be quiet! Light Loop stands out from the crowd. Eschewing fancy displays, Damien is particularly taken with its “reactor-style aesthetic,” as the pump and Light Wings LX fans shines brighter than a diamond. You’ll struggle to find anything as tantalisingly beautiful.

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Best PSU

Winner: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 13 1,300W
Runner-up: Enermax Revolution D.F.X 1,200W

It’s no surprise to see be quiet! top the charts once again, preparing its flagship power supply for what’s to come. Although most systems can easily get away with 850W for gaming, Dark Power Pro 13 1,300W is primed and ready for Nvidia’s next-generation of graphics cards, which could guzzle anywhere between 500W and 600W according to rumours.

This is about more than just capacity, though. We equipped the Club386 test bench with one because it supports dual 12VHPWR inputs to satiate the needs of Blackwell architecture no matter what lies in store. It’s also tough not to love its six virtual 12V rails, which make overclocking a cinch. The cherry on top is its impeccable 80 Plus Titanium rating, minimising waste by utilising 94.5% of all energy used.

Enermax Revolution D.F.X 1,200W secures the silver medal as a well-rounded power supply capable of powering any modern build. It’s a little shorter, fitting into spaces be quiet! won’t, with a similar twin 12VHPWR spec. 80 Plus Gold isn’t quite as efficient as our top pick, but it’s superb at half the price.

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Best Monitor

Winner: Philips Evnia 27M2N8500
Runner-up: MSI MAG 274QRF QD E2
Honourable mention: Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3

Damien has set his sights on plenty of pixels throughout 2024, but no screen stood out more than the 27in Philips Evnia 27M2N8500. The premium QD-OLED panel pairs with a fantastic 360Hz refresh rate and stunning QHD resolution, making for the ideal gaming monitor. Using its rich reputation for RGB, Philips puts on a light show with Ambiglow projecting an array of colours onto the wall behind it. However, the real kicker is the starting price. At £650 / $650, it’s an absolute steal.

Attentions might firmly be on OLED, but MSI MAG 274QRF QD E2 proves there’s plenty of life left in good old IPS. Impeccable colour accuracy, wonderfully wide gamut coverage, and astonishing brightness put the screen in a league of its own, while keeping prices so low you’ll forget about its average contrast ratios and black levels.

Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q3 is certainly worth an honourable mention, performing strikingly similar to our favourite of the year with all the hallmarks of a stellar gaming monitor at a slightly higher price. Fortunately, it’s come down over the months, making it a good alternative if Philips Evnia 27M2N8500 is unavailable.