The 12th-Gen “Alder Lake” CPUs are Intel’s most impressive release in a decade, and the Core i5-12600K offers the best value of the bunch. Packing in a total of 10 cores (6 performance and 4 efficiency), plus an additional 6 threads, it can easily beat anything AMD has in games, and has productivity power on par with the best previous-gen 8 cores.

MSI as usual packs tons of value into its “A” series motherboard, and this Socket 1700 model is a perfect match for Intel’s latest CPUs. It features four M.2 slots (three being Gen 4), a PCIe Gen 5 video card slot, eight USB ports (including a Type-C port), and integrated WiFi 6. Note that it conforms to the DDR4 RAM standard, allowing the use of less expensive memory while maintaining similar performance versus DDR5 RAM.

To get the most out of DDR4 memory, you want high frequencies, and Patriot’s Viper Steel 2x8GB DDR4-3600 CL14 kit delivers! DDR4-3600 is the sweet spot in terms of compatibility with the majority of DDR4-based systems, and to get the most out of 3600 RAM, you want tight timings, which this delivers in spades: 14-16-16 at 1.45V, to be exact. We asked Patriot to create this kit back in 2020 when we tested their ultra-fast (but hard to use) 4400 kit. We knew Patriot could win a lot more users if it simply reprogrammed its kit for ultra-low latency rather than ultra-high frequency, and now it’s here!

WD knocked it out of the park with its high-performance yet bargain-priced SN570. Optimized for excellent real-world performance thanks to WD’s years of SSD development, it easily keeps up with much more expensive drives. This 1TB model can provide sequential read speeds of 3500MB/s and write speeds of 3500MB/s. Note that you’ll need a jeweler’s-type screwdriver to affix it.

Arctic started with its proven P12 design and made it even better with the ARGB version. It adds not only very slick ARGB effects, but also a stabilizer ring at the blade edges, rubber bumpers on the corners, and a 0dB mode, allowing it to spin smoothly down to zero with a low PWM signal. In our shootout, this fan performed amazingly well, beating even the P12! Basically, if you’re looking for the best all-around ARGB fan on the market, whether for heatsink, radiator, or case fan applications, this is the one!

Windows 11 take everything people loved about Windows 10, and then takes it to 11! It adds significant under-the-hood changes to make it faster and more secure, and of course, the interface is sleek too!