About Best Of Components — How We Choose What to Recommend

Best Of Components exists to answer one question: out of everything on the market right now, what should you actually buy?

Helping you build better, without the guesswork

PC hardware shopping should not require thirty open tabs and a spreadsheet. Every category has a dozen plausible options, each with a spec sheet designed to make it look like the obvious choice, and a price that moves week to week.

We cut through that. For each category we name one pick, explain what it beats and why, and state the trade-offs plainly instead of burying them. Whether you are building a first gaming PC or replacing a single component, the goal is that you leave with a decision, not more reading.

What we actually do

We are not an independent test lab, and we do not pretend to be. Buying every card, running it for weeks, and controlling for every variable is a multi-million-pound operation.

What we do instead:

Read the labs that do run the testing. Established, independently verifiable benchmark sites and reviewers produce the performance data. We work from theirs rather than inventing our own.
Check what things actually cost. Recommendations are weighed against real retail pricing now, not the RRP from launch day.
Say which is which. Where a product has genuinely been handled in person, the guide says so explicitly. Where it has not, it does not imply otherwise.
Commit to an answer. One pick per use case, with the reasoning shown.

Our story

Best Of Components started from a straightforward frustration: the information needed to choose a component already exists, but it is scattered across benchmark charts, forum threads, retailer listings and marketing copy, and almost none of it accounts for what the part costs where you live.

This is the resource we wanted when we were putting together our own first builds — one that does the cross-referencing, states its sources, and is honest about the difference between a measured result and an educated judgement.

What we cover

PC components — CPUs, GPUs, motherboards, memory, storage, power supplies and cooling.
PC guides — the explainers behind the picks: what a spec actually means and when it matters.
Peripherals — keyboards, mice, mousepads and the rest of the desk.
Monitors — from budget 1080p panels to 4K and OLED, including the specs that get glossed over.
Laptops and handhelds — portable gaming hardware across the price range.
Deals — genuine price movement on hardware worth owning, not a feed of every discount that exists.

Our values

Honesty. We say what we think of a product, good or bad. No recommendation is influenced by what it pays.
Research. Every pick is backed by published performance data and a comparison against its real competitors — not by vibes or spec-sheet reading.
Clarity. If a difference is too small to notice in practice, we say so, even when it is the difference a manufacturer is charging for.
Currency. Hardware and pricing move fast. Guides are revisited as parts are launched, discontinued or repriced.

How a pick gets made

Shortlist. Establish which products in a category are genuinely worth considering this quarter.
Research. Pull performance data for each from established, independently verifiable sources.
Compare. Set each option against its direct competitors, not against its own marketing.
Price. Check what each actually costs at retail right now, in the reader’s market.
Recommend. Weigh performance against price for the stated use case and name one winner, with the trade-offs stated.

How we make money

Most product links here are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy through one, we earn a small commission from the retailer — at no extra cost to you, and with no effect on the price you pay.

Because we cover the UK and Europe, product links point to the Amazon marketplace closest to you — amazon.co.uk, amazon.ie, amazon.de, or amazon.com as a fallback — so you see local pricing and shipping rather than a store you cannot usefully buy from. The full details are in our affiliate disclosure.

Does this influence what we recommend? No. The commission comes from the retailer, not the manufacturer, and it is the same regardless of which product you choose. We do not accept payment for placement, we do not sell coverage, and we do not review products supplied on the condition of a favourable write-up. Some of what we recommend earns us nothing at all.

Corrections

Pricing and availability move fast, and we get things wrong sometimes. If you spot an error — a stale price, a discontinued model, a benchmark that has since been superseded — tell us and we will fix it and say that we did.

Get in touch

Questions, corrections, or a product you think deserves a look? Contact us. We read everything, and reader questions regularly decide what gets covered next. We handle your details as described in our privacy policy.