Clearly 2009 has been a watershed year for all of technology, and we'd be remiss of our duties if we didn't break down our favorites in our most closely watched segments to close out the decade. Read on to see which products and technologies raised the bar and garnered our praise in 2009--from CPUs to SSDs to peripherals, it's all here. Our top picks represent the best bang for the buck and / or most impressive products in a category, while the runners-up require some sort of compromise in one area or another, whether it be price, features, or performance...
HotHardware's Best Of 2009 Awards

Marco Chiappetta
Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com