The votes of our fourth annual Reader's Choice Awards are counted and the results have arrived. More than 22,000 readers particiated in this event and crowned the winners in 20 categories of PC components and peripherals.

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that this years awards added four new categories, reflecting the dynamic hardware environment for the enthusiast PC user. The new categories 'Best Innovation in Cases', 'Best Innovation in Fan Controllers', 'Best Power Supply Manufacturer', and 'Best Cooler Manufacturer' brought three new companies into the winner's circle of our ceremony.

Needless to mention, the voting process were rigorously controlled and sent through email verification to ensure every received vote was legitimate.

The results hold a number of surprises. For the first time in the admittedly not too-long history of the Reader's Choice Awards, ATI has to walk away without any first place. Last year, the company won the categories Best Innovation in Graphics, Best Graphics Card Manufacturer and Best Innovation in Mobile Technology. This year, these disciplines go to Nvidia, Asus and AMD.

AMD's first place in the desktop processor category came as little surprise, the victory however was even more significant than in previous years: The Athlon 64 won against the Pentium 4 by a 7:1 margin. Our readers also believe AMD derserves the award for 'The Best Innovation in Mobile Technology': The manufacturer's Mobile Athlon 64 placed first in this category, also with clear distance to Intel's Pentium M (Dothan core), which came in second.

Stop the talk. You are waiting for the results. Here we go.