No joke, the best piece of hardware I've used in 2025 is actually a router.

For someone whose daily job is to write about, test, and review PCs, components, and peripherals, you'd think I'd know instantly what my top pick for the best hardware of 2025 is. The problem is, I've been utterly spoilt for choice this year. (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Future) As well as officially reviewing numerous mice, ergonomic keyboards, motherboards, RAM kits, processors, and all kinds of other hardware, I've also used a range of PC products for testing game performance and just as part of my collection of test rigs in the office. Some of them I've bought myself, others have been kindly provided by hardware companies (and let me take this opportunity to directly thank MSI, Asus, and Corsair on that note). (Image credit: Future) Absolutely none of it has been rubbish. Even the products that didn't get a high review score still had some feature to make them stand out a bit from the crowd, or offered something special for the right user. I absolutely adore Thermal Grizzly's Der8enchtable, for example, but it's near-useless for most PC gamers. Likewise, I was left really disappointed by the Naya Create, but I bet that with all its 'early access' niggles fixed, it could be the ultimate ergo keyboard for some folk. And I can say pretty much the same about anything I've reviewed or used this year. But there's been one piece of kit that's graced my office in 2025 that, and I say this without a hint of hyperbole, has utterly changed my daily PC life, both for work and gaming. Believe it or not, it's a mere router. Yes, I know that the technically correct phrase is 'a router, switch, and wireless access point all-in-one device', but you know what I mean. (Image credit: Future) Specifically, it's the TP-Link Deco BE68 (or BE67, if you buy it at Amazon) and continuing with the theme of specificity, it's a mesh router. Basically, you get two or three nodes/hubs/routers in the box, and you can either link them together via LAN cables or let them automatically create a seamless network via Wi-Fi. The secret sauce behind the Deco's brilliance is Wi-Fi 7, and I can tell now, with all honesty, switching from a Wi-Fi 6 network to a home full of Deco wireless connectivity has been the best upgrade I've done... well, not just this year, but probably the past five years. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. I have a 1.1 Gbps fibre connection to my house, but with my previous Wi-Fi network, I could only ever get a download speed of 450 Mbps, maybe 500 at best. Given the location of my office and the nature of the house, trailing LAN cables everywhere isn't an option, nor is using powerline adapters to route the network through the...

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