1998 has passed into the pages of history, so we thought it would be nice to take a look back at the hardware products that helped to define the year.

Over the course of the next few pages we'll present to you our picks for the most successful and beneficial hardware that 1998 had to offer

All of the picks are based on the Sharky Extreme staff's subjective ratings and opinions, and are meant to spotlight the most capable hardware within certain categories.

We'll begin with the most important starting point for any gamer's rig: The CPU.