There's already quite a lot on this in the reviews sections and a couple of bodyarmour threads.
I think it's no secret that I have quite a history of crashing, so body armour is a bit of a passion of mine.
The first thing to remember is that ALL body armour is a compromise.
You're compromising between weight, heat, comfort, intrusiveness, flexibility, coverage, effectiveness.
D3O is attractive because it's flexible and, theoretically, reactive - so it hardens on impacts reducing transmitted shock forces.
The downsides of D3O is that it's heavy and a hot, it's a big wobbly lump of heavy foam stuck against your body. The other downside of D3O and any of the none newtonian armours is that they work far far better if they have a harder outer plastic skin/shell to spread impact forces over the pads area. Sadly, most don't - because it's complicated to add that and retain the flexibility, keep some air flow, it's more expensive to make - not just some super cheap goop you can bang in a mold for 10p and sell for £20.
In terms of comfort, they're better in winter as it's cooler. Hence why they first were used for Skiing. The downside being that they're often a bit stiffer when it's cold until they warm up.
They're are also lots of different types. D3O being the main one people know. Leatt do their own 3DF - slightly stiffer by default, so slightly more protective whether reacting or not. Sastec - often cheaper and can be warmer due to simpler designs/less venting.
Then you need to look at what bits you want armoured. Shoulders ? Elbows ? Knees ? Back ? Chest ? Kidneys ? Hips ? Coccyx ? Kidneys ? Stomach ?
You also need to keep in mind that armour won't make you immortal. It won't guarantee you won't break things. However, it will - or should, reduce the severity of impacts. So if you do fall and break a rib with armour on - you'd probably have broken several, punctured a lung and have severe lacerations if you'd not had the armour on.
Generally, the more parts you armour, the warmer you'll be. But again, fortunately, there are many different types and different solutions.
What you choose will depend on what you want to armour, where you ride (terrain/risk/temperatures), how you ride and other factors, like if it worries you if you end up looking like robocop or not.
Just some examples.
For the upper body for instance there's the TLD7855. This uses twin density foams sandwiched together which work really effectively for most off's, though you can still break ribs and so on if you crash impressively enough. Something like that has one of the largest armoured coverages available, yet only weighs about 700g. If you made the same thing with D3O it would weigh about 5kg's. It also breaths really well. It's negatives are you need to wear something underneath or it rubs your nippes and glues itself to you + the back armour is segmented so not as effective compared to a full length back protector - like nearly all armours it also runs short at the back to keep MX guys happy. The shoulders are also a bit lacking, but easy to swap out for better ones.
You might just want chest/rib/back - so something like a hard plastic/polycarbonate with foam TLD5900 (or similar) - wear it straight on your skin and you can barely tell you're wearing it - lighter, cooler, thinner, more effective, better coverage than something similar in D3O.
Or with some upper arm, shoulders, collar bone - the tld5955 - wear it over your shirt normally, though can be worn under but the shirt needs to accommodate the shoudlers.
Just shoulders ? Something like the Leatt Armoured Tee.
Ultimately, it's not JUST about buying the "BEST" body armour. It's pointless buying something which makes you feel like Iron Man if it's so hot, uncomfortable, restrictive, difficult to put on and off that you only wear it for 10% of rides. You ideally want to end up with something which you're comfortable wearing for 90-100% of rides - or it's not protecting you !
For something like knees, the 7iDP Sam Hill pads are comfortable, light, cool and effective. I've been off in these at least 100 times and have no knee injuries. They're getting a bit torn up now, but they still work. I tried several before I settled on these. I hate D3O for knee's.
Elbows, something like the Leatt 6.0's are comfortable and have a plastic outer to help spread sharper impacts.
If you're just worried about your back, then if you already take a backpack, maybe change to a backpack with inbuilt armour.
Most D3O "Jackets"/Tops will generally only have elbows/back/shoulders. If they have chest armour it's normally a useless bit of thin foam because more D3O makes it too heavy and hot - though the useless bit of thin foam is normally enough to make your chest hot without adding any relevant protection. They're fine for that, if you're happy just with protection in those areas.
I'll stop there as it's getting long and boring and it's mainly covered in other threads.
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