Page 1 of 1

Overlord's Favorite Hardware Review Sites

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:29 am
by docvego
Listing of various review sites that OOers enjoy. As always, don't put your faith on just one, read as many reviews on the item your interested in as you can and don't forget to tell us how you like it!

Overlord's Favorite Hardware Review Sites

Hardware Revolution
Adrian's Rojak Pot - nVidia/Ati video card comparison . Lots of info/reviews/tips, well updated.
AnandTech
Beyond3D: Video Cards
Extreme Tech
Firing Squad
HardOCP
Hardware Zone
Hexus.net
NeoSeeker - Meta Reviews, etc.
Sharky Extreme
Silent PC Review: Quiet Hardware
Storage Review: Harddrives
Tech Report
Toms Hardware
Notebook Review - Power Supplies - Motherboards


Other Nice Resources:
Reseller Ratings
PC Part Picker

[edited by Bakhtosh to make it a sticky]
[edited by DocVego to remove drama]

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:34 am
by Montag
While Toms has alot of info, I think it should be missing a tentacle or two because of perceived/known? biasis.

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:36 am
by docvego
Montag wrote:While Toms has alot of info, I think it should be missing a tentacle or two because of perceived/known? biasis.
People keep mentioning some deal with Toms, but I've never heard detail on it. Anyone care to fill me in?

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:58 am
by Jeff V

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 9:31 am
by The Meal
All things desktop hard disk drive: http://www.storagereview.com

~Neal

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 9:53 am
by Incendiary Lemon
docvego wrote:
Montag wrote:While Toms has alot of info, I think it should be missing a tentacle or two because of perceived/known? biasis.
People keep mentioning some deal with Toms, but I've never heard detail on it. Anyone care to fill me in?
Tom proclaimed the FX5800 as the pinnacle of Video Card Technology :lol: That would be the card immortalized as a leaf blower.



Anandtech makes the occasional error (they had an article on the Xbox 360 that was recalled without explanation) but they're quite reliable as a benchmark site and on my frequent visit list. My favorites are ExtremeTech and Beyond3D. Hexus.net is also worth mention, they had a mass review of thirty or so PSUs a little while back.

The Meal wrote:All things desktop hard disk drive: http://www.storagereview.com

~Neal
They update less and less often these days :(

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:30 am
by ChrisGwinn
Tech Report - www.techreport.com - is my first stop for hardware info these days.

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:31 am
by ChrisGwinn
Oh, and www.Beyond3d.com for graphics information.

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:41 am
by ChrisGwinn
Incendiary Lemon wrote:
docvego wrote:
Montag wrote:While Toms has alot of info, I think it should be missing a tentacle or two because of perceived/known? biasis.
People keep mentioning some deal with Toms, but I've never heard detail on it. Anyone care to fill me in?
Tom proclaimed the FX5800 as the pinnacle of Video Card Technology :lol: That would be the card immortalized as a leaf blower.
That's not quite accurate. I just went back and looked at their FX5800 review. It wasn't written by Tom, mentioned that you could hear it in another oom of the house, and explicitly did not address DX9 performance (which is where the 5800 really sucks).

I don't go to Tom's Hardware much because I can't stand their navigation and linking text ads. But I haven't seen any supportable claims of bias.

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 3:23 pm
by Carpet_pissr
This site used to be standard fare for me when I kept up with such things. The Overlords can look at it for themselves to determine whether or not it's worthy.

www.sharkyextreme.com

oh, and nowadays I always check out www.silentpcreview.com before I buy anything since I am freakish about my PC being quiet. Fan boys. Literally.

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:21 pm
by docvego
Carpet_pissr wrote:This site used to be standard fare for me when I kept up with such things. The Overlords can look at it for themselves to determine whether or not it's worthy.

www.sharkyextreme.com

oh, and nowadays I always check out www.silentpcreview.com before I buy anything since I am freakish about my PC being quiet. Fan boys. Literally.
Ahh I remember Sharky twas a grand site.

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:53 pm
by LawBeefaroni
First stop: Anandtech.
Second stop: Tom's.
Third stop: Google for reviews/forums.
Final stop: read specs.

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 9:36 am
by EvilHomer3k
Tom's hardware has been accused of publishing suspect reviews by a couple of different websites. HardOCP accused them of bias and Van's Hardware did as well. Van Smith used to work at Tom's until they had a disagreement. Kyle Bennett has accused Tom's of publishing reviews that are biased towards manufacturers that spend a lot of money on ads at Tom's.

Here is blurb from Tom's describing some of the story:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/blurb/02q3 ... index.html

Just note that it comes directly from Thomast Pabst so it is his version of the story.

The short of it is that Tom's has been accused by two other hardware sites (as well as a large group of forum posters) of publishing suspect reviews that they believe are biased.

I read Tom's articles but I don't hold their benchmarks in very high regard. I, personally, feel that Anandtech is the best place to go. I do, however read multiple sources.

Re: Overlord Approved Hardware Review Sites

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:25 am
by The Meal
docvego wrote:I'm not sure what the best way will be to rank them will be, but my initial thought is to put a certain number of Image next to each hardware review website that is suggested by X# of members.
Image

~Neal

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:28 pm
by Bakhtosh
This thread will be stickied, so long as the creator, or another designated replacement keeps it updated. If it gets stale, it may go away.

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:56 pm
by docvego
Bakhtosh wrote:This thread will be stickied, so long as the creator, or another designated replacement keeps it updated. If it gets stale, it may go away.
No prob, I've got it on Notify.

Thanks!

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 10:58 am
by Carpet_pissr
Can't believe Tom's is listed under the questionable category? The so called controversy has been hyped by an EX employee who started his own hardware website? Am I the only one that smells something rotten here? (and I really don't know anything about the dude, just looking at the circumstances which lead me to at least be cautious)

I personally have bought many a video card, CPU, MB, whatnot, over the years based on Tom's advice and reviews, followed some good advice on video editing, etc found in some of their guides, and I have to say that I have never had any reason to doubt the validity of their articles.

Could this also be a case of others being jealous or attacking a strong central player? (the Microsoft/Wal Mart effect)

I am no fanboy, and I would say I read Anandtech and other sites as much as Tom's, but I definitely think it should be listed as a great hardware resource site.

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 11:02 am
by docvego
I am no fanboy, and I would say I read Anandtech and other sites as much as Tom's, but I definitely think it should be listed as a great hardware resource site.
To the polls...

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 11:37 am
by EvilHomer3k
I would list it as approved but with a disclaimer. They have a lot of good information there. I use Tom's a lot but I know about their possible bias. So long as it is listed as possibly having a bias with the link to the backstory, I would vote to list it as approved.

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 12:55 pm
by docvego
from the look of the votes i've changed the listing.

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 1:50 pm
by Ranulf
Over time from my interpretation, Tom's has become somewhat biased towards intel, those who advert a lot on his site and their benchmarks aren't always the most "reliable". I'd certainly take a lot of his benchmarks with a grain of salt. However, I don't think it would inaccurate to say that Anand (at least the forums) has become pro AMD and Tom's somewhat pro intel either.

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 3:24 pm
by ChrisGwinn
I think trying to identify all of the real or imagined biases in review sites will send you down a terrible path. At the end of that path lies the gamespot forums and the sort of people who use abbreviations like MSM and SCLM. Why would we want to go there?

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 4:42 pm
by Carpet_pissr
I would also respectfully submit: www.neoseeker.com as a site to go to when you want to see a "global" review for a particular piece of hardware (maybe a motherboard for instance).

They basically find as many reviews for the item on the net as they can, and then give an aggregated score.

Pretty nifty. They also do their own in house hardware reviews, which are ok, but nothing special iirc.

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 9:43 am
by Padre
Ranulf wrote:Over time from my interpretation, Tom's has become somewhat biased towards intel, those who advert a lot on his site and their benchmarks aren't always the most "reliable". I'd certainly take a lot of his benchmarks with a grain of salt. However, I don't think it would inaccurate to say that Anand (at least the forums) has become pro AMD and Tom's somewhat pro intel either.
Hell, no. Tom's has been doing nothing but slam intel over it's failure with dual core tech recently.

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 12:27 pm
by Ranulf
Padre wrote:
Ranulf wrote:Over time from my interpretation, Tom's has become somewhat biased towards intel, those who advert a lot on his site and their benchmarks aren't always the most "reliable". I'd certainly take a lot of his benchmarks with a grain of salt. However, I don't think it would inaccurate to say that Anand (at least the forums) has become pro AMD and Tom's somewhat pro intel either.
Hell, no. Tom's has been doing nothing but slam intel over it's failure with dual core tech recently.
Wonders never cease then. :D

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 2:21 am
by Ragnarok
This one has a good video card comparison guide for nVidia/Ati. Lots of info/reviews/tips as well and is well updated.

www.rojakpot.com

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 6:38 pm
by onaznam
try our website:

www.hardwarezone.com

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:56 am
by tjg_marantz
Padre wrote:
Ranulf wrote:Over time from my interpretation, Tom's has become somewhat biased towards intel, those who advert a lot on his site and their benchmarks aren't always the most "reliable". I'd certainly take a lot of his benchmarks with a grain of salt. However, I don't think it would inaccurate to say that Anand (at least the forums) has become pro AMD and Tom's somewhat pro intel either.
Hell, no. Tom's has been doing nothing but slam intel over it's failure with dual core tech recently.
Which should pretty much discredit any argument that Tom's is biased one way or another on that front. That site calls out every company for doing something boneheaded. Intel's problems or AMD, the vid card manufacturers, everyone. The 5800 review was very well responded to already by CG. Carpet also made some good points. I go to Anandtech and THG and frankly, making a distinction between the two for recommendation is not doing anyone a service. I think putting a "note" in there leading to another post making a claim is not reponsible in the least.

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2007 6:02 pm
by marcusjm
What about notebookreview.com?

Marcus

Re: Overlord Approved Hardware Review Sites (3/15/06)

Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 4:07 pm
by Carpet_pissr
Got a new one to add, and I like it better than my traditional blogs (Tom's, Anand and previously Sharky):

http://www.hardware-revolution.com/budg ... c-q4-2010/" target="_blank

Offers current suggestions, WHY he picks those, and in brand name specific picks, why he picked that particular unit. Gives UPGRADE options as well. Just really like the format.

Re: Overlord's Favorite Hardware Review Sites (3/6/11)

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 5:58 pm
by docvego
Thanks, updated the list!

Re: Overlord's Favorite Hardware Review Sites (3/6/11)

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 1:36 pm
by Freezer-TPF-
For power supplies: http://www.jonnyguru.com" target="_blank
For motherboards: http://www.motherboards.org" target="_blank

Re: Overlord's Favorite Hardware Review Sites (3/14/11)

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 3:14 am
by Daehawk
Good site for building a PC.

PCpartspicker

Brands I trust due to 21 years of building PCs.
CPU - Intel
RAM - G-Skill / Patriot
MOBO - Gigabyte
SOUND - Sound Blaster
VIDEO - EVGA (old days Diamond)
CD/DVD - LG / Lite-On
PSU - Corsair / Seasonic
ROUTER - Asus / Linksys
CASE - In-Win / Cooler Master
MOUSE - Logitech
KB - Razer / IBM
HEADSET - Sennheiser (G4ME ZERO for me)
MONITOR - BenQ / Asus / Samsung / Sceptre

Re: Overlord's Favorite Hardware Review Sites (3/14/11)

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 9:42 am
by JCC
It's PC part picker (no s) but yes, that's an excellent site. I used it for several weeks before building my first PC in more than a decade in February. Couldn't believe how much easier it is now and how much fun it is.

Re: Overlord's Favorite Hardware Review Sites (3/14/11)

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 3:42 pm
by docvego
Used part picker for my last build as well, super handy!

Re: Overlord's Favorite Hardware Review Sites (3/14/11)

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:18 pm
by Kasey Chang
I've lost the will to build my own gaming PC. It's almost easier to order one built to my specs, and cheaper too. *sigh*

Re: Overlord's Favorite Hardware Review Sites (3/14/11)

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:26 pm
by Isgrimnur
Certainly a viable option. My Cyberpower rig has run almost trouble free for almost four years. And I can't really fault them for a bad name-brand HDD and a bad fan.

Re: Overlord's Favorite Hardware Review Sites (3/14/11)

Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 5:15 pm
by GreenGoo
Local chain will build a system to my specs for 50 bucks. Is it worth 50 bucks to not have to troubleshoot why it won't post? Hell yes.

I'm not building my next system, but I still need to pick the components...