an issue about anandtech

[forrestroche]

Originally posted by: yakki1234
...and some advertisers pulled out. in the end... it was the right thing to do.

You're obviously not a shareholder.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: bluedeviltron
Exactly.

I'm a n00b at most of this stuff, and I just want them to tell me...

WHAT IS BETTER???

do more research

 

[forrestroche]

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
a.) You are a troll - you registered just to say something nasty.
b.) You are in the wrong forum
c.) AT did not exist in '96
d.) Since you only have 2 posts (all in this thread), you have no right to criticize anything
e.) If you want to advertise a competing site, you should pay the going rates.

go back to tom's hardware if its better, opening up your big mouth is not going to change anything here anyway, since nobody cares what you think, and your slimy attempt to drive people to that site are a waste of time.

I am reminded of some customer reviews that I stumbled across recently on Amazon.com. My girlfriend likes opera and I decided to buy her a cd for her birthday. Searching for a good recording of Puccini's Turandot, I discovered, much to my surprise, a flame war in the review section of a recording by Joan Sutherland (I don't know a thing about opera, so I was googling around trying to find the "best"). Here is a BRIEF excerpt:

"Nilsson is the ultimate Turandot. Her voice is a hydrogen bomb dropping on a nuclear power plant. Sutherland's weak, anemic voice is a disgrace to all other recorded Turandots. Sutherland should take up needlepoint."

Of course others said things like this:

"You say that Sills and Caballe have better techniques and more beautiful voices than Sutherland. But do they sing Turandot? If not, please don't bore us with your jealousy and immaturity. You are obviously a very bitter person who can't take the fact the Sutherland is a very beloved singer. And what have Joan done to you for you to just plain put her down? What is your problem?"

It seems that if politics and sports ceased to exist, it wouldn't really matter, because if humankind ever needed an excuse to abuse his fellow, well, there's still opera and AT/TH. Am I the only one who feels relieved?

 

[flatblastard]

If you need someone to tell you WHAT and WHAT NOT to buy when building a rig, then I would suggest you buy from dell/hp/etc and save yourself the trouble of reading the reviews from various sights, combining that with some common sense, and drawing your own conclusions. If you can't take the enthusiast heat, then get out tha kitchen.

 

[yakki1234]

gawd...

is it really that hard to understand what i'm trying to say? these are NOT it:

a.) i'm not asking the reviews to be bias
b.) i'm not asking for the reviews of crappy products
c.) i'm not pushing TH

here's what i'm trying to say... again but differently worded.

the review CONCLUSIONS are trying too hard not step on any of the sponsor's or manufactor's toes... that's why you hardly see any bad recomendations anymore. they seem to side step by saying things like... "product A is not as good as product B HOWEVER it's good enough for doing _______ ". whether it's political pressure or just being polite, i don't know, but they seem politically correct.

take the Yugo. it's cheap and will fit college students with a small budget. it gets you from A to B, but it's still a crappy car. what the reviewers need realize that there is a standard for what is a quality product for a reasonable price, especially considering most AT readers are pretty savy. if the product falls below a certain quality but is dirt cheap and still great for word processing... that product still sux (that's just an example).

before you reply... at least understand the post.

 

[Tom]

the answer is no, it isn't worth it.

 

[yakki1234]

Originally posted by: Tom
the answer is no, it isn't worth it.

i'm glad you came up with that clever answer... i give up

 

[flatblastard]

Originally posted by: yakki1234
gawd...

is it really that hard to understand what i'm trying to say? these are NOT it:

a.) i'm not asking the reviews to be bias
b.) i'm not asking for the reviews of crappy products
c.) i'm not pushing TH

here's what i'm trying to say... again but differently worded.

the review CONCLUSIONS are trying too hard not step on any of the sponsor's or manufactor's toes... that's why you hardly see any bad recomendations anymore. they seem to side step by saying things like... "product A is not as good as product B HOWEVER it's good enough for doing _______ ". whether it's political pressure or just being polite, i don't know, but they seem politically correct.

take the Yugo. it's cheap and will fit college students with a small budget. it gets you from A to B, but it's still a crappy car. what the reviewers need realize that there is a standard for what is a quality product for a reasonable price, especially considering most AT readers are pretty savy. if the product falls below a certain quality but is dirt cheap and still great for word processing... that product still sux (that's just an example).

before you reply... at least understand the post.

Could it be at all possible that Anandtech and others don't care to review crappy products anymore? Or, perhaps there are not as many crappy products being sent to them for review? Has the quality of manufactured PC components improved significantly over these last few years?
The likely answer is no, and I do see your point, however, it is quite easy to read between the lines (at least for me it is) when reading various review aticles. My suggestion would be for you to know what information you are looking for before you even bother reading a review, otherwise you will get caught up in the author's "agenda" and become angry upon reading something you disagree with, or not finding the answer you were looking for.
Nobody's perfect, not even wes,kris, and all the other reviewers around the world. Hey, I used to complain all the time (still do sometimes) about some of the content found in these reviews, and most of the time I was corrected by the author and felt satisfied afterwards, even though I ended up looking like a jerk most of the time, lol

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: yakki1234

Originally posted by: Tom
the answer is no, it isn't worth it.

i'm glad you came up with that clever answer... i give up

i :heart: you. will you marry me and bare my children?

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: n7

If you want to read a review saying buy this or that, you would like Tom's, as they are full of crap usually, & will tell you what they think, even if it's biased BS.

Yeah ...everyone keeps ripping on Tom's. Yet they've recommended A64 over P4, X dual A64 processors over Pentium D duals, ATI cards over Nvidia, M-audio sound cards for music and audigy for games, logitech z5500 speakers. They often have extensive overclocking benches and crown same motherboards as other websites. Now that I come to think of it, most of the things they write is what every other website writes. So how are they biased exactly? They recommended 9800Pro over 5800Ultra and always praised AXP processors for prividing a great bang for the buck. They gave ATI a chance with 8500 when it came out and they've linked tons of interesting articles as well as cpu interactive comparison charts and continuous updates to their vga charts.

Not 1 site can have it all. But having Tom's opinion often helps one to disagree more or agree. Either way, it's beneficial. At least tom's finally decided to move away from benching cpus at anything below 1280x1024. Anandtech continues to do so......pretty stupid if you ask me.

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

In this age of Quantum Physics reasserting the Rishis of ancient India in which both sides of a duality are in fact a singularity of expressed Divine Consciousness, I must conclude that Anandtech is too wish-washy with their reviews except when they are firm with their reccomendations. That is not the question you are really asking. That is not the answer you are seeking. The true question. The freeing question is, "WHAT IS THE MATRIX?"

I usually don't give the reviewer's conclusion more than a passing glance, especially if it is about hardware or software I am already familiar with, because I have already drawn conclusions based upon the facts and figures (and opinions) within the review itself. I certainly hope that the reviewer's of Anandtech are getting kickbacks from certain companies in exchange for their hard work.

 

[Pariah]

I agree completely with you yakki1234, and have said as much in other threads. Anand is a fence sitter, pure and simple. The conclusions in his reviews are pretty much a waste of time to read since as you say, he hardly says anything or makes any real conclusions. That's not to say the actual reviews are bad, or that he fakes numbers, screws them up, slants them, or any other such bologna. But, if you're looking for what's wrong with a product, Anand is about the last of the major reviews site you want to visit. Even in the rare intances he's says something negative, it is almost always followed by a qualification, or some other attempt to minimize the damage.

Say what you will about THG, but don't deny that they will trash a product if they don't like it and tell you why. You might not agree with the reason, but at least they will tell you about it so you can form your own opinion rather than sugar coat it or not mention it all like Anand. That doesn't mean that THG is better than Anand, as THG will post some flat out awful reviews from time to time which Anand doesn't seem to ever do. Anand's storage reviews are pretty poor, but are works of art compared to the slop that THG posts. THG does some very informative articles from time to time that you won't find anywhere else, like the giant roundups they do that allow you to compare all the current video cards in one article, or the giant CPU roundup that went all the way back to the Pentium he did in the same vein.

You're right yakki1234, but not sure what you want anyone to do about it. You shouldn't base purchases on any one site. Always read a few and try and form your own opinion, because to be honest, except for a very select few sites, the words between the graphs are not worth your time from most of them.

 

[Steven the Leech]

I have never really given it much thought, but you are probably right. The last time I researched reveiw sites reveiws, was for a DVD burner, and remember not finding a good answer/recomendation from any site. I did however find information about the different drives out at the moment, and narrowed it down to two drives, anand's [sounded like/almost was recomended] top choice, was never an option to me, but the 2 drives I chose from [actually bought 1 of each last year] were reveiwed very nicely. Hell I looked for a month, and never really found any one site/reveiw [that i trusted] that said Buy this drive it is hands down the best drive on the market, and that is what I really wanted to find at the time, so I do understand what you are saying.
With that being said, I dont think it would be prudent for anandtech to go around making decisions for consumers and then expect all of the manufacturers to want them to reveiw their products.

I can say that I always check out anand first for reveiws on products I am interested in.

I gave up a year ago on reveiwing digital camera's to purchase, the amount of info available and the opinions available on the subject, are mind boggling to me. This would be one item I would like to have been able to have a reveiwer that I trusted say "buy this camera it is absolutely the top choice" but as always there are too many variables et al price/features/ad nauseam.

 

[gsaldivar]

Anandtech's reviews are meant for professionals who actually read them to gain insight and understanding on the issues behind the products, not for fanboi's who are googling for a URL to paste under whatever point they're trying to make but just can't find the words...

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: airfoil
It dont matter whether or not you're a troll...what does matter and remains a fact is that AT is simply the best review site there is

I hope you're not right... :shocked:

 

[bigboxes]

I never tell my customers what to do. I recommend. Granted AT is not always perfect, but it's not for their efforts. AT is much better than TH in accuracy and thoroughness.

Since the world is not "black & white"... */gets out troll icon*

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Originally posted by: yakki1234
i've been looking at anandtech since '96 and recently i've got a gripe. anyone else notice that the review conclusions are starting to get watered down? i mean... how many review end with... "is this product worth it... well yes and no"... dammit!!!! give me a definate answer as a person that would visit anandtech would expect. dont get me wrong this is still a great site but it's getting a little too P.C. (pun intended). i'm sure alot of you know what i'm talking about

I don't need someone to tell my if they would buy something, rather why they would buy something. That's where Anand is coming from. Personally, I read both site's reviews & neither decide for me, but both offer a great deal of factual info for me to decide with.

 

[Blain]

Tech-Report :thumbsup: