<< Memetic transfer. Word of mouth. Buzz.
Different names for the same thing. You get enough people talking about something and it becomes "the thing" to have. The Enermax PSU hype of last year is an excellent example. Panaflo fans are another. There are many excellent fans out there, but Panaflo is the one with the buzz.
Fads are a specific type of buzz. Take casemodding (please) and watercooling. Two years ago the Cases and Cooling forum was hopping with threads about this. Sure there are still people doing it, but it's not quite the wacky thing it was back then.
When the Athlon was released and some PSUs fell short of making the AMD Approved list, the community began a crazy hunt for "the best" PSU. Hardware review sites began looking for ways to differentiate the PSUs and the PSU manufacturers pandered to this craze. Part of AMD's recommendations for PSUs was that they include two fans, one on the bottom for intake and one in the back for exhaust. Enermax stepped up and made a few models and threw in some extra features like longer cables. This made the PSUs nicer than others and gave the review sites something to latch on to. Most review sites are run by students with busy schedules. Looking around at their competitor's sites they see Enermax being reviewed so they feel they must also review it. Then the forums start talking about it, linking to all the review sites. Pretty soon it's "the one". Buzz at its best.
The thing is, many of us know that Antec PSUs were always good, even the previous generation. They were quieter than the Enermax too since they worked fine but didn't include the extra fan. Now Antec has a new PSU and people are talking about it. Five years ago Sparkle PSUs were the best to buy. These things happen.
The video card wars were an extreme example of this. Sure there was tech involved, but there were also market forces due to hype. >>
Thank-you. That had to be one of the more calm, direct, insighful, without "sarcasm" posts I've read in quite sometime. The forums live.