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"Changes" Editorial @ [H] Consumer

  • Thread starter Deleted member 119758
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Exactly one year ago, we published an editorial on the status of our Systems Evaluation Program. Over the past year, there have been a lot of changes, and there are more changes to come. Our new article talks about what the future of [H] Consumer looks like.

We talk about our recent changes in personnel, changes in our OEM membership, changes in the type of content we want to provide, and most importantly, some changes to our scoring system. We hope that you enjoy a glance into the inner workings of [H] Consumer.

Thanks for reading!
 
very nice read. looking forward to more great "evaluations"
May I suggest that the video cards in the systems you review stop being
run over by kyles hummer before the review is done?
 
Good show. Glad to hear that you're changing up your rating system.

Yeah, it's never perfect, but at least it beats "industry-friendly" ratings from CNET and IGN! I always enjoy reading your reviews.
 
Great stuff. It's always good to see the free alternative leading the way.

[H] has provided some of the best reads I've had on the web to date and is my most trusted source of reliable and fair comparisons and evaluations. Possibly my only gripe is that I have no way of telling if the scores are applicable to other counties; whether Dell in the US is the same as Dell in New Zealand for instance (maybe a long term goal?).
 
Nice to see Josh with us - I've been reading MaximumPC mag since 1999.
 
Good read. And also liking the new raiting's system.

Keep up the good work for sure!
 
That article fills me with warm fuzzies. I almost feel like I am there in Texas watching the
members of [H] Consumer do their thang. I think that working for [H] Consumer would be
really kick-ass and maybe after I get some reviewing experience under my belt with
GPUReview.com, I will apply for a position with you.

What I would like to see are some pics (or video) of the [H] Consumer offices once in a while.

Jason: "Here we have Tim working with the Gateway DX115. How's it going Tim?"
Tim: "Aaah!"
Jason: "Uh Tim I am pretty sure that system did not come with porn on it."
Tim: "I am.. uh.. testing the system's vulnerability to viruses by downloading lots of porn from shifty websites."
Jason: "Riiight...Well then moving on..."

I bet the office looks really cool and there are things happening everywhere. Also it would
be nice to know what systems are in the works before the article hits the web, in case
there are people who want to buy System A from Company B but are not sure if [H]
Consumer is working on an evaluation of System A (or a different system) from Company B.

[H] Consumer presents... Coming Attractions! Now presented in amazing Evaluationavision!
 
This sounds like an excellent idea, and props to Dell being there for people who may not even be customers. Hopefully they will take the lessons learned from [H] to heart. And reviewing digital cameras sounds like an excellent idea.

More exciting though is knowing there are new companies coming on board.

Look out consumer reports, with your weird skewed reviews, here comes the [H]!!!
 
mentok1982 said:
What I would like to see are some pics (or video) of the [H] Consumer offices once in a while.

Jason: "Here we have Tim working with the Gateway DX115. How's it going Tim?"
Tim: "Aaah!"
Jason: "Uh Tim I am pretty sure that system did not come with porn on it."
Tim: "I am.. uh.. testing the system's vulnerability to viruses by downloading lots of porn from shifty websites."
Jason: "Riiight...Well then moving on..."
Click to expand...

I know you're kidding, but for the record, Jason is the only one allowed to do porno virus testing. ;)
 
mentok1982 said:
Jason: "Here we have Tim working with the Gateway DX115. How's it going Tim?"
Tim: "Aaah!"
Jason: "Uh Tim I am pretty sure that system did not come with porn on it."
Tim: "I am.. uh.. testing the system's vulnerability to viruses by downloading lots of porn from shifty websites."
Jason: "Riiight...Well then moving on..."
Click to expand...

If Tim needs any help with that testing I'll volunteer. :D

Thanks for watching out for us [H]. :cool:
 
Good read.

Welcome to the new Editors.

Now.....

Go THRASH there [H]ardware and tell us what happens!!! ;)

Looking forward to broader content!! :D
 
I hope this is an annual event - Reviewing the process, espeicially when you have a hightly critical audience is the right way to go. You've taken a look at what you have done right, what can be improved, and even what you've done "wrong" so that the end product is valueable across many end-users.

While I myself will not likely buy a pre-built system, I have recommended vendors based on your evaluations to friends and family. I look forward to consumer product evaluations as well for when I dediced spend money on some HTPC gear.

Change is good - keep it up. The [H] is gaining a solid reputation, not only among readers but amongst the companies that make what we buy.

"Good Jeeoooorb!"

Peace,
Tim
 
mentok1982 said:
What I would like to see are some pics (or video) of the [H] Consumer offices once in a while.

Jason: "Here we have Tim working with the Gateway DX115. How's it going Tim?"
Tim: "Aaah!"
Jason: "Uh Tim I am pretty sure that system did not come with porn on it."
Tim: "I am.. uh.. testing the system's vulnerability to viruses by downloading lots of porn from shifty websites."
Jason: "Riiight...Well then moving on..."

I bet the office looks really cool and there are things happening everywhere. Also it would
be nice to know what systems are in the works before the article hits the web, in case
there are people who want to buy System A from Company B but are not sure if [H]
Consumer is working on an evaluation of System A (or a different system) from Company B.
Click to expand...

I thought of including an [H] Consumer staff picture, but the internet can be a dangerous place to have your picture up - perhaps you've never seen the photochop contests in GenMay... You'll see a video of us abusing the Durabook very soon, though.

For the record, if I find pornographic material on anyone's computer, it will be confiscated...err, I mean, deleted.

We'd love to give y'all sneak peeks, but that might compromise some of our experiences with the company. If an article is coming close to completion, then we might mention that we've got it coming up in passing.
 
Thanks for all of the support folks. Writing these articles isn't an easy job, and I have to give a lot of credit to my writing staff. They're a great crew.

I hope that we can continue to provide top-notch content on stuff that you guys are truly interested in. Coming up, we're going to have some hardware round-ups. We'll be talking about headphone solutions - does the high end get you anything? We're also going to be doing a USB Flash drive roundup - speed aside, can this thing survive a round in the washing machine?

Thanks for reading, and feel free to write me anytime.
 
I really like your reviews. They provide more insight into the quality of owning a particular PC then any other website. You guys are not afraid of giving a negative review and that is something I never what to see change. I think your approach helps everyone in the long run. It takes some hard truth and a little kick in the ass to get some of these companies back on track doing their jobs... building quality systems and providing quality support.

I hope your format of serious real world evaluation of actual production product does not ever change. I do agree completely with the rating system... it seemed silly that the utter worse system ever on the planet (tiger direct) still got a 5. If I was trying to guage that system it would tell me that you would still recommend 50% of the time... it was too confusing. A clear "not recommended" is perfect.

But to make those ratings mean something, [H] needs to continue to be about the consumer and not the $$$$, or high profile massaged reviews.
 
I would like to see a picture of the authors with each article.

The only person at [H] I have ever seen a picture of is Kyle Bennett. :D
 
I will be interesting to see reviews from places like Dell. I know a lot of new features show up at Dell and the like. I noticed at Dell the Dimension 9200 comes with a 375 watt power supply and much better video cards then many of the other systems and keeps the price down. Solutions like this may be good for people that want a decent system and warranty but do not want to build the system. True no over clocking, but that is not what dell is about.

BTW the system can be built with an inexpensive 256MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GS, 512MB nVidia GeForce 790 GTX, or a 1GB nVidia GeForce 7950 GX2.

and

AGEIA® PhysX® physics accelerator

So as Dell steps into the Gaming era It will be exciting to see what this company will do. I say exciting because Dell is mainly a “for the masses”. Yes I know Dell has XPS computers for gaming, but the 9200 is not built as a gaming computer just “raw power”.

(no I do not work for nor am I affiliated with anyone who is)
 
I love the articles and have read each with a good deal of enjoyment.

This is a great service. I cant wait to see more from my "friends" at Alienware.

The new ratings system seems far and easy(easier) to understand. :D
 
I like how your getting away from numbers. As a avid MaximumPC reader, i usually skip the useless numbers and go straight to the pro's and con's, thats where the real info is.

It would be nice to see a pro/con to every catagory. Like price, speed, build, support, etc.
 
Given that you have manufacturers on-board with the program, does that fact prevent you from purchasing a system anonymously. For example, will dell know that [H]consumer is buying a PC and as such will attach a special service tag to the PC you order?
 
Negative. As we have explained many times in the past, the only thing that the partnerships mean is that after the article, we can return the system for a refund. We don't let them know that we're buying a machine. The only contact they have from us is at the end of the article when we call to talk about our experience and arrange for a refund.
 
Nice read and keep up the good work.

Technical specs of a computer say only so much and it is very helpful to find out how the computer work in real life, does it perform as expected given the hardware? Are there any software problems? If and when something breaks down can you get help and does it fix your problem? Do you get help the same day over the phone or do you have to send your computer away for a week or two?

These are all important things for us consumers when we decide to part with a large part of our money and I bet many if not all of the stores have changed something to the better after your evaluations, something that benefits both us consumers and the stores.

Great work guys.
 
Chris recently left us to accept a position with [H] Consumer fan favorite, Velocity Micro. After serving in the industry for nearly a decade, including a foray into running his own system integration company, Chris is now in the upper leadership of one of the most successful integrators in the business.

I love your articles and [H] is the one place I go to every day for news and reviews.

Since Chris Morley has left, did you guys mind-wipe him so he wouldn't spill the beans on [H]'s Evaluation process? If I was Velocity Micro I would have huge Klaxons alarms and lights go off on any order coming from Texas. I would also have Morley chained down to his desk in the orders dept to scour all 'suspicious' orders to find [H]'s order.

;)
 
kwaichangkang said:
[COLOR=DarkOrange
Since Chris Morley has left, did you guys mind-wipe him so he wouldn't spill the beans on [H]'s Evaluation process? If I was Velocity Micro I would have huge Klaxons alarms and lights go off on any order coming from Texas. I would also have Morley chained down to his desk in the orders dept to scour all 'suspicious' orders to find [H]'s order.

;)
Click to expand...

I would think that as part of partnership agreement [H] would have to explain that anyway, and if they don't, they would offer it up if asked as well. After all the point of the [H]Consumer review is not just to educate the consumer, but is also used I'M SURE by the OEMs and integrators to improve areas in which they don't do well. Look at VM and how closely they watch these boards. It would be naive and wasteful for these companies NOT to use the reviews as a barometer.

On the same note, good reviews are completely transparent so that everyone has a fair chance. For a company to cheat on a [H] review would be counter productive. Yes, [H] has an ever-growing audience, but it isn't a great advertisement location. Not THAT much traffic. As a result the partner companies want these reviews to be as natural as possible to use them to fix problems.

In theory.
 
kwaichangkang said:
Since Chris Morley has left, did you guys mind-wipe him so he wouldn't spill the beans on [H]'s Evaluation process? If I was Velocity Micro I would have huge Klaxons alarms and lights go off on any order coming from Texas. I would also have Morley chained down to his desk in the orders dept to scour all 'suspicious' orders to find [H]'s order.
Click to expand...

Indeed, Chris's knowledge of our process is a liability, but it's only for VM. For them, we use a couple of layers of smoke, which could include purchasing the computer at a Best Buy, such as in our last eval. There's also nothing suspicious about our orders - they look just like any other customer's. Don't worry - we're on top of it.

As far as our testing goes, if they make sure that all of the systems that leave their assembly line can pass all of our testing, then they're producing great machines anyway.
 
DNA Doc said:
Indeed, Chris's knowledge of our process is a liability, but it's only for VM. For them, we use a couple of layers of smoke, which could include purchasing the computer at a Best Buy, such as in our last eval. There's also nothing suspicious about our orders - they look just like any other customer's. Don't worry - we're on top of it.

As far as our testing goes, if they make sure that all of the systems that leave their assembly line can pass all of our testing, then they're producing great machines anyway.
Click to expand...

Tongue firmly in cheek ;)

You guys are the shit, keep it [H]ard
 
Definitely a warm welcome to the new staff. I'm very pleased to see that [H] decided to move to a non-numbered final scoring system and are keeping on top of their process.
 
So with all of these OEM's comming on board and giving access to their entire product line, any chance we can have this style review on work station and servers. Heck some of us are consumers for folding or other high end stuff at home.

Anyhow, I have only recently started reading the system reviews and find them very informative and in many cases I have agreed with the results.
 
Though it links to the correct article, the hyperlink to the Dell XPS 400 article shows up as XPS 410. FYI.

As everyone else has said, great article, and looking forward to the future content.
 
DNA Doc said:
We're also going to be doing a USB Flash drive roundup - speed aside, can this thing survive a round in the washing machine?
Click to expand...
Hah! Gotta say that I've already got one candidate right here in my pocket that has survived one round in the washing machine, due to my absentmindedness: the Memorex Traveldrive 1GB USB2.0.

It still works like a charm, but I do hear a rattle in it now when it is shaken.
 
electech98 said:
Hah! Gotta say that I've already got one candidate right here in my pocket that has survived one round in the washing machine, due to my absentmindedness: the Memorex Traveldrive 1GB USB2.0.

It still works like a charm, but I do hear a rattle in it now when it is shaken.
Click to expand...

rofl, you and me both... same model actually. And since I got it for $20 at best buy, I'd say it's worth it.
 
I can't believe it has been a whole year since the "tabbed" site launched. At first I didn't care too much for it, but it has worked out great.

I guess this makes it about 5 years of almost daily reading. You guys have grown a lot, yet still stayed authentic. I really appreciate your service.

Also, glad to see the Consumer scoring scale system changed--it made me think of the game review sites that only use 7-9 of a 10 point scale.

Now you just need to have a local LAN party...
 
you guys are amazing.


Highly Recommended....and that's the bottom line :)
 
JOESKURTU said:
I would like to see a picture of the authors with each article.

The only person at [H] I have ever seen a picture of is Kyle Bennett. :D
Click to expand...
Go see Steve with hotties on hypothermia ... heck he's even in Saint's Row! ;)

[edit starts here, clicked submit too early]

Also, a warm welcome to the new staff, looking forward to enjoying your masterpieces.

Tim, love your pr0n, I mean, evaluations... All the others too.

I like the new system, I find that it will complement your Conclusions very well...

Here's to another year, Cheers!
beerjz5.gif
 
I found Hardocp through this program and enjoy your product. I have to say the last review seemed to me and many others to be an abandonment of your principles as applied in other reviews. Closing the thread where the community was discussing it was very un[H]ard.

And before someone says it, no, I'm not disappointed because I have some vendetta for FNW. They're a great company, but the abandonment of what made your reviews so good seemed a bit fishy to someone who's anxiously read each of them when they are released.

Keep up the good work though, I just hope that last review was an anomaly.
 
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