[H] Consumer coming back maybe?

[Dark Prodigy]

Miss the hell out of the boutique PC reviews from [H] Consumer... Maybe in the near future it can return..or am I wishing too hard?

 

[450]

Miss the hell out of the boutique PC reviews from [H] Consumer... Maybe in the near future it can return..or am I wishing too hard?

I loved the reviews as well. I liked the reviews about Dell's and such too. I'd even be happy if [H] started to review small accessories and stuff like sound cards and speakers.

 

[Menelmarar]

I loved the reviews as well. I liked the reviews about Dell's and such too. I'd even be happy if [H] started to review small accessories and stuff like sound cards and speakers.

I think Kyle's stance in the past has been if he can't do an extensive well controlled thorough review, they don't do it. Relying on subjective opinion is not preferred, even though they have done that (e.g. the weird yellow computer glasses).

Just look at how much they invested in equipment and resources for their power supply evaluations. Thorough audio reviews may require simliar investment, and there really aren't that many players and it doesn't play such an important role in building a PC, most of the time these days, onboard is sufficient.

Most people that visit this site are enthusiasts, not many of us buy off-the-shelf PCs. Sure they may have been interesting, but they never really were of any real benefited or use to me, and I think Kyle and/or his sponsors realized that was the general case for 95+% of this site's audience.

 

[Bigbacon]

I loved the reviews as well. I liked the reviews about Dell's and such too. I'd even be happy if [H] started to review small accessories and stuff like sound cards and speakers.

I liked them as well. you can still be an enthusiast and buy an off the shelf PC. Like buy a car and being a car enthusiast.

But I understand the costs involved. I thought that was a major reason why it was shut down.

 

[FrgMstr]

Miss the hell out of the boutique PC reviews from [H] Consumer... Maybe in the near future it can return..or am I wishing too hard?

I think Kyle's stance in the past has been if he can't do an extensive well controlled thorough review, they don't do it. Relying on subjective opinion is not preferred, even though they have done that (e.g. the weird yellow computer glasses).

Just look at how much they invested in equipment and resources for their power supply evaluations. Thorough audio reviews may require simliar investment, and there really aren't that many players and it doesn't play such an important role in building a PC, most of the time these days, onboard is sufficient.

Most people that visit this site are enthusiasts, not many of us buy off-the-shelf PCs. Sure they may have been interesting, but they never really were of any real benefited or use to me, and I think Kyle and/or his sponsors realized that was the general case for 95+% of this site's audience.

There are no plans for [H] Consumer to ever return.

I spent over $250,000 on that project while it was alive and we could never get it to reap any true profitability. We were told by major advertising firms that our reviews were simply too detailed and critical. We could not get any system builders on board to support us via advertising.

Fair deal, my bad call on putting together the business model. Before shutting down [H] Consumer I did go to Michael Dell and offer our services privately and he made this happen. It took about 9 months to get up and rolling, but we were actively reviewing systems internally for Dell. The business looked to be on the right path to be profitable. Then Dell laid off 3200 people in its Round Rock facilities. Just happened to be the two teams we were embedded with. I gave it up at that point. Too many years of hard work that produced nothing but hard work. I was proud of our team and what it did, but I just could not see pushing forward again from scratch so I threw in the towel.

 

[phide]

I'd even be happy if [H] started to review...sound cards and speakers.

Ditto, but reviewing those things well costs some bucks, unfortunately. "Right", in my mind, would entail a minimum hardware investment of ~$15k. There's not much interest in that sort of thing anyway.

I'd guess that probably close to 95% of [H] members use onboard sound and are likely very content with that.

 

[FrgMstr]

Ditto, but reviewing those things well costs some bucks, unfortunately. "Right", in my mind, would entail a minimum hardware investment of ~$15k. There's not much interest in that sort of thing anyway.

I'd guess that probably close to 95% of [H] members use onboard sound and are likely very content with that.

We are working on our first audio card review now, by a new editor that has a passion for sound and the [H] way of doing things. Not sure how it will come out yet, but we will see.

 

[phide]

Great. I look forward to it.

 

[Shalafi]

I too enjoyed those articles, they were where I got some of my first exposure to the hardocp site (long time lurker) I do understand the reasoning behind shutting it down, if advertisers can't handle the heat from the reviews, and if you're not willing to sell out, then there's no money that will change hands. There's no real point in putting money into something that isn't making money, even if you have a passion for it, at some point, enough is enough, this is a business after all.

I'm just glad this is a site where I know most of the time i'll get the unvarnished truth and I know there's some a seriously [H]ard evaluation process that products have to go through in order to be recommended. I'd rather have that than some instant award winning reviews followed by advertising pop ups recommending that product.

If it costs a few advertisers but keeps the us readers informed on what to watch out for and what to buy, I'm all for that.