Thinking about starting a hardware reviews site...your thoughts?

[Petra]

Hey everyone! I'm thinking of starting a hardware reviews site (I can already hear the collective 'not another one' remark...so, spare me. ) and I was curious as to what your thoughts were. Computer hardware is something that, generally, I am really good with and, more importantly, my writing skills are pretty good--I'm also quite good at analyzing things in a methodical and logical manner.

I understand that I'm probably going to run into quite a few problems/roadblocks if/when I go ahead with this but I feel that it may be a worthwhile thing to do. I already have a webserver up and running as well as some extra bandwidth that I could use so, other than lacking a custom domain name, I'm pretty much set in that regard. The main issue, however, will be financing the whole operation. I realize that I may get some free stuff out of doing reviews as well as some ad money down the road but, initially, I am most likely going to be the one who will end up paying for just about everything as, I'm sure, is the case with most other new review sites (unless they already have connections).

So, yeah, comments/thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated.


As a side note, I really love the [H] but I just want to have my own little place to try my hand at hardware reviews, editorial pieces, and crazy/interesting/informative projects.

 

[ilkka]

Sure, start one. I think experience would probably be a better guide than anything people here can tell you.

 

[jamestime88]

i think its a great idea. just make sure that you know what your talking about. most the stuff i read from some of these hardware review sites isnt even true (or logical).

and remember if you even need help writing a review, im sure the people here would be "glad" to help.

 

[RS3RS]

Any idea what you'd call it?

Just wondering

 

[Petra]

Well, RS3RS, seeing as how my handle around here and my usual gaming handle is Petra, I was thinking of just calling the site Petra'sTech. Incredibly creative, I know

jamestime88, I've noticed the same thing about a lot of hardware sites recently and it kinda bother me when I see it. One of the other things that kinda bothers me is the mass of people mindlessly following Tom's Hardware (based on the poll that was on NewEgg a while back) but that's a different can of worms which I'd prefer not to open at the moment.


Oh, and, as a really random side note, I'm having a hard time deciding wether to go with the NF7-S or the DFI NFII Ultra Infinity to replace my dead 8RDA+. From what I've looked at, they are both pretty good boards but I am somewhat concerned about the BIOS issues that some people have been having with the rev 2 NF7-S boards (like not being able to exceed 220MHz FSB with a multi of 10-10.5 when CPU Interface Enhanced is enabled in BIOS 1.2 and later). My concern with the DFI mobo, however, is that it doesn't look like my SLK-900U would clear the capacitors located below the CPU socket...or would it?

 

[Petra]

I was playing around in Photoshop last night trying to create a logo for the site and, given my somewhat limited Photoshop skills, here's what I came up with... When I get some more fonts I should be able to come up with something a little more interesting because my current library of fonts is pretty small. Anyway, each image is slightly different so let me know what you think.

Also, I've come up with an interesting way to save my server's bandwidth... I was thinking of putting just the site's code files (the files containing the HTML/CSS/whatever) on my webserver and keeping the image/video files on a webhosting thing that I have (100MB storage and I'm pretty sure that it doesn't have a monthly bandwidth limit) so, when people access the site, the page layout/content is loaded from my server and all of the graphics and stuff are loaded from the webhosting account. By setting things up this way it would reduce the amount of load put on my server's internet connection and allow a lot more people to visit the site at the same time without much of a slowdown. Good idea? Bad idea?

 

[HRslammR]

be sure and have an average joe test.

that is, you slap it in and install the drivers and see how it performs.

 

[micah]

I think a site that is fair to all should do real well. One of the reasons I hang out on this site as much as I do is they give every product a fair shot. In others words they are not pro ATI or pro NVIDIA and all of the other ones. They let the product speck for itself like it should be.

So if you have your favorite products you should not let that care over into your reviews or reports.

If you do a story on say a new ATI card. Bench mark it against the NVIDIA card of the same price and power range. Let them battle it out without your own input saying what one is better. Same for any other product let it go against anything out there that can compete with it.

I have stopped going to some sites as they was pro whatever and the other guys suck. Everything they post has their opinion all threw it and someone like me just does not like to see that crap all of the time. We want to see the facts and make our own opinion on things from the facts.
I have even seen some sites post things that just has to be wrong. You can see on one site that such and such a product does this and that. And then on this one site they something totally different and show how bad it is. Now how can everyone else think one thing and just this one site think different. If it is not that they like one brand over the other and will do whatever it takes to make the one look bad.

So my advice is. Be fair and honest and just show the facts without your own judgment in it. Sure at the end of the story you can say you think this or that is better than the other. But you should also add that it is your opinion and that every one should make up their own facts from the stats that have been shown.

If you do it that way I will say I will go there and read them. And I am sure a lot of others feel the same.
Everyone has something they like and no matter what anyone says they will stick with it. But as a reviewer they should just tell the facts and be honest about it. If they are not to me at least I just know them as lier's and want nothing to do with them any more. If your wanting to make and money from ads and such you want them coming back.

 

[jpmkm]

If you want to be a fair and impartial reviewer, buy your own products. Don't have companies send you stuff. That can be pretty expensive, but I think it kinda hurts a person's reviewing credibility when they are reviewing stuff that a company sent him for free. It's kinda like the review is the payment for the product. The natural tendency is to give a good review so that the company will send you products in the future. Give a product a good(and not necessarily honest) review and the company will keep sending you stuff because they like the way you reviewed their product. Give it a bad review and they don't like it so you don't get anything more from them. A lot of people have started hardware review sites just to get free hardware from companies, and I don't trust any of them.

 

[angrybusdriver]

Eh, well... the problem with companies sending you hardware to review is that well, a) You gotta work pretty hard to get to that point. They're not going to send you hardware when your site gets 5 hits a day.

And then b) If they send you a product and you give it a crappy review (even if it is crappy), no more free products for review for you from that company. Might also turn off others!

Although it's expensive, you'll need to buy your own hardware for reviews. If I had money, I would definitely startup a nice hardware site.

 

[burningrave101]

Originally posted by angrybusdriver
And then b) If they send you a product and you give it a crappy review (even if it is crappy), no more free products for review for you from that company. Might also turn off others!

This is something i've tried to point out before. You should be hesitant to believe everything you read and especially benchmark scores from hardware review sites that get their hardware free. If they have to buy it themselves then they are far less likely to be bias. But if someone like AMD is feeding them more free products then Intel or the other way around then there is a good chance the benches are slightly or completely bias or the review "failed" to point out issues.

And from what i've heard from admins on two or three different review sites AMD gives out processors more freely for review then Intel does. I could be wrong but thats what i've heard.

Tomshardware definitely seems to favor Intel products over AMD products but in the reviews that are actually about the AMD processor they usually seem to get a fare shake.

Anandtech has been seeming more and more AMD bias lately IMO if for no other reason then the fact they use an extremely few amount of benchmarks in their results to get an overview and then they proclaim the A64's the king the world because they one all 8 out of 10 or whatever select benchmarks .

Reviews should have a large number of benchmarks that test all different areas and not just gaming, especially if your going to try and name the best processor out there right now which would be extremely hard to do since the Pentium 4 and A64 are a tie and its just up to what you use the system for the most which is better.

I took a large amount of reviews (about 25) and i calculated the scores of all the benches from all the sites and the Pentium 4 won somewhere around 60-65% of the benchmarks. Even a few select game benchmarks like Comanche 4. I think its all up to the reviewer alot of the times which processor is going to actually perform the best in the review. Its very hard sometimes for someone to remain unbias if all they ever use is AMD processors or if all they ever use is Intel processors.

 

[cdrgns]

don't there are many good sites out there and to constaly get the hardwere is not worth it. there is so much new stuff coming out and not engout time to give a good look at every thing. every litte part makes a diference and to set up 2 exact same parts execpt the one you are testing it usualy dificulte.

 

[MemoryInAGarden]

Originally posted by cdrgns
don't there are many good sites out there and to constaly get the hardwere is not worth it. there is so much new stuff coming out and not engout time to give a good look at every thing. every litte part makes a diference and to set up 2 exact same parts execpt the one you are testing it usualy dificulte.

What are you trying to say? If he has the money, bandwidth, and time to start a review site, it's his choice. Most of us don't have those kinds of resources.

 

[burningrave101]

He will need to get a handful of dedicated people to help him by doing reviews and editorials and what not because theres just no way he will have time to write up descent reviews and update the site and if he posts news on the website then someone has to be gathering news headlines. Its alot of work and for just one person i dont see how it can be possible unless you want a site that noone knows about and you update when you get a chance.

 

[Grizzy]

I will gladly do a few reviews for you if you get me some free hardware to review

(I'm being serious, that's how I got my Volcano 12+ )

 

[Chelica]

I was really thinking about doing this awhile back. It is pretty fun IMO.

But yeah, you really gotta try to stand out tho. There are soo many review sites out there that it is hard to tell which one is legit and which one is just BSing.

And yeah, if you are in need of a help to review stuff, you will most likely get ALOT of help if you let them keep the actual product that they are reviewing. Also, you will most likely encounter a few people who are willing to just help you out at their own expense, given that the review is credited to them.

 

[Petra]

Wow, I'm really pleased to see so much support and so much good advice coming from you guys! I really appreciate it!

During the past few hours, I've been trying to come up with some ways, other than just ads and my own funds, to help support the site. So far most of my ideas have been based around selling things like case badges, stickers, and stuff with the site's logo on 'em...I'm pretty sure that most people wouldn't bother purchasing that stuff anyway but I suppose that's not really the point (even though it is ). I'm probably going to just eat the cost of running the site and doing the reviews until I can figure things out.

So, back to those logos I whipped up last night... Any thoughts on those?


*edit* ...I wonder how many case badges I'd have to sell to do a waterblock roundup lol

 

[xonik]

Are you doing this for profit? If so, my question to you is: what will your site offer that no other review site can offer? Stated another way: how will you differentiate your site from the rest?

I like a review site that has the maturity to focus on what they're good at. I've seen all the major sites (including the [H]) try to review things that they have no business reviewing. Places like Storage Review and Silent PC Review focus on what they know best, and I put more weight in their opinions than a catch-all website like AnandTech, the [H] (with all due respect), and Tom's Hardware.

 

[cdrgns]

money that is all it comes down to. immagen a new computer ever other day that means about 3000 a week and that is just the simple stuff then you have to wrrie about an ip adress and a server to save all your information. pluse if you are serious you will want a small staff to constaly re build systems and create new plans. help form this forum will not be good teacuse there is www.hardocp.com and that is one of the best one out there and to get money find a way to sell off the test computers.

 

[burningrave101]

Originally posted by xonik
I like a review site that has the maturity to focus on what they're good at. I've seen all the major sites (including the [H]) try to review things that they have no business reviewing. Places like Storage Review and Silent PC Review focus on what they know best, and I put more weight in their opinions than a catch-all website like AnandTech, the [H] (with all due respect), and Tom's Hardware.

I feel the same way. I would pick a theme for your site and try to focus primarily on that and you can also add in other types of hardware but keep to your theme for alot of the reviews. Personally i like hardware sites based on Overclocking and Case Modding.

 

[jpmkm]

Originally posted by cdrgns
money that is all it comes down to. immagen a new computer ever other day that means about 3000 a week and that is just the simple stuff then you have to wrrie about an ip adress and a server to save all your information. pluse if you are serious you will want a small staff to constaly re build systems and create new plans. help form this forum will not be good teacuse there is www.hardocp.com and that is one of the best one out there and to get money find a way to sell off the test computers.

ESL? Anyway, sites like this usually review components, not entire systems. And just because you buy something to review doesn't mean you can't turn around and sell it on ebay. He already said he has a webserver and some extra bandwidth. He would still be in the red, though, unless he gets creative. This will be a "don't quit your day job" type of thing, at least for the first few months.

 

[mjcason]

i have had a review website in the past and the only way, I REPEAT THE ONLY WAY to get good retrn traffic is to first have content. at least 5 or so good review/articles. have a forum even if it only has 40 members. its still 40 people that come back (hopefully). lastly make a list of every review website you can find out there. get there emails, when your ready mail them all and tell them about your best review. get posted on there news page. i got posted on hardocp once and got 18,000 uniques in 1 day then my host cut me off. it sucked we were really takeing off. im in the works of starting another one though so ill let you all know when that happens.

oh and dont do it for the money, there is none at least not until you get about 1000 uniques a day (which wont happen unless you got something fresh to offer the masses)

anyways good luck and have fun

 

[Enema]

How does one be able to get products to review? I mean, I even thought about doing a site at one point, but it wasn't economical if I had to buy all the products. Would you just send an e-mail to PR?

 

[jpmkm]

Originally posted by Enema
How does one be able to get products to review? I mean, I even thought about doing a site at one point, but it wasn't economical if I had to buy all the products. Would you just send an e-mail to PR?

I don't think companies will just send out products to some guy with a website with no content. If you are established and you can show them you have the traffic then they might send you stuff. Just get the latest and greatest hardware to review and then sell it on ebay. Since it will still be pretty new you should get at least 75% of your money back. Like I have said though, accepting freebies from companies lowers credibility(in my eyes. Some people are fine with it). Also, selling freebies is often looked upon as pretty low.

 

[Petra]

Originally posted by xonik
Are you doing this for profit? If so, my question to you is: what will your site offer that no other review site can offer? Stated another way: how will you differentiate your site from the rest?

Well, xonik, it would be really nice if I can somehow manage to make a profit out of this whole thing but, seeing as how it would probably take quite a while for the site to gain a large enough following to do so, it really isn't a very realistic short term goal. As for being different, I think that pretty much all hardware review sites are very similar in most ways. However, the main thing that sets a particular review site apart from the rest, IMO, is the uniqueness of the style and the level of quality within each review and article published. It also helps if they do interesting things from time to time (like when the [H] watercooled an Xbox or OC'd that P4 to 4.44GHz, for example). I hope to eventually achieve all three--a high level of quality, a fresh, unique point of view and style, as well as pulling the occasional attention-getting 'stunt'. (But, then again, doesn't everybody? )

I like a review site that has the maturity to focus on what they're good at. I've seen all the major sites (including the [H]) try to review things that they have no business reviewing. Places like Storage Review and Silent PC Review focus on what they know best, and I put more weight in their opinions than a catch-all website like AnandTech, the [H] (with all due respect), and Tom's Hardware.

Well, I'm pretty good at working with cooling systems (air & water mainly but I'd like to get into TECs), video cards, RAM, processors (though, I'll probably stay away from reviewing any until I can figure out a really good way of doing so), cases, modding stuffs (CCFLs, fan controllers, fans, etc.), and I'd also like to do some mod guides and stuff. There are probably several things that I left out but, yeah, if I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to reviewing a particular type of hardware, then I don't see why I should be reviewing it. It'd probably just make me feel st00pid to do something like that I guess what I listed above kinda boils down to a Gaming, Overclocking, and Modding theme...


Doesn't anyone have something to say about the logos I posted? I mean, I am going to have to make all of the graphics for the site at some point...

Oh, and thanks for even more good advice guys! (I've been reading it while writing this and doing some other stuff)

 

[Lethal]

Originally posted by Petra
I was playing around in Photoshop last night trying to create a logo for the site and, given my somewhat limited Photoshop skills, here's what I came up with... When I get some more fonts I should be able to come up with something a little more interesting because my current library of fonts is pretty small. Anyway, each image is slightly different so let me know what you think.

Also, I've come up with an interesting way to save my server's bandwidth... I was thinking of putting just the site's code files (the files containing the HTML/CSS/whatever) on my webserver and keeping the image/video files on a webhosting thing that I have (100MB storage and I'm pretty sure that it doesn't have a monthly bandwidth limit) so, when people access the site, the page layout/content is loaded from my server and all of the graphics and stuff are loaded from the webhosting account. By setting things up this way it would reduce the amount of load put on my server's internet connection and allow a lot more people to visit the site at the same time without much of a slowdown. Good idea? Bad idea?

Is there a limitation on the bandwidth from the server you intend to host the site on? If so, theoretically, your plan will work but it makes it an "outside call" to the graphics, which could actually slow down load times a tad for the end user depending on the hops made to call up the graphics since they are not on the same server.

Also, however minor a chance, it could happen that they access the "site" but the graphics server is down and they end up with red x's all over the place, since they are not in sync.

Doesn't anyone have something to say about the logos I posted? I mean, I am going to have to make all of the graphics for the site at some point...

To be bluntly honest with you, they look more like buttons than logos to me. IMO a logo should spell out the trade name, have a unique shape/graphic and maybe even a tag line. If I had to choose, I'd say the lower left one because it has better contrast and no lens flare effect like those on the right.

Also, use of all caps in a script font doesn't work well. It looks more like P-7 than P-T. There's a shop near me with all cap script lettering on it. I just cringe every time I drive by and see it.

As for the overall concept, I'd have to agree that hardware review sites have been done and done before so it's a pretty tough niche to crack. But if that's what you want to do as a labor of love, go for it. Just don't expect a lot off the bat.

Good luck with it.

 

[Chris_Morley]

Originally posted by burningrave101
This is something i've tried to point out before. You should be hesitant to believe everything you read and especially benchmark scores from hardware review sites that get their hardware free. If they have to buy it themselves then they are far less likely to be bias. But if someone like AMD is feeding them more free products then Intel or the other way around then there is a good chance the benches are slightly or completely bias or the review "failed" to point out issues.

If they have to purchase it then they most likely aren't big enough or well known enough to get it for free. I remember writing a GeforceFX 5200 review on a board that Asus sent me for free. At the time I was writing for AMDZone.com. I also remember thinking at the time about all the skeptics out there and how they question every benchmark and every review site. I took great joy in knowning that at least MY review was going to be truthful. It wasn't a good review. But what people don't realize is that these companies will keep sending out kit. They have a product, and they want the exposure. In video cards, they can accept a chipset's limitation as something that is out of control, yet want to sell MORE than the other guy. Asus knew that their card would get an unfavorable review. But they were counting on the card not failing, or showing up without a HS/F...they wanted to get across that in the field of 5200's, they could deliver a good product at a fair price. And a fair and objective reviewer will nod to things like quality and value.

Kyle gets kit handed to him all the time. I feel that [H]'s benchmarking methods are top notch. Now they may editorialize slightly in their conclusions, but their evaluations are very impartial. Kyle's handed out kicks in the nuts before, and the vendors just keep coming back asking for more.

How many times have you seen crappy reviews on VIA boards on the [H] and yet they STILL advertise with him?

And from what i've heard from admins on two or three different review sites AMD gives out processors more freely for review then Intel does. I could be wrong but thats what i've heard.

This is true.

 

[Petra]

Well, after reading Lethal's post, I think I'll run some tests this afternoon when I get back home to see which configuration actually goes faster for the user (images in a remote location vs. on my server) Also, I think 'logo' was not quite the word I was looking for when describing that graphic I made... Maybe emblem would be more appropriate? (kind of like how [H]ard|OCP uses its '[H]' as an emblem...or how Iomega uses that stylized 'i' all the time) Anyway, I made some changes to the image and am currently working on sketching out some different site layouts. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

 

[dave326]

Originally posted by cdrgns
money that is all it comes down to. immagen a new computer ever other day that means about 3000 a week and that is just the simple stuff then you have to wrrie about an ip adress and a server to save all your information. pluse if you are serious you will want a small staff to constaly re build systems and create new plans. help form this forum will not be good teacuse there is www.hardocp.com and that is one of the best one out there and to get money find a way to sell off the test computers.

uhhh wtf

I'm guessing and hoping english is your second language.

Also, even HardOCP started small...it didn't just magically have 80,000 users

And this forum is part of HardOCP, so we all know about it

 

[dave326]

Those logos sorta look like something you would see on a tampon box IMO..

Obviously having a fairly good site design is essential for the site, but I would specialize in a specific area that other people don't do many reviews on.

Perhaps a site about power supplies would be a good way to start, or one about heatsinks...The large sites have mobo/graphics cards/cpu's covered (and getting the latest and greatest is prohibitively expensive)

 

[xonik]

A power supply or heatsink review site would require an expensive initial investment. On top of that, it would require several years of undergraduate and graduate study in order to carry much weight, at least in my mind.

I think a videocard review site would work well, or even a strictly CPU review site. It's not terribly expensive to buy CPUs every few months, and the infrequent motherboard/heatsink upgrade. The only other investments would be games for benchmarking purposes. The initial investment would be insignificant since you most likely have a base computer to start with. I think that there's still a niche for a review site that intensively evaluates videocards and CPUs. I would like to see more reviews focusing on which subsystems contribute to performance in which applications. Also, I would like to see reviews doing more overclocking for the sake of extrapolating the performance of future iterations of the product.

 

[Grimlakin]

If I were in your shoes I would see if Kyle would let you Freelance for him a little bit doing some review work so you can get a feel for how things are done. Then when you are comfortable with that start your own site.

If Kyle is willing that is.

 

[Met-AL]

Originally posted by xonik

I like a review site that has the maturity to focus on what they're good at. I've seen all the major sites (including the [H]) try to review things that they have no business reviewing. Places like Storage Review and Silent PC Review focus on what they know best, and I put more weight in their opinions than a catch-all website like AnandTech, the [H] (with all due respect), and Tom's Hardware.

Anand Lal Shimpi isn't just some guy that get's off work from his burger flipping job to come home to work on his review site. The same can be said about just everyone on his staff. Check the about link on their website. They are a bunch of Engineers or Engineering students. Do you ever read his more in depth reviews, like the one about the Prescott. He knows way more about the deep down technology and how things are designed on the silicon than 99 percent of the so called reviewers out their.

As far as the [H]ardOCP crew, they are good reviewers, but I think their strong point is their leadership of the community of hardware enthusiasts. Kyle taking issues and attempting to make changes is a role that is desperately needed, otherwise all the daytime burger flippers/ nighttime hardware experts would be running around firing off wild claims for free hardware. The [H]ard crew all have their strong backgrounds and seem to stick to that. How is that different than if Brent had a one man website that reviewed just video cards?

An good ole Tom's, just because him and Kyle have rubbed each other the wrong way, doesn't mean his entire site is junk. I would take Tom over any amateur burger flipping hardware reviewer that does it for free hardware. Plus he reviews things that other site's don't cause it isn't "exciting", things like printers, monitors, networking cards, etc.