Who do you want to see evaluated?

milktoast said:
You didn't mention Monarch Computers or the infamous duo of CyberPower and iBuyPower. I am pretty sure those last two won't agree to take part of your evaluation program.
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The list that I have put together is of companies that are outside my current list of companies that I'm working on - just getting forum feedback. Don't look at any exclusion as having any particular deep meaning behind it. ;)
 
Is there a limit on how small the shop can be? Just wondering what criteria are used to evaluate the suitability of a builder for review?
 
lovemyPC said:
Is there a limit on how small the shop can be? Just wondering what criteria are used to evaluate the suitability of a builder for review?
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Yeah, too small and I'm really not comfortable doing an article on them.
 
I guess what I'm asking is how small is too small? Are Overdrive and Vigor the lower limit on size?
 
lovemyPC said:
I guess what I'm asking is how small is too small? Are Overdrive and Vigor the lower limit on size?
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I would say that they are getting close to it, but I'm not sure how big Vigor is yet.
 
I'm not reading 7 pages, so if these have already been mentioned then sorry:

Lenovo laptops (rebranded IBM, specifically the R52 and X40 please)
ASUS high-end barebones
MSI high-end barebones
Dell Inspiron 9400
Dell Latitudes (X1, D410, D510, D810 to be exact)

More ultraportables please!
 
Might be a little late in the game in suggesting it, and I know Panasonic is up there already, but I'd like to see how the current line of Panasonic Toughbooks are doing. My girlfriend's dad had one from way back and well, that thing most certainly has lived up to its name. I've seen it:
Dropped down some stairs
Sat on
Survived 3 children thinking it was a briefcase, and treating it more like it was a drumset
Plugged into an outlet with no ground
Falling off a couch
Having a network card nearly snap off inside it (due to said 3 children)

And other generic abuse that would make you go :eek:. I think I've made a thread about it.

Amazingly it's survived. The paint is coming off, the screen is jacked to hell on the right side with dead pixels galore, but the thing still starts up and runs. The battery is giving out, practically worthless, but considering it's been about 6 or 7 years later on it, I'd say that's pretty good. But then again I also haven't owned a few notebooks to know if that part is good lifetime for a laptop battery.
 
LouD said:
Is Tasty Computers too small ?
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Is their specialty scratch n sniff? ;)

Some of the names suggested are glorified white box shops. This may be more of a philosphical inquiry, but how to distill the difference between a boutique and a white box?
 
How about possible overseas boutique builders (if its possible to get a hold of any)? Even though international shipping rates are ridiculous, they might prove worthy if the machine is worth it.

I think these might be some (please correct me if I'm wrong):

Savrow
Holley
Real Machines
Armari
 
I would love to see the new Gateway FX510 series reveiwed, specifically the FX510X. A decent gaming computer with a 21" lcd for $1500 is exactly what I would expect from a large OEM, lots of value for my $. Besides, it would give an intel flair to all the Athy systems reviewed, not that I'm an Intel whore or anything.
 
Stinkfist said:
I would love to see the new Gateway FX510 series reveiwed, specifically the FX510X. A decent gaming computer with a 21" lcd for $1500 is exactly what I would expect from a large OEM, lots of value for my $. Besides, it would give an intel flair to all the Athy systems reviewed, not that I'm an Intel whore or anything.
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We have 3 Intel systems in queue...
 
Dark Prodigy said:
How about possible overseas boutique builders (if its possible to get a hold of any)? Even though international shipping rates are ridiculous, they might prove worthy if the machine is worth it.

I think these might be some (please correct me if I'm wrong):

Savrow
Holley
Real Machines
Armari
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Not in the cards at this time, sorry. :(
 
l0cke said:
get a sun ultra 40 and install windows xp :) get some SLI cards too
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I second this motion. I think it would be interesting to see how the new AMD Opteron-based machines from Sun compare to "traditional" PCs.

The Sun workstations come preinstalled with the x64 version of Solaris 10 (to be expected, since they're from Sun) and they're mostly geared towards CAD/CAM/engineering tasks (as evidenced by their choice of NVIDIA Quadro video cards), but Sun also officially supports running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0/4.0, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, Windows XP Pro, and Windows XP Pro x64 Edition on them.

The Sun Ultra 40 Workstation supports SLI, and they have even jumped on the AM2 socket bandwagon with the new Sun Ultra 20 M2 Workstation.
 
You don't even have to load up the Visa card to get one of the Sun workstations.

Sun has a promotion going on right now where you can get one of their machines risk-free for 60 days to play around with. Several of their AMD Opteron systems are included in this promotion, including the Sun Ultra 20 Workstation, Sun Ultra 40 Workstation, Sun Fire X2100 Server, Sun Fire X4100 Server, and Sun Fire X4200 Server.

:D
 
I would like to see vigor PC. their computers are insanely cheap (like cyberpower cheap), yet they tout themselves, more or less, as a boutique PC builder. I'd be interested to see if vigor is a good bang for the buck, or just another integrator.
 
Aye more ultra portables would be nice. Also kinda off topic but I would like a nice USB thumb drive round up :)
 
BFGuy1741 said:
I would like to see vigor PC. their computers are insanely cheap (like cyberpower cheap), yet they tout themselves, more or less, as a boutique PC builder. I'd be interested to see if vigor is a good bang for the buck, or just another integrator.
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Vigor has recently agreed to join our program. We'll be looking at one of their machines soon.
 
Darakian said:
Aye more ultra portables would be nice. Also kinda off topic but I would like a nice USB thumb drive round up :)
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We've been kicking around the thumb drive project. It's on the stove, just not on the front burner yet :).
 
filthysanchez said:
desks?
also, how about a roundup of wireless mouses/keyboards for the HTPC?
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What about desks?

We've got some HTPC gadgets coming up! We're contacted all the time by folks who have some neat stuff for HTPC setups, so we're hoping to bring some of that content to you soon.
 
Displays!!!!
LCD displays mostly...
I think its a part that's missing here.
 
DNA Doc said:
We've been kicking around the thumb drive project. It's on the stove, just not on the front burner yet :).
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Feel my anger at you for your free service :p
 
Displays is definitely something we want to get into at some point. We're looking to increase our writing staff significantly over the next 6 months so that we can cover more content. Basically, we want to get to a point where we're covering ALL consumer electronics from computers to cameras to PDAs to TVs to mp3 players and so on.

I don't know how soon we'll get there, but that's our goal.
 
filthysanchez said:
id like to see a chair review.
usb harddrive enclosures would be nice as well.
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A chair review? Like one of those gaming chairs that sits on the ground?

We've got a lot of hdd enclosure articles coming up courtesy of Vantec, IcyDock, and a couple of other enclosure manufacturers. Cool stuff.
 
DNA Doc said:
We've got a lot of hdd enclosure articles coming up courtesy of Vantec, IcyDock, and a couple of other enclosure manufacturers. Cool stuff.
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About those HDD enclosure articles: Are they going to focus soley on the new items being offerred to the market? Are you guys planning on talking about the differences between the IDE and eSATA (sp?) enclosures as well? Are you including/going to mention any Ethernet/networking enclosures?

(As you can see, I'm very interested in them...)
 
tiraides said:
About those HDD enclosure articles: Are they going to focus soley on the new items being offerred to the market? Are you guys planning on talking about the differences between the IDE and eSATA (sp?) enclosures as well? Are you including/going to mention any Ethernet/networking enclosures?

(As you can see, I'm very interested in them...)
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At the moment, the enclosure market is simultaneously diversifying and congealing. We're about to get a preview enclosure that will have FW, USB, NAS, eSATA, and IDE cross-compatibility. Basically, it covers the gamut of connectivity - it does it all. We have others that aren't as cross-compatible, but are unique in their own respects.

We'll have an article in about two weeks on an IcyDock that works on a fanless heat sink, has eSATA and FW connections, and looks good, too :).
 
i just meant like the best desk chairs you can buy for under 300-400 dollars.
i guess the gaming chairs can fit in that category.
 
I'd like to see some reviews of the less glamorous, but still very important, computer parts.

Sound Cards and NICs come to mind first. Do onboard NICs perform as well as dedicated, and of those which is the best in each category? Also some reviews of Sound Cards and onboard sound, including features like Sound Quality and MIDI interface (i.e. not purely gaming focussed).
 
NulloModo said:
I'd like to see some reviews of the less glamorous, but still very important, computer parts.

Sound Cards and NICs come to mind first. Do onboard NICs perform as well as dedicated, and of those which is the best in each category? Also some reviews of Sound Cards and onboard sound, including features like Sound Quality and MIDI interface (i.e. not purely gaming focussed).
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Mmm...not sure about component content. We're looking more towards diversification in the direction of consumer electronics, not so much options for components within a given machine. That's more Enthusiast's realm, I would say.
 
its probably been said but i dont have enough time to read the whole thread...but heres my input

a show down of gaming mice from cheap to expensive and best overall performance? a lot of us are in the market for new mice everyday and i think this would be great:)

but u lot are doing a good job keep it up
 
Mayhs said:
a show down of gaming mice from cheap to expensive and best overall performance? a lot of us are in the market for new mice everyday and i think this would be great:)
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Very true. We'll see what's out there and see if we can put something together like this.
 
How about a test of the local tech/repair support at stores like Best Buy's Geek Squad, and the tech support at Comp Usa, and Circuit city?
 
Tanky said:
How about a test of the local tech/repair support at stores like Best Buy's Geek Squad, and the tech support at Comp Usa, and Circuit city?
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This has been suggested. We're currently working out a way to do this.
 
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