Do you read Hexus.net?

[0iD]

Just a quick straw poll to ascertain whether people read the articles on the various Hexus sites.

Also to get a few comments as to likes, dislikes, what would you like to see more of, what could be done differently, and any other serious critique you'd like to add to make the site better.

[Steve]

Sometimes I read it, sometimes I write it, most of the time I code it.

[0iD]

I have the sidebar on more than actually physically trauling the various home pages. This is what lead me to ask really.

[Singh400]

Not really, unless it is mentioned in the forums, and only when it interests me.

I noticed Hexus used to do alot of reviews, but they seemed to have dropped as of lately. Something which I am missing

[Salazaar]

I read it but mostly through the sidebar on the forum rather than the home page.

[jim]

I mainly read the product reviews, but there aren't very many of them so I do most of my reading elsewhere. As for the other categories, which I couldn't name because I have no idea what they're called, usually only if the topic is mentioned in the forums and it interests me or has provoked a decent discussion.

The graphics card reviews are usually good, but there's not much beyond that.

[0iD]

I mainly read the product reviews, but there aren't very many of them so I do most of my reading elsewhere.

What sort of product reviews are we talking about Jim?

[mycarsavw]

forums.hexus.net > New Posts > read everything that interests me.

Quite often I'll "do a Wikipedia" and follow article after article until I end up 30 articles away from where I started, reading something totally unrelated.

[Funkstar]

forums.hexus.net > New Posts > read everything that interests me.

Snap. I'll read artcle posts from the forums, but I don't visit the main site.

Very rarely watch HEXUS.tv content. I'm either at work or offshore and don't have speakers or I'm at home and listening to music, and can't be bothered switching it off.

[Singh400]

forums.hexus.net > New Posts > read everything that interests me

Exactly what he said.

[neonplanet40]

Not really, unless it is mentioned in the forums, and only when it interests me.

I noticed Hexus used to do alot of reviews, but they seemed to have dropped as of lately. Something which I am missing

Same here if im honest

[jim]

What sort of product reviews are we talking about Jim?

Well, as I said after that generally the graphics card ones. Reviews are what I mainly read tech sites for, as reporting on AMD vs Intel lawsuits and gadgets generally don't interest me much.

If you look at the Hexus.net reviews section, ignoring the featured content for the moment, and select say CPUs, we've got across the top row reviews from 16th Sept, 8th Sept, 13th August. In chassis we've got July, May, January. In cooling, we've got nothing. Motherboards, May, February, December 08. In graphics cards, we've got 5 reviews in November 2009 alone. So for processors, maybe one review per month at a push, chassis one review every 2 months, motherboards one review every 2 months again.

I like to know where each product is positioned against the others, so with graphics cards where we've got several reviews per month, we can also have comparisons and bang for buck. If, say, I wanted to find out whether I got more value for money out of ATI or nVidia, I could bring up Hexus GPU reviews and off we go, facts, figures, comparisons. If I wanted to find out the best motherboard currently available, I've got H57, AMD 785, and three X58 boards reviewed... which isn't exactly a cross-section of the market.

If you take the unnamed website I tend to read instead for information about processors and motherboards, it's a completely different ballgame. I intensely dislike the site... it's American, so no British competitions, or pricing, or relevance, and the journalism is terrible - consequently I will change over to another one soon, I just haven't got round to looking for an alternative yet.

However, what they do well are reviews - take motherboards for example. In the last four weeks alone, there's been a round up and comparison of four P55 boards, four micro-ATX P55 boards, a review of Lucid Hydra, and an article looking at whether nVidia have fixed the P55 SLI limitations with the NF200 chip. In CPUs, there are loads of comparisons looking at mobile chips, efficiency of i5 vs Core 2 vs Athlon II vs Phenom II, budget dual cores, so on so forth.

If I'm looking to buy a PC, I'll go there, and usually within 10 minutes I can see roughly which chipset is going to meet my requirements, and then bring up a review of 6+ boards from the big manufacturers based on that chipset, with comparisons of board layout, contents of the package, performance, BIOS usefulness, and decide which one best fits my purposes, so there's just no comparison. Equally I can come onto the Hexus forums, and Cat can tell me what I need in under 30 seconds. In the end, the forums are what makes Hexus for me - without them, I probably wouldn't visit Hexus.net at all.

I realise that each site builds itself on a particular model, so I'm not criticising Hexus here - what I am saying is that I only read one very small section of the site - and this is why.

[circuitmonkey]

Agreed, more hardware reviews in general would be great.
My browsing always starts off in the forums, and if there's a article I want to read from the sidebar then I will

[Disturbedguy]

I read whichever article interests me, whether it be about a case, a game, a new piece of hardware or somethinh else. As for the layout and such, its fine by me and I find it generally easy to use.

[Bunjiweb]

I read it from time to time, however I tend to get my tech news from a combination of TechRadar/Engadget/Gizmodo.

I'd like it more if....

It was updated more regularly and became a UK hub of tech & gadget information that had a more broad range of updates every day on a variety of tech-related info. The only reason I read the aforementioned websites more is because they are constantly updated and have a wider draw on tech as a whole.

Still love the forums and don't use any others on the net, haven't for quite a few years now.

Ben

[Flibb]

Another vote for more hardware reviews, but more importantly more comparissons and group tests. When looking at getting soem new hardware I normally look on here first for cases, ask on the forums for memory, PSU and monitors, head over to tome hware for their graphics card charts.

I tend to read the forums using the new post button, and head over to interesting looking articles. Have to say that the front page pute me off a bit, seems a bit messy, maybe trying to cram too much in.

And on items with an aesthetic value (mainly chassis) can you put a front photo on the first page and the thumbnail. A picture paints a thousand words as the saying goes.