Who do you trust?

I've read CustomPC for a while now and find their reviews pretty good and informative. One thing that I have noticed is that some items which they completely recommend get slated by other people (forums / site reviews). So who do you believe. Are we to trust these guys? When you spend the kind of cash that is required for a gaming machine these days you want to make sure you are buying the best kit. I know there was an article here about Alienware and their marketing tactics, who's to say the guys at Custom PC aren't on some kind of retainer with ASUS? Just asking.

they are usually okay for reviews but i trust hexus more when they showed alienware for who they were.

Yea I know. The problem with getting info from forums comes down personal preference. Some people will always be loyal to certain brands etc. Also, once you have had a bad experience you generally tend to be biased, even if your problem was a once off.

You have to take a broad range of reviews/opinions into account and then try and pick out the bits that cannot be falsified.

Basically, you either trust them (I personally don't 100% trust any review I read online) or you form your own opinion.

Reviews can be informative and interesting, but they are rarely a good insight into how the product actually is on a day to day basis.

For me, the best measure of how good something is, are the actual user comments.

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Originally Posted by Clunk

Reviews can be informative and interesting, but they are rarely a good insight into how the product actually is on a day to day basis.

For me, the best measure of how good something is, are the actual user comments.

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Exactly! I see them as a starting point where I can start researching into a few products (whether it be a DVD burner or a monitor) and go from there. Obviously reviews are going to provide more technical data / analysis but user feedback is going to give you other information which they can't, like reliability of the product, compatibility, manufacturers support etc.

I've bought Custom PC in the past but only really when they're reviewing a group of products that interest me at the time - but it's a good read nonetheless.

When Custom PC did its first big PSU test they went to Germany to test them, a Tagan PSU came out best.

What they didn't mention was that it was done at Tagan labs.

Bit of a conflict of interest there.

You bring up a good point. I saw a good example the other day which makes you stop & think.
I read this review the other day, after Buff had mentioned the board ASUS P5N-E SLI it's a storming review. Yet after i noticed this review abit AW9D-MAX by the same author. Now this board gets a slating, which i find really wierd as i've seen guys clock 4k with this board Deanzo's 4k on Abit AW9D Max he get's it on post#18:) It may be that the reviewer used an old bios or something but you can see that some reviews are not always representative of the product.

I have fi=nally ordered my new mobo today after reading many reviews, but i think what's given me most insight is reading user test threads like those seen aon XtremeSystems. It's often hard work ploughing through them but you do find some true gems of information. EG RD600 first looks and general questions

I've dealt with 6 different asus boards over the last few years and none of them had any fault as far as the engineering of the board is concerned. I only had problem with 1 where the VIA chipset (no surprise there) memory controller wouldn't run stable at 200Mhz, so I had to leave it running at 166Mhz.

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Originally Posted by Kumagoro

When Custom PC did its first big PSU test they went to Germany to test them, a Tagan PSU came out best.

What they didn't mention was that it was done at Tagan labs.

Bit of a conflict of interest there.

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Well Tagen are good, no doubt about it, but they did not win the following PSU Labs, and CPC I think are as honest and true as anyone.

They slate and strongly criticise a lot of stuff -and lots of mags would not do that for fear upsetting manufacturers and losing advertising.

I put a lot of store in CPC Labs and Reviews. And Hexus too! But all so research elsewhere.....

I cant remember for sure but I think they didnt go and do the tests in the same place as the first time

On the other hand I recall one issue with a rather unfavourable review of the Nautilus CPU watercooling device, only to find that they were giving one away as a prize in one of their competitions!

The only way to get a clear view of a product is to read a wide range of reviews from magazines, websites and customer feedback. If you read 5+ reviews you should be able to build some sort of mental picture in your head that leans to or away from that particular product. Personally speaking I could never just blindly buy something thats a one off without knowing about what it is I am buying. I'd usually start off with a product review in CustomPC then build on that review.

After saying this one should be careful when trusting customer reviews. Most people haven't got a clue what they are doing when they review a product and focus solely on the products bad points. Particularly those who buy something havening done little or no research into it before buying and end up not happy with the product and go on to give what would normally be a 4-5 star product 1-2 stars.

The perfect example at this moment in time would be the wii. As an example a guy/or girl reads one brief and rather lame review of the wii where the review simply states in point form a negative point of "graphics not that next gen". The stupid person thinks ah well they can't be that bad in this day and age and buys the wii. He gets it home an is all exited to play his wii. So he fires up wii sports and his big smiley face turns into a disappointed one and feels angry at nintendo for not having great graphics on the wii. Its other peoples fault he is not happy not his. So what does he do about it? 1)sticks it on ebay and tries to claw back his money and even make a profit. 2) goes on amazon and gives the wii a 1-2 star rating based solely on the fact that it has below par graphics for this day an age.


The point I am trying to make is that people should be bothered enough to read a wide range of reviews before they go and buy a product and before they give a biased negative review of a product to which they were too ignorant and bothered to read about in the first place.

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Originally Posted by Million

On the other hand I recall one issue with a rather unfavourable review of the Nautilus CPU watercooling device, only to find that they were giving one away as a prize in one of their competitions!

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If I remember correctly the criticisms aimed at the nautilus system were its lack of upgradeabilty and its inability to cool the prescott based systems aswell as a custom designed system which a) cost more and b) takes more effort/skill/knowledge to design.

Therefore for them to give one away would be brilliant for the average user that doesn't want 4ghz out of a p4.

Dave

another interesting point Did Travis Jump ior was he Pushed ?? Who do u trust ??

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Originally Posted by Dorza

After saying this one should be careful when trusting customer reviews. Most people haven't got a clue what they are doing when they review a product and focus solely on the products bad points. Particularly those who buy something havening done little or no research into it before buying and end up not happy with the product and go on to give what would normally be a 4-5 star product 1-2 stars.

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I like to have a look at what people that actually own the product have to say about it before I buy. I agree that a lot of people dont know the first thing about the item that they have bought, but what these people do get, is a true impression of what can (and does) go wrong over a period of time, something that a lot of reviewers dont have the luxury of :).