Other Types of Reviews

[Dave Baumann]

Just wondering if there is any call for this among you guys...

I just had a vendor phone me up asking if I'd like to review a Power Supply - it a new PSU that they are targetting towards 3D enthusiasts and include a PCIe graphics card connector on it. I turned down the review since I didn't really think it fits the content here, however I'm just wondering if there was any call for this?

[edit] - Assuming there was time to do it and that the effort put into architectural reviews wouldn't be impacted.

[jvd]

Dunno if u want us to post . But i think another sister site would be best.

[chavvdarrr]

yes.
Choosing the right PSU for these 3d-beasts is not easy these days :)
Also: which MB with enough pci-e slots.... or ....

[digitalwanderer]

Do you guys got the time to take on additional reviews? Once you open the door to other hardware I think you're going to get flooded.

I'd love to see B3D review other things also, as it can sometimes be a bit of a long stretch between video card releases.

Also, video cards are becoming more and more dependant on other system components to make a great gameplaying experience....it might be a good idea to take a more holistic approach to reviews. :|

[Killer-Kris]

My main concern with branching out is that you'll have less time to spend on either topic and as such both will suffer. I love the quality of reviews here at B3D and I would strongly recommend against doing anything that would impact the quality of your work. Or for that matter the quality of your guy's lives, I wouldn't want you spending any more time away from your new wife than is absolutely necesary.

[Reverend]

I personally wouldn't want to see the EIC of B3D reviewing PSUs !! :lol:

That's actually a serious comment of mine. You're good at reviewing/investigating 3D hardware. Even with that edit of yours' (time), I prefer you spend more time on the stuff you're good at, which should make you even better!

And, no, I won't review PSUs !! :)

Wait, am I even supposed to provide feedback on this? :)

[digitalwanderer]

One more thought, I always wondered why the name of this place was "Beyond3D" when all you seem to deal with is actually quite contained within the realm of 3D.

Wouldn't reviewing other products/catagories of products actually fulfill your site's name and take you beyond just 3D?

Just a thought, I was thinking that maybe the choice was subconsciously made long ago or it was a sign. :oops:

[Rodéric]

I voted for a Sister site, related hardware I see could be PSUs and Motherboards, maybe cooling devices too.

PSU because video cards are more and more power hungry, and so choosing a good PSU is critical.

MoBos because video cards plug into them, so if it's a weak spot (the AGP/PCI-E bus...) your 3D performances gonna suffer.

*If* video cards deport textures to RAM, thanks to PCI-E, RAM should also become part of the sister site reviews...


Well I rather agree, maybe we could experiment broadering the reviews and see how it goes ?



My opinion is that the main focus of Beyond3D should remain 3D hardware and technology (including 3D engines), and its articles quality shouldn't suffer from the additional topics covered.

[Dave Baumann]

Actually, the thoughts I had for the sister site would be that any board vendor reviews would be place over there - B3D would be kept to reference releases of architectural products, and subsequent chips based off that architecture (i.e. 6800, 6600, X800, X700, etc.) whilst AIB reviews could be placed on the sister site along with other reviews as well (more Mobo, CPU and other related items). We'd probably go into comparison reviews on the sister site as well.

If we could code it within the new engine the www.beyond3d.com URL would point to a mix of both, then we could have domains of tech.beyond3d.com and hardware.beyond3d.com pointing to the specific sites.

[Reverend]

Well then, I object -- I prefer a brother site.


sorry!

[PatrickL]

Problem is: will you find people good enought to make an interesting brother site?
I mean if it is to make "just" an other harware site i don't see the point. If it is to make a sister site with the same quality than beyond3D i am all for it.

[Killer-Kris]

Well now given Dave's edits/new posts I would be in favor of a sister sight. It sounds like a good idea but I am still a little leary of either the original B3D's quality suffering, or that the new sight wouldn't be able to offer anything significant over all the other hardware sights out there.

[vb]

I would like more articles that focus on features and technology. lately most reviews have got quite boring (i.e. performance focused) I mean there were 9 (nine) reviews of 9600 cards that had the same 3d features just different clockspeeds/video features. you could have run all those tests with one 9600XT and powerstrip. I realize that the site gets more revenue from contacts with manufacturers, but maybe you can link them. get a "standard" review on chip launch date and have something like:

"(manufacturer X) 9600 Pro review and an investigation in trilinear optimizations on ati R3xx chips"

or

"(manufacturer X) 6600 GT review and an investigation in shader replacements on nvidia 6x.xx Drivers"

or, most likely, some less controversial aspects. But, still, I would like to read once or twice, not every time, about some less known/important aspects of each chip and the manufacturer gets more exposure regardless of the actual investigation result, which is what really wants.

I don't have a problem with various hardware reviewed here and nor should anybody else since they don't pay for the site and I don't think a sister site would be such a good ideea. because it would require the same amount of content/work, it should support itself with competitive reviews, won't get the B3d "fame" right away and so on.

[digitalwanderer]

One thing I should mention to ya Dave, YOU CAN'T HAVE HANNERS!!!!

:P

;)

[vb]

If we could code it within the new engine the www.beyond3d.com URL would point to a mix of both, then we could have domains of tech.beyond3d.com and hardware.beyond3d.com pointing to the specific sites.

Why bother?

Nobody reads the front page anyway...








/runs

edit: you guys should really get an automatic spell checker working

[digitalwanderer]

Noboby reads the front page anyway...
Beyond3D has a front page? :|

























;)

[london-boy]

Noboby reads the front page anyway...
Beyond3D has a front page? :|

























;)

Beyond3D? What's that?

[WaltC]

Some of the most frequently reported (and often misdiagnosed) problems with "3d" in general these days are problems stemming from inadquate PSU's. This shouldn't be surprising seeing the increased power demands that both newer gpus and cpus place on current SOA systems. How many of us would be rich if we had a nickel for every "I'm having a lot of problems with this card" posts we've read that actually boiled to down to substandard PSUs (as even 3d-card overclocking drives up power load on a PSU?)?

The B3d forums are already divided up into a number of diverse topics, and some of them, like "General discussion" or "Religion and Politics," for instance, have nothing to do with 3d at all. So I voted for option #2 in the poll. Adding a forum for "3d-related hardware peripherals other than gpus" or something similar would certainly not be incongruent with the existing B3d forum format.

Certainly, you'd not want to start the wholesale general reviewing of all PSUs, of course. But I think an exception for PSU's that can be tied indirectly to effective 3d-card support in a system might well narrow the list down to the top 3-4 PSUs being sold, if even that broad. For instance, how many people understand the distinction and importance of PSUs which separate voltage rails from PSUs which share them, much less what that distinction could mean for their overall 3d-card performance and reliability?

So long as you tightly tie the PSU to 3d environments in the focus of the review I think these kinds of reviews might be very helpful and informative to a wide number of people. I don't think there'd be enough material to warrant a "sister site," however, as you'd want to avoid reviewing anything from outside the 3d perspective (unless that might be your express purpose for the sister site, that is.)

[Tim Murray]

Siiiister siiiite!

[digitalwanderer]

Siiiister siiiite!
The Baron you can have.... :?



;)

[Ante P]

If you can do them as much in depth as the graphics cards review then sure. If it's just going to be the standard stuff then leave it to the myriads of sites that already do this on "a daily basis" so to speak.

[Sxotty]

Well I said review more stuff...

Anyway if you do a sister site that would be good too, but the best thing would be to make it a seperate entity with the same homepage if you get my drift. In otherwords the front page here and there have same news stories, but different people are responsible for the content that way youguys don't get to busy and destroy the excellent site you have.

[MasterBaiter]

Sooooo... you have a twin sister..... :lol:

Yeah, I would create a secondary site that would review other forms of hardware. Any ideas for a name if it does become a reality?

[digitalwanderer]

I personally don't like the sister site idea, sometimes when you split your focus like that you also fracture your readership.

I doubt it'd happen here, but you never know. :?

[The549]

Only if the reviews of 3d hardware won't suffer even one-half a percent. These video card reviews are so much more knowledgeable than anything else out there.

[olivier]

the only other type of review i want to see at beyond3d is something like arstechnica article about cpu .. same depth than beyond3d's video card review but about cpu :P

[epicstruggle]

can we refrain with all the silly posts please. :) thanks

I do think that b3d should expand. I think both hardware and software should be looked at. I was split on whether it should be inclusive or part of a sister site. Either would be fine, i voted for it to be part of this site.

epic

[Thunderbird]

To me the sister site would be the better option. I like the idea of broadened reviews, but at the same time I think depending on how it's done it could attract a different type of reader. Beyond3d has a certain way of doing things that is unlike anyone else out there and I hope it continues just as sucessfully. Bringing in other types of reviews might cause some people to think differently about the site, or give newcommers the wrong impression of the site.

Then again I barely post or understand most of whats being discussed but find it interesting to try and follow the discussion. From what I can tell B3D has a unique perspective and is much more informative than any other site (especially all the goodies that get dropped in the fourms ). Maby I'm not the right person to be commenting on the decision, regardless I'll keep reading!

[micron]

I prefer you spend more time on the stuff you're good at
:?

I voted for a sister site. I bet this isnt the first time vou've pondered this Dave....

[MasterBaiter]

The more I think about it, the more I am inclined to say that is should be a sub-section of this site. DW's points about about fracturing I think are relevent. As was also stated, it shouldn't dilute the quality of content that is already on B3D's main site. :)

[Pete]

I also voted sister site, but it may be better for business reason to just integrate it as another heading under the Beyond3D.com domain (read: more views = more ad dollars). It should be a relatively simple task of dividing the front page to accomodate both the main, original thrust of this site, and these new, related doo-dads. You might have to expand the main page to assume a 1024x768 screen res to comfortably fit the new content, though.

You'll want to provide a distinct forum for that, though, or specify a current forum (Hardware Gab) for it.

[bloodbob]

I honestly don't care I generally come here for the forum :P

[thegrommit]

You guys are known for your 3D coverage. Stick to it.

However, an article concerning power consumption of current cards and the demands on PSU's would have been of interest to me. I know xbit did an article on this, but I'm sure you guys could come up with your own twist.

[Rys]

I voted for a sister site, precisely because I've spoken with you in the past about other hardware reviews and I'm 100% certain you can do your best with it, as you do with the current site and its focus.

Good luck with whatever you do :)

Rys

[madshi]

Even though I'd like to read Beyond3D style reviews of other hardware, I'd say: Don't do it. Sounds to me like opening up a can of worms.

Also please let me quote from an older thread:

P.S: I'm a bit disappointed that Beyond3D still does not yet have power consumption information in its reviews.
We're not electronics experts and we don't have the kit to do it.

Please don't be angry with me, but this lets me seriously doubt, whether reviewing PSUs would be a good idea... :(

(hides and runs away)

[Bambers]

Well if you do other reviews I'd like to see reviews on cpus etc involve minimum framerates, or even better framerate graphs (ie framerate throughout the test) when it comes to games as this seems to be something completely ignored in reviews on other sites. Only place I've seen it before was the a64 FX-53/3800+ review on driverheaven which showed the gain in min fps from the FXs 1MB cache was far more than the gain in average fps, however that was just single game (painkiller) and pretty much chucked in as a side point.

[horvendile]

Well, given the premise of a sister site not impacting the 3D-business I find it hard to say no. But your quality as a 3D-site is more important than also reviewing other hardware. Is the no impact-premise realistic?

Also, you should probably make sure that you really know what you are doing when reviewing other stuff. Otherwise it may cast doubts on your 3D articles, fair or not.

[Sabastian]

My biggest pet peeve doesn't seem to be represented in the poll. That being direct comparisons with products in the same price range. I know that you are loath to make comparisons between competing IHV's. Personally I think it is a dam shame that is the case. For instance I am going to buy a two Radeon 9600 xt products for the kids computers this Christmas.. but look here see what I find here on B3D for product comparisons.

http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/ati/rv360/index.php?p=4

The content is fine.. but look at what your comparing it with. The 9600 Pro and the 9500 pro. The 9500 pro is no longer for sale and the 9600 Pro is the same core without low k dielectrics. The comparisons are easy enough to conclude before you read the article. What is the point of that anyhow? You might as well just benched the card by itself. I want comparative reviews based on price range as a consumer. Anyhow I had to go looking around for reviews to get better comparisons.

I would not mind seeing B3D do other hardware reviews. Motherboard and CPU tests would be great IMO. What about game reviews? I think it would be a nice change to see a broadening of the review base but it would be wise to keep a focus on the graphics aspect particularly. A tight sister site would be ok but that would not be much different then say clicking on one of my favorites to see reviews. I think the best option would be to introduce your own hardware reviews with a stronger focus on 3D hardware of course. But I want to see shoot outs and product comparisons for given price ranges from multiple IHVs. [/rant]

[Armunn]

I voted for a sister site. As a long time reader of Beyond3D I would like to the site expand their method of reviews to cover other hardware.

I suggest though if you want to maintain the high quality of your reviews, you should look into putting on a couple of reviewers dedicated to the task of reviewing the other hardware. With proper screening you should be able to find a couple of guys/girls that are upto your standard, and that would make sure the extra content didn't effect your video reviews.

[Evildeus]

I voted for a sister site :!:

[volt]

Definitely an idea to consider :P

And if in fact that happens, you can sure expect lots of traffic

Sister site 8)

[Geo]

Other than the fact that you might (or might not) have to spend some more time to educate yourself or whoever else does the review to meet the expected standards of b3d, I'd say hell yes. Tho to do it up proper you'd need to be able to compare it to others and explain why this 'un is better or worse than that 'un.

[hoom]

beyondpc.com ?

[gandalfthewhite]

sister site with the forums being shared IMO

[Bolloxoid]

If you don't have a laboratory where you can actually measure the maximum power output of a power supply (like this (http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20040122/index.html)) and compare it to reported specs, don't bother. If you can't verify the claims in the packaging quantitatively, it's no review (at least not a review B3D should carry).

[pat777]

Power supplies have 3 dimensions. :lol:
This is Beyond3D, not BeyondGPU. You can review powersupplies if you want to because they have 3 dimensions. :lol: