This is in response to emails & forum posts that ask for specific products to be reviewed.

Getting review samples of specific products is the first step of the review process. Sometimes this is not easy. SPCR cannot afford (nor wants) to buy products for review in most cases, so we rely on samples submitted to us.

You can help:

1) If you have a spare sample (for whatever reason), send it us. We'll consider it a donation.

2) Take the time to contact potential sample suppliers and ask them to get in touch with SPCR about a review. Tell them how much you value SPCR's assessment of PC products, and that you and other visitors make purchases on the basis of SPCR reviews.

As SPCR and its reach has grown, so has the willingness (sometimes, eagerness) of manufacturers, distributors and stores to provide review samples. Here are some basic facts to excite the marketer:

• Traffic (in July 2004): 50~60,000 pageviews daily; 160,000 unique IPs monthly
• Highly targeted international audience for quiet PC products, the only one of its kind on the web

This kind of enthusiastic and sincere member effort can help expedite the acquisition of review samples. It has resulted in several of the reviews that have already appeared on SPCR.

PS -- Don't worry about fine details: Just give them my name & email address. They will always want to get in touch with me before proceeding.

Mike, since the majority of your readers do not live in Canada, what is the correct procedure to send you review samples so that you don't get hit with excessive custom duties?

two questions:

Could we send two boxes, one smaller and inside the other, adressed w/ shipping so you could send the unit back wehn you are done?
If thats possible I'd be willing to send off something to you to review (assuming I stopped being cheap long enough to buy something you'd want to reveiw )

Also, I'm waiting for a review of the 120mm fortron PSU. I remember reading you had one to review, though maybe I'm hallucinating again, and I would really like a review so I can see how these other models would compare.

The sample supplier will always want to communicate with me directly first, so no worries there. As long as they have my email address -- mikec@...

1) no need for the 2nd box. Just a return address & note about return will do. again I am sure people will email directly first.
2) 120mm fortron -- one of several PSUs awaiting reviews...

How about a more comprehensive roundup up of fans?

It's fairly cheap to send fans (light in weight) to Canada, and I am pretty sure many of us have spare ones lying around doing nothing. This way the recommended list can become much bigger?

yes get some 120mm fans on the recommended list (for my Antec 3700 )

Well I just submitted a suggestion to Kingwin that they provide you a sample of the KT-424 for review so we'll see how that works. I just switched to this case and with just a few snips to cut off the 3 fan grills the airflow is excellent plus with the fan controller and the "anti shock absorber" hard drive mounts I think this case has some real potential.

That "anti shock absorber system" bugs me every time I read it, sounds like they're against shock absorption.

I asked jab tech if they would consider sending review samples, and to contact MikEC etc etc.

they replied by saying


I think alot of vendors feel more comfortable and are more willing to spend thier time being aproached by a professional or site admin or reviewer; and not just a random forum member with some facts and an email adress...

Unfortunatly that negates all the timesaving on MikeC's and the other reviewers part. I hope this sort of response is not typical.

I do not know who you spoke to at Jab-Tech, but I have a personal contact over there, John, who I approach for samples. Jab-Tech's response to you may be as a result of this connection between John and myself.

However...I would hope other vendors, who do not already have relationships with SPCR staff, don't respond that way. It's fine, though, for Jab-Tech to do so.

Btw, Jab-Tech has graciously provided several Panaflo samples to me already, and I personally do not yet feel that I have done enough in return for them yet for giving me the fans. Next time I utilize any of their samples in an upcoming review, they will get a mention for sure!

-Ed

PS As always, I recommend that anyone who found out from me here in the forums that Jab-Tech offers pre-sorted Japan-made Panaflos please let them know, if you should purchase with them, that Ed from SPCR sent you!

Aside from the special case of Jabtech...

If everyone who had a hankering to see 2 products reviewed on SPCR actually wrote brief succint emails to 2 potential sample suppliers of each product, that would probably make at least, say, 50 emails a month. So if 10% of them respond in some fashion, with 5% dropping out, we might have a handful of samples every month that we could not have otherwise.

Would keep all the reviewers busy.

It's just a numbers game right? S'what the spammers know.

Us? Spam? Neeeeeeveeeeer.....

Yes Edward Ng, it was John.
Thanks for the Japanaflo's

Is there any other vendor Connections i should be wary of? Seem like a mafia to me. Do you owe John a Favor for the panaflo's?

EDIT Did he make you and offer you cant refuse?

Not particularly; I just believe the policy that in order to maintain postive working ties, a business relationship should remain a two lane road.

Should we simply contact the suppliers, or ask one of you first? There are certainly a number of things I'd like to see reviewed by SPCR testers.

You could just cc me on any emails to potential sample suppliers. That's good enough.

'kay. I'll probably send some emails out tomorrow, then.

Mike, would you contact Silenx for a review sample of their Luxurae Hard Drive Silencing Solution? I sent them an email and they replied:

Hello:



You might want to do a Search here on the site for Silenx -- *their* ethics have been very much in question in the time I have been here. They used to post *glowing* "user" reviews while hiding their actual identity, and were found out, and banned from this site.

Haven't silentpcreview.com got that much reputation - that developers would like to have it testet ?
I mean - alot of people buy because of your opinions. (I do )
..but then again the tested-device might come out bad too..

Our reviews are rarely glowing, rave reviews, and if we don't post any reviews of products that are truly bad, it's because we either didn't bother testing, or found the product to be so bad that we chose simply to not post the review all together.

-Ed

I just sent a mail to asetek, asking them to send you a review sample of their new Vapochill Micro CPU cooler.

Wow, cool! That link (and even the root link) gives me the neatest "error" page link I've ever seen!

Works for me...

And I as well.

Aren't you guys the lucky ones.

Here's what it looks like for me, on IE or FF:

You may have to allow scripting on that site or something like it. Either that or lighten up on your firewall settings.

Check out a piece of the page source:

I have to confess, this is amongst the strangest use of the style parameter I've ever seen.

Could we get some updated site statistics in order to be more up-to-date and convincing in our requests?

Actually, would it be possible for you to create something like a form letter for forum users to send to companies? We'd have to edit a few details to be relevant to the specific company and product, but it would ensure a standard level of detail and professionalism in the site's contacts with manufacturers.