Tom's a bad source for info...

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:54 pm

Okay, I used to read Tom's Hardware quite a bit. But reading many of the insights here and some other places, I've come to realize that it's really not the best place for any sort of information. Take this arcticle:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/09/27/ ... age15.html

They tested CPUs when the heatsink fans were turned off, comparing AMD to intel. And then they ran benchmarks... :/

They used the stock coolers for the AMD and Intel processors, ignoring the obvious that they use different coolers! It's not like you couldn't get one of hundreds of coolers that work for both sockets...

And then I go to the forums to see what people are saying about the article...
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/24540 ... oler-fails

And people are all talking about fanless stuff and how cool that would be, not realizing that it has to be designed with the right fin spacing to run fanless, and that good fans can be run slow enough to be inaudible even at 1 foot!

Reminds me on the articles they do where they have a quiet product, and the room they test it in has an ambient noise floor of 35 dB...lol They just don't get quiet and silent computing. I get 40-50 dB is acceptable to them.

MastaSlayer · Post by **MastaSlayer** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:15 pm

Im not sure your getting the point, the title of the link you put in Yourself says http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/09/27/ ... age15.html
What if your CPU cooler fails, well guess what nothing apparently. They have determined (i only skimmed through the article but the title and introduction says it all) that even if your fan fails in modern day cpus your processor wont burn out and be destroyed because of built in temperature sensors which throttles the speed if it runs too hot and also has emergency shutdown

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:24 pm

Yes, I got that point. They could have said that all in 1 page, instead of 15, with a bunch of meaningless stuff thrown in the middle.

kittle · Post by **kittle** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:34 pm

I found the article rather bewildering too.
motherboard sitting in open air and they stop the fan on the stock cooler? and expect the PC to stay running?

Id expect mine to complain loudly and then shut down.
I remember seeing an article a couple years ago where they did simmilar tests and showed what really happens... bbq cpu anyone?

It did make for a nice lunchtime diversion though.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 11:51 pm

I think just about all current gen CPU's have thermal protection...will throttle down or even shut down rather than melt down.

Tom's? It's another site that looks at everything in terms of how much can you overclock to squeeze out a higher frame rate for a vid game. Outside of that context....they pretty much are in the dark. It's like asking a heart surgeon how to rebuild a Holley carburator. He's a smart guy....but that's not his bag.

There's dozens of similar sites. You can get a mobo based on it will OC a high end CPU a little higher. What you find later is the northbridge fan howls and is a poor setup for a replacement...you discover that there's a good chance you have a nightmare with the bios or Raid or the sound sucks and the LAN just dies in a couple months. Great...it's 1% better at overclocking.....except when it catches fire.

Sometimes you want multiple viewpoints.

Tom's or Anand or Viper's Lair or ? CAN provide some info...if you read between the lines. You make allowances...you look for what you CAN use,and you fill in with other info.

I like to browse the user reviews at New Egg. Many will tell me nothing,but on an item where there's 100 reviews-you often see patterns.

SPCR is a great resource from the angle of quiet computing,howecer neither the site nor any of the posters has the resources to cover everything.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 3:53 am

Toms was the first PC review site that I started reading which was back in the 90s. Iâ€™ve noticed that the quality and presentation of the reviews has deteriorated in the last year or so. It has changed ownership at least once in the near past and possibly twice which may be the cause of its current state.

I was surprised that only one of the Intel CPUs was able to successfully keep performing under extreme conditions whilst thermally throttling itself, because donâ€™t they all use the same mechanism!

quadraphonic · Post by **quadraphonic** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 6:04 am

So... what are some good sources?

sjoukew · Post by **sjoukew** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 10:33 am

If I do want to know something about hardware I read XBit Labs and AnandTech.
If it is about 3d stuff I look onto Guru3d. I stopped reading Tomshardware 2 years ago because the quality of their content is not worth reading in my opinion.

protellect · Post by **protellect** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 10:37 am

I'd tend to agree; Tom's is Intel biased crap 95% of the time. It's high quality crap, but still crap made for people who think having two GTX's in SLI is worth it.

/vent off

Pauli · Post by **Pauli** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 1:55 pm

In my mind, Tom's has been irrelevant for more than 10 years now. It was the first big popular enthusiast site, and I appreciated it back then, but it started sucking within a year or two after it started and has continued to suck for all of this time.

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 5:08 pm

You should read their HDTV articles. They look like they are written by a Best Buy employee. Toms has a identity crisis. They want to be the old Toms, but they also want to be an engadget and cnet and techcrunch. They won't get there if they continue to hire BAD writers. Either they need to cater to the expert, or they need to cater to the novice, but they are currently doing both poorly.

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:09 am

the only thing tomshardware really does very well are LCD panel reviews. Their testing methodology and equipment used is unrivalved by any other online review site ive ever seen.

unfortunately they dont seem to do lcd reviews very often anymore, which is a real shame.

everything else on toms is pretty much crap. i wish some review site someplace would go read up on toms testing procedures for LCD monitors and replicate them, and start pumping out weekly lcd reviews.

Elixer · Post by **Elixer** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:50 pm

What other sites would you guys recommend as better alternatives for tomshardware?

scandium · Post by **scandium** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:36 pm

Tom's isn't as good as it used to be, but its still one of the tech sites I regularly skim. As with others here, it was the first site I began to visit regularly.

In response to the previous post, some of the other tech sites I visit at least now and then (YMMV): Xtreme Systems, [H]ardOCP, and Anandtech.

floffe · Post by **floffe** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 8:29 am

Behardware has good, if infrequent, monitor reviews.

Pauli · Post by **Pauli** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 11:57 am

Elixer wrote:What other sites would you guys recommend as better alternatives for tomshardware?

SilentPCReview for one.

Anandtech is better, though I haven't been reading there much since I discovered SPCR. Anandtech was probably the 2nd popular tech site after Tom's and it quickly stole much of its audience, despite being run by a 16 year old kid.

JaYp146 · Post by **JaYp146** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 10:48 am

Add HardOCP to the list.

In regards to Anandtech, they just gave a glowing review of the Coolermaster Hyper 212 heatsink, which has been ripped apart by several other websites.