How to find reviews for products
From TheBestCaseScenario
| ==How to find Product reviews== | Guide on finding reviews for products |
| This is a basic guide, always check several sites first |
Contents |
[edit] Intro
When you are about to splash some of your hard earned money you want to make sure you aren't wasting it.
The best way to do this is to check reviews on what your going to purchase. I chose not to include all the big sites like C-Net, PC review, or Notebook Review because their reviews are usually "Dumbed-down" for the Average-Joe-Consumer and they don't have a good selection of the kind hardware we get.
[edit] How to look
Start by narrowing down what you would like to find a review on, say an AMD Processor, now lets narrow it down even further, what about an X2 setup, Yes ok then. Now lets talk speed, we want the best so lets decide we want an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Black Edition.
You can find out info by going to the manufacturers website and loading the relevant information. Once you have the full title in this case: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Black Edition you can now start to look.
The most simple is to Google it the hints in the name! just google the title and normally you get loads of reviews from various sites, if that fails search again but add the word Review at the end.
If you still fail to find anything, try searching for the model number
[edit] The results
Normally look though the results, never accept a review from an untrustworthy source, some are not entirly accurate.
One good trust worthy review site is Trusted Reviews. Look though your results, try to pick out one that has your title listed and seems trust worthy.
[edit] Like a book
Never judge a book by its cover, so basically just because a website looks all flashy doesn't mean its accurate. Likewise if a site looks dink and dampt, it doesn't mean it will be a bad review. Lastly, just because it is a big site doesn't exactly mean that you'll get the best reviews; most "huge" review sites have very short, summed up reviews that don't go into any detail about the product.
Also never accept the first review, always check at least 3, this way you get a better overview. You must keep in mind that different sites may be using different Operating Systems, driver versions and systems.
[edit] What to look for
Always look for reviews that cover more than just telling you there specs, you want some benchmarks, these can tell you the performance of a part, you always want to see more than just one test, and if possible, it put up against another part to get a part to part comparison.
[edit] Review sites
Here is a list of review sites that are deemed trust worthy and accurate:
3dgameman | AnandTech | Big Bruin | bit-tech | Bjorn3d | CPU3D | Driver Heaven | Expreview | Extreme Tech | FPSLabs | FrostyTech GruntvillE | The Guru of 3D | Hard|OCP | Hardware Canucks | Hexus | Hot Hardware | InsideHW IT-review | Legit Reviews | MadShrimps | Modthebox | Motherboards.org | Nordic Hardware | OCModshop | Overclock3DNet | Overclocker Cafe | Overclockers Club Overclock Intelligence Agency | PCSTATS | Techgage | techPowerUp! | The Tech Lounge | Tom's Hardware | Trusted Reviews | TweakTown | Virtual-Hideout | X-bit labs | XSReviews
There is also review search engine for all you lazy people Review Search Engine To compare the latest graphics cards in several popular benchmarks or video games you can use the Tom's Hardware Graphics Card Benchmark Comparison Chart.
List and search engine compiled by TBCS member Indybird