How to Tune-up a PC

[Ken Blake, MVP]

When I have the personal experience to rely on, I
respect my own reviews over anyone else's.

I'm the one he asked (although I missed his original question), so
I'll throw in my two cents. Me too; personal experience is always
best. Second to that are opinions of other individuals who I know and
respect.

Mags aren't
useless,

As reviews, they are close to useless, in my opinion (except for the
point below).

in general aren't biased,

I strongly disagree. Any magazine that derives a large percentage of
its income from advertising *has* to be biased.

but sometimes are
poorly tested

That is also true.

so results may vary widely, but you do
get an overall feeling for at least the reliability and
user-friendliness from them even if you disagree with
them.

My view is that the only real value of a magazine review is its
description of a product. For example, if a review tells me what
features a product has and what features are missing, I get to
immediately make some sort of a judgment based on what features I
personally would be likely to use and find important.

 

[Paul MR]

I'm the one he asked (although I missed his original question), so
I'll throw in my two cents. Me too; personal experience is always
best. Second to that are opinions of other individuals who I know and
respect.




As reviews, they are close to useless, in my opinion (except for the
point below).




I strongly disagree. Any magazine that derives a large percentage of
its income from advertising *has* to be biased.




That is also true.




My view is that the only real value of a magazine review is its
description of a product. For example, if a review tells me what
features a product has and what features are missing, I get to
immediately make some sort of a judgment based on what features I
personally would be likely to use and find important.

Thanks for your response, Ken. And also poprivet. As someone who is
not in the computer biz, I am always on the look-out for trustworthy
authorities. I lack sufficient knowledge or spare time to distinguish
valuable writings from the garbage, so I thought I'd ask.
Paul in San Francisco

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks for your response, Ken. And also poprivet. As someone who is
not in the computer biz, I am always on the look-out for trustworthy
authorities. I lack sufficient knowledge or spare time to distinguish
valuable writings from the garbage, so I thought I'd ask.

You're welcome. There's no question that it can be very hard to
separate the wheat from the chaff, and the less knowledge you have in
the subject, the harder it is.