Maximum PC

I'm sure I'm not the first to post this, and I won't be the last. But I think you guys used to have a great mag, and a great website. Its funny and generally informative. But, lets be honest, your biggest value to your readers (i.e. what convinces them to plunk down almost $10 now for the new stand price) are:

1. reviews
2. how-tos
3. news & opinion on recent happenings in PC world
4. you bring these three things together all in one, easy to access, place.

In theory, The Best of the Best list is the epitome all these elements, and you ignore it like a red-headed step child. Half the stuff on there is obsolete, many models can't even be found anymore (try finding a Lite-On iHAS422 -- why would you when you can get the iHAS424?)

In short, MPC's Best of the Best is an embarrassment. It's a waste of time to read it. I build something similar to your "Dream Machine" every two or three years. I don't have the time to keep up on the latest best stuff in between then, so I used to go to your Best of the Best to shorten my research time (time I should be spending on my PhD dissertation), but now instead it only lengthens my research. Because I have to check EVERY part I am interested in to make sure it truly IS the best part currently out there. It used to be that the Best of the Best was dead on, years ago. But every time I've built, the list of obsolete items grows longer. And now, its absolutely useless to me.

Back in the days when PC Magazine was around, they had a great "The Best Stuff" page. Maximum PC's Best of the Best used to be the Enthusiast PC Builder's version of that. A break down of entry, mid, and high-end/enthusiast categories for every part you need in a computer. And now you got categories like best AMD motherboard? Who cares!? I don't care if I put AMD or Intel, AMD/ATI or Nvidia in my rig. I just want the best performance part for the price point I am willing to pay. If the low, mid, high end part all end up being from a single company, then only list those parts. Don't waste space catering to fan boys who absolutely need to have their company on the lists, even when that company was out thought, out performed, and out priced at every level and wouldn't merit mention otherwise.

You guys call yourself a builder's magazine, and your Best of the Best list doesn't even list everything you need to build a computer. You don't list PSUs or RAM. In fact you've never listed RAM. Why the hell not? It changes too fast? You've moved your list to the website, no paper publishing cycle to deal with -- hence no excuse to not keep, even a fast evolving category such as RAM, on your list and constantly updated.

The Best of the Best is a disgrace. In another two years I'll build another system. Will I start my hunt for the choicest parts on the MPC Best of the Best list? Judging by the rate of decay, I doubt it.

Bashar42

I suppose the economy has gotten to Maximum PC. To let the industry tell them what is the best, no doubt possibly with a profit.

Frankly, the computer industry has gone from a consumer push, to the retailer pushing the consumer, more or less. The last 10 years have changed the way technology is pushed. For example the lastest Xeon's have 8 core processors, when the latest consumer processor seems to be stuck at 6 cores. So the push for technology has moved away from the average consumer to IT departments...

Yes, I would like to see PSU's dish it out as before.
Yes, I would like to see which ram is the lowest latency and best stability.
Yes, seeing the latest video cards are nice, but they change so often, that it doesn't matter to me. I put all of that into the graphic card industries profit model, as to gaining profit during initial release while offering multi-tier products. Thus, slowing progress in technology advancements, so they can profit more from its consumer. Why is this a slow in technology? Because they are offering it now, so you get what they give you, the average consumer isn't demanding it.

Flash Drives:
No offense to any of the other people that support flash drives, but they are far from the best. Far from the best in access times and transfer rates, Any PC that I would deem "Kick Ass" would have two ram drives (Acard ANS-9010b or other) for the OS, then you can have your RAID 0 with 2TB hard drives for backups and such... Because even with faster access times of the flash drive, its still a bottleneck when you look at it.

The themes within Maximum PC over the years have gone from building the "ultimate PC" to "within everyone's budget" then to the what seems to be a tweak mag, which is fine but has lost my interests. I agree with the previous post, the "Best of the Best" section should be put into categories: High, Mid, Low or even High End, Mainstream, Budget, Price Pinch. Or even offer a better members website, which is instant for your articles and highly more informative.

Because I believe that hiding this information, is just as good as lying to me.

How often does the online BEST OF THE BEST get updated? It seems like the same old stuff has been there forever. Come on guys it really shouldn't be that hard to at least keep it up to date with the magazine. The best of the best in the magazine is different from the one online. WTF? Is the i5-750 the best budget proc or is the phenom ii x6? I wish you guys updated the online BOTB at least once a month. It's been the same list for ages.

Before this post on the 16th, there was a thread on the 11th that you could partake in instead of starting your own.
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=106708

It's hard to take people too seriously when we don't do a little research into it if it's being discussed or not. This has been an issue before, it's common, and needs no new thread. Maybe you missed the thread titled "Best of the best sugestion", maybe you just ran in here blind thinking it's a new topic.

There's 6 threads in here about email spam too. Only one is needed.