Russ is absolutely an incredible human being!!! Please have him more often as you can or have him as a regular cohort!!!!

A big issue with "reviews" is that many companies look at reviewers as an extension of the company's marketing team/campaigns. And so at least some of the time, the consumers are left to figure out what is "actually wrong" with the device, or what isn't actually said. Ultimately, like what Brad said, NOBODY should be buying or recommending a product for what it PROMISES to do, only what it does today.

Journalistic integrity is the reason I have been a Gordon Mah Ung fan since the 90s. He was the reason I read Maximum PC through the years and I have followed him to PC World. Early on they established that they would always be 100% truthful in their reviews and Gordon was always the person at the center of that. I salute him and wish him a long life doing this for as long as he can.

Brad and Gordon's experience was really enlightening about the industry and where it's coming from. Thank y'all

Excellent insight by Russ regarding the mini PC space and the trends today. Really interesting to see how far gaming has evolved and continues to grow in so many different levels

Regarding drama with the product supplier after posting negative reviews, Anand Lai Shimpi talked about being sent products for review, meeting people from the company afterwards, and literally being screamed at over the table. I don't think it was a one-time experience, either.

Unfortunately I missed this live but great to see Russ on!

I agree with all your points. However, with two notable and recent exceptions, most pc hardware reviewers do not specify their methodology. Game settings, sure. But everything else is more nebulous. An example of this is Hardware Unboxed who state many times that they test CPUs at the manufacturer specifications - however, we have so little control over what a motherboard is doing within those specifications with that particular chip that we (and sometimes the reviewers) cannot be sure what was actually happening on the test eauipment. Plus, there's also the problem of if it's just said, it can be forgotten and is hard to find/ reference. I know how hard it is to do that, from my own benchmarking, especially as i am constantly refining the process to make it better (at this point in time).

I would be curious with those mini pcs. There was a recent one from acemagic that got sent out with malware. The low-end ones frequently come with an OS that costs more than the pc itself, so it gives off "if its too good to be true, then it generally is" vibes. Also a lot of copy-cats in the low-end (< $200). You are also reliant on these third parties for drivers/firmware which could re-infect you with malware and files that are distributed via google drive.... none of which instils confidence. I still think SFF, mini pcs, and handhelds are the future though. Especially if they can somehow master the external gpu (i.e. not a hamstrung usb-4/tb-4 bandwidth). CPUs these days are just so fast that unless you have very heavy workloads, you can probably get away with the laptop cpu skus.

Way too many people now think that journalist/reviewer = publicist.

I remember that 6500XT review by Brad, I thought it was fair at the time. More importantly, it considered the context at the time of release, something many other reviewers seemed to skip. The card was not attractive by any stretch of the imagination, but it came out at a time were options in the market had unreal prices.

Crazy how the hosts can't seem to wrap their heads around the portable and mini pc space and the concept of efficiency. Like truck bros marveling at the concept of a hatchback

Way faster to plop in your own powerlimits than update the bios. A more presise native loadline and removing the single core boost from 6Ghz down to 5.8Ghz would allow for a much lower voltage and performance because of that in all core gaming usage. Most boards assume your cpu is complete silicon crap and shows a ton of extra voltage just to make sure. The problem this time around is that the chips gets so hot so fast that it cant throttle down fast enough. IMC stability is terrible at 100C so good luck running xmp at those temps too. An all core at 5.7Ghz 250w ish and fast xmp is the way to go on 12-14th gen.

when it comes to processing, bigger is better sooo I cannot magine having a mini p.c, id find the room somehow, its all of about a square foot of extra space :)

Anyone who knocks a reviewer for panning a product or service falls in one of three camps: a) they have a vested interest in that product or service, b) they don’t understand what is required to conduct their own due diligence, or c) they cite evidence contrary to the reviewer’s content. Of course, there are also folks who fall into all three camps at the same time.

Back in the day I was really surprised with the Remix Mini.. (office/browsing/email) at 3w to 10watt / Now I'm on a thinclient

Good to know Captain America is into retro gaming!

I'd be annoyed if Marques DIDN'T give his honest opinion. That'd be disingenuous. It's all good when the product is "Yaayyy, thumbs up!"? Come on. Because HE thinks it's not that great, doesn't mean it's not fantastic for other ppl.

Good to see you again Gordon. Am I understanding correctly that Gordon doesn't like Alien? Really? I remember when my mother took us to the movies to see alien when I was a kid. Not sure why she wanted me to see a horror movie but she did. I remember when the baby alien popped out of the guy's stomach she like jumped out of her seat. Lol. I think alien holds up quite well today. I think that it's a must-see if you're going to start watching the alien movies for the first time. It's a good introduction to everything. I do love action movies but I also love straight drama too. As long as the movie is done well then having less action is fine. Aliens I think just turned up the setting a few notches which was cool.

Outrage ponies, we ride at dawn

Over in the audio world the owner of Tekton speakers has been making a huge ass of himself by threatening litigation against multiple reviewers who didn't love his speakers. Very rarely do I believe the reviewers are in the wrong. Occasionally you'll have a reviewer who makes mistakes and is too stubborn to accept their mistakes. Typically though reviewers are acting in good faith.

Can this channel a special on LINUX & Window dual boot

He doesn't *have* to "go negative" on the Cybertruck. Comparing the Cybertruck as a product to the pin is incoherent.

I find weird that MKBHD is being questioned while 500 white dude said the same thing! LOL! Humans are still so prehistoric.

Adam, did you ever watch Prey yet? It IS by far the best Predator film.

I get the fact they dont feel comfortable writing negative reviews because they dont want to bring that energy to their channel. But I think there is way they should look at it as One, they are going to come across a bad product. Its unavoidable even if your on a streak of awesome products you reviewed. Two, there is actually a "positive" outcome to be had reviewing a bad product. As a reviewer going through the pacing and taking your time to make sure the product really isn't worth it. The consumer appreciates the fact that you wasted your time reviewing the product. The consumer didn't have to waste their time AND money realizing the product is bad. Then repackaging it and returning it and days wasted on a bad experience. How often we say "well, that was a complete waste of my time". Its infuriating. I think a "negative" review in that aspect is incredibly positive and useful. I trust the reviewer to give me a thorough breakdown of the product and deciding on my behave don't waste your time. At the end of the day, two things we HATE wasting. Money and time. Money at the very least, you can make back. It sucks at the moment but you can move on. You CANNOT get back time. That is gone. And nothing sucks worst then wasting your time and money on something you don't like.

My i7-5820k is still my everyday PC. on 24/7. I have a faster gaming PC and faster audio PC but you don't need these modern overpriced PCs today to do a lot of tasks.

40:00 Gordon talks about being fair to the (hardware) vendor. While I kind of agree that people can get gleeful at stomping on products, we've also seen way too many times that companies pull a fast one, if not on their customers then to their business partners. It's not really a matter of revenge like "they're unforgiving so we should be unforgiving". But more like if we should judge them like we trust them, they have to prove they're trustworthy. And if they keep gaslighting customers and abusing our trust, we can't let anticonsumer practices slide by sitting on whataboutisms and giving them the benefit of the doubt for five... eight years... just because they're a company whose products we use.

People are *way* too sensitive. They've grown up on "influencers" shoveling garbage for so long, and gone to schools that don't grade, and played sports with no scores, etc., to the point that they cannot handle even witnessing criticism. Frankly, I don't even watch Brownlee because he's too milquetoast. It's horribly boring and he spends too much time cautiously waffling and qualifying whatever potentially negative opinion or criticism he may have.

Regarding handheld PCs and Nvidia; Nvidia have a disadvantage compared to Intel & AMD: the x86 license. To my knowledge only Intel & AMD can produce x86 CPUs because of licensing. There was a trial in the early 2000s between Nvidia & Intel, with the result of that trial being Nvidia never being able to acquire an x86 license from Intel. I suppose Nvidia could go the ARM route in terms of APUs for handheld PCs if they want to enter that market, but then the operating system of choice on a Nvidia APU device would have to run an x86 emulation layer for the library of Steam & PC games released as of now. It's kind of unfortunate that Nvidia can't legally get an x86 license in my opinion.

Gorden is back chilling and making up excuses for intel, while pushing the blame to the mobo manufacturers and the customers. Well done gorden i have expected nothing less from you. Intel is the only one to blame for this mess. Intel has to define the specs and expected behavior for their cpus and enforce these if necessary. Up until now everything the vendors did was according to the intel specifications. If we are overly correct, Intel just sold a bunch of cpus which can’t deliver the performance they promised. Everyone who has lower performance because of „intel baseline“ specs is justified in being angry at intel.

I extremely dislike the headline MKB8kUHD used, but it was still better than people who talk about Lt Commander Data and pronounce it dad-a. It's like they've never watched an episode.

@Apple 🤝 @FROREsystems