Montech Flyer

EarthDog · Nov 11, 2019

NRANM said:
Yes, that is what I also know: reviews are not paid. At least in general.
However, when a reviewer (highly) recommends products that perform poorly (and should actually be avoided), my only conclusion is that said reviewer has been paid to say that.

Or maybe it is based off of the other information and not the piece of information you believe is the most important... now I get you, thermal testing of cases is important and is missing from these reviews, but, he isn't a paid shill.

I'm not specifically talking about this review, note, just in general.

That said, your conclusion is more than likely off base and quite frankly, is being toxic for little to no reason. There are plenty of good reasons to lynch some of these reviews here, but paid shills isn't one of them.

GlacierNine · Nov 11, 2019

EarthDog said:
As in, a company doesn't typically pay websites for reviews. The products are given to them free for review or sometimes they are purchased and reviewed. But the vast majority of reviews from TPU and other major sites are not paid reviews. And regardless if the product is recommended or not, the site gets the same amount per hit. So I dont get what you are really saying here.

Every single one of Darksaber's case reviews thanks the manufacturer for providing the product.

These products are given to TPU for free to review. In return for doing as little as he can get away with (Some photos, a few paragraphs and slapping an award on a product without testing), Darksaber generates traffic for TPU which brings in ad revenue, and the manufacturers obtain exposure and an award for their new product. This also means that for companies doing multiple product lines, TPU can maintain friendly channels of communication, for example reviewing an ASUS case positively may give TPU a greater likelihood of being sampled for a motherboard to review.

If DS bothered to review these products in a critical manner (as is the purpose of a review), then this could endanger TPU's continued access to cost-free product to post articles about and subsequently drive traffic and make advertising money.

Now clearly, this makes sense if you don't mind shilling every product you get sent, but in terms of aiding the consumer, this is worthless and we should expect better.

EarthDog · Nov 11, 2019

Again, these aren't the best case reviews... not even close.... and the author is non-responsive when you ask questions...so overall it is sub-par at best to me as well. But they are not paid shills. Move along, boys.

GlacierNine · Nov 11, 2019

EarthDog said:
Again, these aren't the best case reviews... not even close.... and the author is non-responsive when you ask questions...so overall it is sub-par at best to me as well. But they are not paid shills. Move along, boys.

In terms of whether money changes hands with the express purpose of that money prompting a good review? No, I don't think so either.

In terms of whether the motivation for this rubber-stamping exercise is financial, and it is understood to mean that a bad review would endanger potential revenue or access to sample products in future? I very much believe that is the case.

This is also not without precedent here on TPU either - for example Cadaveca once said rather too much on this topic when he admitted that once upon a time, he gave a motherboard a perfect 10 score (when TPU still had scores), and ended up incurring the ire of motherboard manufacturers, who refused to sample TPU for additional motherboards due to there being no possibility of obtaining a higher score than the competition.

Larger manufacturers with reputations to protect, don't send out product for no reason. They expect to get a boon in terms of exposure and positive coverage. Outlets that don't provide those things don't get sampled again, at least for a period of time. See: GN slamming the CM H500P, being blacklisted by CM's press contact, and only receiving samples again after giving positive coverage to multiple subsequent iterations of the original case that were purchased using GN's own funds instead of being sampled. Now of course, GN are quite happy to take that hit and carry on doing what they do, but a lot of outlets play very buddy-buddy with manufacturers in order to ensure they can stay afloat and publish new content without the overheads of having to purchase that product.

EarthDog · Nov 11, 2019

Whatevs, bud. Not like I don't have intimate knowledge of how reviews work (on all three sides - AIBs, writers, and EICs) for small websites and larger ones than this.

My avatar is this way here for a reason... every day a new user proves it.. and sometimes the writers do too.

GlacierNine · Nov 11, 2019

EarthDog said:
Whatevs, bud. Not like I don't have intimate knowledge of how reviews work for small websites and larger ones than this.

My avatar is this way here for a reason... every day, a new user proves it.

Being condescending doesn't prove your point here. Try harder.

EarthDog · Nov 11, 2019

GlacierNine said:
Being condescending doesn't prove your point here. Try harder.

I wasn't being condescending to you. This isn't a glaciernine centric thing. Also, see the edit.

NRANM · Nov 11, 2019

EarthDog said:
That said, your conclusion is more than likely off base and quite frankly, is being toxic for little to no reason. There are plenty of good reasons to lynch some of these reviews here, but paid shills isn't one of them.

Granted, my initial reaction was intentionally a bit passive-aggressive, since, to be honest, I still doubt reviews here being directly paid by companies. However, if paid shilling isn't the explanation, then what's left is incompetence and/or laziness.

DeathtoGnomes · Nov 11, 2019

NRANM said:
Granted, my initial reaction was intentionally a bit passive-aggressive, since, to be honest, I still doubt reviews here being directly paid by companies. However, if paid shilling isn't the explanation, then what's left is incompetence and/or laziness.

You should be arguing with the staff about these issues, like i said already. But look how long it took to get your facts straight....

GlacierNine · Nov 11, 2019

DeathtoGnomes said:
You should be arguing with the staff about these issues, like i said already. But look how long it took to get your facts straight....

And look at how long it's taking you to read any of these things that have already been said in the thread...

GlacierNine said:
That club grows with each passing month, to be fair. When I started bitching about this in March Of 2018 it had far fewer members.

BitFenix Enso

The BitFenix Enso is the classic wolf in sheep's clothing. It may look like an ordinary 70-80 USD chassis out there when turned off, but as soon as the addressable RGB lights turn on, it becomes apparent how much more the Enso offers while keeping the price enticingly low. Show full review

www.techpowerup.com

NRANM said:
Anyhoo, it would seem you are now a member of the exclusive club of people who express their opinions about the issue, but our words fall on deaf ears. Or should it be text falling on blind eyes on an Internet forum?

GlacierNine said:
Did you not read the rest of the thread?

We've been asking for thermals for *years*. I've pinged Wizzard on a number of occasions. I've pinged Darksaber also. Not only do they not add thermals, they don't even bother to respond to explain why thermals are absent.

NRANM · Nov 11, 2019

DeathtoGnomes said:
You should be arguing with the staff about these issues, like i said already.

Any specific way to do that? Send a direct e-mail to W1zzard?

DeathtoGnomes said:
But look how long it took to get your facts straight....

What facts? What are you talking about?

GlacierNine · Nov 11, 2019

@DeathtoGnomes btw, see this ping, that directly notified you someone wanted your attention?

Xigmatek Zest

The Xigmatek Zest is one hefty chassis that throws RGBs at us in every possible way: by embedding them into two 200 mm fans, the company logo, and a third fan in the rear, just for good measure. It looks like a sleek and large case that promises to handle any hardware. Show full review

www.techpowerup.com

System Name	Dumbass
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7800X3D
Motherboard	ASUS TUF gaming B650
Cooling	Artic Liquid Freezer 2 - 420mm
Memory	G.Skill Sniper 32gb DDR5 6000
Video Card(s)	GreenTeam 4070 ti super 16gb
Storage	Samsung EVO 500gb & 1Tb, 2tb HDD, 500gb WD Black
Display(s)	1x Nixeus NX_EDG27, 2x Dell S2440L (16:9)
Case	Phanteks Enthoo Primo w/8 140mm SP Fans
Audio Device(s)	onboard (realtek?) - SPKRS:Logitech Z623 200w 2.1
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000i
Mouse	Steeseries Esports Wireless
Keyboard	Corsair K100
Software	windows 10 H
Benchmark Scores	https://i.imgur.com/aoz3vWY.jpg?2