Hardware Guide

[d3thkn1ght]

Anybody know where there is a comprehensive, free, online guide to the latest hardware? I'm looking for a guide that has all the info in one place for the cpu models, chipsets, graphic cards, power supplies, different motherboard power connectors (atx, etc.) that have come out the last couple of years. I searched through the site but was not able to find all the info in one place.

Thanks.

 

[r_manic]

Well, your best IMO is to look for those lists in Wikipedia. Like "List of Intel CPUs" for instance.

 

[gkay09]

^ +1 Wikipedia...
If you want to know what are the good brands for those components, the Toms' Forums

 

[jsc]

Well, your best IMO is to look for those lists in Wikipedia. Like "List of Intel CPUs" for instance.

But it's still not in one place.

I have never seen a guide like that in once place. I have seen books like that (not free), but by the time they are published, they are practically obsolete.

 

[r_manic]

Well, given the scope of data, presenting that will require lots and lots of pages. I'm thinking the charts on Tom's Hardware and Wikipedia are comprehensive—if only they had better presentation.

 

[randomizer]

You mean like the old charts?

 

[r_manic]

Hahahaha! Mind sharing a link to a sample old one?

 

[randomizer]

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics2005.html

Green is NVIDIA, red is ATI, blue are the compared cards. Simple and effective. It's been a long time since that site theme for TH has been used to. I'm surprised this actually still exists somewhere.

 

[r_manic]

Indeed. The way I see it though, Tom's Hardware has more info available nowadays, and that's why everything's hard to follow perhaps? Maybe TH should present "summaries" like the page you shared, leaving the more detailed content for those who want to follow?

 

[randomizer]

There is alot of data in the current charts, but the problem is not the data it's the functionality. They are clunky and frustrating to use. The first page could be replaced by a dropdown rather than scrolling down the page to find the benchmark you are after. Not a major issue though. It's the comparison page that really bugs me. There are no graphs! Every other page has a bar graph but the comparison page just shows the individual values. For example: Tom's Hardware - Benchmark The Last Remnant

I also don't think it's really necessary to have blue bars when the card is not an NVIDIA OEM model. Perhaps if the cards were overclocked it might be worth making that clear, but perhaps with another distinct shade of green (or red for ATI cards) instead of blue.

 

[r_manic]

YES! It's a hassle to scroll down the lonnnng list on the first page. And sometimes you don't even know which link to click, since it's not immediately clear what each benchmark represents!

Also, I'm thinking your example would've been a lot easier to follow if the numbers were superimposed on vertically rising bars, no?

 

[randomizer]

You mean for the comparison page?

 

[r_manic]

Yeap... the comparison page you linked to in your last post.