Can magazine reviews be trusted?

skap7309

This is why i ask. I used to buy AV equipment purely on the basis of what score they got in a review and i am currently close to buying a PC for my needs. I read somewhere a few years back that big companies simply pay these magazines a tidy sum in order to get a big score as it guarantees a massive sales boost. Is this true?

My PC needs are as follows; I 90% of the time surf the net BUT often have anything up to 6-7 seperate windows open at the same time. I will download, store and listen to music and films through it so basically i require a fast processor, plenty of memory and a good graphics/sound card/speakers (2.1) My budget is around £500 but will strech to £750.......just.
Going by a review i saw in computer shopper last night i am tempted to go for it, but its a lot of money if the above is anything to go by!

Thanks.

bigdic

In my opinion reviews can be trusted from most magazines, if they were that easily "paid off" then the truth would quickly come out and people would stop buying their magazine.

I wouldn't read to much into a PC review cos usually these guys test them to the limits and also may give points for things you'd never use. If I was you I'd just take a look around and buy a machine that suits your needs from a company with a good reputation and you feel comfortable with. You seem to know what you need it to do and what you need so I wouldn't bother with a magazine review.

albertross_2

Magazines earn a lot of money from the same companies advertising in the magazines..not a good idea to hack off your sponsors.

The need for speed is overblown, especially in computer magazines. Any £400-£500 PC will probably meet your needs.

https://www.dmxdimension.com

kingmonkey

skap7309 wrote:

My PC needs are as follows; I 90% of the time surf the net BUT often have anything up to 6-7 seperate windows open at the same time. I will download, store and listen to music and films through it so basically i require a fast processor, plenty of memory and a good graphics/sound card/speakers (2.1) Thanks.

My Pentium 3 500Mhz running a lightweight distro of linux can easily handle your computing needs.

greenfinger

If your surfing and downloading quite a lot, then remember that you'll need to have AV and spyware and perhaps peerguardian running in the background. Hence these all add up, especially if you multitask as well. Ive just built a pc for my brother in law, AMD 4600 x2 with 2GB of memory and 320GB hard disk, a good spec, that runs quickly, and should cope with Windows Vista if he wanted to run it (although I dont know why he would). As for brands, I think a great deal is down to personal choice and perspective. If you have techie friends ask them to build you one, they may do it for a beer, - I did it for a box of chocolates!

energy80s

My God, most video editing machines don't have that spec!

Omertron

greenfinger wrote:

If your surfing and downloading quite a lot, then remember that you'll need to have AV and spyware and perhaps peerguardian running in the background. Hence these all add up, especially if you multitask as well. Ive just built a pc for my brother in law, AMD 4600 x2 with 2GB of memory and 320GB hard disk, a good spec, that runs quickly, and should cope with Windows Vista if he wanted to run it (although I dont know why he would). As for brands, I think a great deal is down to personal choice and perspective. If you have techie friends ask them to build you one, they may do it for a beer, - I did it for a box of chocolates!

I think that the PC specified there is a little overkill for the OP's need, but the sentiment of building a PC is a good one. However, with £500 there are plenty of dell PCs that will more than meet the OP's requirements. As mentioned before, http://www.dmxdimension.com/ is a good site to browse, for example THIS PC in it's various configurations will suit the OP's needs adequately.