Holiday Buyer's Guide 2007: Part 1

[chiadog]

Less text, more Sarah 😗

 

[jamesro]

i wasn't even looking at the products... were they good?

 

[Crashman]

Do you get the feeling this holiday guide is made up of both 1.) parts the company hasn't had time to test and 2.) parts that have already won awards?

 

[jamesro]

from the 2005 guide

"the Best Gaming System Ever: AAC Liquid XS
When it comes to gaming systems, nothing currently beats water-cooled SLI and dual high-end graphics cards.
The Liquid XS screams speed in every conceivable way, from its Athlon 64 4000+ CPU, to its stock use of Corsair XMX XL Pro RAM (2 x 512 MB DIMMs set to 2.5-3-3-7 timings), to its dual WD 74 GB Raptor drives, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, and Antec Neopower 480W PSU. Of course, the heart of any gaming system is the motherboard and graphics cards - in this case, the DFI LANParty UT nF4 SLI-D and two XFX 256MB GeForce 7800 GTX PCI-E graphics cards have what it takes to do gaming right."

the good old days

 

[ramo]

I would like to have Sarah for my xmas present!

But i guess my wife wouldn't like that

 

[pidesd]

I would like to have Sarah for my xmas present!

But i guess my wife wouldn't like that

go ramo!

you can do it!

 

[The_Gremlin]

Was just hoping this guide would keep going and going and going!

Actually, it WILL keep going and going ... right up until a few days before Christmas!

But I already complained about that! (the timing ... not the going and going)

 

[etittel]

Hiya! I'm the guy who's coordinating the buyer's guide and therefore in the know about how products get selected. We use a two-prong process for selection: we inform our advertisers about the guide and ask them to submit selections, and then we ask our editors (all 40-some-odd of them) to submit their suggestions, and to provide responses to the vendor submissions. After that Editorial coordinator Barry Gerber and I go over the list with the other big dog site editors (Patrick Schmid and Rob Wright, from Tom's Hardware and Tom's Games, respectively, as Barry is also the big dog for Tom's Guide) and make a final selection.

There's no requirement that an item have been granted a format review in any of the Tom's sites to qualify for the holiday buyer's guide, though it certainly doesn't hurt, and clearly drives a lot of the editor's selections. We try to pick stuff that's useful, a little offbeat, and affordably giftable.

Those of you who don't like our selections are pretty open about your reactions and estimations of such things. You could help us and our readers more by adding you recommendations for substitute items.

As for the timing of the guide installments, I agree that waiting until 12/23 to publish the last installment makes it something less than useful for its intended purpose, especially for that final installment. We've already promised to stick to the published schedule, so I'm not sure we can speed things up for contractual reasons. But I'll find out about leaking selections for the final installment when the next-to-last one posts with "the powers that be," if that will help any.

Thanks to one and all for your feedback. We always pay attention to your postings and try to learn what we can from your input.

--Ed--

 

[hongkongphuey]

Funny article. Since when did TH try to be like a Maxim photo shoot? Heck, you could have just placed a beer next to the gear, and it would have looked just as nice... and would have stayed quiet too. Anyhow, I'm done with Tom's and their cheesy attempt to be cool. There are far more advanced sites other than this one, and I don't have to waddle through pics of girls holding gear. I appreciate the gesture, really I do, but I'm not that desperate to see a face.

 

[bobwya]

Hi etittel

How about a nude Sarah with suitable high-end PC components to preserve her modesty...

Seriously though I'll take all the motherboards and RAM off your hands that got zapped with ESD from her Santa suit... 🙂

Bob

P.S. Glad to see that THG is still the last the bastion of testosterone fueled overclocked, overvolted, rugged, manly hardware type stuff!!