This is bloody ridiculous

[Clarentavious]

I know this is slightly off topic, but I want to post it here on the CPU forum since I know it gets attention.

This crap has really pissed me the frick off. In Tom's article "A Comparison of 34 Coolers for the AMD Athlon XP" There are a number of heatsinks listed that are impossible to find or buy. None of them are available at newegg, and when I did a search on google after copy and pasting the names of the heatsinks, on average I got 2 returns outside of Tom's, those being german sites in german language that cannot be translated. Further more, they were review sites, not sites to buy the heatsinks from.

What's the point of posting a review about a product if you can't find it anywhere on the face of this planet? That's like enticing someone to buy something that is illegal or banned. I can't run my computer without a good heatsink or my processor will die. This means I can't check my e-mail, tend to my eBay transactions, play games, or do anything else.

The heatsinks I could not find were

Ajigo Corp. MF018-021

SpringSpread Vento III

EKL 20704101059

Tiger Electronics DF1-P2B

If any of you can find an online store where any of these can be purchased, I'd sure be interested in how you located the site. Perhaps as a courtesy Tom's should post links to places that sell the items they review

Oh, and another thing. What the hell is with all of these illegal ops and internal server errors internet explorer has been giving me about 95 percent of the time I have been visited Tom's in the past month? I was lucky I could even get to this screen to post here

*enraged face*

 

[Crashman]

Sorry, but I'm a reviewer, I only review what companies send me.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[jihiggs]

why do you want the coolers that you listed? you probly cant find them for good reason.

wpdclan.com cs game server - 64.246.52.144:27015
now featuring (optional) cheating death!

 

[Clarentavious]

Those particular heatsinks offer good cooling and low noise, according to Tom's reviews anyway. Crashman, why is it developers can't learn how to properly market, or for that matter, sell their products at all?

 

[Clarentavious]

Crashman, if Tom's has received these heatsinks, surely they know how to contact the companies who made them. When the packages from UPS or FedEx arrive at Tom's headquarters, I would imagine they have a return address label on them and an information packet inside of some sort. They could contact the companies and ask them what retailers they deal with...

 

[Crashman]

That would be a nice service, unfortunately it falls outside the duty of the reviewer. Perhaps they should hire more helpers to do that kind of research.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[endyen]

The AVC Robin is another great hsf to add to your list.
If you go to the manufacturer's homepage, they may list etailers for where you are. If you find a place that selle the robin, let me know please.

 

[Clarentavious]

Sometimes at the bottom of the page on of a particular piece of hardware, I see a little box that has a few stores and their prices. There's is also a face next to the store link (like a green smilely if the store has good ratings).

Ah, I found an example. Look on the right hand side of the page before the advertisements.

I was able to find another good heatsink, the CoolJag JVC652A. I found it here. Apparently CoolJag is a more "popular, common, and american or japense made brand"

<A HREF="http://www.buyextras.com/cojvcpucowis2.html" target="_new">http://www.buyextras.com/cojvcpucowis2.html</A>

This still doesn't solve the technical errors my web browser is giving me when I visit here. I didn't get them 2 months ago.

 

[Crashman]

Actually I believe that work is done by the advertizers using software to recognize the names...and really doesn't involve any research on behalf of THG staff.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Clarentavious]

This is the link I meant to post. To the left before the advertisements column. I don't know if it is done by automatic software, but anyhow

<A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20031208/printer_roundup-01.html" target="_new">http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20031208/printer_roundup-01.html</A>

I still can't say I am pleased about the situation, but at least this CoolJag heatsink I bought was rated reasonably good (still have to wait for it to arrive in the mail though).

 

[phsstpok]

I think the reason as to why you can't find some of the heatsinks is geography.

I'm not sure but by reading the info about the editorial staff of Tomshardware, the article author, Harold Thon, appears to be part of the German contingent of Tomshardware. At least he seems to work or did work in Germany. Further some of the companies producing the reviewed heatsinks are German in origin. For instance, EKL AG was founded as Elektronik Kühlsysteme Leutkirch GmbH. Spring Spread/Neolec and Tiger Electronics also have corporate headquarters in Germany.

Anyway, here are some corporate links. Start there. Maybe they have distributors in your location. (I didn't have time to check).

EKL AG
<A HREF="http://www.ekl-gmbh.de" target="_new">http://www.ekl-gmbh.de</A>

Tiger Electronics
<A HREF="http://www.tiger-electronics.biz/" target="_new">http://www.tiger-electronics.biz/</A>

Neolec
<A HREF="http://www.neolec.de/consumer/index.html" target="_new">http://www.neolec.de/consumer/index.html</A>

A couple of your product links

Vento III
<A HREF="http://www.neolec.de/consumer/index_vento_3_de.html" target="_new">http://www.neolec.de/consumer/index_vento_3_de.html</A>

EKL 20704101057
<A HREF="http://www.ekl-gmbh.de/frontend/uebersicht.php3?id_typ_lang=0000013&id_lang=0000002&id_matchcode=produkte&artnr=20704101059" target="_new">http://www.ekl-gmbh.de/frontend/uebersicht.php3?id_typ_lang=0000013&id_lang=0000002&id_matchcode=produkte&artnr=20704101059</A>


I'm tired but I think you get the idea. Here's a link to the German version of the cooler review article. It might have some more leads to finding the products.

<A HREF="http://www.de.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030107/cooler5-26.html" target="_new">http://www.de.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030107/cooler5-26.html</A>

One last thing, I'm finding that search engines are getting worse and worse. Type in a company name and all you seem to get is retailers, most of whom don't even sell the brand for which you are seeking.

Here's how I found the above links.

Search for <i>company name</i> with keywords "corporate" and "headquarters". Got good hits that way.

Good luck.


<b>56K, slow and steady does not win the race on internet!</b>