Welcome to PC Perspective

Interested in learning all about the new PC Perspective? This is where you need to start.

Welcome

First I want to welcome you all to the new PC Perspective website!  I know many of you will have questions regarding PC Perspective so I want to address those right off the bat to keep our readers informed.  I am going to address why PC Perspective was launched, what PC Perspective has to offer you, how it will affect my other sites, Amdmb.com and AmdForums.com and finally what you can expect in the future for PC Perspective.

Why launch PC Perspective?

In a realm where PC review websites are about a dime a dozen, you may be wondering why in the world I decided to develop a new editorial review website.  There are various reasons, the first of which comes into play when you view Amdmb.com as my full time job.  Believe it or not, Amdmb.com is all that I do (besides attend the University of Kentucky full time) in order to do simple things like pay rent, own a car, buy groceries and everything else.  That means that my livelihood depends on YOU the readers and your continued support of the websites.  Amdmb.com gets me through, but if I would like to make this kind of editorial work my full-time position after my graduation this May, I needed to expand the audience of the website, to gather more readers and increase the site’s awareness.  Amdmb.com was essentially tapped out — its growth was now limited by the amount of AMD enthusiasts in the market.  In order for the site to grow, the site needed to change.

Amdmb.com is a great success — if you had told me four years and two months ago that it would become what it is today, I surely would have laughed at you.  Sure, the dream was there, but the goal seemed so far away.  What I want to do is expand on this success and bring our editorial content and unique ideas and opinions to all aspects of the hardware industry; not just that of the AMD fans and users.  This doesn’t just mean that I wanted to cover Intel-based products, but also to cover all other hardware aspects that didn’t quite fit into the Amdmb.com domain; products like mobile platforms, complete systems, graphics cards, displays and more. 

One thing I always prided Amdmb.com on was remaining editorially unbiased, despite the name of the website giving a negative connotation towards competing products right off the bat.  Though the name said AMD, I don’t think we ever once showed discontent for Intel based products; we were simply Amdmb.com because AMD products were very popular and I wanted to limit our focus based on the time I could input into the website.  With an expanded staff and by graduating in May, I find that I now have the ability to properly cover all aspects of the hardware community.  PC Perspective will continue this trend of unbiased work and reviews, but without the stigma of the name of Amdmb.com.

What does PC Perspective offer?

Of course, as we’ve already mentioned, there are more than a couple PC hardware review websites on the Internet, so I needed to make sure that my new project, PC Perspective, would stand out to be recognized. 

First and foremost, coming from the background of Amdmb.com, I have a good relationship with the industry and thus PC Perspective will not have the growing pains that a completely new website would encounter.  This affects our behind-the-scenes work mainly, but the results will be seen by readers in the new articles and exclusives that we will obtain. 

PC Perspective will offer readers the same detailed articles that they are used to seeing on Amdmb.com, with several additions to help make the user experience even better.  One of our new features includes a ‘Summary’ review (see example) for most products that we write about.  This portion of the review can be considered a quick run-down of our thoughts on the product and the overall impressions on it.  You can think of this as a ‘CNet-style’ review or more like a review you would see in a hardcopy PC publication.  These ‘Summary’ reviews will offer the most important facts with less technical detail at a quick glance.  These are offered in hopes that those readers with minimal technical background will still be able to get the information they need from PC Perspective, without being overwhelmed by terms and information they do not understand.  Of course, the more technical ‘Expert’ reviews will still be available for each product review so that tech-heads can still get their fill of caches and motherboard layouts and everything else you are used to seeing on hardware review websites.

Another important feature we are introducing is the ‘Product Specs’ (see example) section of PC Perspective.  This is a database of major product categories with an easy interface to compare competing products at a glance.  At launch, this database includes motherboards from the platforms of Athlon XP, Athlon 64 and the Pentium 4 processors.  You can select multiple motherboards from any platform, manufacturer or chipset to compare them side-by-side.  This will allow our readers to get a wealth of information very quickly, including both new and experienced PC builders.  As new motherboards are released, they will be added into the database.  Soon, processors will be added to this section as well, allowing users to compare different processors at a glance.  Expect comparisons of notebook computers, systems and more as PC Perspective matures.

Finally, at PC Perspective we are going to try to make our review releases be relevant to the timeframe of their launch.  As best we can, we will be avoiding the random dribble of reviews for a more structured release of content.  This means, for example, if a new mobile graphics part is being released, we will attempt to get other mobile technologies to review in the same time frame as well as perhaps a mobile system that implements them all together for a ‘themed’ review schedule.

PC Perspective also benefits as well from our already established user base from Amdmb.com and AmdForums.com.  With nearly 70,000 registered members in the forums, you can bet there will be someone with a solution to your problem or question.  The PC Perspective forums will be integrated with the Amdmb.com forums so the searchable data and open community will already exist.

What is happening with AMDMB and AMDFORUMS?

Let me calm any Amdmb.com and AmdForums.com readers by saying that Amdmb.com and AmdForums.com will continue to exist in their current form.  Some Amdmb.com content may be copied to PC Perspective and vise versa, but the websites will continue to be separate for the time being.  As for AmdForums.com, there will be some minor changes such as adding forums to cover the Intel-based products that were not previously included in our forum structure.  AmdForums.com is already covering the general hardware such as mobile and graphics card very well, so those categories will simply be generalized to cover both platforms of each.  Adding in Intel motherboards to the mix won’t change the structure or community much, so current AmdForums.com members can rest assured what they have come to love will remain.  The look and style of the combined PC Perspective forums and AmdForums.com may change as we upgrade the software and a new PC Perspective colors style will be introduced, but an Amdmb.com style will continue to be available for those that choose to use it.

Eventually, and we are talking about months at least here, when Amdmb.com traffic slows down due to readers migrating to PC Perspective, Amdmb.com may redirect to PC Perspective, but only after every bit of content at Amdmb.com is moved to PC Perspective as well.  Until then, everything Amdmb.com fans know and love will to continue to be around.

The Future of PC Perspective

What you see as PC Perspective today is the culmination of many months of development work by myself and helpful input from many.  That doesn’t mean it’s not going to change, however.

Soon you should see some new features added to PC Perspective so we can continue to offer you the best in online hardware reviews and content.  First, we plan on adding user comments to the ‘Product Specs’ database that will allow you to leave your comments and opinions on motherboards that are listed in the database.  Readers looking at buying a board could then compare not only the specifications of the motherboards but also the reader opinions from those that have used the motherboard.  Processors will be added to the ‘Product Specs’ database as well, and thus user comments will also be included.

It is also more than likely that you will see an aesthetic change to PC Perspective in the coming weeks.  As I did this design myself, and I am not exactly the most talented of graphic designers, minor changes may be occurring soon, but the functionality of the website will remain constant. 

You will see much more frequent reviews and articles posted on PC Perspective than you did on Amdmb.com as there is more content to cover.  With a larger staff to keep up with the information, you will see more of everything including reviews, editorials and news for you to read.  In the long run as well, we are planning on implementing a user reviews section of PC Perspective, so keep that in mind when you buy your new components.

Conclusions

I am very confident that you will enjoy your stay at PC Perspective and because of that I see this website as having a very bright future.  I hope you enjoy all the work that has gone into the development of this website and all the work that will go into the future content you will be reading.  As always, I implore you to email me with your comments, questions and suggestions and I promise I will try my best to respond to them all.  This PC Perspective transition is very important to not only myself, but everyone involved, and your input is what counts most to us.

Thank you for reading and thank you for making this website development an excitement and not a chore with your continued support of my work.