44
Porta ble Media Players
fi nd out what separates the winners from
the losers in our roundup of 10 next-gen
digital audio and video players.Selecting
the Best
Contents
Ed Word
Please send feedback and pie
to [email protected].5
T
his year, Maximum PC reviewed 420 prod-
ucts. That’s a lot of reviews. And each and
every product that was reviewed is eligible for
our annual “Gear of the Year” story. Although it’s
easy to outright eliminate the hardware we sav-
aged with bad reviews and low verdicts, there’s
still a boatload of quality contenders, making the
selection process a grueling task.
The whittling goes something like this: First,
every editor makes a list of the contenders in his or
her category. Some of these lists are short—those
in the know will agree that there’s only one possible
core-logic chipset choice this year—but some of
the lists are long. Really, really long. The list of can-
didates for our Wild Card category—outstanding
hardware that doesn’t fi t into one of our traditional
categories—was positively epic!
Next, we lock all the editors in a tiny, poorly lit,
spider-infested conference room deep in the bow-
els of the Maximum PC Complex. Sure, we could
use one of our well equipped, modern conference
rooms, but squalid conditions motivate us to get the
job done faster.
Once we’re sealed in the room, the fi rst editor
presents the contenders for the fi rst category, and
the debate begins. No topic is off-limits—be it fan
noise or future upgradeability or even a product’scolor—and while raw performance is the primary
concern, everything about every product is con-
sidered before we make our fi nal proclamations.
Believe me, the debates are lively—not lively like a
political debate, but lively like a soccer riot.
No one leaves until the list is done. There are no
bathroom breaks, no food orders, no interruptions
whatsoever. There are occasional startling develop-
ments: This year we were so torn between two strong
contenders for the Wild Card category that we created
a new category (Cooling) so as to accommodate both.
Drama abounds. This bears repeating: No one leaves
the room until the list is done.
If it sounds like a lot of hassle, it is. But it’s
worth every tear and every drop of blood shed.
Sure, we could just pick the products that got the
best scores and call it a day, but then I never would
have heard one editor call the 10,000rpm Raptor
“the hard drive that changed my life,” or been privy
to the full inventory of another editor’s RAIDed
500GB Deskstars.
So I hope you guys enjoy “Gear of the Year.”
It’s on page 24. As you’re reading it, remember that
six editors went through hell to get it to you.38
Making the
Switch
For six harrowing months, Editor in
Chief Will Smith did the unthinkable:
He swapped his
PC for an Apple
G5. Read his
full no-bull report.56
Maximum PC
Auction
Find out how you can be the owner
of a Maximum PC-built rig!DECEMBER 2005 MA XIMUMPCFeatures
MA XIMUMPC 12 / 05
24
The fastest. The toughest. The
sexiest. The bleeding-edgiest PC
technology of 2005.56
PC
66Gear of
the Year