MaximumPC 2003 12

In The Lab

parallel ATA drive. While it would have

been nice to outfit our test beds with the

latest hard drive bus technology, at this

point in time, the performance benefits

of Serial ATA are essentially nil. The

upshot is that we’ll stick with parallel

ATA for now, and update our hard drive

reviewing station with a chipset that

offers native Serial ATA support when we

do our next hard drive review.

In the audio department, we’re going

with the new Audigy 2 ZS soundcard.

The recent trend in soundcards has been

to offload audio-processing chores to the

CPU, but we think that having a dedi-

cated DSP is important for keeping frame

rates as high as possible. We’re building

test beds, after all. We would be foolish to

include any technologies that went out of

their way to steal CPU resources.

In the optical department, we wanted a

versatile drive that could handle as many

media types as possible—in other words,

the Plextor PX-708A. With the ability

to read and write both DVD formats and

CDs, the PX-708A provides all the flexibil-

ity we need to get data on and off of our

test beds. And it’s a Plextor.

Finally, in order to keep up with the

extreme power requirements of modern

components, we decided to update our

power supplies as well. Granted, we’ve

never had problems with power in the

past, but that’s because we stick with

brand-name, high-output supplies from

PC Power and Cooling. This time, we’ve

updated to the new TurboCool 510 ,

which is more than adequate for the

amount of hardware we stuff into our

test beds.

Please check back next month,

when our new tests beds will first be

put to use! n

What about Benchmarks

and Zero-Points for

Other Hardware?

In the near future—possibly next

month, maybe the month after—we’ll

introduce you to our zero-point note-

book system, and show you the new

benchmarks we’ll be using for video-

card reviews, optical drive reviews,

and so on. Among other tasks, we’re

still waiting to finalize our videocard

benchmarks (the Half-Life 2 imbroglio

threw us for a loop), and we don’t

want to press benchmark creation,

which must be treated with the

utmost care and respect.

96 MAXIMUMPC DECEMBER 2003

continued from page 94

SYSmark2004

will add

Discreet’s 3DS

to the mix of

tests.

The pinnacle of hardware or software excellence. The product demon-

strates not only superior performance compared with other products in its

class, but also groundbreaking new features or unprecedented attention to

detail. Any 10 product is automatically bestowed a Kick Ass Award.

An excellent product except for one or two forgivable flaws. Products that

receive a 9 verdict may or may not receive a Kick Ass Award—it’s up to the

editorial board to make that decision. These products are truly among the

best of their class.

A good effort, but nonetheless a product that exhibits a few flaws or uses

slightly outdated technology—an “honest” product that falls below the

curve of true excellence. No hardware enthusiast should ever be ashamed

to own a product that received an 8.

A 7 verdict indicates that you should carefully weigh the costs and benefits

of buying the product. These products often come with a frustrating mix of

good and bad features.

A 6 verdict typically goes to a product that’s fourth or fifth best in its cate-

gory. It more or less works as advertised, but there’s no compelling reason

to buy it. The product may also suffer from several serious flaws.

A beta product foisted onto the public for debugging. We recommend that

you pass until the vendor can prove it has corrected the shortcomings.

An insult to your PC. The product might have just a single compelling fea-

ture amid a range of embarrassing faults.

It sucks. It just plain sucks. But because some person somewhere on this

planet may possibly have a use for it, it gets a 3.

The kind of product that just plain doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to.

It’s so bad, it reaches legendary status for its infamy. It’s not the absolute

worst a product can be, but it’s about 2 nanometers away.

A product that’s so rank-ass awful, it should be immediately returned for

a full refund, then reported to the Better Business Bureau or Public Safety

Commission. Not only did it not work as advertised, it actually caused

harm to you or your PC.

Our product ratings aren’t quite as binary as some would think. To help you understand just

what a 9, 10, or 2 verdict is worth, we explain the mysteries behind our ratings scale. Keep this

chart on hand, because we’re only publishing it once this year.

Maximum PC Verdict-o-Meter

10

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1