bit-tech is going down

[micropage7]

i dunno we can talk about this or not, it just kinda sad where bit-tech gonna down although they stated that the forum will still up

The end | bit-tech.net

Time to say goodbye from all of us at bit-tech.net

bit-tech.net

the era is changing or something, competition?

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

i dunno we can talk about this or not, it just kinda sad where bit-tech gonna down although they stated that the forum will still up

The end | bit-tech.net

Time to say goodbye from all of us at bit-tech.net

bit-tech.net

the era is changing or something, competition?

Seems like possibly old news? TPU had a headline about it back in November...

Hexus.net and Bit-Tech.net Bid Farewell, Former Staff Tease New Online Venture

Today was a sad day for the ever-shrinking world of PC and tech media, with two UK-based websites ceasing active operations as of November 1, 2021. Hexus.net, more commonly referred to simply as Hexus by its readers and fans alike, was started by David Ross in 1998. It grew in popularity enough...

www.techpowerup.com

Wonder what really killed it...

 

[ir_cow]

Sorry bud, old news.

 

[caroline!]

Never heard about them honestly. And their forum looks dead as well.

 

[Mussels]

Never heard about them honestly. And their forum looks dead as well.

Well, they did shut down a year ago.

They were a modding sister-site to Hexus, that also shut down
HEXUS closes its doors after 23 years of operation | OC3D News (overclock3d.net)

 

[qubit]

It's a shame that so many hardware sites are going to the wall. Times change, the founders move on, the advertising dries up and the likes of YouTube and Facebook erode their traditional market.

So far, TPU appears to be going strong and I hope it continues to do so for a very long time to come.

 

[eidairaman1]

It's a shame that so many hardware sites are going to the wall. Times change, the founders move on, the advertising dries up and the likes of YouTube and Facebook erode their traditional market.

So far, TPU appears to be going strong and I hope it continues to do so for a very long time to come.

I remember 3DGAMEMAN disappearing as well, but it seems after 5 years He is Back making YT vids

 

[ir_cow]

It's a shame that so many hardware sites are going to the wall. Times change, the founders move on, the advertising dries up and the likes of YouTube and Facebook erode their traditional market.

So far, TPU appears to be going strong and I hope it continues to do so for a very long time to come.

Its easy to make YT videos. Doesn't matter if you have credibility or not these days. Just have a pretty face and your golden. So many tech videos just saying completely wrong stuff....

 

[qubit]

I remember 3DGAMEMAN disappearing as well, but it seems after 5 years He is Back making YT vids

Makes my point exactly.

 

[eidairaman1]

Makes my point exactly.

Rodney should continue using the Opening Music.

#281 - ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro Video Card

 

[MIRTAZAPINE]

I remember 3DGAMEMAN disappearing as well, but it seems after 5 years He is Back making YT vids

3Dgamerman is back?! Bring me back 2000s memory now on his website and youtube watching cooler master cases. I was wondering what happen to him.

It sad when website closes, notebook review closure was a big blow to me back in the day it was a huge source of knowledge to mod for laptops and I use it frequently to overclock my 2010 acer to 3GHz back in time where those are crazy frequency with SetFSB application also another defunct app . We need to web achieve all these.

 

[Mussels]

It's a shame that so many hardware sites are going to the wall. Times change, the founders move on, the advertising dries up and the likes of YouTube and Facebook erode their traditional market.

So far, TPU appears to be going strong and I hope it continues to do so for a very long time to come.

I mean i ended up here after my work as a teenaged hardware reviewer at 3DChipset vanished overnight when the owner of the website got allegedly arrested, and it went offline overnight :/
I never actually found out what happened, it'd be like W1zz being kidnapped and only he had the keys to the castle


Fortunately, I kept my ego and sarcasm locally stored and OCZ let me keep all my review goodies (600W PSU's and DDR1 600MHz CL2 was freaking insane back then) - TPU's review of the RAM is still up, it looked good and performance showed what real overclocking was about (50% faster than the common plebs could get, out of the box - and more if you tried)

OCZ EL DDR PC-4800 Platinum Elite Review

And their PSU's had the risky yet geeky feature that with a screwdriver you could tweak the voltages up and down slightly, which was an amazing early method to counter vdroop or even an aging PSU
(unfortunately, a lot of end users went weeeee and broke things)

Oh god and the special fake RAM stick that let you over-volt the memory slots even when the mobo had no voltage control! - the DDR booster

Oh i miss the days of the epic modding hardware that risked blowing you up. probably why i do dumb shit and electrocute myself so often these days.

 

[Frick]

I mean i ended up here after my work as a teenaged hardware reviewer at 3DChipset vanished overnight when the owner of the website got allegedly arrested, and it went offline overnight :/
I never actually found out what happened, it'd be like W1zz being kidnapped and only he had the keys to the castle


Fortunately, I kept my ego and sarcasm locally stored and OCZ let me keep all my review goodies (600W PSU's and DDR1 600MHz CL2 was freaking insane back then) - TPU's review of the RAM is still up, it looked good and performance showed what real overclocking was about (50% faster than the common plebs could get, out of the box - and more if you tried)

OCZ EL DDR PC-4800 Platinum Elite Review

And their PSU's had the risky yet geeky feature that with a screwdriver you could tweak the voltages up and down slightly, which was an amazing early method to counter vdroop or even an aging PSU
(unfortunately, a lot of end users went weeeee and broke things)

Oh god and the special fake RAM stick that let you over-volt the memory slots even when the mobo had no voltage control! - the DDR booster
View attachment 250614

Oh i miss the days of the epic modding hardware that risked blowing you up. probably why i do dumb shit and electrocute myself so often these days.

I still think about the OCZ RAM with the handles, in the DDR2 days. IIRC they weren't great but they looked quite silly.

 

[qubit]

Rodney should continue using the Opening Music.

#281 - ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro Video Card

Check out that epic 240p goodness!



@Mussels 3DChipset going down like that and its knock-on effects is harsh, especially the not knowing to this day.

I just did a whois.com on the likely domain and interestingly, someone's still got it although there's no server there when I try to browse it:

Whois 3dchipset.com

Whois Lookup for 3dchipset.com

www.whois.com

If you look at the registrant contact. it says Domains By Proxy, LLC so could just be a cybersquatter now.

Fortunately, I kept my ego and sarcasm locally stored

I'm relieved to hear that. Can't go misplacing this one.

And finally, that classic hardware you mention brings it all back. <qubit has tearful nostalgic moment>

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Never heard about them honestly. And their forum looks dead as well.

if i remember correctly - bit-tech came about as a spin off to a UK magazine called 'CustomPC' - The magazine decided they wanted to have a website and a forum so they could interact more with readers, so thats what they did. I think the name of the website was still CustomPC related.

Many years later the OG staff that wrote for the magazine and articles for the website eventually decided to split from the their publisher and go their own way (probably a creative control issue) - Thus bit-tech was born. Sadly a lot of the OG writers eventually left, new staff were recruited to write but the whole enthusiast scene in the UK wasnt as big as the one in the USA so it was a struggle. that doesnt mean that the Brits didnt have enough nerds going ape over new hardware releases though, Just quite muted compared to other countries.


The original publisher either sold the rights to CustomPC mag to another publisher or was going bust. Either way, CustomPC ended up in the hands of another publisher and i dont think the new publisher was into mag as much as the previous one. But the magazine is still going afaik, Just not as popular as it was back in the 2000's when single and dual core CPUs were all the rage and AMD Athlon 64's, FX's and Opterons were really just invading all Intels holes in terms of market share. The enthusiast market has calmed down a lot compared to back then and i guess sales of the magazine dropped in favour of digital sales.

I used to work 12-14hr shifts so id buy one of their mags every so often.

I was a forum member at Bit-tech for a long time but not really active there. I did participate in a few of their giveaways and won one.

A limited edition Corsair messenger bag

Used it a lot for work. Doesnt get much use these days though as i have other bags.

But yeh. Bit-tech just never seemed to gain the same amount of traction in the UK enthusiast world. They werent bad by any means. They had good reviews but competition with other sites that had been around longer was tough to battle against.

 

[qubit]

if i remember correctly...

I remember subbing the physical mag back in the day. It was really thick and had a lot of content and I was quite into it at the time. Eventually though I got bored* of it and cancelled it. I think the continual rise of the internet and broadband (just 512Kbps back in 2002) didn't help.

It's now at the Raspberry Pi domain and the content can be downloaded for free as a PDF. Great to still see it going in some form as the internet has been brutal on paper magazines, although much greener as no trees are cut down to make them.

Custom PC

Custom PC is the site for computer hardware enthusiasts, with component reviews, news, tutorials, builds, and gaming setups. Covering PC gear since 2003.

custompc.raspberrypi.com

*Apologies for my insufficient enthusiast mode.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I remember subbing the physical mag back in the day. It was really thick and had a lot of content and I was quite into it at the time. Eventually though I got bored* of it and cancelled it. I think the continual rise of the internet and broadband (just 512Kbps back in 2002) didn't help.

It's now at the Raspberry Pi domain and the content can be downloaded for free as a PDF. Great to still see it going in some form as the internet has been brutal on paper magazines, although much greener as no trees are cut down to make them.

Custom PC

Custom PC is the site for computer hardware enthusiasts, with component reviews, news, tutorials, builds, and gaming setups. Covering PC gear since 2003.

custompc.raspberrypi.com

*Apologies for my insufficient enthusiast mode.

Yeah, that was when it was a proper meaty magazine. By the time they passed hands to the other publisher, the mag had shrunk a lot in its size and thickness and the format changed. Not sure if it was part of cost cutting but it probably was. They attempted to streamline the mag more. Probably one of the other reasons why the website was spun off as its own entity.

They underwent a lot of changes to try and keep up.

::EDIT::

I always did like the 'Megatest' editions

 

[LifeOnMars]

I don't know if it's been said but have to get it out -

"Unfortunately it does not come with a removable motherboard tray'' Rodney was the best

 

[Bill_Bright]

I have felt for a long time there have been way too many hardware review sites, but not near enough good ones.

What do I mean?

To do a proper review evaluation of an electronics device, you should know something about electronics (theory and practical). You should also have access to a proper testing facility, one that includes the necessary tools, test and measuring equipment. AND you must be properly trained and qualified on their use! Such evaluations need to thoroughly test, measure and verify published specifications AND COMPLIANCE with all the applicable industry standards and safety requirements.

And last, the evaluator should have at least of modicum of training, experience, and professionalism (including a bit of pride) when it comes to technical writing. I am not suggesting they be college grammar teachers, but a little bit of understanding when it comes to sentence structure, capitalization, and punctuation would be nice - as well as knowing how to use a spell checker.

Sadly, some reviews look like they started out written in Chinese, translated to Spanish, then finally into English with maybe French and Farsi somewhere in the middle.

Worse, IMO, are those sites who essentially cut & paste specs from the device maker's website who then call that a review, and even call themselves reviewers.

And while I believe a reviewer's personal opinions and preferences are worth noting in the conclusions, they must not influence final scores and need to be expressed as "personal" viewpoints - not technical fact.

The challenge for consumers is to find unbiased review sites. Sadly, as long as reviewers are forced to rely on manufacturer supplied (cherry-picked?) samples and advertising revenue from those same manufacturers, there will always be the potential of outside influences skewing said reviews (consciously or not). For that reason, we must have more than one genuine review site we can rely on. And those are getting harder to find.

Edit comment: fixed a couple typos.

 

[DrCR]

Now your making miss theTech Report of yore, of which I’m a refugee. SPCR too.

 

[eidairaman1]

I mean i ended up here after my work as a teenaged hardware reviewer at 3DChipset vanished overnight when the owner of the website got allegedly arrested, and it went offline overnight :/
I never actually found out what happened, it'd be like W1zz being kidnapped and only he had the keys to the castle


Fortunately, I kept my ego and sarcasm locally stored and OCZ let me keep all my review goodies (600W PSU's and DDR1 600MHz CL2 was freaking insane back then) - TPU's review of the RAM is still up, it looked good and performance showed what real overclocking was about (50% faster than the common plebs could get, out of the box - and more if you tried)

OCZ EL DDR PC-4800 Platinum Elite Review

And their PSU's had the risky yet geeky feature that with a screwdriver you could tweak the voltages up and down slightly, which was an amazing early method to counter vdroop or even an aging PSU
(unfortunately, a lot of end users went weeeee and broke things)

Oh god and the special fake RAM stick that let you over-volt the memory slots even when the mobo had no voltage control! - the DDR booster
View attachment 250614

Oh i miss the days of the epic modding hardware that risked blowing you up. probably why i do dumb shit and electrocute myself so often these days.

I still have that device somewhere lol. Then I learned I don't need it lol.

Yeah trimming volts using potentiometer

3Dgamerman is back?! Bring me back 2000s memory now on his website and youtube watching cooler master cases. I was wondering what happen to him.

It sad when website closes, notebook review closure was a big blow to me back in the day it was a huge source of knowledge to mod for laptops and I use it frequently to overclock my 2010 acer to 3GHz back in time where those are crazy frequency with SetFSB application also another defunct app . We need to web achieve all these.

Yes, go to His Youtube Channel, he made a vid yesterday

 

[Steevo]

So many of the forums I started on are now dead, its the natural progression, most died as core members got older, life, kids, work got the majority of the time. Only the places where uncensored (not like that ya perv) life existed have been prosperous. One of the more prevalent places was in a deep dark corner of the web that became infested with PC people who cried until life was made good for them, and the owners/admins finally stopped caring about the original idea as much as the BS flak they got and it too died. Secure invite only subs were the stomping grounds of many arguments about members, why they were there, and the conflict of cultures.


Growth only exists when the conditions are right, and those are that people are free to express themselves without fear of repercussion when words implied meaning become more important than the actual meaning. We all used to consider everyone on the internet an adult, and treated them as such, now we have a pandering to the offended that is a cloud of nerve gas wafting over the first to help with a bit of sarcasm that ruins it as they leave for more uncharted waters instead of being called "ist".

An example, I am a rac"ist" as I post a video by X culture about X culture for X culture to laugh at, its not found funny by Y or Z culture. No one knows me, they don't know about me, but to keep the peace its removed or deleted, cause someone somewhere might be offended when they might visit and cry about it. Instead of expecting people to be adults and realize that Y and Z have a different culture we are all expected to live up to a new global culture where 12 months in Estonian doesn't sound the way it does. Lets all be offended by what we hear instead of what is meant.

12 months in estonian

 

[Mussels]

I have felt for a long time there have been way too many hardware review sites, but not near enough good ones.

What do I mean?

To do a proper review evaluation of an electronics device, you should know something about electronics (theory and practical). You should also have access to a proper testing facility, one that includes the necessary tools, test and measuring equipment. AND you must be properly trained and qualified on their use! Such evaluations need to thoroughly test, measure and verify published specifications AND COMPLIANCE with all the applicable industry standards and safety requirements.

And last, the evaluator should have at least of modicum of training, experience, and professionalism (including a bit of pride) when to comes to technical writing. I am not suggesting they be college grammar teachers, but a little bit of understanding when it comes to sentence structure, capitalization, and punctuation would be nice - as well as knowing how to use a spell checker.

Sadly, some reviews look like they started out written in Chinese, translated to Spanish, then finally into English with maybe French and Farsi somewhere in the middle.

Worse, IMO, are those sites who essentially cut & paste specs from the device maker's website who then call that a review, and even call themselves reviewers.

And while I believe a reviewer's personal opinions and preferences are worth noting in the conclusions, they must not influence final scores and need to be expressed as "personal" viewpoints - not technical fact.

The challenge for consumers is to find unbiased review sites. Sadly, as long as reviewers are forced to rely on manufacturer supplied (cherry-picked?) samples and advertising revenue from those same manufacturers, there will always be the potential of outside influences skewing said reviews (consciously or not). For that reason, we must have more than one review site we can rely on. And those are getting harder to find.

You can only go to that extreme if you have a lot of money to invest, and you're a business with an income

That is exactly how to describe the opposite of a tech enthusiast - look at LTT, they're a media empire who dabble in tech stuff on the side. The few other big names, started small and got monetised somehow (ads, youtube revenue) and scaled up


Businesses wont take risks on BIOS modding expensive hardware, volt mods on 3090Ti's and all the crazy shit the tech world began with - they want easy guaranteed profits

 

[dnm_TX]

 

[chrcoluk]

Reading into it, seems it wasnt financial, but rather they have got sick of the industry like refusing to review ampere cards because of the availability issues.