FIC Condor Small Form Factor Reviewed

VL writes "A gamer's best friend? That's FIC's catch phrase, and we take them to task in our latest review. 'FIC put together a nice little barebone PC, but missed on some important features that enthusiasts have come to expect. While it's no slouch in gaming, it does not stand out in the performance department which is a shame as the design itself was well thought out.'"

Comments

Re:Nightmare

[Anonymous Coward]

Who cares if it's a nightmare to upgrade/repair?

Computers are heading in the same direction all household appliances have gone: fixed-function and disposable. Ignoring all the environmental concerns and whatnot, this is inevitable. It wasn't really all that long ago when a TV owner was expected to replace tubes in their TV as casually as we replace ink cartridges in our printers. Now TVs end up in the trash when the power switch breaks.

Using the "mom test", I've had my mom add memory and swap cards/drives in her computer, and she's recently even done it without my direction or assistance. Non-technical people can do this stuff, it's just that they don't want to. Most people just want their computer to work, and, when it doesn't they want to be able to buy a cheap replacement because their time is too valuable to bother fixing it.

I'm not advocating this trend, but it's obviously the choice of the bulk of consumers. You are going to be fighting a losing battle if you try to stop this.

why is this front-page news?

[SuperBanana]

I hate to be cynical, but all these review sites "like"/"don't like" products based on:

• how soon they get the review unit compared to other competing sites
• whether or not they can keep the review unit
• whether their sponsors (online stores) sell the item in question
• whether a product their sponsors sell would be threatened by the item in question
• whether a manufacturer they really really like (say, a hot system is rumored to be just around the corner, everyone's abuzz about it) would be threatened by the item in question

...and a zillion other things unrelated to actual product quality or suitability. Meanwhile, of course, they're all getting played by the companies, who reward good reviews by bumping those sites up on the list of who gets Hot Product A in what order.

Which is why this has no business being on the front page. Put it in games.slashdot.org and make it a non-frontpage for slashdot.org....or something...

You can damn well bet that if they wanted to 'like' the unit, the PSU figures would not have been mentioned, the onboard audio problems dismissed as moot because "we all install soundblaster audigy boards anyway", so on etc. You get the idea. The review remains technically accurate, but the bias clearly swings.