Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 2:32 pm
It is presumed that people viewing this site are probably looking for the quietest computer they can find, but one of our main challenges comes in the lack of information available on computer noise.
<BR>
<BR>I call upon visitors to this site to email, phone and write letters to retailers urging them to include noise ratings alongside their products. I also ask this site to write a feature on how to perform good, accurate, standardised noise rating tests with methodology which can then be suggest to retailers and manufacturers alike. A traditional online/offline petition may also be an idea, although this can often be done really badly and hence becomes worthless.
<BR>
<BR>Another suggestion may be to include special awards alongside reviews so that retailers/manufacturers can stick these awards all over their products, in a similar way to how tradition PC magazines dish out awards.
<BR>
<BR>Does anyone else have any ideas along these lines? I think it's important to realise that generally the computer industry is 'geeks' (no insult intended) whose primary goal is faster speeds, and hence all specs/advertising/marketing is based upon this. We have to make the industry realise that, although geeks buy computers, most computer users aren't geeks, and care about things other than big numbers. Like noise, for example. But because we're so used to having to quantitatively compare specs on computers, at least provide a quantitative comparison of what matters to us - noise.
[addsig]
<BR>
<BR>I call upon visitors to this site to email, phone and write letters to retailers urging them to include noise ratings alongside their products. I also ask this site to write a feature on how to perform good, accurate, standardised noise rating tests with methodology which can then be suggest to retailers and manufacturers alike. A traditional online/offline petition may also be an idea, although this can often be done really badly and hence becomes worthless.
<BR>
<BR>Another suggestion may be to include special awards alongside reviews so that retailers/manufacturers can stick these awards all over their products, in a similar way to how tradition PC magazines dish out awards.
<BR>
<BR>Does anyone else have any ideas along these lines? I think it's important to realise that generally the computer industry is 'geeks' (no insult intended) whose primary goal is faster speeds, and hence all specs/advertising/marketing is based upon this. We have to make the industry realise that, although geeks buy computers, most computer users aren't geeks, and care about things other than big numbers. Like noise, for example. But because we're so used to having to quantitatively compare specs on computers, at least provide a quantitative comparison of what matters to us - noise.
[addsig]