Home-Built Computer

In preparation for my upcoming reviews, I thought I would take a moment and give you a simple primer on how I’ll be doing reviews.

Grading System

While most reviews used a star system (5 stars, 10 stars, 3 1/2 stars, etc.) my plan is to use a grading system of the type that was used when I was in school.  The grades will cinsist of the standard A, B, C, and D with their plus and minus variations as well as the F with no variations.  (Afterall, you’ve failed; there’s no “good fail” or “bad fail”.)

Each grade will have a point value assigned to it, with A+ being 12, A equaling 11, A- is 11, and so on right down to D- being a 1 and F equaling a 0.

Grading of Features

If something that I’m reviewing is complex enough to have different features, each of those features will be examined and graded on its own.  The grade assigned to the feature will either be done as how well the feature performs compaired to other items with similar features or as a comparison of how well the feature actually works versus my expectation on how it should work.

Overall Grade

The item being reviewed will receive an overall grade in one of two ways.  The first is if the item is simple enough that it doesn’t have any “features” then it will be graded simply on its own, using the same method for grading features.  However, if there are features that are graded then the point values for each grade will be added together, divided by the number of grades given, and rounded to the nearest whole value, giving an average score and a grade value. 

No Influences

Grades given are based on my expectations only and aren’t “bought” by the manufacturer.  While I will accept items from companies for me to review, this will not influence the end grade.  Any item up for review will receive good marks based on its own merits or bad marks based on its lack of merits.  But most items that will be reviewed will probably be items that were purchased by me.

I would like to take this time to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and that you have a chance to spend the day with family and friends.

Some of you who have been coming to Home-Built Computer may notice a change.  In short, site has been overhauled, giving it a new start.  The old posts have been dropped so that the site can start anew.  Why?  The site had lost its focus and was starting to wander off on tangents.  I wanted to reign it back in and put it on course and, at the same tiem, clean house.  There were an awful lot of deadbeat users who were using this site as a springboard for their spamming.  We had a slew of members, but no real “users.”

It was the same with the forum … actually, it was worse.  The kinds of messages that were being left behind were not the kind I wanted or would put up with any longer.  So, the forum has been stripped down and a new one will go back up and be strictly maintained.

We’ll also be adding a store to the site where you can purchase components to upgrade you computer or build one of your own design.

What else do we have in store?  Well, that’ll be up to you.  I think my first fault is that I tried to be too anal-rententive in the design of the site and I would like to get the community more involved.  So, if you have any input, pass them along.  I would like to hear about them.

In the meantime, keep coming back to see what new changes we make to this site.