So, when will they happen? Will they at all? (Gamers Nexus fan tests already paid for by the community)
Wake up, Steve! You kind of slept through a convenient opportunity to divulge what’s going on with the fan testing that your audience funded a long time ago. Never mind, I’ll blog a bit and shed some light on it myself. I understand that you’ve reached a difficult, stalemate situation that’s hard to come out with to the public and it’s more effective to sweep inconvenient things under the rug (again). That too is the style of Gamers Nexus, history repeats itself.
There was a time when I was really rooting for Gamers Nexus. It wasn’t yesterday, a month ago, or even a year ago. Once upon a time, a really long time ago, I thought they were committed to fighting for a good cause. For a better tomorrow for computer hardware, for things to be clear and for everyone to be properly informed. But they just couldn’t resist the temptation, and as time went on, the team around Gamers Nexus began to abuse the fact that they had gained some experience, in short, that they had a bit of an edge over their audience. And they took it in the most disgusting way, by building a negative marketing aimed at harming everyone but themselves.
The writers of Gamers Nexus and Steve Burke (the performer) have found it more effective from their profit perspective to exploit the fact that the average sample of their viewers doesn’t have the experience or education to be able to properly evaluate that what they are claiming in their videos are often untruths, distortions of facts, the creation of nonsensical bubbles, and a variety of other insidious “piggery”. 🙂
Naturally they do everything in a very sophisticated way with the support of expensive measuring instruments. These are a great tool to make sure that the people who put their trust in them do not doubt them. That seems a bit unfair to us, and that’s why in this blog we’ll focus on the still somewhat relevant topic of fan tests, which Gamers Nexus somehow doesn’t feel up to. Even though they’ve been paid by the community for their methodology, they’ve had all the stuff for over a year now, but still don’t use it. The reason for this is pretty clear. First the bold statements (like they used to do when testing CPU coolers in the “most appropriate” way), a big uproar, and then a 180-degree turn. Even now, the team around Gamers Nexus has found that rather than being a joke to the professional public, it will be more convenient to let the promised fan tests collect dust.
For fan testing, the firefighters at Gamers Nexus (sorry for the pejorative, but… we understand each other) miscalculated. At the time they announced the fan tests, they were probably still convinced that they were masters of the situation and could draw whatever conclusions they wanted and no one would be able to confront them. But they have already missed that train. Because in the meantime, Quasarzone magazine released a huge fan comparison test and if their methodology wasn’t “good enough”, the industry standard AMCA 210 test device (i.e. the exact same tunnel you bought for GN) is already used for fan tests by Aris Mpitziopoulos (a true expert, especially for power supply tests, for which I give kudos). Comparative tests of 17 fans have already been published on hwbusters.com. And then there’s us. What we all have in common, except Gamers Nexus, is that we want to expand knowledge in an exact way, honestly.
The intent of Gamers Nexus here is traditionally the opposite, to do harm. This is evident from the opening video captioned “RIP fan marketing”. Do you see the clear goal ahead? On the one hand, they stand full of confusion next to a test device they know nothing about (which they themselves admit), but they already know the conclusions. These gentlemen are not concerned, going forward, with testing things completely and fairly pointing out a set of eventual negatives as well as positives, but with picking out only the negatives for which people will go to them. The negative stuff (never mind that reality isn’t that black) draws considerably more attention. This damages everyone who tries to do really in-depth tests evaluating all aspects (not just the negative ones, which lend themselves to tabloid video exposure). These are more labour-intensive and at the same time, because of their non-confrontational nature, receive considerably less attention, which in turn determines the intensity of the impact on market behaviour or, ultimately, how manufacturers approach the development of computer hardware itself.
However, the creators of Gamers Nexus are well aware at this stage that they will not have it so easy with mystifying the population, and by creating pointless sensations they can quickly get into unnecessary trouble. If we were to judge the GN’s knowledge from the material so far where they talk about fans, we can borrow the phrase “totally incompetent” from them (such is GN’s ability to evaluate fans). You’ll find out where Gamers Nexus has schoolboy shortcomings in due course, when they happen to get their act together and start spreading misinformation again on a subject we love so much (and therefore we won’t allow some perverts with no conscience to hurt it). Gamers Nexus knows full well that our fan tests have a huge reach in the US and they have no interest in their own medicine. Of course, we are ready to professionally deny any inconsistency that would wrongly shape the view of fans.
That they have perfect equipment for over a hundred thousand dollars? Even the most expensive soccer cleats won’t make a world-caliber star out of a village soccer player. The intellectual capital and knowledge that goes into developing your own equipment is key. Buying a high-end measuring device without the knowledge of understanding how it works is about as useful to the owner as a coat to a dead man. And especially when there is no proper education in aerodynamics. The topics around fans are some of the most challenging to properly understand and in-depth knowledge in various areas of physics is required. I dare say they have no clue about many things they can’t move forward without. But there is some self-reflection there, which is why they swept it under the rag, lest their unwarranted arrogance towards others boomerang back on them.
And maybe I’m wrong and after this blog post, Gamers Nexus will kick in, they’re just learning the lessons they’ve missed and will set the benchmark for objective fan testing. But that’s rather unlikely, because with a professional approach, their financial profit would suffer greatly. The same mistake they made a while ago by introducing an unsuccessful test setup for CPU coolers, they are happy to avoid. Remember that insidious attempt to discredit all those who test coolers in a natural environment, which they later returned to themselves… and nailed it by using Ryzens with significantly worse heat transfer to the cooler than Intel processors.
It’s really hard to watch Gamers Nexus, which has contempt for everyone, appreciation for nothing, with no respect for anything (including their supporters) egotistically distort the hardware market and still have a lot of people applauding them for it. But we know who they are, what they are about, what they are causing… and “people must fight against the evil they feel equal to measure up to at that moment” (Jan Palach, 1969).
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
I read this article with the utmost interest. Thanks for writing it.
A short speech by Mr. Lazorik from the investigative documentary Coolture may also be appropriate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GTRmF0bxPw&t=0s&ab_channel=Arsy-Versy
You might be interested in this one and it covers, unfortunately, also the new hardware media.
Those two minutes are powerful, thanks for sharing.
Ľubo, with all due respect. It’s pathetic nonsense. It seems like you’re trying to provoke a trashtalk conflict, just craving attention. You’re exactly what you’re railing against. If the GN agrees to your game, they will take you down with them. It is extremely foolish to think you have the self-discipline to resist falling for trashtalk. In the end, you’ll just confirm that you’re a hypocrite, like everyone else.
The Quasarzone magazine test is some good stuff. Thank you for linking it.
It’s good but the RPM even at 25dB is really scary. It’s FAR over how fast my fans spin (whenever they do). HWcooling’s measurements have a way more approachable lowest noise level, among many other things.
To set those very quiet modes, the key is a parabolic collar that we have around the noise meter sensor. Without it, it’s much more complicated. Even if the best anechoic chamber with the most sensitive noise meter is used, I can only imagine isolated fan measurements, which is also not ideal. I used to attempt such isolated measurements on CPU coolers whose noise level I measured in a different environment than the load environment. So it was a real chore, but with a questionable benefit. In the final environment the air resistance is a bit different, which means it has a bit of an effect (and for each fan, of course, differently) on the achieved speed and finally the noise level is not the same (according to isolated measurements of fans in anechoic chamber).
Yes, Quasarzone certainly deserves attention outside of Asia as well across hardware themes. In the age of DL translators, the language barrier can be quite well suppressed. 🙂
I used to watch GN sometimes but then realized it was a waste of time. I even checked their content later to see if anything changed – only for the worse. A lot of low-effort content and the tests became almost non-existent.
A horrible balance of hard data, drama, and boasting with irrelevant technicalities to impress the casual audience. Testing a CPU on 5 games and drawing conclusions? No problem. No gaming performance averages? Welcome to the 20th century. They talk about power efficiency but do not measure power draw in games despite being named “Gamers Nexus”. Some test results are very questionable.
Nothing scares me more than knowing how many people consider Gamers Nexus the “best source of information” and don’t see the things you describe at all. You’d think that at least their fans wouldn’t get so annoyed when I point these things out in a blog post when they like the extremely obnoxious and confrontational way GN communicates. Sometimes I feel the urge to seek answers by immersing myself in the study of psychology. 🙂
I’m not sure if it was the translation to English or the original intent, but this article comes off as needlessly harsh and insulting. If you want to have these sorts of discussions, that’s fine. But try and do it without sounding like a child complaining about something.
I am a new reader to this site and I was impressed by the amount of detail and knowledge put into articles and reviews. But this article comes off as needlessly unprofessional and really puts me off reading more.
You are raising some important discussions, but I can’t take it seriously at all the way it is written here. As a new reader, I really hope subjects like these can be handled more professionally in the future.
Thanks for your work on the site!
You’re right, it’s missing detachment. I guess I can’t be as detached in these things as I am in the tests. That’s why it’s called a blog, but I don’t want to excuse the way it’s presented. I understand that the typical HWCooling reader looks at this article through his fingers. But we can assure you that this is not regular “content”, haha.
Ľubomír,
May I ask why it is that you request a website URL, but when I put in my YT channel URL (which is all I have right now), it rejected my message as possible spam? As soon as I erased it, it posted my message to Richard. If you want a website URL, but you don’t want something like YT, FB, T, etc. then please specify that.
This is caused by our spam filter, which does not allow some links. This is not in any way intentional, and we’ve tried to fix it several times, since it’s not often that someone tries to post something bad related to gambling, pornography, or some unsavory advertisement. Some of the things that can’t be published by unregistered users are solved by, well, registration (on HWCooling.net) and the ones that aren’t solved that way can be solved by setting higher permissions in the editorial system. We will of course be happy to assign these to anyone on request.
Richard,
I just found this site through someone on LTT’s forum. I have watched many of GN’s videos and, although Steve sometimes tries to come off as humble, he generally comes off as arrogant and smug, with the telltale smirk occasionally appearing.
To quote an image in one of his videos:
“Steve, you’re not wrong. You’re just an a$$hole.”
A few times, I have seen him blast one company or another for supposedly trying to “bribe” them, and I’ve seen this on other channels. A time or two I’ve felt the same way, as if when a company tries to make something right with me, they’re actually trying to buy my silence, or worse.
My point here is that you should take with a grain of salt any reviewer – even me – for various reasons (most of which are mentioned by Ľubomír Samák), because it’s hard to stumble along without funding (which is where I’m at), without sophisticated equipment (same), without all the knowledge needed (same, but I’m learning what and when I can), and simultaneously resist all the savory and unsavory opportunities to get rich – like LTT undoubtedly did – or, at least, to accumulate a lot of extraneous PC parts. Gamers Nexus, being as big as it is and one of a comparatively small number of channels that actually does test and provide data (and there are also plenty of review websites that don’t, either, or claim to have tested tons of products but only share a small list) is more vulnerable to being seduced by the industry, unless they have an ethical compass that is frozen in place. Most people, especially when financial struggles occur, do not.
I am not at the professional level where I can say that Ľubomír is right or wrong, but I think I understand his disdain for GN in general, and Steve in particular. Any product that is recommended by GN will automatically see an increase in “buy this” and revenues. I find it striking that at the same time that GN revealed the Peerless Assassin to be king, several other channels did the same thing, with or without data. Why was there a sudden wave of comparisons and reviews of this one product? Was it because some people were already recommending it, or did ThermalRight “promote” it?
One of his videos, in which he mentions the lies on packaging, prompted me to (just) start testing fans. I don’t know how this website rates the Phanteks T30, having just found this site, but I should expect that it rates above the Corsair ML120 and Noctua A12x25, which are pretty much neck and neck, and way above the Corsair SP120 RGB Elite (it’s what I had on hand), which is just an average fan.
Eventually, through my own testing and designing my own devices (I’m finishing up a wind tunnel right now, having finally received my anemometer that measures SP, AF & temp), I’ll be able to see who was fibbing, although I am currently focusing on more obscure brands and lesser-known models that fall within the $1-15 range. My first test was of the Corsair SP120 R.E. & ML120, Noctua A12x25 and Phanteks T30, so it’ll be interesting to see if my anemometer confirms their published dB, AF & SP, since what is written doesn’t exactly correspond to my preliminary, real-world, tests: T30 is best for intake and exhaust; the ML120 is better at intake while the 12×25 is better at exhaust, while the SP120 just straggles behind. My testing methodology is completely different from other channels as my focus was based on determining the best position and by how many degrees difference. I’m struggling to make the charts (I’m a horribly weak video editor and slow chart maker) so that I can finish and publish that video, but it’ll eventually be on my YT channel: The PC Expert Amateur.
I encourage you not to run away from this website just because of one harshly critical OpEd. Look, instead, to see if they’re doing tests right here.
Thank you for the exhaustive response, which is full of insight. People like you (especially in combination with the ambition to honestly test fans) are really few and we appreciate them immensely. I haven’t watched all of your fan videos yet, but I can confidently say now that if you need any support, you can contact us for anything you think might help you (and we might provide the right tools for you).
Love this article, I lost all respect for Steve the caveman just after RX Vega was released.
This is coming from a computer scientist, myself. The two most important things to me are integrity and knowledge. This article, sadly, displays neither.
You people are genuinely, absurdly misguided. It almost sounds like satire. It almost sounds like somebody who works for LTT or something, but post-investigation.
No person, entity, company, or creator is perfect. But I would love for you to post a better alternative.
For anybody not clued in on the channel and Steve, please just go watch. They literally have public info about where their money goes, they don’t take advertising dollars from companies that send them hardware, and are easily the most transparent and competent hardware reviewers. There are a few good ones, but the combination of technical knowledge, and forthright manner, combined with more than a decade of doing things the right way is rare.
Also, notice what the writer said about the processes of GN, saying how they can’t be trusted (please, provide direct evidence of errors that were not corrected), they continued to say how they “tested” fans and came to some dubious result. What was your testing methodology? How do we know it was accurate? How many samples did you have?
It’s bizarre, inaccurate, and naive.
How about the sound testing that they worked on for YEARS, and now they have a world-class sound testing booth?
This sounds like a child who got mad because they didn’t get the gift they wanted for Christmas, but they asked their parents for something they had to save and prepare for 3 years to get.
This almost feels like a waste of time, but if it even keeps 1 person from believing your misinformation, then it was worth it.
It won’t be today or tomorrow, but I believe that one day you will understand the text of this blog. If Gamers Nexus approaches fan testing with the same arrogance as other things, they will end up like Igorslab. And apparently they are well aware of this, as they have distanced themselves from this topic in the end.
Love your article.