Bit-tech

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bit-tech.net
URL	http://www.bit-tech.net
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	online magazine
Registration	No
Owner	Bit Publishing Ltd
Created by	bit-tech staff
Current status	online

bit-tech is an online magazine for computer hardware enthusiasts, gamers and case modders, based in the UK. It was founded in 2000, and in 2005 became a fully professional^[1][2][3] online publication with offices in Ascot, England.

The website caters specifically for the computer hardware enthusiast market, providing reviews and articles on higher end hardware and computer games. Bit-tech is also prominent in the custom case modding scene, providing a focus point for professional and amaetur case modders. Much of the site’s content and writing style revolve around this particular reader-base, and its regular readers have been responsible for some of the most well known case mods, such as Orac3 and the Blackmesa HL2 mod.

Contents 1 History 2 Hardware Reviews 3 Modding Content 4 Games Reviews 5 The Martin Test 6 Staff 7 External links 8 References

[edit] History

Originally, bit-tech.net was designed to be a small site where people who were interested in case modding could see new ideas from the team and discuss them in the forums, due to the relatively small presence of modding at the time.

It has since diversified and, along with the trend-setting case mods, bit-tech now also features detailed reviews of computer hardware as well as computer and video games, industry news and editorials. There is now increased coverage of console games, though PC games are still the major focus.

Wil Harris was Editor-in-Chief of bit-tech for almost six years and in February 2007, he announced that he was stepping down^[4][5] the end of March 2007 to move onto a fresh challenge. At the time, Wil's successor was not announced and it wasn't until April 2007^[6] that Tim Smalley announced that he would be taking over as Editor with immediate effect.

[edit] Hardware Reviews

bit-tech is known for reviewing computer components in a less than traditional manner, where it chooses to focus on real-world benefits in real applications instead of small (or theoretical) advances in performance. In some cases, this resulted in apples-to-oranges comparisons - something that has split the enthusiast's community on many occasions.^{[7][8][9][10]}

At the start of 2007, the site pulled back^[11] from its apples-to-oranges graphics card reviews and instead chose to focus on a more traditional apples-to-apples comparison, while still maintaining the real-world aspect of its testing.

[edit] Modding Content

bit-tech first became widely known for its community of PC case modders who would re-shape and decorate PC hardware into a variety of more creative forms. Although the site has since expanded to include hardware and games reviews it still runs regular modding coverage including a Mod of the Month competition and regular project logs.

bit-tech has been host to some of the most popular and striking mods on the Internet, including the BlackMesa Mod^[12] (currently on show at Valve), Anemone Mod^[13], Macro Black^[14] and Lian-Li GOO Mod^[15].

[edit] Games Reviews

bit-tech uses an arguably more in-depth review model than many other review sites and has a strong focus on PC titles, though console and handheld reviews are increasingly common. PC game reviews do not just provide a commentary of gameplay but also include graphical analysis and a breakdown of how the game will look on different hardware. This review model means that PC game reviews are typically much longer than reviews from other sites, though console reviews are a more traditional length.

bit-tech employs a typical 1-10 review scale with both a 'Recommended' and 'Excellence' award. Unlike many review sites, bit-tech uses the full range of this scale and scores poor games harshly. The current writing style for games content leans heavily towards New Games Journalism.

Recently the site has moved to embrace the indie games community and has run several features exploring and supporting this side of the PC industry. Several prominent independent developers, including Introversion Software and writers from Free Radical Design now write weekly columns for the site which explore a number of issues in and around the games industry.

Joe frequently features sections of his reviews told from a first-person perspective, as if he were the/a character.

[edit] The Martin Test

The Martin Test was a term coined by Joe Martin in his review of the Apervia X-QPack 2 ^[16] (although the test itself was actually in use before that point) as a preliminary indicator of the overall quality of the cases build. The Martin Test itself is relatively simple, in that it "basically involves wobbling the power button of the case". As simple as the test sounds, though, the conclusion derrived of the quality of a case's power button is almost always indicative of the attention to detail applied to the overall build. No definative scoring system or scale exists and the results are an entirely subjective pass or fail.

Recent efforts to promote the Martin Test as a de-facto industry standard have not met with the desired response and so far no major manufacturer has adopted the Martin Test into its QA scheme.

[edit] Staff

• Editor - Tim Smalley
• Staff Writer - Richard Swinburne
• Staff Writer - Joe Martin
• Staff Writer - Harry Butler
• US Correspondent - Brett Thomas
• News Correspondent - Gareth Halfacree
• Managing Director - Hugh Chappell
• Sales Support and Trafficking - Hiren Laxman
• Developer - Jamie Cuthill
• Senior Contributor - Fred Hunt
• Senior Contributor - Dave Williams
• Senior Contributor - Peter Dickison

[edit] External links

• bit-tech.net

[edit] References