Alternatives to LTT/LMG?

[1982 Original]

8 hours ago, creat0r said:

What are some goods alternative sources to get data about the things LTT/LMG covers? For example, I know https://www.rtings.com/ is great for things like laptop, camera, speaker, headphones, keyboard, mouse, monitor and TV reviews.

 

(Also mods please keep this as a separate thread since it's not directly related to the discussion of the controversy).

I used to watch GN, but they are more into drama and hit pieces than actual reviews. They realized that gets them more clicks than actually covering tech. Steve can’t figure out if he wants to be a benchmarker or a tabloid journalist. Time will tell. 
 

Hardware Unboxed is great. FrameChasers really knows his stuff, but expect a ton of profanity. Hardware Canucks is fantastic. Gear Seekers is also enjoyable. 

[Godiwa]

19 minutes ago, Middcore said:

For "serious" reviews, depending on the type of product: Gamers Nexus, Hardware Unboxed, KitGuru, Hardware Canucks.

 

More "fun"/entertainment-oriented channels with an emphasis on value and used hardware: Nerd on a Budget, OzTalksHW, Dawid Does Tech Stuff, RandomGamingInHD, Iceberg Tech.

 

If you are into retro/vintage hardware at all: RMC (The Cave), LGR, Tech Tangents, This Does Not Compute, Rik's Random Retro

 

Craft Computing is good if you're at all into homelab stuff, but his takes on other stuff aren't very good IMO. 

 

Gear Seekers does a lot of showcase builds and less intensive "reviews"/first look videos on cases and other parts. 

 

Tech YES City is fun for his used parts hunt videos (but don't get fooled into thinking you can replicate his results), and he has an unfortunate tendency to diverge into pontificating about economics and such that I find tiresome; it's like, dude, just because you can talk someone on Gumtree into giving you a deal on a GPU doesn't mean you're qualified to talk about the global financial system. 

 

Jay is way too arrogant and a bit of an Nvidia shill (although his response to the GN/LTT thing was good to see). Paul's Hardware has always been kind of boring to me, to be honest. Bitwit is (maybe?) winding down his channel and was (understandably) never really the same after some things in his personal life, IMO. Timmy Joe did some fun stuff that was different than what everybody else is doing but he quit YouTube. 

 

Unfortunately if the main thing you liked about LTT was the "crazy excessive project we want to do just to see if it will work" videos, there isn't really a great alternative, because simply nobody else has the resources and sponsorship connections to make it possible. 

Agree that Jay can be a bit of "shill" or atleast it feels like it, but he still does interesting stuff with watercooling and if you like "silly" videos just like LTT then he is one to go to... don't give much for his gpu/cpu reviews... annoying loud music and very little detail

Tech yes city is so so

Paul and Bitwit was cool together... now that is just dead...

Didn't know Timmy Joe stopped, definetly had some nice stuff... Why did he stop?

For serious reviews of cpu/gpu I watch GN and HUB (some don't like his voice... but he knows his stuff and do great work on the reviews)

I watch LTT just for some of the "funny"/"odd" videos now and the crazy server videos and such... I miss the old days

Wendell is good too but that is too "hardcore" for most of LTT's viewers that just need "tik tok entertainment else they can't keep up"

Good Old Gamer was fun too but changed style and just got bleeh but the old stuff is great

[LumpyCrumpet]

Dawid Does Tech Stuff is great for some of the stupid/silly/jank PC builds, and they often feel a bit more thought-through than some of the stuff LTT has done. 

[the_gremlinn]

7 hours ago, venomtail said:

Alternatives I also watch:

GamersNexus - PC's

Hardware Unboxed - PC's

Monitors Unboxed - Monitors & TV's

Daniel Owen - PC's

Optimum Tech - PC's & Tech

Dave 2D - PC's & Tech

Rocket Jump Ninja - Mice

HDTVTest - Monitors & TV's

Optimum tech is awesome. He is a sweaty fps boi, so that is often the angle he pursues when reviewing a product. 

I'm still going to watch ltt, but I haven't watched their product reviews in over a year. I watch their fun content, intel/amd tech upgrades, house content

[insufferable_pedant]

53 minutes ago, Godiwa said:

Didn't know Timmy Joe stopped, definetly had some nice stuff... Why did he stop?

I never really watched any of his stuff, but I remember seeing his videos pop up in my recommendations quite a bit. I always appreciated that he was a big R9 Fury stan, despite it's shortcomings. It's been a long time, but I believe the last video I remember seeing from him seemed a bit off, so I watched it. If I remember correctly, he had this really weird story about how he went through a period where he basically did nothing but smoke pot and had some weird reaction when he tried to cut back that landed him in the hospital. I thought the whole thing seemed a little... odd, but he definitely looked like he had been through the ringer. 

 

I'm not sure if that's what led to him quitting YouTube, but health issues would certainly make sense. Again, I never really watched much of his stuff, so I never had much of an opinion, but I certainly do feel for him if he had some weird, pot induced medical episode. Hopefully he's doing better these days. 

[insufferable_pedant]

1 hour ago, Middcore said:

Tech YES City is fun for his used parts hunt videos (but don't get fooled into thinking you can replicate his results), and he has an unfortunate tendency to diverge into pontificating about economics and such that I find tiresome; it's like, dude, just because you can talk someone on Gumtree into giving you a deal on a GPU doesn't mean you're qualified to talk about the global financial system. 

I'm so glad to see someone else say this. I used to really enjoy watching his stuff, I flip gaming rigs for some extra cash every now and then, and I always enjoyed living vicariously through his parts hunts. But his takes on economics were so frustratingly simplistic and became too frequent that I eventually just stopped watching. I mean, I never found any of his takes particularly harmful, but I just couldn't sit there and listen to him go on about stuff that he clearly didn't completely understand. 

 

But, seriously, if you enjoy watching someone score cheap hardware and squeeze some performance out of old tech, his videos can be pretty fun. It's the same sort of reason that I enjoy RandomGamingInHD. 

[Middcore]

14 minutes ago, insufferable_pedant said:

I never really watched any of his stuff, but I remember seeing his videos pop up in my recommendations quite a bit. I always appreciated that he was a big R9 Fury stan, despite it's shortcomings. It's been a long time, but I believe the last video I remember seeing from him seemed a bit off, so I watched it. If I remember correctly, he had this really weird story about how he went through a period where he basically did nothing but smoke pot and had some weird reaction when he tried to cut back that landed him in the hospital. I thought the whole thing seemed a little... odd, but he definitely looked like he had been through the ringer. 

 

I'm not sure if that's what led to him quitting YouTube, but health issues would certainly make sense. Again, I never really watched much of his stuff, so I never had much of an opinion, but I certainly do feel for him if he had some weird, pot induced medical episode. Hopefully he's doing better these days. 

 

He had Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, and then had open-heart surgery. 

 

He talks about his health issues in these two videos:

 

And he talks about why he quit YT here:

Seems like health issues aside it was a classic case of YouTuber burnout during a period where the PC enthusiast world was pretty frustrating and depressing overall. 

[Godiwa]

5 minutes ago, Middcore said:

And he talks about why he quit YT here:

Seems like health issues aside it was a classic case of YouTuber burnout during a period where the PC enthusiast world was pretty frustrating and depressing overall. 

Sad to see him leave YT, but happy he found something that gives him a better life... What he went through is life changing and YT was shite in that period so fully understand him, but guess that explains why he just vanished... used to see some of his videos he was one of the good guys...

Same with the young guy with the teddybear on the shelf that passed away way too young... 

Life is fragile so I fully understand him doing something that isn't "killing" him and makes him happy

[insufferable_pedant]

16 minutes ago, Middcore said:

He had Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, and then had open-heart surgery. 

I'm at work and can't watch the videos, but I was unaware of the open-heart surgery part of it. Yikes! 

 

Hopefully I didn't sound flippant with my previous response, I didn't mean to imply that I didn't believe his story, just that I found it odd. While I'm not going to pretend that smoking weed is necessarily healthy for you, I also was unaware of it causing something as serious as that! 

 

I also recall all of that happening around the time of the last crypto nightmare, so, yeah, I could see that contributing to someone in the tech YouTube space burning out and deciding to hang it all up. Hopefully he's doing better these days! 

[YoungBlade]

1 hour ago, LumpyCrumpet said:

Dawid Does Tech Stuff is great for some of the stupid/silly/jank PC builds, and they often feel a bit more thought-through than some of the stuff LTT has done. 

I'm not so sure about "thought-through" and I think even Dawid would agree that he goes into more than half of his videos just hoping that things will work out, rather than with some genius plan. His recent EPYC CPU platform purchase is a great example, where he YOLOed his way though trying to set up a dual-socket server system, and failed accordingly.

 

Not to say I don't like his videos - I actually think his style of jank and comedy is better than anything LTT has put out in the last few years. Honestly, he's almost like a wittier version of the old LTT channel. I remember watching his "World's Worst Multi-monitor Setup" video and actually thinking "This is something LTT might have done back in the day. Why don't they do stuff like this anymore?"

[Middcore]

Just now, insufferable_pedant said:

I also recall all of that happening around the time of the last crypto nightmare, so, yeah, I could see that contributing to someone in the tech YouTube space burning out and deciding to hang it all up. Hopefully he's doing better these days! 

 

It was a bummer of a time to be a PC enthusiast just as a hobby, let alone if you were a person whose livelihood depended on making content about PC stuff.

 

I mean, when you've seen people threaten to throw down and fight in a Micro Center parking lot, there comes a moment where you're just like, "What the hell is this hobby I'm in?"

 

I was in a Facebook group for PC enthusiasts in my city circa 2020. It was super active, lots of the group regulars had met in person from swapping parts, we started a Discord that was getting pretty active, and we were planning an in-person meetup LAN party for when the pandemic restrictions eased. Then at the beginning of 2021 one of the admins did a giveaway of an in-demand GPU and bungled how it was run so people got angry and took sides on it being rigged or whatever, and the group ended up fracturing in two, and neither of the two halves ever been the same since. 

[DakotaCx]

I like Jay's behind the scene/studio-build content. I don't watch his actual tech stuff. 

I used to enjoy Bitwit but he lost a big portion of his appeal after the split with his wife, she brought a lot to the channel and I don't think he ever really recovered from that. 

MKBHD is cool for artsy, very well-produced, and executed shots. I just don't care for the content he chooses to focus on, phones and Apple, and such.

HardwareCanucks is a good quick format channel, with beautiful shots of tech and plants. 

I sub to GamersNexus but I find Steve to be a little much most of the time. He comes across as arrogant and condescending, but that may also just be him being shy so I try and give the benefit of the doubt. 

As far as a direct LTT replacement? I don't really think there is one hence their appeal. 
 

[Middcore]

1 minute ago, DakotaCx said:

I used to enjoy Bitwit but he lost a big portion of his appeal after the split with his wife, she brought a lot to the channel and I don't think he ever really recovered from that. 

 

Agreed. Even setting aside the obvious impact on Kyle's energy (not blaming a guy for being depressed while going through a divorce at all), he just wasn't as entertaining by himself. 

 

1 minute ago, DakotaCx said:

MKBHD is cool for artsy, very well-produced, and executed shots. I just don't care for the content he chooses to focus on, phones and Apple, and such.

 

There was a time I considered myself a smartphone enthusiast, I followed all the Android sites for scuttlebutt about new releases, I would do shenanigans with my carrier contract to get upgrades earlier (this was when they used to subsidize your phone with a new contract).

 

Now I really couldn't care less. The stuff I do with my phone now is the same stuff I've done with it for years, the only things that have changed are the screen is bigger (fine), I can charge wirelessly (nice) and I don't have a headphone jack (irksome). So why should I care about how fast the chip in the new flagship is? Prices get ever higher for ever less innovation. Even more than the PC space, I feel like the smartphone space has become dominated by mindless consumerism and tech-as-fashion-statement. 

 

1 minute ago, DakotaCx said:

I sub to GamersNexus but I find Steve to be a little much most of the time. He comes across as arrogant and condescending, but that may also just be him being shy so I try and give the benefit of the doubt. 

 

People call Steve "Tech Jesus," but he gets stuck in "Jesus throwing the money-changers out of the temple" righteous fury mode.

 

I enjoy watching it when he's doing a takedown on a product/company that deserves it. And there are a lot that deserve it. Gamers Nexus has gotten real results for consumers by calling out tech companies for their fuckups and I'm glad to have them around. If I watched every video they made I can see how his demeanor would get tiresome, but I don't watch every video they make. 

[insufferable_pedant]

1 minute ago, Middcore said:

It was a bummer of a time to be a PC enthusiast just as a hobby, let alone if you were a person whose livelihood depended on making content about PC stuff.

 

I mean, when you've seen people threaten to throw down and fight in a Micro Center parking lot, there comes a moment where you're just like, "What the hell is this hobby I'm in?"

 

I was in a Facebook group for PC enthusiasts in my city circa 2020. It was super active, lots of the group regulars had met in person from swapping parts, we started a Discord that was getting pretty active, and we were planning an in-person meetup LAN party for when the pandemic restrictions eased. Then at the beginning of 2021 one of the admins did a giveaway of an in-demand GPU and bungled how it was run so people got angry and took sides on it being rigged or whatever, and the group ended up fracturing in two, and neither of the two halves ever been the same since. 

 

It really was a pretty terrible time. Fortunately, I had done a platform upgrade right at the start of the pandemic. I had experienced some weird issues that I thought might have been graphics card related, but turned out to be an SSD dying in an extremely strange fashion. I decided to just throw parts at the problem, and ended up with a fresh 5600XT build right before prices started shooting up. That being said, I ended up upgrading to a 3070 toward the end of that whole mess, and found a surprisingly good-natured group of folks at my local(ish) Micro Center. There was a discord group, and everyone had a good time chatting about tech and making jokes about the GPU hellscape. When we'd show up on a Saturday to enter the drawing for a chance to buy a card, everyone had a fun time cheering on the folks who were able to get their card of choice. 

 

I think that the pandemic really brought out the worst in a lot of people. Ever since then, it feels like people, on the whole, have been a lot more on edge and a lot less willing to listen to each other and extend a bit of grace when someone screws up. That really sucks that your local group imploded like that, something similar happened with my local Magic: The Gathering community just before the pandemic, so I definitely understand the kind of hole that can leave in your social circle. 

[DakotaCx]

2 minutes ago, Middcore said:

People call Steve "Tech Jesus," but he gets stuck in "Jesus throwing the money-changers out of the temple" righteous fury mode.

 

I like that analogy. 

 

 

2 minutes ago, Middcore said:

 

 

I enjoy watching it when he's doing a takedown on a product/company that deserves it. And there are a lot that deserve it. Gamers Nexus has gotten real results for consumers by calling out tech companies for their fuckups and I'm glad to have them around. If I watched every video they made I can see how his demeanor would get tiresome, but I don't watch every video they make. 

I agree. I tend to stick to his big topics as I do feel he does a generally good job of presenting a generally balanced, fair perspective. I have some issues with some things in his presentation style every now and then (out-of-context quotes and such), but overall he does tend to present good evidence to support his points. 

 

[Neroon]

I never, ever, buy a product based on the video of 1 person.

 

I always search youtube and written reviews, to see what is what. Not to mention that LTT does very view full blown reviews anyway, loads of products end up on Short Circuit, like laptops, phones etc, and they are never that indepth. They are a decent starting point to get an idea of the product, but that's where it ends.

Basically you always want a 'second opinion' on products and it's data, just to confirm no mistakes were made, and whether testing was done properly. I just bought a new laptop for school, and the amount of different battery life results I found, was astonishing. Obviously it's because everyone uses different methods, but when you want to know if a laptop with light work, will make it through the day, it's a huge difference between some claiming 8 hours, and other 4.

[DakotaCx]

7 minutes ago, Neroon said:

I never, ever, buy a product based on the video of 1 person.

 

I always search youtube and written reviews, to see what is what. Not to mention that LTT does very view full blown reviews anyway, loads of products end up on Short Circuit, like laptops, phones etc, and they are never that indepth. They are a decent starting point to get an idea of the product, but that's where it ends.

Basically you always want a 'second opinion' on products and it's data, just to confirm no mistakes were made, and whether testing was done properly. I just bought a new laptop for school, and the amount of different battery life results I found, was astonishing. Obviously it's because everyone uses different methods, but when you want to know if a laptop with light work, will make it through the day, it's a huge difference between some claiming 8 hours, and other 4.

Honestly, if I'm legitimately thinking about a purchase I usually turn to Reddit or dedicated sites like RTings. I pretty much never make a big purchase based on a YouTuber

[Godiwa]

51 minutes ago, DakotaCx said:

I used to enjoy Bitwit but he lost a big portion of his appeal after the split with his wife, she brought a lot to the channel and I don't think he ever really recovered from that. 

 

Wait what? hadn't caught his wife split... I thought he and Paul just didn't really make vids together much and wanted "each their own" oh well... they were good together... paul alone was boring and bitwit began with all the house stuff no? been a while so can't remember it all to be honest...

but their crazy shiz together with gaming where they had to play one a tiny pc for a certain amount of time or other weird stuff for shiz n giggles was a lot of fun

yeah their show together "Awesome Hardware" I miss it... it was great fun

[Neroon]

11 minutes ago, DakotaCx said:

Honestly, if I'm legitimately thinking about a purchase I usually turn to Reddit or dedicated sites like RTings. I pretty much never make a big purchase based on a YouTuber

For sure. I do really like it as a starting point. You can see the product from all different angles, the LMG videos usually show things like flex of the body and the keyboard, give a comparison on sound etc. It basically helps me get a shortlist of products I MIGHT like, and are worth looking into further. If I really like it, I will go in depth, find charts on temps, speeds, battery, I will check reddit and the likes in case people already have experience with the device, possibly checking out the previous version and see the common complaints, and if there is any info if those are still there on the newer version etc.

 

Especially on a large purchase like a phone, laptop etc, I spend at least 10+ hours, and that's not counting the info I had already gathered in the past.

[DakotaCx]

1 minute ago, Godiwa said:

Wait what? hadn't caught his wife split... I thought he and Paul just didn't really make vids together much and wanted "each their own" oh well... they were good together... paul alone was boring and bitwit began with all the house stuff no? been a while so can't remember it all to be honest...

but their crazy shiz together with gaming where they had to play one a tiny pc for a certain amount of time or other weird stuff for shiz n giggles was a lot of fun

Yeah Heather/Wifeysauce left, it seemed like she opted to peace out but the details (to my knowledge) were kept private for the most part aside from Kyle saying it was not expected. 

She tried to start her own little Twitter/YT channel at the time but that never really went anywhere. No idea what she's up to now. 

I forgot about Paul's Hardware. I do genuinely enjoy his content and style. 

[ddpp]

DF. They are actually professional. 

[theboysinthewoodz]

13 hours ago, creat0r said:

What are some goods alternative sources to get data about the things LTT/LMG covers? For example, I know https://www.rtings.com/ is great for things like laptop, camera, speaker, headphones, keyboard, mouse, monitor and TV reviews.

 

(Also mods please keep this as a separate thread since it's not directly related to the discussion of the controversy).

ThioJoe and Network Chuck are two i watch.  Not sure how entertaining they are

[RubenCordeiro]

My personal favorites are GamersNexus and Hardware Unboxed.

[Ayrick]

23 hours ago, Middcore said:

 

He had Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, and then had open-heart surgery. 

 

He talks about his health issues in these two videos:

 

And he talks about why he quit YT here:

Seems like health issues aside it was a classic case of YouTuber burnout during a period where the PC enthusiast world was pretty frustrating and depressing overall. 

Wow I had no idea, guess that explains his disappearance from my feed. curse you YT algorithms. Hope he is well

[1982 Original]

On 8/16/2023 at 4:07 PM, Middcore said:

 

He had Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, and then had open-heart surgery. 

 

He talks about his health issues in these two videos:

 

And he talks about why he quit YT here:

Seems like health issues aside it was a classic case of YouTuber burnout during a period where the PC enthusiast world was pretty frustrating and depressing overall. 

Timmy Joe is one of those guys who dives head first into something and makes it their entire life, then gets bored. I liked his channel a lot, most small tech channels without a lot of money are relatable to us common folk. But, PC hardware was a phase for him. He could easily be onto cars or woodworking for all I know. Zero criticism, but that seemed to be the jist when he called it quits.