What makes hardware sites go?
Free hardware
What makes hardware sites unreliable sources of info?
Free hardware
The reason Xtremesystems seem honest and knowledgable about ocing and hardware is that their site like ours is dominated by the forums. The vast majority of forum users there pay for gear out of pocket and aren't afraid to put hardware down or swap it out if it sucks. Their rent doesn't depend upon saying nice things about it on XS.
I don't think that what is needed is another hardware review site personally. I think that someone can take all the testing of 2) hardware presented by the big (biased?) sites (don't forget to note the testing that they DON'T do as well) and then reinterpret it.
Like what I got out of the $500 video card reviews this week was:
1) I could buy an xbox, a gamecube, and a PS2 for roughly the same price as this video card
2) I am not going to get a $150 9700 Pro any time soon, and that will be about what's needed for Doom3
3) Price is irrelevant when the hardware is free to the reviewer. People barely mention that the card would require most people to save up for a pretty good while to afford. Long enough savings that it would seem slow when you got it
Ok back to slacking er I mean work