All products reviewed by PC Hardware after March 1, 2000 will use a new rating system, based on new categories, with a one to five scale. We considered that our former marking system wasn't very representative for the end user so that we included six new hot categories: Design, Installation, Features, Performance, Stability and Overclock. This marking system is unique for all products, from motherboards to mouse pads. When a category is not applicable to a product it will be marked as N/A.

All products are rated and compared to others in the same class - do not try to compare the mark achieved by a motherboard with the one achieved by a video card. Do not compare even different types of video cards, for example a TNT2 and a GeForce video card! A class is formed by VIA133 motherboards, BX motherboards, GeForce video cards, etc.

The Scale
The rating scale ranges from one to five, in half point increments, and is used for both the individual categories and the overall rating. The most important thing to remember is that 3 is average! It should also be noted that the vast majority of products are, in fact, average. That do not means that this product is bad, it serves for the scope, it does the job, but the number of features and drawbacks are balanced.

A product with a rating between 1 and 2 should be avoided. Such products have serious problems and we do not recommend to purchase one.

Ratings between 2 and 3 are common, meaning that these products are just below the average, they have the basic features but a series of lacks make them a choice you should reconsider.

Rating between 3 and 4 are also common. This is definitely a good product, with a lot of features, a good choice if you want to purchase.

A rating a 4.5 is not common, meaning that this product has some strong features, very hard to achieve by competing products. This is more than good purchase.

Five is the note of the king. This is the mark of the best product that entered our labs and it is extremely hard to achieve. For several categories is practically impossible. The mark of five means that the product has unique in business characteristics

Categories
The individual categories in which we rate products will vary between product types. The basic six ones are explained below. Sometimes we may add an extra category if the existing ones do not satisfy our needs.

Design
Design is evaluated by the reviewer and it's based on his experience with that type of product. For example on a motherboard the reviewer will check the PCB design, the quality of electronic parts used, the organization of space, etc.

Installation
Installation may not be something hard for experienced users, but a large amount of novices may experience problems with a lot of products. We will try to enter their shoes. The documentation is an important part of this mark.

Features
In this category we look for the marketing promised features and for additional ones. A high features mark is achieved by products with unique enhancements, for example Abit SoftMenu III.

Stability
Stability is a very sensitive part of a product review. It is basically the most important mark, especially when we deal with motherboards. A five mark is almost impossible to achieve, a 4.5 rating says that a motherboard is rock stable.

Overclock
Overclocking gained a lot of adepts, that's why we introduced a special mark for it. The maximum amount of overclock that we tolerate here is the level that doesn't affect the stability mark. A product which may not be overclocked although the class permits will receive one point. The highest mark, five is achieved by that products than may be overclocked with over 60 percent over the default specifications.

Overall Rating
The overall rating is the one that appears in the Final mark field. It may not be exactly the sum of the components because the reviewer may increase or decrease it upon his personal opinion with maximum four points.

Other Notes
Please do not try to compare these results with older ones. Do not consider that a mark around 20 is bad. On this new marking system marks around 20 are in fact very good.

Numbers aren't everything! The review may be the key of your questions about the product. A common error is looking at numbers first. Do not do this because you are the one that might loose. For example an excellent rated product may not be suitable or it's incompatible with your needs.

We hope that you will enjoy our further reviews!