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Introducing the inaugural Atomicans' Choice Awards

By David Hollingworth
17:58 Mar 22, 2010 | 30 Comments
Tags: atomicans | choice | awards | news

We want to know what's in your rig... and the rig of every other Atomican. We want to know what products are... Atomicans' Choice.

Just what is the perfect PC? What is the most popular graphics card amongst Atomicans? Whose RAM is in most of your machines? Well, we want to find out - and we need your help.

We want you to be a part of the Atomicans' Choice Awards: our first ever attempt to create a snapshot of the typical Atomican system.

Just fill out our poll, and you can be a part; you'll help us build a picture of what the average Atomican has in their machines, and help keep our testing and benchmarking as useful as possible. Plus, you'll be able to measure up your rig against the rigs of every other reader, and help give something back to the vendors who keep suppling you and us with awesome kit.

And you can win stuff! First prize: WD Caviar Black 2 Terabyte HDD and AMD Phenom^TM II 965 3.4Ghz; Second prize: AMD Phenom^TM II 965 3.4Ghz

The Atomicans' Choice Awards are sponsored by AMD, Gigabyte, Corsair, Razer and Western Digital. So, thanks guys - without your support, we wouldn't be able to do this.

VOTE NOW!

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30 Comments

NeoDaemon69 Mar 22, 2010 6:31 PM	Things that make this survey painful to complete: Data Entry format Typos Terrible questions (Brand and model of your ISP - wtf?) Xbox and Corsair questions forced upon you without being able to choose a way out of either. *Being forced into choosing an answer for a question(lacking an 'other' or 'not applicable' option) Quite possibly one of the worst designed surveys I've seen,
cmos Mar 22, 2010 6:39 PM	I have an iMac, filled it out as best I could. And not the worst survey I've done, but +1 to the guy above me.
sirsquidness Mar 22, 2010 6:41 PM	I don't pick 3rd party controllers for my 360. Because I don't have one. Yet I have to give an answer. PLEASE PLEASE OH PLEASE When writing surveys like this - remember [b]not everyone question applies to everyone[/b].
smadge1 Mar 22, 2010 6:42 PM	that was the oddest survey I ever did :( I hope I win.
sirsquidness Mar 22, 2010 6:42 PM	Also, I have no idea what cosair products I intend to purchase next. Why must your survey torture me so?
smadge1 Mar 22, 2010 6:43 PM	trying to remember model numbers when i'm out is so hard.
smadge1 Mar 22, 2010 6:43 PM	i would have picked SSD, but it wasn't an option...
NobodyIsHere Mar 22, 2010 6:50 PM	as a user of corsair ram, that question didnt bother me, but the xbox one did, dont have one, dont want one either. and lol @ Brand and model of your ISP... now let me win!... the phenom 965... ever so slight upgrade from my 955 BE hehe :P
Kasalal Mar 22, 2010 6:57 PM	The xbox question was bs but the CPU and cooling/case questions made me realize how big of an Intel/Coolermaster fan boi.
Mudg3 Mar 22, 2010 6:58 PM	if you don't like it don't fill it out. Nuff said?
morris Mar 22, 2010 7:50 PM	I'm struggling with the data entry. I've got my specs all listed somewhere so I thought I could copy and paste. No. I have to remove the spaces and make it all lowercase. Might be a good format for databases, but not a very usable format for humans. Almost tempted to ditch the survey, but I've never done that in the 9 years I've been on the forums
spyder Mar 22, 2010 8:13 PM	That survey was honestly SHOCKING. Sorry, but defining a format for entry is crap. You're going to have a hell of a time collating the results. Dropdown selections would have been MUCH better. And for the latter questions (i.e. XBOX stuff), what if you don't have one? No selection for that. Guys, you are above this. The whole thing could have been put together way, WAY better.
Metasynaptic Mar 22, 2010 8:53 PM	Pretty ordinary. Very put off by the razor question. To be honest, it's a bit hard to answer the question 'what do you look for in a wireless headset for xbox' when you don't own an xbox.
morris Mar 22, 2010 8:59 PM	The Xbox 360 third party controller question was interesting, especially since there's only been 3 third party ones I can think of and I haven't seen 2 of them available in stores for almost 2 years now. I also look for other things in a 3rd party controller over the choices given - modding ability. That's what I do with my Xbox 360 controllers and I know a very large forum full of users that are interested in controllers for the purpose of taking them apart. I make arcade sticks out of mine.
Argotha Mar 22, 2010 9:11 PM	This should be interesting considering I ONLY HAVE A LAPTOP! The only parts which apply are cpu, gpu, ram, isp, mouse, (i think thats it, i kinda gave up skimming up i figured that im gonna have some problems answering this)
stuub27 Mar 22, 2010 9:24 PM	That really was a bit ordinary, sorry to say. I ended up giving up...the data entry format was my main gripe :( I don't normally like to complain about such things, but I think you need the feedback
Hawkeye Mar 22, 2010 10:14 PM	I'll make sure the guys who built the survey see all this feedback tomorrow guys :) Trust me. Especially the bits that I asked to be corrected but aren't :/ As to the sponsor questions... quite out of my control.
Splinter277 Mar 22, 2010 10:19 PM	@Mudg3 We fill it out because we want the shiny kit! :p Although I appreciate the effort, I have no idea how you are going to collate these results into usefulness, but good luck either way. I do have to agree with spyder though, but thanks for sorting it out Hawkeye.
Bundywow Mar 22, 2010 10:31 PM	when I read brand and model for ISP I filled it in as company and speed/connection type respectively
Caelum Mar 22, 2010 11:07 PM	I took the survey simply to find out how amazingly bad it was. Yup. It was amazingly bad. Obviously there needs to be an additional layer of QC before stuff like this goes live.
Karmicfloss Mar 22, 2010 11:12 PM	I've had worse, but not many..... Now can has deez plox?
Shikimaru Mar 22, 2010 11:27 PM	badsurvey.itwassohardtofillout
Bundywow Mar 22, 2010 11:34 PM	haha I actually thought it was funny I had to consciously pay attention to not using shift and spaces, and then all of a sudden I would forget haha.. This survey was great it was like a really bad movie it becomes good again! Plus you can win shit! When I fill out a survey at the shopping centre I don't win jack all AND they give your phone number away to telemarketers.
blackmancer Mar 23, 2010 2:00 AM	I agree POORLY CONSTRUCTED "SURVEY" e.g - I would never buy a gigabyte motherboard, because every one I've chanced upon (has been terrible). e.g - I've already got Corsair RAM, PSU, Case, but do I really need to buy a flash drive or cooling that I wouldn't use?
Hawkeye Mar 23, 2010 7:42 AM	In regards to the non-space thing, this - I am told - will make collating results easier. So... yeah.
bnew Mar 23, 2010 8:33 AM	Hawkeye- that's fair enough, but it is more than a little odd to ask the end user to do something like that. Hell, my job would be much easier if I could make requests of users like that when filling out online forms etc. It's just not done though- you take it for granted with these things that removing spaces is something that is done later. I manage survery monkey surveys here at work, and there's plenty of scope for improving the layout and structure of this survey. That said, I filled out the survey as best I could. The Xbox questions were a problem as I don't own an Xbox.
Hawkeye Mar 23, 2010 9:34 AM	I know, bnew, I know. Just oversaw a slight design change on this, so it will get a little simpler :)
smadge1 Mar 23, 2010 10:16 AM	did everyone else get 2 options for the gigabyte motherboards? Why did you choose to buy a gigabyte motherboard, and why you didn't choose to buy a gigabyte motherboard.
bnew Mar 23, 2010 11:23 AM	smadge1- yup.
GlennsPref Mar 25, 2010 8:15 PM	Yeah, me too, but having designed surveys before, I understand how the end result has to be structured to get useable results. Was this survey farmed out of the office H? Regards Glenn, btw, I want to win as well.

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Atomic Magazine

Issue: 133 | February, 2012

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.

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