Ben "Rizen" - CEO Rizenet.com, Interview

I have always loved reading tech webmaster interviews, then one day it dawned on me, why haven't I written one_

So here it is, an interview with "Rizen", for over a year now this guy has been cranking out great reviews and tweaked display drivers.

Very worthy interview material indeed. =)

Now on with the interview.

1. How did you decide upon the name "Rizenet"_

Well, I've been going by Rizen on the internet for a while now, so when it
started, I was the only one working on it and it was "my" site so it was
called Rizenet - Rizen's Net. Kinda corny but its certainly original ;)

Rizenet was launched as an S3 fan site on September 17th, 1999. We've been doing general hardware for over a year now though.

Well, since it started, certainly. It's not an S3 fansite anymore. But no,
other than that, I strive to provide unbiased reviews and content, and of
course daily updates! I am trying to provide some more user-oriented
features, such as case mod galleries, SETI@Home and RC5 teams, and such,
though.

Working with the latest hardware and technologies is definitely a plus. I've
met so many people in the computer industry working with Rizenet.com, and
that's a benefit as well. I plan on going into the computer industry, and
with the contacts at so many companies I have, I certainly will have a place
to start with.

I also get emails from people all over the world, and it's interesting to get
to speak to so many people. So the most memorable moment was when I realized just how big we'd gotten.

That's a tough question. I think the general recognition you get as a
hardware webmaster is awesome. My drivers for the Savage4 card were
downloaded more than 30-40 thousand times - one single tweaked driver was downloaded 14,000+ times! I think the most memorable moment was realizing that people I don't know, know of me. Greg was recently telling me some people in his C++ class read Rizenet.com and knew who we were - things like that make it worthwhile.

I definitely want to expand and work on a larger user base. Let's leave it at
I want to be on the ABIT box, okay_ ;) Seriously, I want to become as well
known as some of the bigger sites, Anandtech, [H]ard|OCP, Firingsquad,
Sharky, etc. We are continuing to get some very cool products in for review,
and I don't see myself stopping Rizenet anytime soon - it's something I will
be doing long-time.

Play games__ I've probably spent more time benchmarking Quake 3 than actually playing it. Juggling school, football and Rizenet isn't easy. When I do find time to play games, I've found that Giants kicks some serious ass in single player as well as multiplayer - unfortunately finding servers is hard. For the record, I play as the Reapers. I play Diablo2 and Counterstrike as well. I rarely play online (I'm on 56k still.. don't laugh!!) but when I do I play
as "Rizen" so you'll know who I am.

AMD all the way! The Duron is the best processor for the money right now - my 600 is at 1030MHz with a FOP/Delta 38CFM combo. Until Intel drops their prices, I see no reason to pay more for products which aren't any better than the competition's. I don't even know why people *buy* Intel anymore, unless they can afford the Pentium 4's. Bash it as much as you want, but I'd take an OC'ed P4 any day of the week. I'd really like to try those new ASUS boards w/ a P4 1.5GHz. Alas, Intel's charging through the nose for the things.

9. One more thing, just for the record. Pepsi or Mountain Dew_

Actually I usually drink juice, but Sunkist or other orange sodas are my soda
of choice. But if I had to pick, I'd go with Pepsi.

Fantastic! We have just delved into the mind of a crazy webmaster and we're still alive and well! =P

Hope you all enjoyed this interview, and don't forget to check out