I've been out in California for the past week for IDF, followed by some extra meetings with the usual suspects: AMD, Intel and NVIDIA. The information I gained from these meetings will show up in articles over the next few weeks, months and even years. I really enjoyed covering the show this year not only because of the information we had access to but also because of the new team members I was able to cover it with. This was the first IDF for both Brian and Vivek. AMD even made this IDF an awesome experience by giving us great access to Zacate after our initial encounter. I have to say that for the first time in a while I'm actually looking forward to the next tradeshow. 
 
For those of you who don't know, I don't employ any sales people at AnandTech. The company is strictly editorial. We have an exclusive advertising partner who handles all sales/marketing for the site. We own no share in them, and they own no share in us. While out here I met with our advertising agency who came to me with a request. They have a potential advertiser that wanted to know if we had any success stories from our readers to share with them. They are looking for stories about how reading something on AnandTech impacted you, particularly with regards to enterprise hardware/software decisions. While the request was for enterprise stories, I'm interested to hear them all if you've got one. Again what I'm looking for is a story about how something you read here impacted you or your hardware/software decisions in any way.
 
The stories will be shared with the potential advertiser so be sure to leave out any information that you don't want public. They are simply looking for more anecdotal evidence of the impact of AnandTech. I don't like asking for favors, but if you do have a story to share I'd appreciate it. 
 
I'm back in the office next week, have a great weekend!
Comments Locked

109 Comments

View All Comments

  • asmoma - Saturday, September 18, 2010 - link

    Your palm pre review made me and one of my friends buy a palm pre. And i'm now a webOS missionary in Norway(pre and pixi is not released in Norway).
  • sanjeev - Saturday, September 18, 2010 - link

    I've been following AnandTech for quite some time,could be,something like 2 years before Anand had started his Hometheater, but dont have any story and nothing to do with enterprise hardware/software but more to share my appreciations.

    I am more into databases and GUI creations,But thanks to Anandtech, that I known more about the rabbit hole.
    The difference is like,from being treated like an "non-existing entity"(replace this with any word you fancy!,I dont mind) when ever I have issues,now,being content and knowing who is who.

    Its more like, I am an "AnandTech" to most of my peers and friends to thier satisfaction.
    But when I fail, http://www.anandtech.com never.
    That makes my day.
  • iwodo - Saturday, September 18, 2010 - link

    For most recent stories it has to be SSD. Although the first one to bring SSD up to decent quality review were PC perspective.

    The most important things to me is how Anandtech ( or mainly Anand himeself, cause other articles dont have similar view ) share so many similar points of view to my thinking and describe it in a easy to understand, but still technically detail review.

    And this point of views, are actually consumer's point of view. Unlike most review sites which seems to botch up zillions of graph and data for no apparent reason. Anand brings up a questions that most of us have in mind and try to find out answers.

    Things like efficiency of PSU, why we need it, what does it actually means, how the standard is tested, are they are cheat to get there?
    What are your PC actua power usagel? And prove you dont need a 1000W PSU even for Quad Core + SLI.
    Voice of Concern, 100+ MB Graphics drivers update? When was the last Review site bitch against it publicly?
    ARM CPU - Finally someone is interested in what is inside....

    It is how Anand's review are written from consumer's prospective that makes me continue to visit here. While sometimes it may not be the most informative, it is definitely "the" place for all tech.
  • nvidia2008 - Monday, September 20, 2010 - link

    "Things like efficiency of PSU, why we need it, what does it actually means, how the standard is tested, are they are cheat to get there?
    What are your PC actua power usagel? And prove you dont need a 1000W PSU even for Quad Core + SLI.
    Voice of Concern, 100+ MB Graphics drivers update? When was the last Review site bitch against it publicly?
    ARM CPU - Finally someone is interested in what is inside...."

    Yeah... That is great information as well I get from this site.
  • n0x1ous - Saturday, September 18, 2010 - link

    I stumbled across Anandtech for the first time in late 2006 when I was looking for information about video cards to upgrade my crappy emachines desktop to play the original call of duty. At the time I liked computers and was interested in them, but I didn't know anything about PC Hardware itself. I simply wanted to find enough info to get something that would let me play the game I wanted to play. That is until I stumbled across the articles that would change my life.
    As I began reading, stories and reviews of Nvidia's glorious G80 were the prominent things at the time and as I started to read about it and all the technology behind it, I was captivated and hooked and have never looked back. Needless to say the e-machines never got the upgrade but I did learn everything I needed to assemble my first PC (Q6600, 680i, 8800 GTS 640, Raptor, Gigabyte Aurora 570 case, Corsair RAM, Zalman 9700).
    Over the past (almost) four years I have probably spent around $7,000.00 on Newegg for various components and upgrade for that and other PC's I have built and I have been able to share my knowledge with others and influence their technology purchases as well.
    I think for an advertiser that is probably the area where Anandtech readers might have the most influence. I would guess the majority of us are the go to technology expert for family and friends and that adds up to a lot of dollars spent based on the stuff we know and learn about at Anandtech.

    Anyway, thanks Anand and staff for what you do. I check the sight out every day and have always enjoyed the deep technical insight and expert analysis that makes this site always my first stop for hardware info.
  • lestr - Saturday, September 18, 2010 - link

    3 years ago the only thing I knew was that my latest PC, 15 months old, was gasping its last breath. I'd had 3 built by the local "wiz-shop" at about $1,000 each, starting with a P2, then RDRAM P4 (it's the best but very expensive!) and another DDR P4. When it died I decided to go off the shelf for about $400. I needed one to run my business. All the local techs would say was, "It's cheaper to buy a new one than to have this one fixed." I had no idea about any of the components inside in the box; what they were, what they did. I knew where the on/off switch was. I'd reached the conclusion that computers are about as good as coffee makers. Buy a cheap one and buy another when it breaks. I didn't know anything - I trusted them. I grew up in the 50's - 60's when it was all mainframes.. "rocket science" and intimidating... 16" discs and stacks of cards punched in Fortran or Assembler.

    My EE brother assured me I could build a PC - I'd built some Hi-Fi components from kits in the 70's so I decided to give it a whirl. First I had to learn what a motherboard was. I began doing research without a clue to what I was doing. Worse than that I didn't have a local teacher. I was on my own. DDR was EOL and DDR2/dual cores the "new thing." I went through a LOT of tech sites and read review after review. I learned a few things, but not much. One day I found Anandtech, more specifically, Gary and some of the other guys, Ryan and Jerrod... Gary was doing a G-33/690G uATX round up. Blink and you missed it. I was a tile and stone contractor, former bean counter, not a hardware wizard... but I am not afraid of building anything. After finding Anandtech my education really took off. I had a teacher! Since then I wake up with coffee and Andndtech. You became my "McGuffy's Reader.

    I still don't understand a lot of it. I'm one of those who needs a hands-on show and tell. Your guys managed to do that on paper. My appetite was voracious. I began to understand components and how they interface, what makes one product superior to another and where to draw a line in bang for the buck. I have to admit it was a lot to assimilate. Establish minimum standards. I learned how to evaluate each component over the next 7-8 months. I read an extensive PSU round up that really woke me up. It's as important as the CPU? Duh... Graphics cards were a bit muddled and I am not a gamer BUT Anand educated me to the point I won't build a PC without one. You guys grabbed my attention, interest and rocked my world. Within 4 months I'd bought components - QUALITY parts - and built 6-7 PC.s for HTPC/SOHO for the experience. I transitioned from single core DDR into duals and DDR2. The timing was superb. DDR3 was only a rumor. I haven't had any failures and have built and fixed a dozen machines to date. Now I look forward to die shrinks. I want an SSD! You cover almost all the bases - how about tv cards and SFX PSU's?

    I have come to mistrust the big boys and their big box specials. I hate bottom-line economics and despise greed. A great PC isn't simply a CPU - it's a sum of the parts inside. If you want to have a long-lasting machine you have to put in quality parts. You fight for BIOS updates - X58? - and I learned why that is so important. I don't think there is anyone else out there who is as much of a consumer advocate as Anandtech. It's terrific you are editorial and isolated from advertising dollars. I can't recall how many times I've read - "their review is slanted to get the ad bucks." Yeah, it makes a difference. I really miss Gary... everyone on your staff tells it like it is. No FEAR. Moreover, the mfrs KNOW how big a stick you guys carry. They seem to respect and respond because your readers ARE well informed.

    It's nice to no longer be a member of the great unwashed uneducated masses. I can quickly peruse a review or article and understand what is presented. It ain't Greek no more. It's nothing to be afraid of and education is the only way to get past that. Maybe one of these days I'll understand chip architecture but it doesn't keep me from reading the articles. or wanting a new rig. I don't know where we'd be without Anandtech (and the Egg). I would still be buying off the shelf boxes with only mediocre performance and longevity. I read DT but always come back to AT as the definitive source. Anandtech should be required reading before posting a review on Newegg...

    Live Long and Prosper.
  • Powerbacon - Saturday, September 18, 2010 - link

    A long time ago, when Intel released the Core 2 family, the ISP that i worked here in Brazil was in need of new computers for technical support area.
    My boss was about to buy 15 machines equipped with Pentium IV 3.06ghz (i dont remember the exact model now) and i stopped him when he was going to pay for the machines, because i know that wasnt the best thing to do, because i am a everyday reader of anandtech since the launch of Athlon XP, and i could prove to my boss that he was wrong by doing that purchase.
    Of course Core 2 duo was expensive than Pentium IV, but luckily enough, i've found a big intel specific sales on my town, proving that he could do the best thing by buying these machines at a low cost added to the purchase!
    At that time, the staff of technical assistance thanked me for the big upgrade (Pentium III to Core 2 Duo.... imagine that!)
    Thanks Anandtech! I even signed up on the site just to write that! thanks!
  • Ryestag - Saturday, September 18, 2010 - link

    Anand - I remember when you build this website in 1997. I just began getting into understanding PCs and bought all my peripherals and such for my first PC at the age of 17 thanks to your reviews. Later that year I decided to follow in your footsteps and a friend and I built a website called CTRL-ALT-DEL.com. We could never compete with the level of knowledge and quality of your articles so we decided to focus on leaking ATI and nVidia beta drivers and generally do some crazy shit like how far could we overclock a AMD Duron going outside during winter at -40C. We became very popular rather quickly and had a pretty strong following of about 25k people on our forums. Things got a bit out of hand (2-3terabytes of traffic / month back then was A LOT) and we ended up shutting down shop and giving the url away.

    I attempted to rekindle the feeling I had with ctrl-alt-del with a new site called MAXReboot.com and it was very successful again due to the beta drivers we leaked but by this time I graduated college and had a full time job. I also lived with my girlfriend and the time the site took away from all that was tremendous. I just could not keep up with it all so I had to let it go again.

    You're very lucky to have been able to take a passion and make it your life's work. I've followed your website now for 13 years ... I can't think of any other website I've been going to for this long!
  • PowerEngineer - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link

    I stumbled across AnandTech many years ago when I had decided to build my first PC. The information in the articles has always been great. I've also learned a lot through the forums; amazing how much knowledge and experience your regulars have!

    Yesterday I just finished buying the parts for a new build. Your articles on motherboard chipsets helped me make the decision to go with AMD/890FX (a break from my Intel past), along with NVIDIA (even though I have a family member who works for ATI). I really didn't pick out any component for this build without researching its pluses and minuses through AnandTech.

    Thanks for being here!
  • watersb - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link

    These days, I scour AnandTech for all the info before I recommend a product for evaluation at work.

    In late 2008 we had a high-performance computing project coming up, and at that time AMD Opteron processors were once again being eclipsed by the new Intel chips. It was a dynamic time. We went with an Intel cluster, based in part on your work. So I consider AnadTech highly influential.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now