what happens to the cards anand gets to review?

[drogue]

does he send 'em back, or does he keep it as an "engineering sample"? i never thought about that before, and was just kinda curious. oh yeah, anand if you read this an you DO keep the cards...could ya send me one? =) my 16mb tnt2 apired with an athlon 600 starting to really kick my butt now: medal of honor at 640x480 with all details turned off really sucks.

 

[Rand]

Depends what kind of deal he has with the supplier/vendor/manufacturer of the hardware.
Generally a website is allowed to keep any hardware/software they review, though it's certainly not unknown for a vendor to supply the hardware/software under the condition that it be returned immediately upon completion of the review.


As for what he does with the hardware he's allowed to keep I've no idea. Undoubtedly some of it ends up in Anand's systems and that of his employees, and friends.
The leftover hardware?
Probably used primarily as test platforms etc.

A lot of tech sites tend to hold giveaways for any leftover hardware, but I've never known AnandTech to do so.

 

[hoihtah]

i've purchased an engineering sample of Radeon DDR 64 graphic card off of Ebay.
perhaps, that's what anand does too.

 

[dude]

You ever heard of the paper shredder? Anyways, Anand got one that does electronic parts. What he does is once he finishes a review, he puts it into the shredder/grinder and it just chews up video cards, sound cards, motherboards, 2.5 ghz processors, 512mb of ram, dirty socks, old laundry, discarded cigarette butts that missed the ashtray, Apple 24" Cinema Display LCDs, and CTR monitors, etc.

j/k. Most of the time, reviewers have to send it back to the company. Sometimes, they get to keep it though, that's when they keep it for themselves or friends, or have giveaways. Sometimes a review site will strike a deal with the company where they do sexual favors for each other and the review site gets to have a few computer items, T-shirts, old sneakers, and hats for give aways.

 

[drogue]

Originally posted by: dude

Sometimes a review site will strike a deal with the company where they do sexual favors for each other and the review site gets to have a few computer items, T-shirts, old sneakers, and hats for give aways.

I should get in with one of those companies when i finish college....

 

[EdipisReks]

just make sure it isn't a canadian. those canadians are into...uh...painful lovemaking.

 

[hans007]

some companies make you return stuff. especially expensive things like laptops. he probably gets to keep cards and CPUs, and such though. they really dont cost that much to make, especially if they are samples anyways. the company cant sell them anymore since they are samples.

 

[Tominator]

Years ago some were sold on this forum....I don't remember the details except it was Anand and they were test samples.