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anandtech.com

537 pointsbhauer60 comments

Woah.

I'm also 32, and when Anandtech started I was building PCs for myself and others. It was an incredible resource, and it's been incredibly consistent in the years since. What always struck me was his discipline and dedication, even in those early years.

Whenever there's some nifty gear announced, I always wait for the Anandtech review to purchase, and whenever I want to compare something new with something old, I know the old Anandtech review will have just the details I'm looking for.

There have been other sites that dove into particular details in more depth, but none that provided a consistently deep level across so many topics.

As much as Anand may have received an education through this journey, I know he has educated so many of us, and through that, strengthened the tech community in ways that will reverberate for years to come.

Thanks for all you have done, Anand, and please let us know what comes next for you!

Anandtech essentially replaced Tomshardware as my go-to place for information on PC hardware. Oddly enough, Tom was a doctor turned tech writer as well. Go figure.

MacRumors is also run by a doctor turned tech writer, Arnold Kim:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/technology/21blogger.html

Although not primarily a review site, Lens Rentals has a very detailed blog about all things DSLR and mirrorless camera related (http://www.lensrentals.com/blog). Lens Rentals and its blog was also started by a doctor (Roger Cicala) and he remains the main contributor to the blog.

I'm around the same age and started reading Anandtech when I was a high school teenager in the late 90s.

We scrounged together cash to play the latest version of Quake, upgraded to the latest 3dfx Voodoo cards, and overclocked our Celeron 300A chips till they burned out. Most of the info on what to do came from Anandtech and associated forum discussions.

Thanks to you, Anand, you'll always be a legend for our generation.

Ahh, the 300A. I remember being blown away by the results people were getting with that. I didn't manage to get my hands on one for a few months, but when I did I lapped the heatspreader (the only CPU I ever lapped, thanks HardOCP!), and ran it at ~540 for several months. It did get unstable and had to be dropped down after that, but it was still >500. As much as the actual performance was awesome, the important thing for me was really the achievement around it. I was just some kid in my parents basement, and through some reading and a little elbow grease, I was able to match the performance of the most expensive CPUs in the market. I was empowered, thanks to Anand and his ilk.

My gushy, heart-felt comment thanking Anand:

Thanks so very much for your leadership over the years Anand.

You kept the tech industry honest, called them out on their benchmarketing, and championed the consumer. From display quality, to poor NAND performance, and questionable frequency unthrottling, you've been there the whole time calling them out on their shenanigans.

I want the staff of AnandTech to hold on to your integrity and this resolve of yours for decades to come.

I've been proud to be a reader of yours for over a decade, from my first Abit (what a sweet board) through to the crazy world of walled-gardens and locked down devices that we now inhabit.

Thank you oh so very much for everything. You are a shining star and a damn fine gentleman. And now you've made me all sappy and sentimental... :)

Shine brightly, good sir!

Thanks for all the in depth articles that I've read since '98.

For some perspective, here is a link to a 1999 feature on 17 year old Anand. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/1999/12/01/27...

"Despite the disparity in size, this David has had some winning moments against the Goliaths. Just a year ago, Anand scooped everyone in reporting on a new processor from AMD, the K6-3, well before its release. AMD officials say they don't know how he got the chip, and Anand sure isn't telling. The incident drew considerable attention to AnandTech, including a sniffy reference in PC Magazine to tests "purported to have been run with a prototype of the K6-3.""

Anandtech filled (continues to fill) an important place in the industry that opened up when Byte magazine fell down. It's the one place where you always know that the hobbyist can go to to get great technical details, in an entertaining and approachable manner.

I'm super interested in seeing what Anand is up to next - I'm sure it will be something interesting.

I've been following Anandtech since my obsession with the first Athlons. Lasting 17 years as a public figure in an extremely divisive industry with the level of integrity he consistently maintains is an amazing accomplishment. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.

I don't think I've ever seen a single thing at anandtech that would qualify as "controversial". I can think of very few other journalistic endeavors for which that's true.

Do you mean that as good or bad? Controversy can cut either way.

I interpreted the word as "scandalous" but he may have meant something else.

I imagine he meant "arguable, potentially false or misleading", and is commenting on the consistent clarity and reliability of AT journalism.

When one tells the truth in a manner that's full of integrity, it's rarely bad.

Thank you Anand, you honestly helped me select parts for so many PC's over the years. Your work was filled with so much depth yet concise at the same time. I always looked forward to your intel chipset reviews on pins and needles back when I was in college. Your writing was literally one of a kind and really helped so many people, even if it wasn't the most important work in the grand scheme of things. I am confident no one can fill the void you will leave. This is reminiscent of the loss of Huell Howser, in the sense that your work could only have been done by you. Good luck with your future, and if you are ever in the north bay I owe you a beer!

I didn't notice any mention of "why?".

He strikes me as a very clever fellow. I wonder what's next for him.

He's tired of doing that and wants to move on. That was obvious in reading.

You'd think the world of "change jobs every 9 months" would understand that :)

I would imagine that part of the reason is that he now has all the money he and his family (if any) will probably ever need.

Crazy that it's been so long. Did any site used to have as in-depth reviews as AnandTech regularly does? My impression is that AT is what pushed other sites into having such detailed hardware reviews...

In the early days Tom's Hardware did and it pre-dates Anandtech, though gradually Tom's got worse and Anandtech got a lot better and regular. I remember in the even the early days (late 90s), I stopped reading magazine reviews of 3D graphics cards and CPUs because all the reviews were so bad compared to those sites. Also with the death of Byte magazine, we lost the architecture explanations too, which those sites then filled the void for.

He was a legend when I was going to NC State. Rumors By 2000 were that he had a Ferrari and multiple homes. He was around the social group I was in but never got a chance to meet him.

Good for him to move on.

Wow - I think it's us readers that should be thanking Anand for raising the bar on technical journalism over the last 20 years. I'll miss his hands-on contributions but look forward to seeing what he turns his hand to next.

I'm kind of surprised noone has mentioned nowhere mom yet.

That's an early reported example of people faking extreme circumstances - usually cancer but in this case a relationship, marriage, then road traffic accident.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=275172

Some of it it tucked away in the archives. http://web.archive.org/web/20010624115154/http://forums.anan...

Slightly off topic, but that second link is a surprise; posted by dennilfloss in 2001.

Dennilfloss himself passed a few weeks ago. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2386854

I hadn't heard about it, it's an interesting case:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/05/18/murderer_confesses_o...

However, other than it appearing on AnandTech's forum, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with Anand himself.

I don't read AnandTech a whole lot, but whenever I did, I got the impression that the site was credible and can be trusted. I hope this continues as their leadership changes.

Anyone knows what happened to the previous smartphone editor Brian Klug?

I agree, from the videos, podcasts and co-writing I had thought Brian would have been Editor-in-chief. I'm surprised Ryan was chosen instead.

This. His twitter @nerdtalker still lists him as senior smartphone editor, no mention of his disappearance (of many months) from AAT, no comment from anyone, it's surreal.

He and Anand really had a passion that IMO surpassed all the others there. I think their absence will really weaken Anandtech, although I hope I am wrong.

Happy for this guy. It's almost like his 17 year old is going off to a college designed just for him. Got to be a good feeling.

Being a week younger than Anand, and brown, and a tech head since around the same age has been great (for me). We both made our first Geocities site around the same time, although mine was dedicated to the Chicago Bulls and filled with animated gifs. Does anyone else feel strange kinship to other members of their (00) high school class? Britney is looking good right?

We've really entered into a review economy these days; it's almost like no one spends time or money on anything without reading a review of it first. Anand's "reviews" have always been so thorough that even though something's rating may be high, he might tell us why the product might not be the right one for us. It's a great life lesson; the best _______ may not be the best _______ for YOU.

Thanks, Anand. Wish you all the best!

Wow. I was wondering how the last couple of months had fewer and fewer articles by anand himself. And how they also became less and less relevant to what I'm interested in. I've been particularly interested in their / Anands analysis of CPUs which has been somewhat lacking. Why was nvidias Denver CPU not mentioned at all?! Where has the analysis of upcoming arm64 CPUs been?! While the quality of the tech reviews might have been the same, the direction hasn't. Let's hope they can keep on revealing and analysing CPU designs such as apples A8, nvidias Denver or qualcomms comm chips. I'm doubtful they will.. Or at least the last half year they haven't.

Last but not least, hats off to an amazing accomplishment by anand. The number of times he has revealed some deep tech info/cheating/etc which was seemingly superbly hidden is unbelievable.

I went to the same high school that Anand went to (albeit several years after he attended).

It was always interesting listening to my C.S. teachers talk about Anand and how he had gotten started and everything. It was the kind of thing that inspired me to keep working and improving my skills.

Damn, the one-of-a-kind Anand will be missed, he's been delivering the most analytical and technically in-depth content for new hardware, several years running.

Tech journalism has just lost one of its best technical writer greats.

Wow. He deserves a really good vacation, and I'm really curious to see what he does next.

AnandTech has been an amazing resource, and fostered a lifelong fascination that turned into a career. Sure, there were other sites, but Anand himself showed me that a true deep understanding of the hardware made it even more interesting. And he explained in such a great way as to open up the wonder and beauty within everything he wrote about.

That was the other key teaching from Anand: that good writing and good communication make everything better. He showed us that in earnest through his great work.

Three cheers!

I agree with Anand, the other writers have indeed been doing a tremendous job.

I've been wondering for awhile now what exactly was going on with Anand at anandtech. It was either that he was locked away writing some epic articles, or he was stepping away from the site. Good to see the issue settled publicly.

Regardless, with it also being the case that David Kanter no longer produces pieces for Real World Tech [0], I'm a bit apprehensive about the future of in-depth architecture coverage.

[0] http://www.realworldtech.com/

thanks for all the fish.

for ssd and cpu arch, anandtech was/is has been delivering the best articles for years.

32?!?!?!

as opposed to...?

I assume GP meant "he's done all this at 32." It's pretty cool to semi-retire at that age.

Specifically, "all this" is a 17-year legacy. Incredible at his age, regardless of his wealth. XX Thousands of techies looked to a kid as the authority on hardware.

His writing looked a little weird at times, which folks took to be a foreign accent, not him actually being a kid at the time.

As opposed to 45 or 50, considering the sheer volume of incredibly thoroughly researched content he produced, for 17 years. Anand was writing better articles at 17 than almost anyone could at 32. Some people's careers don't even really start until they're 32 or older.

I remember reading an article talking about how he started anandtech when he was a teenager (maybe 16 or 17) and had to argue with his parents to let him do it.

In the article he says he started the original site when he was 14, in 1997.

What I want to know is how rich he needed to be to get all that hardware to review.

If I had access to all that hardware I might have done something like that as well.

> how rich he needed to be to get all that hardware to review

I believe manufacturers at some point just send them free hardware pieces to get reviewed.

How about when he was just getting started though. There would have been a long period when the site wasn't making money, he had to pay for hardware (which was more expensive in 1997) and he was so young he likely wouldn't have had any of his own capital. It would be interesting to know how it worked. Maybe they did send him hardware right from the start but it doesn't seem likely.

If you knew the manager of a big box electronics store in the 90's it was not hard to come by a large variety of computer parts.

The scene in 40 year old virgin where they destroy all the returns is pretty accurate to what is supposed to happen. What actually happens is they only destroy like a quarter of it.

Cool, I had a no idea. I was only really getting started in the late 90's and fortunately had family that were big into computers and would give me free parts so don't know much about that scene.

Been a long time fan of the site. Content always surpasses my expectation and quality of hardware reviewed is amongst the best in the PC market.

Best wishes to Anand. I do think the site has a little to worry about though. Whenever I read a particularly well written article on the site, I think "this must be Anand" and when I jump to the byline I'm correct. He sets a quality bar by example.

Think there's any significance in the title echoing Bill Gates' book?

I have appreciated Anandtech a great deal over the years; the coverage of AMD's rise to the top with hammer was especially gripping. Thanks and best wishes, Anand.

Amazing to see Anand stay in the game for so long. I remember reading his first few articles about memory very hazy - I think Pentium 100Mhz CPUs. Look where he is - persistence works.

We would all be lucky to have contributed as much to technology. I hope you start your next project out of the same sense of joy. Thank you!

Thanks for all the great reviews Anand.

You can tell the site is in good hands by reading recent SSD reviews from Kristian Vättö. Great stuff.

The Kernel will be missing from the AnandTech system.

Interesting

I wish he retired after the review of the iWatch? :-/

haha... he's headed to the company that'll make the iWatch ;)

http://recode.net/2014/08/31/veteran-tech-journalist-anand-s...

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