Annisman's First Ever Anandtech Hardware Giveaway - Winners have been announced!

[Number1]

Please enter for the game then as that is not restricted to the U.S. I will amend my first post to point that out.

The reason I keep it USA only was that I have shipped to winners in Canada before and I have run into far too many issues.

Thank you very much Annisman*
Unfortunately for me, the only item I would be interested in would be the CPU cooler and I am afraid I have already spent more then $30 on my actual Zalman cooler. Sucks to be me.
But now my fellow Canadians can participate in your contest, thank you very much and I hope it doe's not cause you any issues.

 

[Raduque]

Annisman Hardware Giveaway


HIS IceQ X Turbo 7850

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Lovely little card, comes with an excellent overclock and one of the best coolers around. This card is just over a month old, it has been used in my brother's PC. It is no longer needed because I recently swapped it with one of my three GTX670 4GB, which sadly never gave me much advantage over just SLI.

Restrictions: You may not enter if your current video card is at GTX 560 (Nvidia) or 5850/6870 (ATI) or higher. This is not a very high bar, but it should allow a fair amount of people to enter, and to also be getting a legitimately decent upgrade if they win, which is the important part.

Not sure where your card matches up ? Check this GPU heirarchy chart to see if you can enter. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Secondly, you must have at least 75 posts here at Anandtech at the time of entering. If you enter with less than 75 posts you will not be qualified.

Thirdly, you must have an available PCI-E slot, and a proper power supply (brand name, greater than 400W I would imagine.)

Directions (all of these must be done):

- List your computer specs
- Tell me briefly what you hope to use the card for and what games you play.
- post a picture of your rig !
- sit back and relax, you are now entered.

I have
Intel Core2Duo E8400
6gb DDR2 PC2-6400
Gigabyte EP45-UDR3
Galaxy GTX460GC 768mb
Chaintec AV710
6 HDDs ranging from 320gb to 2tb
Seasonic S12II 500w
Kingwin KT-436 case
Acer A221HQV
Dell E207WFP

I hope to use the card to play all my current and backlogged games with max settings at 1080p. Games like BF3, Max Payne 3, Mass Effect 3, Hard Reset, Skyrim and Batman: Arkham City. Sometimes, two instances of Eve Online. Oh yes, I'd like to see what it does in Crysis, too

My rig:

 

[hhhd1]

Great thread, I have no current interest in any of the offered (only currently looking for SSDs), although it make me wonder, if i had entered .. ,

I do not live in the USA, however, I have a USA address in NY, which you can send stuff to, and they forward it to me and handle all the international transfer stuff, would that have been acceptable ?

 

[drebo]

Razer Tiamat 7.1 Circumarual Surround Gaming Headset

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These headphones are phenomenal for first person shooters, and pretty average for everything else. Though I often play FPS, I couldn't stand swapping them out with my SteelSeries Siberia V2 cans to listen to music with. So now that I don't use them they're up for grabs. Oh, and they're about 2 weeks old with maybe 10 hours of total use, practically brand new.

Restrictions: You may not enter for the headset if you already have a mid/highend headset already. Use common sense, I would say if they cost more than 50 dollars they are at least mid range.

You must have either a sound card with 7.1 inputs (front, rear, side, sub, mic) or 7.1 inputs on your motherboard, which many now have. These headphones cannot be used without these inputs as they are physically 7.1 not 2.0 ! If you are not sure what you have you can ask in this thread.

You must have at least 50 posts at the time of entering, if you enter without having 50 posts you will not qualify.

This is not a restriction, but I strongly suggest anybody considering entering for these headphones be an avid FPS gamers, and either have a decent 7.1 soundcard or are planning on getting one. Again, not a restriction just a very logical suggestion, as if you plan on using these to play music or don't want to invest in a 7.1 soundcard you will be shortchanging what this headset is actually made for.

Directions (All of these must be done):

- List your computer specs
- Tell me what games you play/what your favorite games are.
- Post a picture of the cutest cat you can find on the interwebs
- Sit back and relax, you're entered.

Computer specs:
Intel Core i5 2500K (stock speeds, don't really believe in overclocking)
16gb Crucial Ballistix RAM
2x 1TB Western Digital Hard Drives
ASUS P8P67 motherboard (has 7.1 onboard sound)
22" Acer monitor (my old IPS panel died and this is an interim replacement)
Razer Abyssus mouce
Monoprice gaming keyboard w/ Cherry MX Reds

I do not currently own a headset.

Games:
Starcraft 2, Mass Effect 1-3, Guildwars 2, the Warhammer 40K games, any Heroes of Might and Magic game, Path of Exile... Mostly top-down, RTS, or 3rd person games. Never been a huge fan of FPSs, probably because growing up I never had a good enough computer to properly play them. Mostly looking at the headset for online gaming with GW2 and SC2 and what not. No world of warcraft or diablo 3 for me!

 

[l0cke]

Razer Tiamat 7.1 Circumarual Surround Gaming Headset

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1599x956 and weights 356KB.

These headphones are phenomenal for first person shooters, and pretty average for everything else. Though I often play FPS, I couldn't stand swapping them out with my SteelSeries Siberia V2 cans to listen to music with. So now that I don't use them they're up for grabs. Oh, and they're about 2 weeks old with maybe 10 hours of total use, practically brand new.

Restrictions: You may not enter for the headset if you already have a mid/highend headset already. Use common sense, I would say if they cost more than 50 dollars they are at least mid range.

You must have either a sound card with 7.1 inputs (front, rear, side, sub, mic) or 7.1 inputs on your motherboard, which many now have. These headphones cannot be used without these inputs as they are physically 7.1 not 2.0 ! If you are not sure what you have you can ask in this thread.

You must have at least 50 posts at the time of entering, if you enter without having 50 posts you will not qualify.

This is not a restriction, but I strongly suggest anybody considering entering for these headphones be an avid FPS gamers, and either have a decent 7.1 soundcard or are planning on getting one. Again, not a restriction just a very logical suggestion, as if you plan on using these to play music or don't want to invest in a 7.1 soundcard you will be shortchanging what this headset is actually made for.

Directions (All of these must be done):

- List your computer specs
- Tell me what games you play/what your favorite games are.
- Post a picture of the cutest cat you can find on the interwebs
- Sit back and relax, you're entered.

I did have a pretty nice headset. Steelseries 5H v2, but about a week ago the left ear went out and now they only work if I tilt my head sideways.

PC Specs:
Intel Q6600 2.4GHz
Nvidia GTX 260
4GB DDR2
EVGA nForce 750i SLI FTW
3 HDD's, 986gb total
Lian Li PC-A05B

I play tons of FPS, lately Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. I also have a giant backlog on Steam. Oh, and EVE Online, but that doesn't have sound

 

[Aikouka]

As you can see, the one important part here is missing: A video card. I had to sell my video card (a Radeon 6950) a few weeks ago for some quick cash to cover emergency AC repairs for the house after the coil popped. We were sweating the the Alabama summer heat with upwards of 100F in the house for about a week while waiting for a new AC coil. Sob story aside, I don't have a spare video card to do the following with:

I usually have components lying around... you should ask next time!

 

[LtMikePowelll]

50$ Steam game

- Tell me what game(s) you would choose if you won. Portal 2 or Heroes Might and Magic VI
- Think hard about your favorite game of all time, what is it ? Battlefield 1942, since it is the first game that I enjoy playing online or even offline with bots (I was only 8 at the time)
- (Optional) post a funny picture of an animal, cat, dog, guinee pig, whatever you want. Because I can't get enough !

PC specs:
Intel i5-2500k 4.5GHz with H70 cooler
Nvidia GTX 560Ti SLI
8GB DDR3
Asus P8P67 Pro
Intel 320 80GB SSD, 1TB HDD
Coolermaster HAF 932

Playing WoT, CS:GO, BF3 for few hours everyday.

 

[lakedude]

Wow! That is some nice stuff to give away!

I'd like the 7850 to match the one I've already got in crossfire but I'm not qualified.

It would be put to use everyday running the BOINC project POEM if that makes any difference...

 

[nsafreak]

Looks like I'll be entering for one of the Steam games since I'm specced above for all of the hardware giveaways. Fine by me, I love gaming .

- What would I buy with $50 on Steam? - That's a tough call really. Currently it wouldn't cover all of it but $50 would pay for most of Borderlands 2. I really enjoyed playing the first Borderlands game and the second one looks really good. I'd also be tempted to purchase a few less expensive games like Counter Strike Global Offensive, Orcs Must Die 2 and Resonance. Even though they're less expensive they're all still great games.

- My favorite game ever? Now there's a really tough call. I have so many favorites across so many genres that it's really difficult for me to pin down just one as my favorite of all time. At this point I would probably have to say Batman: Arkham Asylum. This is the game that made me feel like I was actually playing as Batman. The voice acting, animation, moves, storyline, it was all spot on and so right. Don't get me wrong Arkham City is an awesome game too but a bit of the story telling element seems to have gotten lost in the free roam gamestyle that it employs more than Arkham Asylum did.

 

[Xonoahbin]

First off, I'd like to enter for the video card.

Second, let me explain my current situation: as an undergrad over the past four years, I only used laptops. Now that I'm in a graduate program, I'm buying components to build a new desktop over the next two months. I obviously don't have a desktop currently (and thus can't post pics), but I can outline the parts I intend to use. Keep in mind this is something of a budget/starter build until I have a little more money on hand:

Core i3 2100 3.1 GHz
Intel H61
Crucial DDR3 1333 8 gig
Kingston SSD 128gb
Radeon HD 7770 (this would still even be under your specifications if I bought it, I believe)
Rosewill 500W PSU

I do hope I can enter. Either way, thanks for doing this!

 

[tailes151]

Wow, this is awesome man. Super appreciated. I'd like to enter for the Steam game(s)

- Tell me what game(s) you would choose if you won.
Counter Strike: Global Offensive
Portal 2

- Think hard about your favorite game of all time, what is it ?
Undoubtedly, Counter Strike 1.6, played it probably 3 hours a day every day during all of high school.

- (Optional) post a funny picture of an animal, cat, dog, guinea pig, whatever you want.

 

[disports]

Thanks for the awesome drawing!

I'd like to enter for the video card and my computer's specs are as follows:

Silverstone SG05-BB
Silverstone 450W PSU (ST45SF)
i3-540
Gigabyte H55N-USB3
4GB Corsair Ram
Prolimatech Samuel 17 HSF + Scythe 800 rpm fan
Seagate 500GB Momentus xT
Samsung 2TB HD
No video card

I'm hoping to use the video card for D3 as integrated graphics is terrible :X
Only have front pic of comp as I haven't opened my comp in a while and don't have any saved pics

 

[brianmanahan]

for the 50$ steam game:

- Tell me what game(s) you would choose if you won.
- if i win, i will save it for assassins creed 3 this fall. they might be cheesy and consoley, but i love them. ASSASSINOOOOOO!

- Think hard about your favorite game of all time, what is it ?
- my favorite game of all time is asheron's call, one of the original MMOs. came out in 99 and i started playing in 00. it was new, it was exciting, and the interaction dynamics and camaraderie were unparallelled to this day. i made so many friends and enemies in that game, and i always get all d'aww when i think about it.

- (Optional) post a funny picture of an animal, cat, dog, guinee pig, whatever you want. Because I can't get enough !
- this is pretty much the funniest family photo involving a dog i have ever seen:

 

[KaOTiK]

50$ Steam game(s)


Restrictions: None

Directions (All of these must be done):
- Tell me what game(s) you would choose if you won.
- Think hard about your favorite game of all time, what is it ?
- (Optional) post a funny picture of an animal, cat, dog, guinee pig, whatever you want. Because I can't get enough !
- Relax, you're entered.

The games I would choose are really DLC (hope that is ok)

Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning - Legend of Dead Kel
Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning - Teeth of Naros
If I had to choose a game it would be Wargame European Escalation or Total War Shogun 2 Fall of Samurai

My favorite game of all time is
Hard one here, either Final Fantasy 6 (3 on the SNES) or Command and Conquer Red Alert.
FF because it is simply an amazing RPG with one of the best villians. Red Alert because I can't tell you the number of sleepless nights me and my friend had playing that and the amount of times our parents would yell at us as we would have to reconnect our modems by calling one of our houses in the middle of the name lol.

I love this sequence of pics and the corgi is so damn cute!

Thanks a bunch for doing this, it is extreme generous of you and good luck to everyone.

 

[SSSnail]

I'm using a laptop :sneaky:, do I have to list specs?

In case I do, here it is:
AMD A8-3520M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 1.60GHz (FEAR ME!!!)
6GB DDR3
600GB HDD space - no pron!

Oh right, pic.

I want the Razer Tiamat 7.1 Circumarual Surround Gaming Headset. Why? Because I LOVE CS:S, but I suck at it and fools always be shanking me because I can't hear them coming. With that Razer Tiamat 7.1 Circumarual Surround Gaming Headset, I'm sure I'll hear them coming from all directions and proceed to exterminate them with extreme prejudice.

I'm not a big cat person, so here is a picture that meets the requirement. Woof!

 

[RussianSensation]

For the $50 steam game:

Tell me what game(s) you would choose if you won.
- Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition. I petitioned for the game to come out on the PC because I really enjoy 3rd person action-adventure/RPG games and we don't get many on the PC. I also enjoy challenging games and Dark Souls is a throwback to old school gaming. When you heal near a bonfire (a checkpoint), all the enemies come back to life!! Deciding when and where to rest, then should be huge part of the strategy. Dark Souls also has gigantic bosses that should feel epic to defeat and might even require help from other players online to beat. The game is also a true testament to how single-player campaigns should be (not your 5 hours COD), easily packing 50-60 hours of creative cruelty . I look forward to dying, like all the timeeeeeeee. Most games now have health regeneration, save anywhere and they baby you. Dark Souls is not one of those games. Also, I am hoping that the game will sell well on the PC and the developer gets rewarded for taking the risk of porting it to the PC (even though I am upset the game will likely be stuck at 1024x720 @ 30 fps for the time being). Hopefully more developers will follow suit and not neglect PC gaming development based on this example. Either way, I haven't played a really challenging game like that in a while and it's supposedly one of the hardest and most rewarding experiences for people who like old school style games.

Think hard about your favorite game of all time, what is it?
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Another action-adventure RPG game. It's the first Zelda game I've ever played and still my favourite. I guess it has a special place for me since I played it when I was much younger and the world in that game seemed very large for me at the time. I could have sworn that a single dungeon had more puzzles than all the levels in many other games combined I played before. And that's what OoT feels like to me, a special world that I feel I could even visit. It somehow made me feel like I really was Link and that I wasn't even playing a game at all (of course I was very young when I played it, which probably enhanced the experience). So many puzzles and mini-games in that game that were actually fun and not gimmicky (fishing!). Plus, with the Ocarina flute, you used songs to travel back and forth in time and change day into night to actually solve puzzles! How cool is that? In 1998 it was. At the time and given the age I was when I played it, the whole experience was mind-blowing for me. My dad's 45-year-old friend lost his job at the time and he was staying over our house. When I was in school, he'd play the game and I'd play in the evening and we would discuss our progress and shared out experiences. OoT delayed him applying for jobs for weeks, that's how engrossed he became in the game, a 45-year-old man! Even the camera system and locking in on enemies with the Z button was very revolutionary at the time. Plus, you got to ride a horse across a vast world, filled with dungeons and 80+ hours of gameplay way before Red Dead Redemption was even conceived on a piece of paper. I even got the game as a pre-order so I could get the golden cartridge special edition.

Masterpiece!!!!!!!!

As IGN put it: "If you're making games and you haven't played this game, then you're like a director who has never seen Citizen Kane or a musician who has never heard of Mozart."

(Optional) post a funny picture of an animal, cat, dog, guinee pig, whatever you want. Because I can't get enough !

Come on, faster!

===

Thanks for the contest! I think it's very cool that you are bringing members together and overall doing something like this out of the goodness of your heart. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[chari]

Annisman Hardware Giveaway

Corsair H80 Liquid CPU cooler


Directions (All of these must be done):

- List your PC specs
- Tell me have you ever overclocked your CPU ? Would you do it if you won the cooler ?
- Give me your CPU history (for example mine would be AMD 3700 > AMD 4800 > Intel E6600 > Intel E8400 > Intel Q9650 > Intel i7 920 > Intel i7 3930K.
- Post a funny picture involving 'I can has cheezburger'
- Sit back and relax, you're entered.

1. PC specs:
CPU - socket 1155 i5 2500k @ stock speeds
Mobo - Biostar TZ77b
RAM - 8GB G.Skill
SSD - 240GB Corsair Force GT
PSU - Antec 550 Watt
GPU - Asus GTX 670 TOP
Case - Cooler Master Storm Trooper

2. Tell me have you ever overclocked your CPU ? Would you do it if you won the cooler ?

I have not OC'd this CPU. I have been waiting to purchase an aftermarket cooler for this machine. If I was to win the H80, I would overclock, yes.

3. CPU History

AMD fx60 > Intel E8400 > Intel i5 2500k

4.

Thanks for this awesome contest! I hope to someday be able to do the same.

 

[ShadowVVL]

I am going for the 7850.

I would use this card for gaming, 3d modeling and working in udk.
I usually play starcraft 2

comp

specs
intel q9550
wd 500gb,samsung 320gb
ddr2 800mhz 4gb
xfx 750i sli mobo
corsair 750w psu
evga gtx260 216 core
coolermaster haf 932

sry about the quality.

I figured I might as well throw in the cutest kitty in the world and yes I think he would like a cheese burger.

This is a cool contest,Thanks

 

[Annisman*]

I'm using a laptop :sneaky:, do I have to list specs?

In case I do, here it is:
AMD A8-3520M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 1.60GHz (FEAR ME!!!)
6GB DDR3
600GB HDD space - no pron!

Oh right, pic.

I want the Razer Tiamat 7.1 Circumarual Surround Gaming Headset. Why? Because I LOVE CS:S, but I suck at it and fools always be shanking me because I can't hear them coming. With that Razer Tiamat 7.1 Circumarual Surround Gaming Headset, I'm sure I'll hear them coming from all directions and proceed to exterminate them with extreme prejudice.

I'm not a big cat person, so here is a picture that meets the requirement. Woof!

Does that laptop have 7.1 audio inputs ? If it doesn't it won't even work so please double check.

 

[Annisman*]

First off, I'd like to enter for the video card.

Second, let me explain my current situation: as an undergrad over the past four years, I only used laptops. Now that I'm in a graduate program, I'm buying components to build a new desktop over the next two months. I obviously don't have a desktop currently (and thus can't post pics), but I can outline the parts I intend to use. Keep in mind this is something of a budget/starter build until I have a little more money on hand:

Core i3 2100 3.1 GHz
Intel H61
Crucial DDR3 1333 8 gig
Kingston SSD 128gb
Radeon HD 7770 (this would still even be under your specifications if I bought it, I believe)
Rosewill 500W PSU

I do hope I can enter. Either way, thanks for doing this!

I will enter you, please post a pic of a kitteh in lieu of a pc !

 

[Annisman*]

Great thread, I have no current interest in any of the offered (only currently looking for SSDs), although it make me wonder, if i had entered .. ,

I do not live in the USA, however, I have a USA address in NY, which you can send stuff to, and they forward it to me and handle all the international transfer stuff, would that have been acceptable ?

I'm going to say no, I won't be allowing that sorry. Thanks for stopping in though!

 

[Annisman*]

OK, I'm going to bend the rules a bit here, and if I don't qualify, I understand. I'd like to enter for the 7850 on behalf of my brother in Chicago, who's not a forum user. I just set him up last weekend with a hand-me-down i7-920 rig, but he's still rocking his old HD4830 GPU, the only thing that really needs to be upgraded.

- Here are the computer specs:
i7-920 @ stock
MSI x58 Platinum motherboard
2x3GB RAM
HD4830 graphics card
Intel G2 80GB SSD/Samsung F1 750GB HD
Corsair VX450 PSU
Antec 300 case
Win7x64


- Tell me briefly what you hope to use the card for and what games you play.
I like playing lots of games, but I try to stay connected with my brother, who lives in another city, by playing multiplayer and co-op games with him. Since he doesn't know much about computers, I set him up with a new computer every few years. Just retired the P4-3.0 I gave him many years ago. He also has my old C2D E6600 rig running as a living room computer. We LOVE playing Borderlands, and we also have played a ton of BF2 and a bit of BF3 - he's basically "fodder" for everyone as he usually goes something like 1-12 K/D but still loves the game. Unfortunately, his best gaming rig up until now has been an HP laptop that likes to overheat and freeze when running BF3.

- Sorry, I don't have a picture of his rig, so I'm posting a picture of mine!!!

Thanks for doing this - very nice way to bring the community together.

Entered. Over at Tom's a user won my old 8800GTS 512 (my first ever giveaway) to give to his cousin for his computer, so I don't see why I shouldn't allow this as well. :thumbsup:

 

[SSSnail]

Does that laptop have 7.1 audio inputs ? If it doesn't it won't even work so please double check.

Well, it has HD BeatsAudio, whatever that means. If all fails, I can always feed it through my receiver.

Thanks for asking though.

 

[tivo1]

Nice thread and excellent Idea... Nice way to spread the love man. Props!

I wont be entering this time, as these items would best serve other people..
even though my 2$ ebuds, and old @ss nvidia might win.

 

[Annisman*]

Well, it has HD BeatsAudio, whatever that means. If all fails, I can always feed it through my receiver.

Thanks for asking though.

Well, it is a requirement so I have to ask before entering you.

Here is a picture of the inputs that the headphone cord uses to help clarify things.

http://www.jeffsreviews.com/Images/...mat/cables connections and controller sml.jpg