Got the Radeon 5850 I won here at TechSpot

[ET3D]

It sat for almost three weeks at the post office, due to some unfortunate circumstances, but I finally have it. Pictures in the gallery here and here.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Awesome. Have you tossed it in a system yet?

 

[ET3D]

I tried just now, and found that the card is too long. I will have to remove a disk to have it fit. Which is okay. Of my three disks, two (80GB, 250GB) were carried from my previous system, and I already bought a while ago a 500GB disk to replace them, but haven't gotten around to move the data, so this is the perfect incentive to finally put that new disk to use. So it'd take a while to do this transition, but in the end I'll have more disk space with fewer physical disks and a new graphics card. Will let you know when I get it working.

 

[Julio Franco]

It's probably time we give away some more stuff

 

[ET3D]

Yes, definitely. I need a new case and PSU to go with that 5850.

Besides, you promised one more competition last year, but that never happened.

Thanks a lot for the card.

 

[ET3D]

Just an update, I did get the disks copied, and now have just two 500GB disks in the PC, so there should be room enough for the 5850. However, while doing that, I had a painful reminder that I need to get the PSU fixed, as I accidentally turned its turbo mode off and when I got back to the room two hours later it was full with the scent of burning plastic. I really need to get that fixed.

 

[Godhand456]

grats i never win anything lol

 

[ET3D]

Thanks for posting. Reminded me that I need to update that I finally got my PSU replaced and got the 5850 installed. Hard to get the disk cage out now.

Anyway, Godhand456, keep participating in contests, do your best to increase your chances according to the competition rules, and I'm sure you'll eventually win. Maybe not everyone wins, but I saw enough people post "I never won anything until now" and maybe one day it will be you.

 

[mailpup]

Easy for you to say. Congrats anyway!

 

[ET3D]

You're right that it's easy for me to say, but it's also true. Tech sites give hundreds of prizes each year. Many are limited to the US (or some other territory) but many aren't (luckily for me). The chances of winning in such a competition typically range from 1:20 (sometimes even better) to 1:2000. Winning might depend on pure luck or on other things (number of posts, creativity or any number of things), which would mean you can increase your chances with a little work.

I follow a lot of tech sites, and was lucky enough to win here. And TechSpot got what it wanted, which was another follower. There were many other competitions I participated in but didn't win (and some that I did in the past). In any case, odds are good. The chances of winning exactly what you want aren't great, but the chances of winning something are pretty good if you keep at it.

Just as an example, Overclockers Club is currently running a remembrance competition for a member who has passed away, and there are lots of prizes there (but only for veteran enough members). It's very sad and I don't feel all that good linking this competition to this post, but it's the first example that came to my mind, and it provides an example of the number of prizes you can get in some competitions. Here's the link. Bjorn3D has a folding competition to win a GeForce GTX 480 and is reporting on a Gigabyte Facebook contest to win some Gigabyte mice. Ars Technica is giving away an Asus Eee 1201N netbook and some games. I'm sure there are other competitions running at this point in time. (I'm not entered into any of these, BTW.)