AnandTech's 27-year archive has vanished, but someone uploaded a 74 GB backup

[Daniel Sims]

Cutting corners: After AnandTech shut down, it was understood that the site's publisher would keep its valuable archives online indefinitely. Now, it turns out that for Future PLC, "indefinitely" only meant a little over 11 months. Anyone concerned about preserving the site should consider backing up alternative archives as soon as possible.

Readers recently discovered that navigating to AnandTech.com now automatically redirects to the site's forums, with articles no longer accessible. Although other sources have preserved the content, the removal of the main site marks a definitive end to a valuable early pillar of tech journalism online.

The thousands of articles from AnandTech's 27-year history are still accessible through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, but they are no longer properly indexed. Specific pages are now much harder to find unless readers remember the exact URL.

Creating article feedback threads (as TechSpot does) would have at least preserved URLs and excerpts within the forums. Their absence on AnandTech will make retrieving articles even more difficult. Fortunately, a complete unofficial 74 GB archive is available for download, and users are attempting to clone the site at archive.anandtech.com.

From 1997 to 2024, AnandTech covered the tech industry for nearly three decades. Its articles contain valuable analysis on the history of hardware and software development. Since much of the content published by this respected outlet is found almost nowhere else, its archive remains one of the most valuable resources for tech research. The removal of the main site likely just wiped out a significant number of Wikipedia citations.

Other defunct tech outlets that were completely taken offline include All Things Digital, its successor Recode, and HardOCP.

HardOCP's articles remain traceable through article feedback threads and the Internet Archive. Meanwhile, although Bit-Tech ceased publishing new content in 2021, its full archive remains online.

Game Informer was likely one of the most well-known gaming outlets to be taken offline recently. After a 33-year run that made it the longest-running US gaming magazine, Game Informer shut down around the same time as AnandTech, and its archive was initially deleted. However, in March of this year, Gunzilla Games acquired the outlet with its entire team intact and restored all of its articles.

Sadly, such a revival is unlikely for AnandTech. Preserving the history of one of tech journalism's most trusted sources now falls to independent readers.

Permalink to story:

AnandTech's 27-year archive has vanished, but someone uploaded a 74 GB backup

 

[Theinsanegamer]

This is why the cloud should never be your primary backup, folks. Anything online can be snapped out of existence for any reason at all. Thankfully someone backed up that 74GB archive.

The slow death of Anandtech was really sad to watch. Even the site's writers were in absolute denial. Ryan Smith's house burned down and despite many promises no GPU reviews would ever surface again from anand, just a hose of excuses and terse responses. That signaled to me the site was doomed, GPU reviews were their bread and butter, you dont just stop doing them. Nobody could get some kind of new setup going for such an important part of the site?

It's incredible how this mirrored EVGA's downfall, similarly believing they could ditch 70%+ of their revenue and somehow be perfectly fine.

 

[dznmdrwutmynamiz]

The death and disappearance of so many major tech sites from that era is distressing in its own right, but the way in which any trace of their existence can be snuffed out is truly disturbing. At least defunct publications of the past linger on in library microfilm/microfiche, or once did... who knows anymore... probably all converted to PDFs and crammed into some lowest-bidder cloud provider that then lost them to ransomware.

I really do wonder what would be left anymore in the event of a large scale EM disturbance.

 

[seeprime]

74GB is not that much these days. I can't imagine why another tech site, with a small investment couldn't self host the entirety of it. The testing data alone in invaluable and should be of interest in the future. It'll all fit on a micro SD card.

 

[ZedRM]

Um, Daniel, GameInformer is back under new ownership, and it's a great comeback!
https://gameinformer.com/letter-from-the-editor/2025/03/25/game-informer-is-back

It's sad about Anandtech. A great resource lost.

 

[GeoffreyA]

For those of us whose "home" was Anandtech, it was a grievous blow last August. We had been reading the site for years and nothing matched its technical detail, except for some older sites that had shut down too (such as X-bit Labs). Though everything seemed all right at the time, it was when Anand left in 2014 that the site was set on a course that would lead to its closure. Understandably, the man was tired of tech journalism and started a brand-new career at Apple, his dream job, but the site's slow demise began when he left, I think selling it, and then Purch and Future tore it to pieces.

Ian carried on the CPU mantle well, which was AT's heart; unfortunately, all the connections he made with the AT name went with him when he left in search of greener pastures.

One has much respect for Ryan and those (Gavin, E. Fylladitakis, and Anton) who carried the site to the end as well as those who came before; their calibre was unmatched. From Anand's leaving to 2024, Ryan conducted himself and the site with decorum; he was a model of humility and class. It is sad that, towards the end, when they needed the support, if only kind words to cheer, many a reader kicked them further down, lashing out in the comments with entitlement and uncharitable criticism. It reveals a truth about life: "When days are dark, friends are few." When you're at top, people will applaud and fawn.

It's ironic how AT was shut down by a dim-witted bum of a publisher, but scores of threadbare sites and YouTube channels continue to have success and rake in the dollars. AT's cardinal mistake was, perhaps, not making videos. The public wants entertainment. Now, Future has the audacity to take down the archive, after closing AT a year ago.

 

[Axeia]

It's ironic how AT was shut down by a dim-witted bum of a publisher, but scores of threadbare sites and YouTube channels continue to have success and rake in the dollars. AT's cardinal mistake was, perhaps, not making videos. The public wants entertainment. Now, Future has the audacity to take down the archive, after closing AT a year ago.

It does seem to be the change in consumer that is the main reason of the downfall of such sites. Seems like the majority of people don't want hard data to come to a conclusion anymore, they want some TikTokker that's sponsored and has never been critical to confirm their own bias.
There used to be a Dutch site (hardware.info) that did massive comparisons and in depth tests and articles as well (and a surprisingly good price comparison tool) that went the same way as anandtech. Initially bought out by a media group with the promise of not changing, then after a while they just moved some of the people to their other Dutch tech site (tweakers.net) but that has not really resulted in that site increasing in quality or an increased output.

Such a shame to see sites like that go. I thought Linus Media Group might fill the void somewhat with 'labs' just pumping out data. But I bet all it'll be good for now if they even get it running as intended... Is getting the data used for LLMs. Apparently us readers that want articles filled with data and facts are a dieing breed.

 

[Hysc84]

Man, why isnt Anand himself doing something to this ?

 

[NumberNine]

Ah yes, the lifespan of an internet promise from a stranger.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Remember kids, if you don’t support your favorite websites financially they will go away.

If you can’t or won’t pay, at least turn off your ad blocker for sites you like (although AI is well on its way to kill advertising on the web).

 

[MaestroIT]

74GB is not that much these days. I can't imagine why another tech site, with a small investment couldn't self host the entirety of it. The testing data alone in invaluable and should be of interest in the future. It'll all fit on a micro SD card.

This is how it works now, a company that earns billions per year will try to save a couple of bucks here and there to increase revenues for the year after. Greed...

 

[airbornex]

It’s wild how we used to think losing a GPU benchmark from 2002 was trivial, but now it’s part of the historical record we’ll never get back. AnandTech wasn’t just reviews—it was a time capsule for the entire PC industry. Thankfully we still got TechSpot and HUB to fill some of that void. Not a ton of true tech enthusiast websites like this anymore.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Man, why isnt Anand himself doing something to this ?

Because Anand moved on from the site eons ago. It's not like he still owns the rights or anything.

Remember kids, if you don’t support your favorite websites financially they will go away.

If you can’t or won’t pay, at least turn off your ad blocker for sites you like (although AI is well on its way to kill advertising on the web).

Anandtech was owned by a big media company. Sorry if I dont feel like filling their pockets. It's not like they were TechPowerUp, which is still owned and managed by W1zzard and manages their own ads. (also, TechSpot uses future PLC for their advertisements, and it's just as toxic and unusable as Tomshardware or anandtech were getting. Using an adblocker is like wearing a condom for your PC these days).

These sites also need to maintain the content their userbase wants. When Anand dropped GPU reviews to focus on mobile, they lost a lot of their core userbase. They lost their in depth writeups about CPU architecture and their better writers went freelance or joined other companies. We also cannot forget how outdated the comment section had become, something straight out of the early 2000s, and was chock full of bots and spam. This was a frequent complaint the site administrators just....ignored. It didnt even have the ability to quote FFS.

For those of us whose "home" was Anandtech, it was a grievous blow last August. We had been reading the site for years and nothing matched its technical detail, except for some older sites that had shut down too (such as X-bit Labs). Though everything seemed all right at the time, it was when Anand left in 2014 that the site was set on a course that would lead to its closure. Understandably, the man was tired of tech journalism and started a brand-new career at Apple, his dream job, but the site's slow demise began when he left, I think selling it, and then Purch and Future tore it to pieces.

Ian carried on the CPU mantle well, which was AT's heart; unfortunately, all the connections he made with the AT name went with him when he left in search of greener pastures.

One has much respect for Ryan and those (Gavin, E. Fylladitakis, and Anton) who carried the site to the end as well as those who came before; their calibre was unmatched. From Anand's leaving to 2024, Ryan conducted himself and the site with decorum; he was a model of humility and class. It is sad that, towards the end, when they needed the support, if only kind words to cheer, many a reader kicked them further down, lashing out in the comments with entitlement and uncharitable criticism. It reveals a truth about life: "When days are dark, friends are few." When you're at top, people will applaud and fawn.

It's ironic how AT was shut down by a dim-witted bum of a publisher, but scores of threadbare sites and YouTube channels continue to have success and rake in the dollars. AT's cardinal mistake was, perhaps, not making videos. The public wants entertainment. Now, Future has the audacity to take down the archive, after closing AT a year ago.

Ryan asked for support without giving the readers what they wanted, and the readers told him off. That criticism is entirely warranted, especially after nearly half a decade of gaslighting when GPU reviews would return and the continuous decline in the quality of the writing in the sites last 4 years. From frequent spelling mistakes to incorrect statements, the quality of Ryan, Gavin, ece's work was declining to a level expected of The Verge or Toms Hardware, not Anandtech.

When the quality and quantity of your work declines and you cry about criticism, you condemn whatever work you may put out in the future. The staunch refusal to give the readers the content they craved sealed the deal, and sent Anandtech into an unrecoverable death spiral.

 

[GeoffreyA]

It does seem to be the change in consumer that is the main reason of the downfall of such sites. Seems like the majority of people don't want hard data to come to a conclusion anymore, they want some TikTokker that's sponsored and has never been critical to confirm their own bias.
There used to be a Dutch site (hardware.info) that did massive comparisons and in depth tests and articles as well (and a surprisingly good price comparison tool) that went the same way as anandtech. Initially bought out by a media group with the promise of not changing, then after a while they just moved some of the people to their other Dutch tech site (tweakers.net) but that has not really resulted in that site increasing in quality or an increased output.

Such a shame to see sites like that go. I thought Linus Media Group might fill the void somewhat with 'labs' just pumping out data. But I bet all it'll be good for now if they even get it running as intended... Is getting the data used for LLMs. Apparently us readers that want articles filled with data and facts are a dieing breed.

It is sad to see sites like these go down. They had such detail and rigorous testing. Apart from Anandtech, I was fond of X-bit. Today, it's mainly TPU and, perhaps, Guru3D and Igor's Lab carrying on the technical tradition. Chips and Cheese's brilliant CPU analyses, too, beat Anandtech and everyone else. Koroush Gazi's TweakGuides will also be missed.

As you point out, the world has changed, and many go first to a video for the answer. It's not even that some aren't rigorous, but the desire of viewers to get a ready-made answer. Reading is becoming harder.

Ryan asked for support without giving the readers what they wanted, and the readers told him off. That criticism is entirely warranted, especially after nearly half a decade of gaslighting when GPU reviews would return and the continuous decline in the quality of the writing in the sites last 4 years. From frequent spelling mistakes to incorrect statements, the quality of Ryan, Gavin, ece's work was declining to a level expected of The Verge or Toms Hardware, not Anandtech.

When the quality and quantity of your work declines and you cry about criticism, you condemn whatever work you may put out in the future. The staunch refusal to give the readers the content they craved sealed the deal, and sent Anandtech into an unrecoverable death spiral.

I agree that Ryan should have been transparent about the GPUs, and that the quality of writing and copy-editing declined considerably. Still, I take off my hat to the final class. If Anand had stayed, perhaps things would have gone differently, but he got sucked into the world of Apple and sold the site, the fatal mistake.

 

[Hotlynx16]

Sad, 27 years, I read them when I built my first computer 27 years ago! It was a AMD Socke7 500mhz with a 80gb hard drive and a voodoo graphics card!

 

[RudyBob]

I'm a little surprised at the angst felt here. How many times have you read " aging" describing tech. Eleven months is aged. Who actually still goes there to read old stuff? Not me. I feel no nostalgia for old tech sites except for a guy called Zanshin who got foxed.

 

[kinetix]

Anadtech's in-depth technical reviews of CPUs, GPUs, and mobile devices were the best on the web. But first the mobile device reviews disappeared, then the GPU reviews. I don't know how the CPU reviews survived even longer once the specialist in charge left.
I still have the pages of a few of their important, historic reviews saved.

 

[BadThad]

Anandtech died when Anand sold out.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Anandtech was owned by a big media company. Sorry if I dont feel like filling their pockets. It's not like they were TechPowerUp, which is still owned and managed by W1zzard and manages their own ads. (also, TechSpot uses future PLC for their advertisements, and it's just as toxic and unusable as Tomshardware or anandtech were getting. Using an adblocker is like wearing a condom for your PC these days).

It doesn't matter if a big or small company owns the website, if it can't pay it's bills it will go away.

Ads have gotten worse because of Google taking most of the profits for themselves and more people using ad blockers which is why more sites are going for user support or paywalls. AI will make this much worse. Ad supported will soon be an unworkable business model. Which means the web is going to soon be a few giant companies and people doing it for free in their spare time and AI chatbots for everything else.

These sites also need to maintain the content their userbase wants. When Anand dropped GPU reviews to focus on mobile, they lost a lot of their core userbase. They lost their in depth writeups about CPU architecture and their better writers went freelance or joined other companies. We also cannot forget how outdated the comment section had become, something straight out of the early 2000s, and was chock full of bots and spam. This was a frequent complaint the site administrators just....ignored. It didnt even have the ability to quote FFS.

Again, you should support the site if you like the content. Obviously, you shouldn't if you don't. Companies that don't make their users happy adapt or go out of business.

 

[JohnRambo4]

I don't mind banner ads. I can't stand HD video ads eating all my data and pop ups covering the entire screen with a tiny hidden X button that might not even work.

 

[PoweredByJenga]

Can someone please have a look at the download server.. the last 3 files give me "500 Internal Server Error". This is the archive 13, meta and json files.