Hardware to avoid

[Remonster]

Once apon a time i had a Linksys router that was hell bent on driving me crazy (thanks Best Buy).

Power strips instead of surge protectors (ever see the same desktop light up twice in a three week span?).

generic case fans - bought an 80mm that ran at max speed 24/7 before i put it out of my misery.

 

[Giraffe]

some of the stuf i have read here is BS
eg. cheap GPU's arent bad 4 every1. they r made for non-gamers and are perfectly fine 4 those ppl.
I have a FX5200 in 1 of my computers, its the family computer and its perfectly fine in there.

other things:
Brand Computers(HP/Compaq, Dell, Packard Bell, etc.
they r twicew the price the same(or better) computer from a proper Computer store.

I have also had a Maxtor HDD die on me.(the only failed HDD i ever had)

also i have a generic PSU in my pc and its been perfect for 2years now 😛
and i have never had problems with FDD's

not nececeraly Computer related but SE phones with Joysticks

also the plague should be avoided like a Pentium4

 

[Gah]

Hmm. Good thread. Its nice to have other people make the mistakes for me I was just about to get a LiteOn DVD burner for my freind, found this just in time.

The only product I've ever had break easily was Some cheap ass psx look alike usb gamepad from china. Smashed too easily in a fit of pissed-off-ness and NFSU2's Rubberband AI.

I did have an augira PSU die on me, took 150GB of data with it. Probably had something to do with me changing the fan for an LEd one.

Partition magic 8 wiped another 150GB of data. It was pirated though, so i can't complian.

 

[bigsby]

Dell computers.

Well I can't say that they're all bad, I mean they are quiet most of the time, when the case is not buzzing, but with only two fans, including the one in the underpowered PSU, they are mighty quiet. Oh and BTW, it's a 120 mm fan in dell dimension cases, not 82. Maybe in the slim ones but I changed out my stock one for a Silverstone FM121 and I did not have any space problems . Also, there is no possible way to overclock on a Dell, trust me I've tried every single way and the only thing that you can overclock is the seriously craptastic video cards that come with them.

X600 Video card.

Worse POS ever. 32 megs of video ram running at 500mhz effective, the other 192mbs of supposed video memory was just borrowed from the system ram. It could barely run BF2 with all settings turned to low at 800 by 600.

 

[RTsa]

I've (believe it or not) never bought anything I've regretted. Maybe that's because I really do my research before buying. 😛

 

[apache_lives]

SIS
VIA
Elite Group
PCChips
MSI

 

[fainis]

worst damn sound s***..sorry ... sound card ever... :lol:

ALS4000

...damn ..bloody noice generator
it even has strong noice when muted :mrgreen:

 

[DaveUK]

Anything with an Ageia physics processor.

 

[fainis]

Anything with an Ageia physics processor.

why?

i think it`s better if anyone would comment on their opinion...

please give at least same reasons why...should we not buy that product

 

[unbiased4u]

Nvidia GeForce 4 MX 4000 series.

Decieving!!! Actually based on GeForce 2 MX series not GeForce 4 like the Ti series! Total crap Scored 2000 on 3DMark with system in sig (compared to 8000 on Ti4200). The MX scored 3226 on AM3 (total only got 333 for GPU score) and Ti got 15000 on stock (GPU 1881). Don't go near it!

 

[thechristopher]

Onboard RAID.

I'll say it again.

Onboard RAID

OH, has anyone mentioned sony batteries for that flame grilled flavour!!!

 

[branson]

has anyone not had a problem with......

ATI All-in-Wonder Series of any related products

 

[Onus]

Way back in the day, I bought an EGA Wonder. It was great with my Amdek 310A amber monitor. I bought a VGA Wonder too. It was killed in a storm, but a second one to replace it was also good.

 

[mpohl727]

anything that rolls through the Doors @ CyberPower.

-A friend of mine bought a $3800 very high-end PC from there and when we unboxed it...doa...and we had to install the back plates, "Fan Controller" was nothing more than a clock (Fan Headers were connected to MOBO, Temp sensors were all sensing ambient air ), Restore disk did not work, XP Pro License looked as if it came off of a laser printer (no holograms or anything)

Not so impressed with the Saitek Gaming devices

HP Printers are starting to suck (excluding pro series and large format) that ink pricing is pure rape.

 

[kona]

Ultra Brand DDR as well as several generics one being V-data
though I have a bad stick of Mushkin also sitting around somewhere.

ECS motherboards....what a POS these are. Bought one with an N-force2 ultra chipset and the LAN never did work and the usb ports quit altogether not long after that. I would say that that I had an ASUS board with the same chipset that quit me after about 2 years of hard use but it still should not have quit. Sometimes its just luck of the draw but most of the time its just poor quality when parts quit. Haven't figured that out quit yet really.



oh...and avoid overclockcentral .com like the plague....bad business here guys don't go....prices are high anyway.

 

[rupert86]

1. Integrated graphics (Both Intel/VIA/SiS. ATi/nVidia are somewhat better). Most people here buy systems w/ Intel boards, since they're the only ones which comes with 3-years replacement warr., all others including ASUS & MSI distributors only give 1 yr (the cheapo ones which don't have AGP or PCI-E slot) for their kids and then come to pounce on our necks when any game they'd run would crash back to the desktop w/o any message.

2. Cheapo PC-Chips/ECS/Asrock boards. Usually they're designs are so inefficient they'll start POSTing at least 10 seconds after you hit the power button. (This isn't a problem during normal service, but you see we assemble PCs for people and its a real pain to wait everytime during those 1001 restarts windows makes you go through). Examples are PC-Chips M761LMRT and Asrock K7VM3.

 

[bigbadjohnnyb]

Hmm. Good thread. Its nice to have other people make the mistakes for me I was just about to get a LiteOn DVD burner for my freind, found this just in time.
/quote]

Dude, Lite-Ons are just fine. Sure, there's some that go bad - what PC component made today doesn't have a bad run? I mean you can't expect every single piece made to be 100% perfect and last 10 years.

I personally always use Samsung and Lite-on, prefer Liteon most of the time, but usually pick based on price.

 

[bigbadjohnnyb]

Ugh... I should learn to quote...

 

[jaguarskx]

I personally dont like IBM drives because they I've had problems with them and the rear connections are flimsy.

Of all my hard drives I actually like my IBM Deskstar 75GXP 60GB from 2000 the most. It is rock solid even after 6 years. I'm kinda reluctant to replace it, but I probably should.

 

[jaguarskx]

has anyone not had a problem with......

ATI All-in-Wonder Series of any related products

I had a problem once, but uninstalling and reinstalling MMC 9.08 fixed it.

 

[Cabletwitch]

Whyso, Dave? You got one? Do tell, so we can either laugh at you for buying one, or congratulate you for at least being at the cutting edge of hardware releases... 😀

As far as hardware to avoid... I'm surprised no-one has yet mentioned Freecomm... they made CD drives that didnt, External hard drive cases that wouldnt, and PCMCIA interfaces that should.

There IS an odd note though... the ONLY Freecomm drive I ever had work on me was a recovered CD burner that was found in 3 inches of rainwater in the bottom of a skip. Go figure... :roll:

I had a maxtor drive from a certain batch that apparently kept blowing motor controllers. Blew the casing of one of the chips, and required a second drive of the same era to ressurect it after about 5 years of sititng on a shelf. Hooray for homebrew transplants (Controller board, not platters, fools).

Someone mentioned Sony CD Burners... yay for 52x drives that failed 2 weeks after purchase. We had around 85% return on those things when we sold em at Software Warehouse. Happy days.

And finally... not that many peple use them these days, but one piece of hardware I would steer clear of anyway is the old WinModem. Dire performance, evil reliability, and crappy design. The only saving grace was that when it came back for a refund, all we had to give out was a ten pound note. Joy of joys.

 

[TSIMonster]

To OP:

I may have missed this, but everyone, NEVER EVER buy a stinkin prescott based laptop! or a prescott at all. I was nieve and bought one.... I have to say, this really burnt me on intel bad!! I do, however, love the Pentium M chips (specifically Dothan which I have a few of)


PLEASE, no one buy a prescott, or any Netburst based CPU

 

[sumigo]

This whole topic should be locked its mostly opinions and not fact.

I and many friends and family have used and loved and had no problem with the following:

Saitek Keyboards

ABIT Mobo's (on the other hand seen many ASUS and DFI's go poof into smoke)

Maxtor hard drives.

So anyone who reads this far needs to take much of this with a grain of salt.

I know I have.

 

[TSIMonster]

agreed, but you have to remember, once someone has a bad experience, its easy to put a blanket on the brand as a whole. As I initially did with intel after my prescott experience. Personally I love my ECS MOBO, and my Maxtor drive is flawless so far.

 

[Dumbguy]

Cyberhome dvd burners. Best Buy used to sell them before moving to Dynex. You get what you pay for. Doesn't work with Nero or Roxio.

Hey, I'll make you a good deal on a burner...