Question What piece of computer gear did you buy but later regretted?

[SHaines]

I suspect many of us have had the experience of being sucked in by advertising, only to regret the decision immediately. It's not so bad when the investment is low, but sometimes people make really big purchases that proved disastrous.

What component, or piece of computer gear did you buy that you later regretted?

My biggest regret purchase doesn't really work in this context since it was the Intellivision 2 back in the early 80s. I also didn't purchase it, I just pushed my parents to purchase it, which they did, but we were broke, so when choosing between food or the Intellivision 2, I made the wrong call.

However, my next purchase was of a magnetic tape backup storage for my Commodore 64 that I bought off a neighbor who was moving out of the neighborhood. I learned at an early age not to take it on faith that technology for sale is still functional.

Anyhow, hit us with your stories!

 

[woahwoahwilly]

Buying an AMD Athlon 200GE just before the Ryzen 5 3400G released. Now I'm going to do the smart thing and grab a Ryzen 7 4700G when it comes out instead of instantly grabbing a 3400G just for Renoir desktop to come out a month or two later.

 

[jkthomsen9]

A Fractal Design Define 7 case from Newegg. It is a beautiful case but absolutely HUGE. Cast me $60.00 to return to get the Meshify C.

 

[TokyoSushiLlama]

I7 7740X... The whole X299 stuff 😐

 

[Cheese Dripper]

Damn, I haven't really bought anything that I "regretted". On the 31st of December I popped into my local PBtech to buy an RX 570, 2x4gb G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 and a...Cooler Master Thermal Master 500 Watt????. Being 14 with a small budget I didn't have a whole lot of money left to spend on the power supply (even if there was a better one for $20 more) and you may have guessed why i'm talking about the power supply... cause it blew after 3 days. Didn't bother returning it cause I lost the receipt and was bought another one (550w 80+ Gold) by my parents.

 

[USAFRet]

Damn, I haven't really bought anything that I "regretted".
....
Being 14 with a small budget

Not trying to be funny, but you're not yet old enough to have "regrets'.

I have in use components older than you...😉

/I'm JOKING
//sort of

 

[MadsModsat]

I only remember one thing I really regretted, a graphics card.

I had an Nvidia GeForce TI 4200 graphics card, which I had been very satisfied with, but I wanted to upgrade my GPU.

I went to a store and asked for a TI 4600, not knowing at the time, how quickly new graphics cards entered the market, so obviously the TI 4600 was outdated and no longer available.

I was recommended to buy an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, but I was unfamiliar with ATI GPUs at the time, so for the same price as the 9600 Pro, I ended up with an Nvidia FX5200 (thinking it would be similar to a TI 4200, only new, but I obviously knew nothing back then).

The FX 5200 was very entry-level, more suitable for office work than gaming, if I remember correctly, and I had a terrible experience with the new GPU.

Not very long after this, I bought an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro instead, which I was very satisfied with.

I never went ahead and purchased any kind of PC hardware since then, without making sure I was updated about new hardfware componets and felt I had enough knowledge to make good purchase.


But other than that, I've bought tonnes of stuff I probably should regret buying, but I actually don't. I love trying new PC-hardware-gadgets, things that are marketed as very useful, almost somthing you can't live without, but obviously is just a gimmick... -I like to see if there's something useful about it, just one little detail perhaps.

The most recent "gadget" is a GPU brace to prevent GPU sagging. My GPU wasn't really sagging, maybe just a tiny bit, but it was nowhere near any kind of problem, but I wanted to see if a GPU support brace could possibly be useful, or if it was actually as gimmicky as I thought it would be.

While it does work, it certainly isn't neccessary... -but now I at least have personal experience with it, and to my surprise, the brace doesn't bend, making everything look assymetrical, like I thought it would.

Sometimes, the weird hardware "gadgets" I buy out of interest, suddenly becomes useful years later... -it has happened on a few ocations (I never throw away anything PC hardware-related).

 

[Flayed]

On a couple of occasions the things I've most regretted buying were bottles of vodka lol

 

[Phaaze88]

On a couple of occasions the things I've most regretted buying were bottles of vodka lol

For crying out loud, the subject is about computer gear, not the biocide/coolant for your custom loop!

 

[Devrn]

My current biggest regret for hardware is my current laptop. I got it on sale for a lot off, and figured it would be worth it. I have had the same problem since i've purchased the laptop, not returning it because i was thinking eh its probably a software issue that i can fix, and because there were no replacements this was the only way i could get something this good for this price. I still have unresolved frame drop issues and it makes me sad that i spent so much money only to have something that doesnt work correctly.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Cooler Master Thermal Master 500 Watt...
...it blew after 3 days.

Good ole Cooler Master. Really wish they would stop selling so much garbage.

One thing i regret on my 1st build was how much time i spent filing for rma multiple psus.

I couldn't get the system to do anything when i pressed the button. Borrowed my brothers 600w evga psu and it worked, so natrualy i assumed my cx550m was doa. Got a replacement, same thing. Got another replacement and still couldnt get it to work.

Eventually with some help i narrowed it back to a faulty molex to fan adapter that came with my nzxt s340. When I used the evga i didnt plug in the adapter which is why it worked. Corsair just tripped protections to prevent damage.

Not really a part i regretted buying, but a part i regretted getting a replacment for.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I somewhat regret buying my nzxt s340. Case looks decent, airflow is good enough, and it is well built.

However, the issue i have is the acrylic window.

Even with normal usage the acylic window gets scratched up. My window looks horrible due to the massive number of scratches.

I have used cases with tempered glass and it simply doesn't scratch nearly that easily.

I do not think i will ever buy a case for myself that has an acrylic window again, and I regret buying one with an acrylic window to begin with.

For a flip pc ill use acrylic windows since i dont have to deal with then and it looks just as good in photos.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

I somewhat regret buying my nzxt s340. Case looks decent, airflow is good enough, and it is well built.

However, the issue i have is the acrylic window.

Even with normal usage the acylic window gets scratched up. My window looks horrible due to the massive number of scratches.

I have used cases with tempered glass and it simply doesn't scratch nearly that easily.

I do not think i will ever buy a case for myself that has an acrylic window again, and I regret buying one with an acrylic window to begin with.

For a flip pc ill use acrylic windows since i dont have to deal with then and it looks just as good in photos.

if you want really nice cases, look at Lian Li cases. I like the aluminum cases best.

i like this one
https://www.lian-li.com/o11-dynamic-pcmr-edition/

i have not really regretted anything. I used everything I bought for long time until they broke. I don't impulse-buy pc components. I research based on what I want and use PCPartpicker.com

 

[rjdewilde47]

Got an inexpensive Geforce 1050 ll off ebay... Turned out to be counterfeit... Got my money back,
but lost the sound on my Sabertooth 990fx somehow.

 

[sgsharkie]

Sega Megadrive 32X.

Got it second-hand, managed to play Doom for about 20 minutes, then it broke, never to be used again.

 

[MJS WARLORD]

Over the years i have got my fingers burn with all manner of pc extras.

Zx 81 ram pack wobble and bounce on screen 5 times to enter line.
Zx printer with metalic paper .... i am sure i got high on the fumes lol.

My first attempt to buy a pc was from time computers in 2002 i was "offered" a word package as i said i would only use that in an offices suite. The next day the doors were locked , no pc and no money.

I went for a packard bell , flat screen monitors had only just hit the market , it cost more than the pc , and due to a chip conflict their own scanners would not work on their own pc's

A graphics tablet that drew lines so think on screen that it was a joke

A competition prize .... a wireless keyboard that had to be charged by sitting it in the sun to charge its cells.

A web cam that was about as much use as a headache.

Finally a usb microscope that would not stop taking photos until the software crashed

For the last 10 years the only items i have own are new pc's , monitors and printers.

MY BEST BUYS ....
A device called a multiface , it had a magic spectrum copying button , load game past the code then copy , yes it was wrong but back in the day we all did it.
logitech 2.1 speakers.... now 17 years old and still going strong and a Logitec g 5 mouse about 10 years old , weights in base and suits me fine.

 

[Petya195]

Cheap and low-quality peripheries.
They kept breaking and malfunctioning after a few weeks.

 

[mikejboss]

I have drawers full of keyboards, mice, numeric pads, and all the adapters anyone would need to connect any one of them to anything digital. Oh yeah, a lot of Bluetooth adapters and dongles too. for the same purpose.

Most of the individual items were inexpensive. Relatively speaking. All of the pointing devices are one kind of Logitech or another so in that sense, they did cost way more than they should have. I guess. It's hard to tell what a fair price is when Logitech is a sort of monopoly. They aren't really but when you start looking for such devices that are able to support multiple devices and where keyboard and mouse work together - there aren't many choices.

Here's a question that's been bouncing around my brain for the longest time. Does anyone have a good answer to this: I own 2 smartphones and a number of tablets, 2 desktops and one laptop. And a Raspberry Pi. I've love to be able to use a single keyboard and mouse for them all. The only way I've found that gets close is through software: the version of Synergy just prior to it being bought, tweaked and released with a price tag.

The software solution just doesn't get it for me tho. My question is:

Why is it that nobody sells an input device that can support over 3 devices? What the hell is so special about 3 devices? It has always been either 1 device or 3. Never 2 and never more than 3!!!

 

[Flayed]

My first attempt to buy a pc was from time computers in 2002 i was "offered" a word package as i said i would only use that in an offices suite. The next day the doors were locked , no pc and no money.

I used to work for time computers on their tech support line, sorry you lost your money (I lost my job at the same time). Their computers were steaming piles of junk though, they got the hard disk drives on the cheap, ones that failed some part of QA but still sort of worked. Most of my job was telling customers their HDD had failed lol

 

[auzzle]

I don't really regret any but the most useless purchase I made was a a coax in pci card. I planned on using it to record tv but never could end up getting it to work.

 

[johnsoner13]

i5 6500 and a Z170 mobo (finally just sold them)

 

[CountMike]

I had an Intel CPU once.

 

[personwithlegs]

my entire pc
i paid £400 for a pc that didnt run very well. it has mostly got parts from 2012 and is worth around 300 :/

 

[Taniki]

I bought a second hand xbox 360 only to find out it was chipped after it arrived and lasted all of a week before it red ring of death'ed.

I bought a BenQ monitor which had a pixel that shines blue no matter what but of course it doesn't fulfill the failure rate for warranty being classed as 1 dead pixel.

For some strange reason as a kid I wanted a personal organiser which I used for 3 minutes and never touched again

Got an N64 long after they came out and were almost a dead thing. I got my 50 quids worth out of it though. Golden Eye and Mario Kart got a beasting.

Bought a new system and didn't realise my monitor wouldn't work on it so had to buy a new monitor. Meaning days without a pc at the time.

I'm generally unlucky haha I even ordered alot of parts for someone to help them with a build and Ebuyer sent 2x mid range instead of 1x low range graphics cards. It never swings my way.

 

[Jesse_E]

a athlon x4 750k back in 2014, turned out when I had to upgrade I had to upgrade EVERYTHING

 

[CmdrPaws]

Easy... every item I've ever purchased by Logitech has been a total waste of money:

• My first purchase was a 5:1 surround sound system (might have been the X530): poor sound quality, hummed annoyingly when not in use but connected to mains power, amplified all mains power electrical interferences (like when the refrigerator stops/starts, or if a light switch was toggled), the volume control on the master speaker was stiff (two hands required to avoid tipping the speaker over sideways) and the weight of ALL(!!!) the cables sticking out the back of it made it unstable and easy to tip backwards with just a nudge.
• G600 gaming mouse: a really heavy mouse, all the buttons were horrible by either feeling really cheap & flimsy LB & RB, scroll wheel made an awful clack-clack-clack noise when scrolling, keypad buttons on the side were really tough to press and were uncomfortable to touch due to sharp edges.
• G13 game pad: the buttons, omg, the buttons! All of them were just terrible!

So yeah, not been very successful with Logitech and have vowed never to get caught out again by them and will never buy that brand in future!