Never quite (completely) happy with my PC purchases...

[tential]

Don't forget that you want it to only consume as much power as an ARM processor found in iPhones.

Already had to dial the example back a bit. But the thing is the OP already knows why he's never satisfied with his purchase.
He doesn't know what he wants. He's purchasing things just because he LIKES new hardware. He buys a PAIR of laptops sometimes. He probably has more PC hardware purchased this year than I've purchased in my lifetime. It's just his hobby. The thing is he doesn't have the selfawareness to realize that's why he's purchasing things.

Other users are capable of realizing this (GPU forum has users who purchase GPUs just to try new GPUs and see firsthand how they perform).

Personally, I won't purchase something without a specific task to complete (HTPC usage, Gaming, Torrenting, Storage, Video Encoding, etc.), and if it won't fit that task ideally, I would never purchase it.

 

[MongGrel]

Let me ask this:
Do you own a smartphone?

I do not myself.

I use one of my wives old hand me downs.

It's not bad, but I care less about being linked to a mobile device myself the vast majority of the time outside of the house and paying big bucks to use it.

I have other computers for whatever.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Just had to throw in my two-cents on this.

This is a variation on several threads Larry has started or given contributions. He is . . . one of us. He is . . . typical of us. I think his dilemma is my dilemma.

I've become more wary of jumping on the next best thing. So, I wait -- I watch. Some folks are more eager. It seems "parasitic," but they are, in essence, my guinea-pigs.

Usually, the "next best thing" foresees a major hardware outlay. I set up a spreadsheet, read reviews (and forum posts), scour the resellers over months, change the hardware options. I either save part or all of the money up front, or use my "Preferred Account." And I'm always a bit fearful that the hopes I had for the project fall short of expectations.

That's the "front-end" part of the experience. The "back end" occurs when you'd built a really nice system. Even if it took you a while to achieve "niceness," there is this . . . . temptation . . . to replicate it for any number of reasons. At this point, you're looking for older hardware that appears on reseller sites as "out of stock."

Once you'd paid out something, say, for a processor, you are now engaged with the project. You start looking at Amazon, Ebay, etc.

What's worse? You get a great deal on a 1-year-old used "bundle" -- motherboard, RAM, processor. In my case, I only wanted the motherboard, but it was . . . "SOCH A GOOD DEE-UULLL!!" And? Putting my own processor into a pristine Sabertooth motherboard, my hand slipped and I crushed a socket pin. Then -- I tried to repair it, and I broke it!!

The story ends on a positive note. The seller of the bundle included his Windows 7 Ultimate OEM license -- knitted to the motherboard. I was able to reactivate it -- saving maybe $120 on "the project." The value of the processor and RAM in the bundle shows in current retail prices -- $400. But I'd only spent $300. I found a better motherboard for $85. Bought a spare for less to use with the spare processor for another family member.

ASUS told me the Sabertooth board required a complete board replacement -- $185. But with 12-phase power design, why spend money to repair a board with only 10?

But then -- I could've spent the money on a Haswell, Z97 board -- and I was actually planning to build an E system next year.

We're all obsessive about this stuff. We're nitpickers. A lot of people just go out an buy a Dell with the service agreement. We not only want reliability, but we want performance. And we keep finding ways to make it better. And we have this constant trickle of nickels and dimes from the wallet.

As a footnote to IDontCare's observation that you only get what you pay for. Milton Friedman was likely responsible for the maxim: "there's no such thing as a free lunch." Well -- I go to COSTCO at certain times of the day so I can put together a small lunch from the free-sample stations! And sometimes -- you just get lucky in the midst of trending bad luck.

Friends! Forum members! Perfectionists and anal-retentives! Accept who you are!! Just keep a lid on your credit cards and wallet!!

 

[tential]

Just had to throw in my two-cents on this.

This is a variation on several threads Larry has started or given contributions. He is . . . one of us. He is . . . typical of us. I think his dilemma is my dilemma.

As has been shown in this thread, he's typical of himself. MOST users don't have his issue. If you have it... you can go join him. But don't lump the at least 10+ users in this thread alone who have responded who don't' have this issue.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

The problem is simple. If you're trying to fill a void in your life with computer hardware, you'll never be satisfied. Nothing materialistic will ever be perfect or make you happy no matter what. Just take a look at Hollywood.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

MicroATX is too big. If I were to build some smaller rigs, I would use this ITX case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811165505

Ugh, they are sold out, and may be discontinued. That really sucks. That was a sweet little ITX case, with a decent PSU.

Maybe I won't be building any ITX rigs any time soon.

I picked up a few of these cheap Habey cases:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811321013

Unfortunately, they are cheap chinese under-engineered junk (unlike that other iStarUSA case), and the interface between the DC in jack and the case, is just a routed-out hole, and a press-fit plastic connector, with metal pins for ground and power. It's absolutely junk.

I was surprised that none of the Newegg reviews mentioned that deficiency.

You have a tendency to do this kind of thing - buy a bunch of the same crappy thing instead of buying one good thing for the same price.

Don't your DC rigs have like 3 or 4 GT630s in them?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Already had to dial the example back a bit. But the thing is the OP already knows why he's never satisfied with his purchase.
He doesn't know what he wants. He's purchasing things just because he LIKES new hardware. He buys a PAIR of laptops sometimes. He probably has more PC hardware purchased this year than I've purchased in my lifetime. It's just his hobby. The thing is he doesn't have the selfawareness to realize that's why he's purchasing things.

Other users are capable of realizing this (GPU forum has users who purchase GPUs just to try new GPUs and see firsthand how they perform).

Personally, I won't purchase something without a specific task to complete (HTPC usage, Gaming, Torrenting, Storage, Video Encoding, etc.), and if it won't fit that task ideally, I would never purchase it.

Tablets are a new thing to me. So I'm exploring the tablet space right now, seeing what they can do. I purchased an HP Stream 7 Win8.1 tablet with 1GB RAM and 32GB eMMC, and an IPS display. It's very nice, but the battery life could be better. (I think that the HP app running in the background drains the battery.) I also purchased a few Digiland quad-core MediaTek Cortex A7 Android tablets, with 512MB RAM and 8GB eMMC. I wasn't familiar with Android that much, so I didn't realize how much of a limitation that lack of RAM would have. I had bought three of them (two for presents), they were $50 ea. I returned the other two unopened, after using mine for a week. Then I saw the Iview 700-16G tablets on Newegg for $60. They had 2GB of RAM, and I thought that would be decent, even though they were dual-cores. I mistakenly assumed that they were Bay Trail, but it turns out that they were CloverTrail+. But they are far better than the Digiland. With 2GB of RAM, I can Skype while web-browsing, or open five tabs in Firefox. I couldn't do that with the only 512MB of RAM in the Digiland.

Then the big one, those $60 Winbook Win8.1 tablets from MC. Only 1GB and 16GB eMMC, but they had both a micro-USB charging port, and a USB2.0 host port, and a micro-HDMI! Finally, the possibility of using a small tablet, also as a desktop, was within reach and within budget. So I obtained a USB3.0 hub with a dedicated charging port, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI adapter, and connected it to my 24" HDTV. It performs decently, better than you would think for only having the 1GB of RAM, but what worries me is that my commit charge is higher than 1GB, which means that it is constantly paging out to the eMMC swapfile, and wearing it out. That's more my concern with these than performance.

Granted, my Q9300 desktop, when not running DC on all cores and GPU, is faster for web browsing than the tablet, but the tablet is not unbearable.

In fact, I use the Iview 2GB RAM Android tablet most of all, it seems. If only the Winbook TW700 tablet from MC had 2GB of RAM, then it would be 100% better, I think.

They do have a TW801 model, with 2GB RAM and 32GB eMMC, but for $140. More than twice the price, for twice the specs. Not worth it.

 

[2is]

....Not worth it.

You sure? You've spent many many times more than that for products that you deemed were "worth it" only to end up replacing or wanting to replace them. Sounds like it's time to re-evaluate your buying choices... You can do that or do what you've been doing for the last year... Continue to buy bottom of the barrel and continue to complain about it, and be reminded of your continued bad decision making in here every month or two.

 

[Yuriman]

I've been in Larry's situation before. Though the desktop market has stagnated, the mobile market is moving rather quickly right now. If you're buying in a rapidly changing market, you're bound to feel some remorse.

Buying cheap often causes the need for many specialized devices, because they don't fill as many roles as well, and sometimes you are better off paying for a better single device. Even so, I always have the temptation to see what the minimum I can get away with is. I put an i3 in my wife's computer though an i5 was very little more, and luckily it worked out. I bought a Chromebook for school/work, and it has mostly worked out, though sometimes I wish I had ponied up another $200 for an entry level Windows machine of roughly the same specs for access to M$ Word and avoiding the headaches of getting Windows programs to run on linux.

 

[tential]

You sure? You've spent many many times more than that for products that you deemed were "worth it" only to end up replacing or wanting to replace them. Sounds like it's time to re-evaluate your buying choices... You can do that or do what you've been doing for the last year... Continue to buy bottom of the barrel and continue to complain about it, and be reminded of your continued bad decision making in here every month or two.

His last post had 4 devices he'd purchased for around $60... all that were "not good enough."

$240...

But $140 for a device that would fit his needs? Not worth!

It's painfully obvious now, he is purchasing devices to tinker with that he won't be satisfied with because it's his hobby. If he bought a device he was happy with, that would be the end. No more searching. Then he'd need to find something else to do.

You'd think he'd do something constructive with all those low end purchases like start a review site or something.

Well, had fun in this round of VirtualLarry's how to purchase inadequate products. I cant wait for the next thread in 2015 where he's purchased a ton more cheap tablets from the things that are heavily discounted that no one wanted to purchase for Christmas.

 

[Cerb]

C'mon man, lay off. Not everyone is perfect, and blessed with pre-cognition skills, like you obviously are.

If I had asked the forums, in August, should I buy those laptops, you would have been able to tell me, "no, hold off, they are going to have $60 tablets in December", right?

I think I missed the laptop thread, but for $230, were they (a) internet terminals (IE, Chromebooks), or (b) Thinkpad T, W, or Z series from a few years back? If neither, then the chances of them being worth buying are slim.

To go past the other replies thus far: you have not nailed down a set of needs, that I have read, and that I think is half the problem. They are too fuzzy. By the time one of your ideal devices, for today's ideal, come close to coming out, your ideal specs will have moved on. If you need something accomplished, find what does that. If you need it to accomplish similar tasks into the future, make sure it has performance headroom. If a super tiny cheap device cannot do that, then you're not going to be happy with a super tiny cheap device.

 

[Markfw]

What do scientists do all day? All that brainpower and we still don't have a cure for a whole host of diseases . . . do they smoke dro and browse youporn all day?

They already have at least one proven drug, and a lot of progress. Please read their results page before posting again on the subject.

Larry, not trying to derail your thread, but defending your DC attitude and contribution.

 

[Cerb]

It's painfully obvious now, he is purchasing devices to tinker with that he won't be satisfied with because it's his hobby. If he bought a device he was happy with, that would be the end. No more searching. Then he'd need to find something else to do.

I do much less to/with my PC than in the past, but now I've got a Rapsberry Pi, some Arduinos, a Beaglebone Black, some misc. parts, transformers, heatsinks, breadboards, displays, DACs, salvaged steel and aluminum cases, and so on. There's no need for inadequate PCs on account of that desire to tinker with computers.

 

[EduCat]

It's painfully obvious now, he is purchasing devices to tinker with that he won't be satisfied with because it's his hobby. If he bought a device he was happy with, that would be the end. No more searching. Then he'd need to find something else to do.

This basically sums it up and I am the same way. I picked up the same tablet for $47 open box. It was in perfect shape and it still had the 1 year office key. I've been playing around with it for a few days and I have been extremely impressed I must say. It was my way of getting an Win8.1 machine in my hands to tinker about with.

 

[eton975]

Rig(s) not listed, because I change computers, like some people change their socks.

I think that about sums it up.

 

[jhu]

My record so far is mostly no regrets.

Here are my purchases for the past 3 years that I don't regret buying:
i5 3317U laptop for Guildwars 2 usage
Phenom II 1090T: bought this right after the NDA on Bulldozer reviews came out.
Samsung Chromebook: bought this to play around with Cortex A15. Runs Ubuntu pretty well too and can compile binaries for my phone.
FX 8350: replaced the 1090T as my file server/image renderer. It's faster and lower power, and I didn't have to buy a new motherboard.
PS3: mostly use it to watch Netflix and videos. It came with Batman and Last of Us. Fun times.
E350 laptop: bought this for Guild Wars 1, and when GW2 came out, gave it to parents.
Netgear router: put DD-WRT on this thing. Works great. FPU is non-existant, but that's OK.
Barnes and Noble Nook HD+: great for reading Manga. Processor is a little slow and it shows when browsing the internet, but that's not what its main purpose is.
Nexus 4: carrier and bootloader unlocked for $200? Totally worth it. Went to Taiwan for vacation, bought a 1 week SIM card, became the mobile Wifi hotspot for the family.
HTC One M8: Bootloader unlocked by the manufacturer in this day and age? Awesome. Go HTC!

Stuff regret buying:
Samsung Galaxy S5: can't bootloader unlock this thing for AT&T. Promptly returned.
Phenom II 1045: bought for an AM2+ computer to replace the Athlon II x4 in it. It technically works, but because the BIOS doesn't recognize it, it defaults to a dual-core at 800 MHz. Boo…

 

[krumme]

Get a new hobby and come back in 10 years time. Its not the sligtest about budget. If anything the budget area is the one moving.

What about cameras? Hifi? Projectors? Headphones?
There is great communities and sites out there. Go grab it.

Whatever with electricity is great as long its not in the kitchen. I take it all. Lol.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

As has been shown in this thread, he's typical of himself. MOST users don't have his issue. If you have it... you can go join him. But don't lump the at least 10+ users in this thread alone who have responded who don't' have this issue.

We-ull, Pil-grum!! Jus' maybe . . . you ain' typical!!

Even for statistical purposes, we might want to put forum members in different pigeon-holes. There are a LOT of folks here who have an obsessive interest -- in the technology, the details, minutiae.

Your average mainstreamer doesn't do that sort of thing. Your average mainstreamer probably hasn't intersected IT organizations and purposes in his or her work-life.

Then, we have the noobs, who come in here asking reasonable questions -- but which often seem silly. I can find threads in the cases/cooling forum on fans, for instance. So we try to be sensitive and accommodating.

I look at it this way. Some folks go to the casino and the blackjack tables. It's their thing!! Most people have some sort of hobby. You have to budget the hobby so you can still eat well and pay the rent.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying Larry's current fret. It just fits a pattern . . . similar to mine.

There are all sorts of addictive behaviors. Some are a lot worse. Some are a lot better. I'm trying myself to stay in touch with mobile devices. I doubled my monthly cell bill so I could get the features and the "free" I-phone upgrade. I refurbished an older laptop earlier this year so I could break into that niche just a little bit. Sooner or later, I can see a "tablet."

I just wouldn't get bent out of shape. I suppose the only way to verify any assertions I've made, would be to design a survey, collect the data, do the descriptive statistics and argue hypothesis testing against the survey design.

It keeps the publishers of journals busy. Nowadays, I guess some people would get irritated to wade through forum posts.

 

[krumme]

Btw stop purchasing stuff. Its boring besides beeing expensive. Try buildimg you own speakers. Get some old stuff and get going. Its practically free and i guess its your style - Yeaa it can be extremely expensive but hey you dont have to look that way then. Lol.

 

[ninaholic37]

So, if you make such good decisions, why haven't you suggested a device for my needs? Instead of needlessly lambasting me? If you can't stop yourself from the endless insulting posts without a purpose, I'm going to get the mods involved.

Definitely agree! Every tential post I've read this week is just whiny, condescending drivel towards everybody... and depressing to read. He reminds me of Sheldon Cooper, whom I'd probably murder if I had to live with - lol. I think you are handling his narrow-minded egotistical nonsense exceptionally well though, and come across as much more mentally stable and mature. :thumbsup:

I wear my Indigo Ribbon proudly to support all tential victims!

 

[frozentundra123456]

This basically sums it up and I am the same way. I picked up the same tablet for $47 open box. It was in perfect shape and it still had the 1 year office key. I've been playing around with it for a few days and I have been extremely impressed I must say. It was my way of getting an Win8.1 machine in my hands to tinker about with.

I assume you are talking about that winbook tablet. I picked up one today as well. I got the 60.00 one, new. Aside from getting aggravated with Win 8, trying to set up accounts and such, I am impressed with it as well. I have to say, as I expected, it is worlds better than the Acer android tablet I paid 200.00 for a couple of years ago.

The only problem I have had so far is that it does not recognize when I insert an SD card. The card is an old one that I had in an android tablet, so perhaps it is not formatted correctly. I was tempted to go for the 2gb ram model, but seemed too expensive compared to the cheap one. Really, to get a tablet for the price of a tank of gas (edit: well, a tank of gas before the prices went down. lol) or a night out is just unbelievable.

 

[eton975]

OP, I've tried to come up with a decent system to try and cater to what you want:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi B85N 3D Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($62.44 @ Amazon)
Case: Antec ISK 300-150 Mini ITX Desktop Case w/150W Power Supply ($68.99 @ Directron)
Optical Drive: LG GT80N DVD/CD Writer ($21.99 @ Mwave)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($90.26 @ OutletPC)
Other: Slimline SATA - Regular SATA power adapter ($10.00)
Total: $483.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-13 19:18 EST-0500

You will need a SATA - Slimline SATA power adapter for the DVD drive.

The case was pretty much the only one I could find that suits your form-factor needs/wants.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

OP, I've tried to come up with a decent system to try and cater to what you want:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi B85N 3D Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($62.44 @ Amazon)
Case: Antec ISK 300-150 Mini ITX Desktop Case w/150W Power Supply ($68.99 @ Directron)
Optical Drive: LG GT80N DVD/CD Writer ($21.99 @ Mwave)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($90.26 @ OutletPC)
Other: Slimline SATA - Regular SATA power adapter ($10.00)
Total: $483.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-13 19:18 EST-0500

You will need a SATA - Slimline SATA power adapter for the DVD drive.

The case was pretty much the only one I could find that suits your form-factor needs/wants.

Perhaps . . . some food for thought.

For my own excesses, I think I made out pretty well. The project just hadn't entered my plans until I lost control and bought the processor. A violation worthy of total impeachment.

We're either going to set up kiosks at E-Bay, or we'll spend less and be disappointed, or we can get some really cheap surplus stuff and tinker with it.

Person might prioritize their device portfolio. That's what I mean: device portfolio. I knew a construction supervisor who needed a tablet in his work; he could look at architectural and mechanical drawings stored on a server at the company office; schedule events and workload; fill out time-sheets. That's a priority for that sort of need.

I don't really need a tablet; my cell-phone has a lot of function, I've had fun learning, but I still don't use it as much as I'd expected. I don't need -- but can use -- a mobile, wirelessly-connected laptop that I can integrate to my cable and cell subscriptions. Mostly, I only need the cable-in-the-home subscription.

I need a keyboard and a desktop. Somebody else might have an old desktop with Vista or Win 7, a new I-pad, a new Surface.

 

[cbn]

I wonder too, if Cherry Trail tablets will be post- Contra Revenue, if prices will actually go up, for entry-level Windows tablets. Plus, Win 10 might be subscription-based, so even if you plunk down $100 for a CT / Win 10 tablet, you might be paying $50 / year for "maintenance".

Not sure what CT pricing will be, but RAM and eMMC pricing should fall (So 2GB and 32GB eMMC could become the new low end standard).

P.S. On Windows 10, I suspect even if it goes subscription there will be some part of the OS that will still be free.

 

[Cerb]

Get a new hobby and come back in 10 years time. Its not the sligtest about budget. If anything the budget area is the one moving.

What about cameras? Hifi? Projectors? Headphones?
There is great communities and sites out there. Go grab it.

Whatever with electricity is great as long its not in the kitchen. I take it all. Lol.

Nabbed a great condition K340 at a local thrift store. I was probably a good awkward sight to see. I started on my periphery run (all the electronics are around the walls), saw the flower-looking AKG logo popping up out of a box of cables and wall warts, grabbed it, found it was a full sized one, my jaw dropped, I wrapped the cord up, and walked right over the register. It's more fun than neutral, but oh is it fun (I generally like Koss, AKG, and BD 'house sounds', though). It had light tacky dust all over it, so I think it might have been in a fire, but a microfiber cloth fixed that. I like cord, too. It's much more flexible and less microphonic than what they are using now. Bass is a bit light, though.

I'm now awaiting two, not one, cape, and am finally getting some parts holding rigs set up for testing (there are several things that I know can be done, but details are going to take trial and error), to make a small media player with optional PC pass-through, and a good HP amp, using a Beaglebone Black as the computer portion. Due to having grown out of smaller projects, it won't be any cheaper than constant PC upgrading. But, none of it leaves me feeling like I haven't gotten worth from what I've put in. If nothing else, it's been a great learning experience so far, with more to come. The materials themselves are a means to an end, and the end gives purpose to the multi-discipline journey of reaching it.