Whats your best ever PC related purchase?

[moonbogg]

Logitech Z5500 Didital 5.1 speakers.

Absolutely amazing and have been going strong for about 8 years now. These speakers have lasted me through many complete PC builds and are the only item that I have never dared to replace. I am the kind of guy who replaces stuff just to do it sometimes, but not these damn speakers. They rock.

whats your best ever PC related purchase?

 

[ehume]

SSD. I've bought three now. They transform your relation to your computer as much as going from dialup to highspeed Internet.

 

[Zorander]

In terms of being able to extend an old system's life, the HD3850 AGP takes the cake. Thanks to it, I could still play current games on an AGP-based system well into 2010.

In terms of still being around the longest, I still have the Altec Lansing ACS56 purchased back in 2000.

In terms of speed improvement, it's a toss-up between going SSD or upgrading from above system to my current Lynnfield system.

 

[tynopik]

1.2 GHz Tualatin Celeron + slocket

under $100 total

going from 266MHz PII to 1.2GHz Tualatin on the same system was truly mind-blowing

There will never be that sort of performance upgrade available to a system ever again

 

[Cerb]

Backup used keyboards, back before the interwebs made them worth money.

 

[corkyg]

My T-510 Thinkpad - now upgraded with 2 SSDs - has never hiccupped or balked anywhere in the world.

 

[tweakboy]

My 2200k spent on P2B with built in scsi and cheetah 9GB with matrox mill and voodoo 2 was my best purchase or Riva TNT.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I really enjoy my mechanical keyboards. I loved the Sony PF 225 crt I picked up for 25$ if it wasn't for me running it out of the refresh rate I'd still have it. I also am really enjoying my gaming LCD Asus vg278. love my Seasonic X 650. love my router too

 

[pauldun170]

After going through all my favorites through the years (Q9550, ATI9700pro, Track IR, MS Sidewinder FFB2) the one that stands out are my Altec Lansing ATP5 speakers.
Over a decade old and I still use them today.

 

[Leyawiin]

Going from an Athlon64 X2 6400+ to a Phenom II X4 955 in 2009. I immediately overclocked it to 3.6 Ghz and the difference was like night and day with my games. For the first time ever my 8800 GTX was not bottlenecked by the CPU.

 

[jhansman]

It's a toss up-going from 8 to 16GB of DDR3 1600 RAM for $40 (made Lightroom and PS6 pop to attention) or going from a 74GB 10K Raptor to an M4 boot drive.

 

[thelastjuju]

Recently picked up a rarer sound card, made by bluegears .. the b-inspirer for only $40 used off ebay.

Card has the same audio chip as my $200 HT Omega Claro has.. the glorious CMI 8788.. and has identical superb sound quality. What a deal.

The z5500s are definitely up there too.. you have to spend a LOT more to get significantly better sound quality, and the subwoofer is unbeliveably good for the price. Only downside is the fuse dies on me like twice a year, but I've got a slew of extras lying around every time it happens.

Old school Sony Trinitron CRT's were also great. I hook it up every once and a while and I'm always impressed with how vibrant everything looks, how rich the black levels look, and how well it can "blow up" lower res material. Great for old school gaming in resolutions like 800x600.


Also worth mentioning, besides mere peripherals, the 4850 when those first came out .. for only $150 it handled every game I threw at it, even with AA/AF cranked! That marked the end of paying between $300-500 on video cards for me, forever..

 

[BrightCandle]

The pair of 680 GTX's. I had a pair of 7970's and had so many performance problems that in the past I would have lived with. But in the end I had had enough and the difference changing to NVidia was night and day. Its not a long lived purchase like my G15 keyboard or speakers but it nonetheless removed the frustration and replaced it with joy within hours.

 

[kalrith]

Klipsch Promedia v2.400 purchased in 2000 when I was a poor college student. They're still going strong!

A more-recent purchase is my Panasonic 32" 1080p IPS TV. I sit about 3.5' from it, and it's great for immersive gaming.

 

[Blain]

KVM switch

 

[dave_the_nerd]

SSD. I've bought three now. They transform your relation to your computer as much as going from dialup to highspeed Internet.

This.

Bought one for an older laptop almost a year ago, mostly on a whim, to see what would happen.

Now I have them in all my computers.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Toss-up between SSD and having a second monitor. Sure, having really fast application load times and no more hang-ups in my applications is really good. But not having to press Alt-tab all the time is also really good

 

[zerogear]

My Klipsch Ultra 5.1s -- still working awesome (after repair)

 

[kleinkinstein]

Of distant past, the combo of an HT Omega Claro+ and Klipsch Ultra 5.1. Of recent past, a pair of 256 830's in Raid0. Both made me scream "WOW" and shout "HOLY HELL"...outside of the bedroom!

 

[billyb0b]

easy.... SSD offers the best bang for buck

 

[dave_the_nerd]

You know, I take that back - my first multi-processor rig was probably a bigger game changer.

 

[SPBHM]

My mouse, a MS wheel mouse optical 1.1, is still going strong after... I don't know 10 years? it's a pretty decent mouse, and at the time (2003) I bought it used,

also I remember being pretty satisfied when I traded my Radeon 8500LE +some money for a Radeon 9500NP 64MB (which was a good overclocker and had the full pipelines mod working),

also maybe my HD5750 was a good buy, it's a bad card for overclocking, but I paid a small amount and it is still working without problems, and can run most games OK in lower res.


AND as you can see on my profile pic, the Geforce 2 MX back in the day was the first card basically that I choose, and it replaced a S3 Savage card, which was OK, but had awful drivers support, the Geforce was amazing, it was compatible with every single game I could try and it was quick enough to play games in 800x600... I kept that card for some 8 years... it was still working when I sold it (and I regret selling it).

 

[ehume]

Hmm. If we're doing enduring acquisitions: the keyboard that came with my 1997 Dell XPS. Constantly used, still going strong. The mouse I got soon thereafter: Constantly used, still going strong. Some things are priceless.

 

[ndy]

best purchase ever was a modem and isp account back in 1995

 

[moonbogg]

I've had some magical moments with big upgrades, but the best by far was going from an E8400 rig to an i7 2600k with dual 570's. I waited out the quad core thing for so long, and the jump to 2600k was astonishing. I can also see my new love afair with my Corsair K90 keyboard and Logitech G700 mouse going for a long time. I should mention the most badass joystick that served me well for many years, the Microsoft sidewinder force feedback 2.
My rig as it is now makes me as happy as any rig ever has. Its perfect (until crysis 3 comes out).