With all the builds lately, I was interested to hear what PC part you tried or had to save a buck on and had it backfire or just regret buying?
What PC Part Did You Cheap out on and Regret?
Pace210 on 17/10/2020 - 18:30
Last edited 17/10/2020 - 19:05 by 1 other user
Last edited 17/10/2020 - 19:05 by 1 other user
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stuff that didn't work out:
pcie riser for mining that killed my mb
i thought a 2 core cpu with max overclock would be enough, turns out the clock speed didn't matter without enough threads and it gave mad stutter on games that need more threads.stuff that worked out:
$50 psu + case from 2010, everybody said this was garbage even the reviews
$5 mouse from china that was better than the $50 'legendary' logitech mx518(its actually garbage)
all variety of 2nd hard parts that have saved me hundreds, cpu/mb/ram, monitors
mining gpu's that got me interested in mining and made way more than their worth
all in all do thorough research, think critically/ignore groupthink, and sometimes you gotta take a chance :P
$5 mouse from china that was better than the $50 'legendary' logitech mx518(its actually garbage)
Hey my mx518 is still going strong after 9 years. What's wrong with it?
google angle snapping, if you draw a line with the mx518 it's perfectly straight - this does not reflect your actual movement, and this 'feature' cannot be turned off, it removes control when gaming which is why it is garbage.
but not just that, i've also compared the two mice using mousetester software, and the cheap mouse had superior tracking too:
and further, i haven't found any pro's that use this mouse for competitive, on the contrary there were heaps using the microsoft intellimousehttps://www.overclock.net/threads/mousetester-software.15356…
unfortunately its looks like overclock.net updated their website and there is some problems with the formatting
this is the cheap mouse i got years ago, it's not great out of the box. but i opened it up cut the bright led's, removed weights(too heavy), adjusted the mouse switches to make them lighter/softer to click, overclocked the polling to 500hz from 125 default, and after all that i find it performs pretty awesome.
the only real negative is the relatively stiff cable, but hey this mouse is heaps old.
Looks interesting. I'm using a razer death adder at work (so hasn't been used for gaming) but it feels about the same.
I think my next mouse purchase would be a Logitech Lightspeed wireless mouse. My bank account wont be appreciative though.
@SnowDragon: just open mspaint try to draw some straight lines and the difference should be obvious
forced angle snapping is not a thing generally and you'd have to spend effort to put it in, so your death adder shouldn't have it.
@abctoz: Wow I just did with my MX518 and you're right! Basically all of the lines I draw end up straight. Whereas on the razer they were bent and crooked in the way that I actually drew them.
Does this also happen in game?
@SnowDragon: yep thats the problem and why i called it garbage, imagine youre trying to aim and the guy head is one pixel below, you would have to move a disproportionate amount on the mx518.
No regrets, but I used to buy the best bang for buck graphics card when I first started my own business. I could afford the top of the line, but I was so focused in efficiency, value for money, etc.
Now I just buy the top of the line because it's something I enjoy using, I use it frequently, and I have very few other hobbies that require considerable financial "investment".
Can't wait for whatever follows the 3090 and some 4k 120hz VR, that's my next planned upgrade over the 1080ti.
I am the opposite. I used to buy bang for buck everything until I realised I've been playing the same 90's graphic game for over 10 years.
Found the guy who plays wow
I used to think that would be the case with wow, but the recommended video card is a gtx1080.
me with a gtx 1650 super: best bang per buck and super power efficient always wins out
Wins out in efficiency, but I don't want to play my games at medium. Not for a whole lifetime. I have done my time on those settings.
Built my PC in Aug-2018, probably should have done better in choosing parts:
- Might have overshot with motherboard, went for Asus Z370-G because I wanted one with wifi, no intention to overclock, cost as much as the CPU
- Spent on cheap CPU water cooler, Consair H55, the fan seems a bit noisy
- Not exactly ragret about PSU, bought the 550W Bronze and thought it's been fine. Recently bought a new 750W Gold planning to upgrade GPU but probably will wait until next year to install
not pc part but pc peripheral. I bought a G304 from Ozb deal that ended up too small for my hand and waited 4 weeks for it to arrive. Wouldn't mind spend extra for larger and local stock.
Local stock always warrants a few more bucks, still, beyond $50 for a mouse, you're just a sh!t gamer blaming your sh!t gaming on your gear imo.
And just so we're clear, that is not a rip on you.haha. if it wouldn't be the last sentence, I would have thought u were ripping me. But all good. My point was more of mouse affected hand's ergonomic than gaming proficiency.
Mice are so down to personal preference that it's hard to get the right one without trial and error. I have the G304 and will probably never buy another mouse (even if it breaks I'll just buy another one) because it's absolutely perfect for me. But I had a couple of other top reviewed and more expensive mice first and couldn't use them comfortably.
My case, zero cable management was not uncommon in 2013
well, on the cheap, you can sort that out. mine too looks like Madonna in her playboy shoot with her arms up
I remember that particular magazine was worth a small fortune at the time. Not sure about now as I still got it
Such a specific example, brilliant
Motherboard, didn't do the research, got an MSI X570 A PRO. Completely unable to overclock. Need to buy another X570 board for the Ryzen 5000. Hopefully I can sell it with my 3600X when the time comes. I guess if you're keeping it stock it's a great board, it has all the bells and whistles, but it's useless for overclocking.
What AMD Ryzen ? 5900 ? What motherboard?
I am inclined for an Ryzen 5900 and torn between ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PLUS wifi and ASRock X570 Steel Legend ATXMSI Mag if I can find a cheap one. I just want one that has USB-C on the rear, can overclock, and two M2 slots.
The Tomahawk, or Asus tuf wifi, personal opinion, for budget end mobo.
I bought basically the best of everything, but that's not necessarily the smartest way to avoid this problem.
Power supply is the most important part without a doubt. Do not, cheap out on this, at all.
This does not mean, get a 1600W PSU, or just something with a high 80+ rating, but from a reputable manufacturer, Corsair, Seasonic, EVGA, Cooler Master, be quiet!, there's a few others I'm sure but do your research, get one that has the right amount of power for your planned system and maybe a tiny bit more, and that's it. Most systems are probably around 500W, everyone gets easily carried away and goes to 800-1000W but it's unnecessary and will just cost you a bit more unnecessarily.
I understood that after i burndown 2 cheap power supply (the one i bought and the free replacement i received in warranty… i just put the third one they sent me in the bin, realised i got lucky nothing else got damaged)
Isnt the PU supplying best and clean power at 50% of capacity, so a 500W system would beb est fed with a Quality 1000W power unit ?
Underestimated how fun pc building can be so I only bought a mid tower which you can't barely put anything in, 2 weeks later return half the stuffs to Amazon and now I have a water-cooled Lian Li O11 XL
Also bought a RM850x for "future proofing" and now I want to run dual GPU so yeah …
Dual GPU is a terrible idea but apparently the 30 series can have power draw 'spikes' so 850 is probably fine if you want to run one of those, I haven't looked too deeply into the data, depends on the rest of the system, but please don't do Dual GPU unless you find a really really really good deal on some used GTX 1080s or something like that, just for fun or they're more than 50% off market value, because you won't be getting +100% more performance from them, and very, very few games support SLI/other dual GPU setups.
Nah man, dual gpu for two separate tasks not for gaming
I watched an LTT video and a 1000W psu was not enough for dual 3000 series cards under load, had to go with a 1600W psu.
The operator: Too fat and old. Most of the time it doesn't work ;(
The PC is realiable and way faster than I currently need. I bought it when I was doing video editing. Wife has the next gen of what I have. She uses it to surf Facebook on one monitor, play music through VLC on the other monitor while playing farm heroes on her tablet. Well worth investing in a 9700k (not to mention the infinity case, rgb ram etc) when it first came out ;)
Actually come to think of it, my wife's speakers and her Infinity case. We bought cheap crappy $20 speakers that were half price at the time. Every time I offered an upgrade, she said she was happy, until recently we came across the Logitech g560. So now she plays her music with RGB lights flashing. The infinity case, I found a couple, I found one at about $60. I should have spent the extra $200-250. This case has a crappy design and has the worst cable management. I've spent way too long trying to deal with the cheap case.
So so many things I am mentally taking notes for so I don't cock and balls up my own tower build.
And also why I am paying my good and trusted friend to build it :)
"I don't cock and balls up my own tower build."
Sounds painful.
Is that a new sex position?
Tower of power !
Yeah, it's called trimming your pubic hairs with the GPU fans :P
Getting a mate to build a computer is the best, every time you mess it up it's up to them to fix it, no warranty is even close to that good, and its something no one will ever be my 'mate' enough to put my hand up for.
Cheap PSU's when I started out.
Wife's case, as she made me use it when I decided I wanted a new computer and she stopped using hers (I had a highly modified beige box.
I don't regret non Noctua fans, as although they suck they were cheap.
I don't regret buying Logitech mice, as although they fail every two years, their best is still usually significantly better than the competition. And they go on sail often enough.
Ahoy matey
Damn. Now I need to sea if my old one will float….
My logitech g9x mouse lasted me over 10 years! Hopefully my new g pro wireless does at least half as well.
Logitech mice are the bomb. I've owned countless over the years and never had any fail on me. Some are 10+ years old and work fine for the parents computers.
so no double click issue?
this is a known problem on logitech mice, though it probably also could occur on other brands.
Nope never had that issue.
I developed double click around every two years until I learnt how logitech expect people to use their mice.
Last mouse (MX2) had the plastic on the thumb button fail so it jammed on then a combination of ware on the left click button and the plastic that activates it wore away.
how does logitech expect people to use their mice?
not use it at all?
The double click issue is due to them using cheap chinese switches..
Not sure if other brands also have the double click issue as well.
My logitech mouse got the shit double click issue..so frigging annoying..
@pinkybrain: My experience with older mice was the plastic fatiguing when clicked in the middle instead of the tip.
Not a part per se, but ignoring the value of build quality. I'm not an Apple fan, but this is something they seriously do well!
A while ago, several friends and I all bought notebooks at the same time. I bought an cheaper brand with the better specs for same amount and they bought various Dells. The Dells just looked great and my notebook has light bleeding on the screen and an overall shoddy feel, despite the impressive specifications. The comparison in the build quality certainly left me unhappy with my purchase and the next 2 notebook purchases were Dells.
Sadly, after some issues with coil whine with Dells and continued reports of it not being fixed, I've now gone for a HP Spectre. Again, build quality win. That said, many YouTube reviewers recommended the Dell 13" over the HP Spectre 13" by a small margin but, for me, it was time for a change.
Apple can be a pain with proprietary repairs. The internal hinge on an imac broke and it was a couple hundred to repair. Not to mention going back multiple times when the display wouldn't turn on and then there was dust behind the screen.
Apple's disdain for their customers amazes me. But no one can argue the comparative quality and presentation of their hardware, even though I'm unlikely ever to purchase it.
I do feel your pain though! Hardware problems occur from time to time, but repeat attempts to fix are very frustrating.
apple is alright, they don't always have good quality though
e.g. butterfly keypad..
And not been able to do repairs yourself or use a third party repairer is pretty shit
and not worth it..their products are also overpriced for similar spec
@pinkybrain: Yes, all excellent points.
You're still not going to make me go off on a rant! ;-)
Back to the original point, notebook build quality is crucial for a good purchase, avoiding buyer's regret. The more I use a nice notebook (regardless of maker and OS), the more I appreciate it and affirm the money spent.
Bought a DELL for my son with Accidental damage cover.
The power plug was working intermittently, one USB port knocked out cold with a dent in the chassis, palm rest all bent.
Technician came with 8 boxes and replaced everything. except maybe keyboard and screen.
Have to love DELL for their service.
Bought a blu ray combo drive. was cheap but never ended up using the blu ray feature. Now I only buy what I need.
Haha, yeah. I bought a blu-ray drive for my PC years ago. Don't think I have ever put a blu-ray in it!
should have bought a bluray burner,
it would have been more usefulI wouldn't have used that either. I kept the drives from an older build (my current build is 6 years old). I'm pretty sure neither drive has been used in the 6 year period.
I never used it for blu-ray movies so I doubt having it as a burner for me would've been more useful. I wonder if it will go up in value like MD players and betamax
My $5 Reject Shop keyboard. Three of the keys are fully worn off (A, S and left CTRL for some random reason). But is is very compact and does the job.
It's so light and moved around often that I taped 20 cent coins to its underside to weigh it down (I taped coins inside my generic mouse also to give it more precision during graphics work). One day I'll get a better keyboard. I just to replace my last one at short notice when it died suddenly. Keyboard manufacturers always vary the position of the \ and shape of the Enter keys, makes it a pain to get used to a new one.
Cheap keyboard. Never had a good one till recently. I've been missing out, Logitech MX Keys FTW.
Is that tactile?
A lot like typing on a good laptop. Short travel keys.
I don't think you'll ever go back. I use a MS Surface Ergonomic bluetooth keyboard as a daily driver but needed a USB keyboard in a hurry for another build. Got the bottom-of-the-line Logitech K270 last month at JB for $39 and couldn't stand typing on the thing. Had to return it
Case. A while ago I cheaped out on the cheapest case available at MSY. PITA to assemble, flimsy metal, drive bays only had screws on one side, IO plate wouldn't fit properly, and CPU temps were higher than expected. When I changed, just going to a $80 model was a massive improvement.
Lol a roomy, well designed n ventilated case is a must. Makes the building experience 1000x better
graphics card - I re-used my old Vega 56 for my new build from last X'mas, while it is still fine in most circumstances, it is starting to choke in some areas in some newer games ie Doom Eternal, in one particular level, the frame rate was down to 30, but for the rest of the game, it was doing around 80 - 90 fps (I am running 1440p high details). Let's see if there will be any good deals next year.
probably should've bought more RAM if I knew I was going to be WFH for most of the year (only got 16gb), applications like JIRA and Microsoft Teams seems to just chews up every last bit of RAM I have.
also should've invested in some newer, quieter, more powerful fans, but I still have a few fans I never got around to using from my previous built back in 2011, so I thought why not? I will get around to replacing them one day.
This Kogan Monitor
The display was very pretty but the glossy screen meant seeing your own reflection in dark scenes killing all suspense and the input lag was goddamn horrendous. Felt like 100ms of input lag. Forget gaming, even moving the cursor during everyday tasks felt disgusting. Used it for a year before I sold it off on gumtree. This is coming from someone who doesn't notice the difference between "1ms and 5ms response times" and all the other marketing that fuss over a couple of ms. It's made me wary of input lag and I doubt I'd be buying another monitor without a review or spec clearly stating what the input lag is.2x NB F80 arms. Good depth and movability but I wish they could go higher with Dell monitors.
You only need the low ms screens for comp shooters.
A better power supply. My current one sounds like a jet engine - I got all that fancy RGB for nothing because it's so noisy I have to keep it under my desk.
Nothing, did hours of research and was happy with everything about my PC at the time. Upgrades were easy on things like RAM and buying an SSD which brought significant improvements. Also upgraded my peripherals since then which also makes a big difference and is easy to do.
My whole 3570k rig is super budget. Now it's randomly locking up and I don't know what part is messing about. Maybe it's telling me to buy a new pc
You checking temps? Might just need repasting and fans blowing out.
Built a new 3800X system but cheaped out on the PSU.
Had an old HX750 which was still working fine, didn't want to replace.
Turns out it only had 1x CPU 8-pin, the motherboard wanted 2.It still works if I don't overclock and not exactly ideal, but I'm too lazy to take everything apart to replace it now.
IIRC the HX750 has always had 3 or 4 of the modular connectors that supply only 12V and ground, labelled along the lines of "6+2 PCI-E & 4+4 CPU".
You almost certainly still have one of those spare, so all you need to source is a matching cable.
That shouldn't be that hard given you have a known-working one from which one could determine the pinout.
as cliche it is for me to say this on this forum but i should have jumped on the Eneloop bandwagon more then what i have, i now with all my infinite wisdom have created the need for decent rechargables which outlast the throw away kind.
every now and then when in aldi i throw a 4 pack of the AA or AAA rechargables in the kart although they are good they are not as good as the eneloops that i have.
kinda do, kinda dont, i got an inwin 303 case, it looks fantastic, but cable management is crap, theres no room for a custom 24 pin cable through the motherboard tray, so the custom cables i got look really messy, the cooling is just "ok", not great, but it looks awesome, thats the mean thing lol
Generally lower capacity ssd ie 970pro 512 instead of 1tb.
Greatfull I over spend on motherboards always have future proof features.
Bought an ADATA NVMe SSD instead of a Samsung cause it was $50 cheaper. Thing shit itself after a month, write errors all over the place. Stumped up the cash for the Samsung and haven't had one issue. I've learned my lesson.
Just in case anyone comes across this post one day, after a protracted period of time I was able to RMA the ADATA drive and they replaced it with a new one. This one seems fine.
Still, not straying from Samsung again.
While not necessarily cheaped out, I should have done more research into the AIO cooler I purchased a few years go. Thankfully It still works but I probably could have gotten a much better one at the time (mine is pretty middle of the road in terms of performance). My probably only real regret is buying my razor mouse that ended up replacing only recently. My advice, you use it everytime you use your computer. Do your research on your grip type and buy accordingly. Grip type over everything else. My hands used to always cramp or be in discomfort for years before realising mouse didn't suit my hand. I don't know why It took me that long to realise but I really should have replaced it years ago lol.
Cheap PSUs … usually came with the case from swap meets (2000-2010 era for me).
Had three die. Now stick to named brands likes Corsair Gold due to the 7 - 10 years warranty. Still running strong 4 years on.
I used to have more the opposite problem. Used to believe in the BS of future proofing my computer by buying way better than I need in parts, always run a million miles from anyone trying to convince you to future proof when purchasing as it is basically just paying extra for features you don't need that will be superseded or replaced by the time you might if ever need them.
When I think back on the money I wasted doing this over the last 30 years in computing it makes me cringe.
I think my lack of knowledge has saved me some grief over the years, apart from knowing how to put a pc together, as I'm no gamer if it turned on I was happy, now building a gaming rig for my son has taken me down so many rabbit holes and one question answered delivers 5 more, but it's been a fun and enjoyable process.
The main thing that helped was I was in no hurry, and the new everything that has and is coming out has been extremely interesting.careful research and buying what you "need" now or in the immediate future, not what you "might" need one day is the key. I build a lot of my mates gaming machines as well and have adopted that principle with them too, saves them a lot of money from pointless overspends. The absolute worst thing to do is look at upcoming technology and think you must ensure your now purchase is compatible with it for future use, you may as well burn your money.
I bought a Gigabyte RTX 2060 8GB SUPER days before they announced the 3000 range.
If I had waited a month I could have got the 2070 super for the same price or less.
Bought a reburb monitor, had 3 dead pixels so basically someone sent it back and they never actually refurbed it. I complained and they gave me $50
Also, same screen, has occasional flicker at 144hz and read that some brands buy a 120hz panel and factory overclock it
that sucks
yeah, I feel its my own fault for cheaping out though. It runs fine at 120hz and I totally forgot about the 3 dead pixels, good value all things considered
Brand?
ViewSonic VX2758.. It's a great screen but mine is a bit dodgy, lol.
two cheaps I had were my monitor and GPU.
MSI Twin Frozr HD7950 - this was the cheaper option against an nvidia-equivalent card but brand new, this thing ran hot all the time, the fan was going hard and loud. In true AMD fashion, it had regular driver crashes back then too. 8 months later, I switched to a GTX970 that I'm still using today with no regrets. I was thinking about the 5700XT and when I saw the driver crashes, I just shuddered. really want to jump on big navi but my experience has been so good with the nvidia.
BenQ XL2411 - it was the cheapest 144hz monitor at the time ($340ish), it only accepts DVI-D for 144hz and newer cards phased it out. it's in storage now, might turn it into a work monitor. an active adapter is around $200 which I'm not willing to shell out. now I've cheaped out again on the Xiaomi Mi VA 34" 144hz instead of an Acer X34P. hoping I don't regret that decision.
S3 Savage 4 graphics card in 2000.
Had I spent an extra $50 I could have had an ATI Rage 128, which ran Unreal properly.
Woah same, just an awful card.
32mb S3 Savage4.
Ended up swapping it for a Riva TNT 2I feel you bro
Celeron 550 mHz before I knew all Intel are not the same.. regret was not getting a PIII.
I haven't had any but, MOBO & PSU are the most important parts not to cheap out.
Mate if there is one thing not to skimp on its the RGB mouse pad. Sheesh.