What's your latest tech purchase?

[lexluthermiester]

Well shit, ordered a PS5 with Returnal and a year of PS Plus.

?!? Is that a bad thing?

 

[Caring1]

New NeoForza 32Gb kit @ 4600MHz CL19 ready to rock n' roll with my rocket lake!!!!!!!!!!!!!

View attachment 229235

I don't want to know the price here in Australia, I saw an 8GB stick a few weeks back and that made my eyes water.

 

[Chomiq]

?!? Is that a bad thing?

If you pay €60 over the MSRP because stores have to offer you shitty bundles, yeah sorta feels bad.

€60 over the MSRP plus the cost of game and PSN for a year. Those extras aren't extra at all.

 

[lexluthermiester]

If you pay €60 over the MSRP because stores have to offer you shitty bundles, yeah sorta feels bad.

€60 over the MSRP plus the cost of game and PSN for a year. Those extras aren't extra at all.

Wait, You paid 60Eur extra for a game and a year of PSN? That's not a bad bundle. That's actually a decent price.

 

[Chomiq]

Wait, You paid 60Eur extra for a game and a year of PSN? That's not a bad bundle. That's actually a decent price.

Nope, €632 euro total. PS5 msrp is €499, 12 months of PSN is around €30 on promo, game is around €40 new in retail stores. So €60 over what I should pay for the same bundle if everything had correct market value.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Nope, €632 euro total. PS5 msrp is €499, 12 months of PSN is around €30 on promo, game is around €40 new in retail stores. So €60 over what I should pay for the same bundle if everything had correct market value.

Ah, fair enough. Yeah, that's a bit of jank. The seller may not have had a choice though. Retailers are paying more and they can't sell at a loss, they have to pass that extra cost on. I'm dealing with that in my shop. Nothing I can do, in business to be in business.

 

[Chomiq]

Ah, fair enough. Yeah, that's a bit of jank. The seller may not have had a choice though. Retailers are paying more and they can't sell at a loss, they have to pass that extra cost on. I'm dealing with that in my shop. Nothing I can do, in business to be in business.

It's MediaMarkt, one of the biggest retailers. It just happens that only once in two weeks they had retail non-bundle PS5's listed at MSRP but you couldn't add it to the cart because website threw errors at you. Meanwhile all bundles with €60+ markup worked fine.

Anyway, ordered Judgement and Lost Judgement for PS5 in another store. It will ease the pain and I'll have something to play during Christmas break.

 

[Valantar]

It's MediaMarkt, one of the biggest retailers. It just happens that only once in two weeks they had retail non-bundle PS5's listed at MSRP but you couldn't add it to the cart because website threw errors at you. Meanwhile all bundles with €60+ markup worked fine.

Anyway, ordered Judgement and Lost Judgement for PS5 in another store. It will ease the pain and I'll have something to play during Christmas break.

I would guess most MSRP (non-) bundles are clogged with bots trying to buy them, while the less profitable bundles aren't.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

I would guess most MSRP (non-) bundles are clogged with bots trying to buy them, while the less profitable bundles aren't.

I don't feel good about it but I used a bot to get mine after 4 months of being beaten to checkout by them. Wanted it for my Wife's birthday back in March.

 

[Valantar]

I don't feel good about it but I used a bot to get mine after 4 months of being beaten to checkout by them. Wanted it for my Wife's birthday back in March.

Yeah, I've heard of others doing the same. It's pretty insane, though it is ultimately a logical extension of the form of global capitalism that has been developing for the past decades - as capital is hoarded among ever fewer people, they learn to leverage it to create artificial scarcity in pretty much any market they want (assuming some reasonable fit between the resources available and the market size) and thus accumulate even more capital. It's almost as if deregulated markets and toothless, ineffectual market regulators might benefit those in power more than those witout it... And those of us somewhere in the middle end up having to adopt the tools and methods of those choking the markets as that becomes the only means of accessing it at all - further enriching those owning those tools. Wonderful.

 

[Liquid Cool]

Picked up a little Christmas present for myself....



When I was shopping for an IBM Model M keyboard for myself for Christmas...the first thing you notice is that the boards that are in good shape...aren't cheap! So...I bought a diamond in the rough and cleaned it up myself. She's a runner...works beautifully. It's an early Blue Label from 1992 before they added the drip holes for liquid spills and the cheaper/thinner steel backplate. I was fully prepared to do a 'bolt-mod' on her if need be, but she was only missing one plastic rivet when I took the keyboard apart for cleaning. Total cost. 85. for the keyboard and 7.50 for one Backspace keycap. The original keycap had some shine on it...I don't do shine. The person who originally owned this, must have been a poor typist...the Backspace key was literally glossed over and ALL of the other keys were just like new. .

After that nasty laptop I received over the summer...cleaning this up was a walk in the park. Quite a bit of fun too.

I know I say the say the same thing every time, but I feel it's necessary...apologize for the poor photography skills.

Best Regards,

Liquid Cool

P.S. Health has slightly improved. Nothing special...still one day at a time. My family actually set up a small desk that you're viewing in the photo right next to my closet so if I can't get moving...I can just roll out of bed in to my office chair. It's the simple things....

 

[GamerGuy]

Picked up a little Christmas present for myself....

View attachment 229303

When I was shopping for an IBM Model M keyboard for myself for Christmas...the first thing you notice is that the boards that are in good shape...aren't cheap! So...I bought a diamond in the rough and cleaned it up myself. She's a runner...works beautifully. It's an early Blue Label from 1992 before they added the drip holes for liquid spills and the cheaper/thinner steel backplate. I was fully prepared to do a 'bolt-mod' on her if need be, but she was only missing one plastic rivet when I took the keyboard apart for cleaning. Total cost. 85. for the keyboard and 7.50 for one Backspace keycap. The original keycap had some shine on it...I don't do shine. The person who originally owned this, must have been a poor typist...the Backspace key was literally glossed over and ALL of the other keys were just like new. .

After that nasty laptop I received over the summer...cleaning this up was a walk in the park. Quite a bit of fun too.

I know I say the say the same thing every time, but I feel it's necessary...apologize for the poor photography skills.

Best Regards,

Liquid Cool

P.S. Health has slightly improved. Nothing special...still one day at a time. My family actually set up a small desk that you're viewing in the photo right next to my closet so if I can't get moving...I can just roll out of bed in to my office chair. It's the simple things....

Nice! I had a Model M too, a Lexmark Model M circa 199x (can't remember now). I'd lost it when I'd moved to my dinky apartment, I might have put it in the wrong box to be thrown away. Dunno how the heck that happened.....I miss my Model M and those nice BS.

BTW, do take care of yourself, and stay strong!

 

[Nuckles56]

Bought myself a 6800xt as a Christmas present ($1650 AU, which is the best deal it's had since the start of the year), and decided that I probably better put a slightly larger power supply in my rig to run it and cope with the spikes that can happen.

 

[KLiKzg]

We boys, never grow up...it is always "a game thing".

So let the games begin:

 

[Chomiq]

Surprise delivery:

 

[lexluthermiester]

Surprise delivery:
View attachment 229371

Look on the bright side, you got quick shipping!

 

[seth1911]

In feb. this:

Today is Dec the 19th, and i bought so many useless things from the january loan

View attachment 229352
Bought myself a 6800xt as a Christmas present ($1650 AU, which is the best deal it's had since the start of the year), and decided that I probably better put a slightly larger power supply in my rig to run it and cope with the spikes that can happen.

na sorry but ill never buy a stupid GPU for those prices, before ill do that i buy so many other hardware stuff and even have more fun than with astupid GPU for about 1175 US $.


Funfact i have only AMD CPU an ill never would buy a GPU from AMD above 500$

 

[sam_86314]

Windows decided to crap itself on my main PC recently, so I decided to take this opportunity to not only do a clean install...

...but to also upgrade my boot drive. Went from my 3-year old 500GB Samsung 970 Evo to a 1TB WD Black SN750.

For $130 after-tax, it cost exactly the same as the EVO did in February 2019. How far we've come.

I have the drive partitioned so that reinstalling Windows doesn't erase everything, hence the 100GB partition size and two drive letters.

It performs great. Not quite as good in some places, but overall I'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

Spoiler: How the 970 EVO performed when new

Also, given my irrational hatred of Samsung, it feels good to finally get the last Samsung-branded product out of my system.

The old SSD will be going into a USB enclosure that I ordered.

 

[seth1911]

Samsung is overrated, today there are users out there they prais the garbage QLC as the new one (with sometimes lower write rate than a HDD)

I had now 2 times a QLC 1TB here holly molly those SSD are totaly garbage, yeah fast read but write without SLC Cache on pair with a Seagate 2,5 1TB 5400 HDD,
not the new one Seagate with 128MB Cache the old one 5400 rpm with 16MB Cache.

QLC 40,38 MB/s
HDD 40,5 MB/s

 

[sam_86314]

Samsung is overrated, today there are users out there they prais the garbage QLC as the new one (with sometimes lower write rate than a HDD)

I had now 2 times a QLC 1TB here holly molly those SSD are totaly garbage, yeah fast read but write without SLC Cache on pair with a Seagate 2,5 1TB 5400 HDD

Yeah, I've been actively avoiding QLC as it seems like a huge step backward in a lot of ways.

 

[seth1911]

QLC is garbage in my opinion

i wouldnt install a QLC to the PS3

 

[INSTG8R]

Samsung is overrated, today there are users out there they prais the garbage QLC as the new one (with sometimes lower write rate than a HDD)

I had now 2 times a QLC 1TB here holly molly those SSD are totaly garbage, yeah fast read but write without SLC Cache on pair with a Seagate 2,5 1TB 5400 HDD,
not the new one Seagate with 128MB Cache the old one 5400 rpm with 16MB Cache.

QLC 40,38 MB/s
HDD 40,5 MB/s

I dunno I bought a 1TB 860 QVO just for MS Games and well CoDs go there too. I don’t put any expectations in its performance just that it’s a drive I don’t care if I have to format it(UWP locks it out if you reinstall your OS) so for the value and purpose I’m fine with it

 

[seth1911]

For sure im fine with it with a new Seagate 2.5 7200rpm with 128MB Cache write rate about 94 MB/s.
Or my 240GB TLC without SLC Cache with 146 MB/s

QLC 1TB 40,38 MB/S without SLC Cache
QLC is nearly on pair with an Micro SD Card

 

[sam_86314]

For sure im fine with it with a new Seagate 2.5 7200rpm with 128MB Cache write rate about 94 MB/s.
Or my 240GB TLC without SLC Cache with 146 MB/s

QLC 1TB 40,38 MB/S without SLC Cache
QLC is nearly on pair with an Micro SD Card

Y'know, if you could get a 1TB QLC SSD for like $50, then I could see myself picking some up.

Problem is that a 1TB Samsung 870 QVO (QLC) costs more than a 1TB Crucial MX500 (TLC, and my favorite SATA SSD).

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

For sure im fine with it with a new Seagate 2.5 7200rpm with 128MB Cache write rate about 94 MB/s.

FFS, I had a Seagate Barracuda 500 GB that does easily 120-something MB/s at the beginning regions. And the first one I got with such platter bandwidth, was a 7200.12 purchased on February 9, 2010.
I had another one that I purchased later on in that decade. Yes, the WDs usually were less than that and are at 94 MB/s or similar, but the random seek latency was likely lower. Barracudas since circa-2010, usually get near 130 MB/s at the beginning! At least the 500s did! Way before that SMR BS!