PC related hardware purchase that you regret very quickly after purchase.

[AusWolf]

From memory and taking a quick look, they were very much competitors trading blows at the time, X800XT won some, 6800U won others, really depended what you played. Of course both could be a silicone lottery winner and overclock well back then too, as my 6800U did picking up another ~10% performance. I've always been a visuals junkie to supporting the latest feature set was a huge plus that made it easy to decide between the two at the time.

It does seem from newer stuff I follow (pixelpipes on YT), with super-mature drivers and much newer CPU eliminating any bottleneck, the X800XT does manage to overall eek an overall advantage, just a shame they weren't SM 3.0 compliant because on my retro rig there are games / settings / tests where that really lets the X800XT down (well, my X850XT), where the 6800U holds it's head high.

The only problem is that there were no games that required SM3.0 at that time, making my 7800 GS an even bigger disappointment. The only thing I can remember is HDR lights in Oblivion, which looked spectacular, but ran like meh (and overheated the card of course).

 

[Apocalypsee]

The only problem is that there were no games that required SM3.0 at that time, making my 7800 GS an even bigger disappointment. The only thing I can remember is HDR lights in Oblivion, which looked spectacular, but ran like meh (and overheated the card of course).

That's why IMO the SM3.0 vs 2.0 thing is like ray tracing nowadays. Yes it looks better but at huge performance cost, might take a couple more gens to be viable.

 

[Evelynn]

My old 10900k. Power hungry, lower IPC than the 5700X, slower in gaming than the 5000 series in general. It was very fun to overclock but it was just completely made obsolete when 12th gen released. The games that I typically play are very single-threaded (MMO's) and memory latency sensitive, so Intel was the only real choice for me at the time of purchase.

I do miss having 10 cores though. I wish Intel would release a consumer grade 10 core so that I could disable Hyperthreading and still have plenty of threads leftover.

 

[wolf]

The only problem is that there were no games that required SM3.0 at that time, making my 7800 GS an even bigger disappointment. The only thing I can remember is HDR lights in Oblivion, which looked spectacular, but ran like meh (and overheated the card of course).

Yeah easy to see why the 7800GS was super disappointing given it only launched in Feb 2006 on top of overheating as you say, and was such a performance sidegrade to a then ~18-24 month old card, if only you'd held out till April but I don't even know if the 7900GS AGP was announced when you made your purchase.

I had the 6800U from very close to launch which was mid 2004 and in typical fashion am an early adopter for visual feature sets and large perf upgrades (which it was from a 9800Pro), and I always played with the bells and whistles where available.

For my collecting, I wouldn't be after a 7800GS AGP unless it basically fell in my lap, an AGP 7900GS/7950GT would be massively more desirable to me. And for other purchases say in modern times, I certainly wouldn't buy a card for feature set only if it's a sidegrade in perf, it would need to also represent a considerable perf uptick, as I'd imagine you would after being burned by the let down that was your 7800GS.

 

[Princess Garnet]

In contrast to purchases I regret, the GeForce 6800 GS AGP might be the purchase I am most glad I ever made. I even bought it used. It only cost $100 and that was when the GeForce 7 series was the latest thing, so it was only a one generation old higher-ish end card, for $100. Things have changed...

I remember the AGP and PCI Express GS were different. The AGP version wasn't clocked higher like the PCI Express version was, but the trade-off was you could sometimes unlock pixel or vertex shaders. I remember trying that, and it mostly worked... but I had very slight "snow" (White pixels) in a game or two, and I probably could have figured out which it was, but in the end I just disabled both as opposed to trying to enable one. It was already a good value.

What's even funnier is graphics cards are probably one of the few things I won't chance buying used anymore, yet I've only ever had good experiences doing so. Probably because a $20 GeForce 4 Ti 4200 (two generations old at the time) and $100 GeForce 6800 GS (one generation old at the time) are much more of a write off than hundreds of dollars for anything remotely comparable relatively to performance of today. This is only reinforced by the fact that I've had more troubles with GPUs in the last decade (GeForce GTX 560 Ti failed right outside warranty, a handful of GTX 970s had unbearable coil whine, 7800 XT was problematic for some reason from day one, etc.), so I only do those new now. They are just too expensive now, and also harder for me to put faith in their reliability.

 

[Redwoodz]

A long time ago I convinced my parents to splurge on a gaming console(X-mas present). I chose the Magnavox Odyssey2. Should have gotten the Atari 2600 or Intellivision as they became much more popular and had lots of game while I was stuck on a platform that faded away.

Tried a Jetway AMD motherboard, lasted about 3 weeks.

Gigabyte gpu in the early 2000's that lasted about a month.

Nvidia GTX 960 2GB. Last time I purchased a Nvidia gpu. Their low tier cards are absolutely trash for the money they cost.

 

[nguyen]

Yeah easy to see why the 7800GS was super disappointing given it only launched in Feb 2006 on top of overheating as you say, and was such a performance sidegrade to a then ~18-24 month old card, if only you'd held out till April but I don't even know if the 7900GS AGP was announced when you made your purchase.

I had the 6800U from very close to launch which was mid 2004 and in typical fashion am an early adopter for visual feature sets and large perf upgrades (which it was from a 9800Pro), and I always played with the bells and whistles where available.

For my collecting, I wouldn't be after a 7800GS AGP unless it basically fell in my lap, an AGP 7900GS/7950GT would be massively more desirable to me. And for other purchases say in modern times, I certainly wouldn't buy a card for feature set only if it's a sidegrade in perf, it would need to also represent a considerable perf uptick, as I'd imagine you would after being burned by the let down that was your 7800GS.

I bought the 7950GX2 for 600usd back in 2006 , too bad I damaged one of the chip when screwing back the heatsink after cleaning (I didn't know that we should tighten the screws in the X pattern at that time, it was a valuable lesson)

 

[windwhirl]

Corsair K60 keyboard.

Bought entirely because my 24 year old keyboard that came from a HP Vectra PC stopped working correctly.

It's been two years and there's two things to say about that K60:
1-It's slowly breaking apart, because apparently I type with so much force that I'm destroying the plastic bits under the keycaps that hold them to the switches. So like 20% of the keys are without keycaps currently.
2-I spend double the time typing than before, because I keep removing duplicate or triplicate letters, problem that I didn't have with my older keyboard. At first I figured it was just me not being used to these mechanical switches, but currently I'm unsure if it's that or if the keyboard had defects from factory. Too late anyway for warranty or anything like that.

 

[wNotyarD]

Corsair K60 keyboard.

2-I spend double the time typing than before, because I keep removing duplicate or triplicate letters, problem that I didn't have with my older keyboard. At first I figured it was just me not being used to these mechanical switches, but currently I'm unsure if it's that or if the keyboard had defects from factory. Too late anyway for warranty or anything like that.

Linear keys? Yeah, that happens. To eliminate this issue you'd need any keyboard with tactile (not necessarily clicky) switches, usually brown colored.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

That's why IMO the SM3.0 vs 2.0 thing is like ray tracing nowadays. Yes it looks better but at huge performance cost, might take a couple more gens to be viable.

That would be like anti-aliasing 20 years ago, where it wasn't worth it for multiple gens, because of having a severe performance penalty!
Then I tried anisotropic filtering and it looked good, without a severe performance penalty.

 

[Apocalypsee]

That would be like anti-aliasing 20 years ago, where it wasn't worth it for multiple gens, because of having a severe performance penalty!
Then I tried anisotropic filtering and it looked good, without a severe performance penalty.

In some sense, yeah, way back then even 32-bit color can eat performance. Nowadays anisotropic filtering is pretty much 'free' without performance penalty even on integrated GPU. While antialiasing is being 'forced' in some games in form of TAA. I don't really like TAA tbh, I rather have nvidia old Quincunx antialiasing than that.

Back in mid 2000 improvement in image quality improves significantly with angle-independent anisotropic filtering on HD 5800 series and crazy naming AA modes, Morphological AA, Coverage Sampling AA on HD 6000 and GTX 2XX series. It felt like all DLSS thing nowadays is backwards from those day, reducing quality to improve performance

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

In some sense, yeah, way back then even 32-bit color can eat performance. Nowadays anisotropic filtering is pretty much 'free' without performance penalty even on integrated GPU. While antialiasing is being 'forced' in some games in form of TAA. I don't really like TAA tbh, I rather have nvidia old Quincunx antialiasing than that.

Back in mid 2000 improvement in image quality improves significantly with angle-independent anisotropic filtering on HD 5800 series and crazy naming AA modes, Morphological AA, Coverage Sampling AA on HD 6000 and GTX 2XX series. It felt like all DLSS thing nowadays is backwards from those day, reducing quality to improve performance

At least, 32 BPP didn't rob the graphics performance like anti-aliasing did in the later-AGP days.

 

[A&P211]

I regret buying my last laptop, it had a 3080ti, I mostly play games that are 5-8yrs old. Actually, I will add another regret, my current laptop with a 4080. I still play the same games with an even faster graphics card.
I'm giving my current laptop to my son and looking for a 4060 laptop. I dont need so much power in a laptop GPU.

 

[jarablue]

I have a 48in C2 LG TV that I use as a monitor. I just bought a 42in C4 and like that better. I do regret spending the money though. But I have a nice triple monitor setup now. 40inch, 42inch and 48inch.

Well if you had a heaping of bad, sometimes the scales need to have good on them to balance the universe...is what I say!

 

[sLowEnd]

I despise my CM Quickfire Rapid (MX Blue). I thought I'd like the clickiness of it, but it turns out I don't. Also, its mini USB cable likes to pop out if the keyboard is moved.

I shelved the thing and haven't touched it in years.

 

[Apocalypsee]

I despise my CM Quickfire Rapid (MX Blue). I thought I'd like the clickiness of it, but it turns out I don't. Also, its mini USB cable likes to pop out if the keyboard is moved.

I shelved the thing and haven't touched it in years.

I got the CM Quickfire (the full sized one and using MX Black switch) and I liked it. I changed it because some buttons started to malfunction, changed to another MX Black keyboard. But I noticed the newer MX Black isn't as stiff as the older ones. I like the chunky pressure needed to type compared to clicky blue ones. Talking about the blue, I did buy a Blue switch keyboard (I think it's Kalih switch?) some Chinese brand that I forgot the brand, because I sold the next day. The damn thing is too noisy. No more clicky switch for me.

I been thinking about what kind of hardware I regret buying, I hardly can find any. But then I remembered the GTX 970 3.5GB memory fiasco. That one I sold rather quickly because I encounter stutter when I maxed out the texture quality and buy R9 290X instead. That card is mighty, and hot but I love the performance. Because of 512-bit memory bus it handle AA like it was nothing. But that's it, the more I think the more I think of something I regret NOT buying lol

 

[Frick]

I do sort of regret getting a 4K 32" monitor, 1440p would have been a much better fit for that size, but it was a good price, so I don't regret it as such.

 

[eidairaman1]

I regret buying my last laptop, it had a 3080ti, I mostly play games that are 5-8yrs old. Actually, I will add another regret, my current laptop with a 4080. I still play the same games with an even faster graphics card.
I'm giving my current laptop to my son and looking for a 4060 laptop. I dont need so much power in a laptop GPU.

They run way too hot because they are too friggin thin

I got the CM Quickfire (the full sized one and using MX Black switch) and I liked it. I changed it because some buttons started to malfunction, changed to another MX Black keyboard. But I noticed the newer MX Black isn't as stiff as the older ones. I like the chunky pressure needed to type compared to clicky blue ones. Talking about the blue, I did buy a Blue switch keyboard (I think it's Kalih switch?) some Chinese brand that I forgot the brand, because I sold the next day. The damn thing is too noisy. No more clicky switch for me.

I been thinking about what kind of hardware I regret buying, I hardly can find any. But then I remembered the GTX 970 3.5GB memory fiasco. That one I sold rather quickly because I encounter stutter when I maxed out the texture quality and buy R9 290X instead. That card is mighty, and hot but I love the performance. Because of 512-bit memory bus it handle AA like it was nothing. But that's it, the more I think the more I think of something I regret NOT buying lol

Speaking of 290X, when I got my 290, there were no 8G cards in existence yet.

If I can find a 8G 290X VaporX or a 390X/390 Nitro 8G, working I might dable with them.

 

[Caring1]

Seems i got lucky. Just a vertical GPU bracket that I ended up taking out. Looks pretty but is a absolute pain to install/remove.

I just removed a Vertical GPU bracket (CoolerMaster product) and found the PCIe4 @16 cable to be faulty after minimal use, I assume the cable folded to harshly where it went into the PCIe slot in the Motherboard. It kept giving errant readings in GPU-z as1x1, 16x1, 8x4, 16x4 or not displaying any video output.

 

[AusWolf]

I just removed a Vertical GPU bracket (CoolerMaster product) and found the PCIe4 @16 cable to be faulty after minimal use, I assume the cable folded to harshly where it went into the PCIe slot in the Motherboard. It kept giving errant readings in GPU-z as1x1, 16x1, 8x4, 16x4 or not displaying any video output.

I don't like vertical mounts anyway. They tend to squeeze your GPU right up against your side panel, choking it from airflow. Not worth it just for the sake of looking pretty.

 

[cou60]

i have many regret,
the first is 8800 GT 256 mo, the memory became a problem.
my E8400 that became obsolete with game that stard using 4 core
290 in crossfire, i had some strange stutter and a lot of heat was released,
980 TI used. good card but smell like cigarette,
i9 10850k, was not much better than my xeon 1660x3 OC and was very hot

 

[pattesatan]

All things ASUS and Corsair.
ASUS gfxcards,motherboards, Corsair memory, Corsair PSU's

 

[Klemc]

3060xc, over 1660S single fan. I hoped to get 3070 but prices were bad, i shouldn't get it, six month later 4070ti and it's perfect.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

980 TI used. good card but smell like cigarette

That's typical, it seems! lol Topcat over at badcaps. net, was talking about that being a big problem, when he deals with PC hardware!

Another one that's very likely in the northeast U.S.: Hardware that has wood smoke from a wood stove!

 

[Lew Zealand]

Maybe a few-ish.

i7-9700F ended up not being a great purchase as it needs more voltage/wattage than expected to maintain clocks. And I got a R5 5600 not too long after which competes with it very well while running cooler (lol now a R7 5800X3D, the 5600 is in kid's PC now). But it's not even death by a million cuts, more like minor annoyances as it's still a good CPU and many CPU-demanding games really like the 8C8T configuration.

Also Radeon 6600 XT which I got as (still) my most expensive GPU ever as prices were falling (but still high) after the mining craze was fading. But that regret is only the cost vs. where that was a year later. As a GPU it's almost exactly my favorite balance: good 1440p performance with optimized settings, runs cool, sips power, responds well to UV/OC, and most importantly: powers down very well when playing older/lower GPU demand games. My less-than-half-the-price 6700 XT does..... one of those: 1440p performance.

However on the way is a new GPU to potentially/likely take the 6600 XT's 1440p performance + low power on older games crown. I ain't sayin which as it gets a lot of sh** in the press but I'll preface it with: I happen to like very much the 3050 6GB for all of those features but at 1080p with slot-power only.