In hindsight, what was the best purchase you made?

[Jubi23]

My best purchase would definatly be my
K8V SE Deluxe/Amd Athlon 64 3200+ Combo for 180 bucks

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Jubi23
My best purchase would definatly be my
K8V SE Deluxe/Amd Athlon 64 3200+ Combo for 180 bucks

:Q When was that?

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: Jubi23
My best purchase would definatly be my
K8V SE Deluxe/Amd Athlon 64 3200+ Combo for 180 bucks

:Q When was that?

July. I got in on the deal too but my K8V SE Deluxe died after like 2 weeks. Am using Chaintech NF3 board now.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Maggotry
21" Sony trinitron monitor. I've upgraded lots of parts over the years, but this thing has remained constant. Looks as fine now as it did when I bought it years ago. The best single piece of hardware I ever bought.

Good point - also got a 21" Trinitron tube here (Nokia 445Pro). Paid $235 for it, and thus far it's done pretty well. It did develop a broken solder joint which took a little while to diagnose and repair, but that's been the only trouble the thing's ever had. Lovely picture and high refresh rates. A bit heavy though - the desk is starting to sag - but that's the price you pay for such a thing.

That said, my desk has also served me well for a number of years. It is a corner desk, and was probably bought sometime in 1997. It does sag about 3 degrees toward the middle, a result of years of supporting a heavy PC, and progressively larger monitors.

 

[RedShirt]

ATI Radeon 9500 softmodded to 9700 (running overclocked to around 9700 pro speeds). I spent 162 shipped for this card even before the softmod was out (only hard mod). By the time I received it the softmod just came out and decided not to hard mod. I've had this card for over a year and a half and I cannot justify getting a new card.

Heck, real 9700pros sell for 130-140 on the FS/FT forum, I spent about 20 bucks more for this card over a year and a half ago.

 

[Budman]

My Dell P1110 .

 

[magomago]

My CD Burner back in mid 1999. MY dad actually went to COMPUSA for me to buy me a 2x Acer Burner for 99.99!!!! What a deal!!! Man i finally started unloading things off my 4 gig hdd like crazy and the burner served me PROUDLY till 2002 when it died and i couldn't get it to work (I even tried to trouble shoot it for a few months in hopes it would solve it) and i finally replaced it for 60 dollars with a 12x burner (And i was amazed by that speed...a few months later i would end up buying a totally new pc and now have a 48x burner )

I would also think anyone who got a 9700pro when they first came out made a great hardware decision! Also, those who invested in a 3.06Ghz P4 when they first came out too are probably still laughing at the masses for having a fast cpu even after (has it been two years since the 3.06? I can't remember )

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: magomago
Also, those who invested in a 3.06Ghz P4 when they first came out too are probably still laughing at the masses for having a fast cpu even after (has it been two years since the 3.06? I can't remember )

November 2002. I don't agree with you. Sure that was one high clocking chip for its time. But at ~$640, I don't think they made a good investment. The other 533 MHz fsb chips were the kings of their time (ahead of AMD) and were far less costly. See my post above for the whole system at the time cost less than just that CPU and had nearly the same performance.

 

[Koing]

Would be my 23" Sony LCD monitor 1920x1200 goodness

Next up would be the Sony 530A with the firmware upgrade so I can burn +/- at 8x speeds . Dam sweet.

Then would be the 48x liteon burner. FRICKING AMAZING for £55 and burns at 48 speeds!

Koing

 

[WobbleWobble]

My Samsung ML4600 laser printer. Saved me a heck of a lot of trouble with clogging and expensive ink.

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: Jubi23
My best purchase would definatly be my
K8V SE Deluxe/Amd Athlon 64 3200+ Combo for 180 bucks

AGREED!!!!!!

EDIT: I'd actuually have to go with my butcher knife that took me all the way up the corpoate ladder!!! :evil:

 

[CrackRabbit]

My Radeon 9500 Pro followed closely by the P4 1.8 socket 423 i bought cheap and sold later for an insane profit.

 

[CraigRT]

Seagate hard drives (no more failing Maxtors yay!)
1GB of RAM instead of 512
Radeon 9700 Pro over my Ti4200 (MUCH better performance)
Athlon64 3200+
all purchases I was very happy with when I made them!

 

[Fern]

#1 My AXP mobile 2600+ cpu.

#2 w/b the Professional Viewsonic 22" monitor I got for $200.

 

[PCHPlayer]

My Nanao T2-17 monitor. I bought it in 1994 and just replaced it after the tube started to go. The image was clean and it could even do 1600x1200@66. This was back in the day when everyone was buying 800x600 15" curved tube monitors. Even though I paid $1200 back in '94, it was still the best purchase.
I hope in 10 years I can say the same thing about the Viewsonic p95f+ I bought to replace the Nanao.

A close second is my Antec 1040B. Love this case!

 

[chr6]

best - planar px191
worst - first hp computer

 

[RaistlinZ]

Best: Plextor 12x10x32x CDRW that I bought back in late 1999.

First and only CDRW that I've ever owned and it has never given me a single problem. It cost me $240.00 when I bought it and, fortunately, I've never had a need to upgrade it yet.

 

[Broadkipa]

Has to be my first 3D card Voodoo 2, best money I ever spent. What an amazing differance , will never see that jump in video perfomance again.

 

[ectx]

Crucial pc2100 - sold 2 year later at a gain.
BH-5 - can sell them at a gain if I want to.

 

[ttown]

In terms of usefulness-per-dollar

$12.50 for a used-but-spotless Dreamcast (+ $1.50 for a new dc keyboard + $5 for a new dc mouse + various other game controllers for uber cheap)

$78 AR for a 19" KDS monitor ("msrp $189")

$30 for Telex EV SonicXS 2.1 speakers ("msrp $199")

$99 for a Dell P1500 Laser printer ("msrp $199")

$500 for a Dell Inspiron 2650 laptop ("msrp $700ish")

 

[WHipLAsh13]

Originally posted by: Maggotry
21" Sony trinitron monitor. I've upgraded lots of parts over the years, but this thing has remained constant. Looks as fine now as it did when I bought it years ago. The best single piece of hardware I ever bought.

I second that. My monitor is the only constant in my system.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: zzzz
infocus X1

Yeah, I can dig that. Guess maybe it's my Sanyo PLV-Z2. Uh, and I just added a MyHD 120 card and daughterboard to complement the Z2. Wow factor!

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: PCHPlayer
My Nanao T2-17 monitor. I bought it in 1994 and just replaced it after the tube started to go. The image was clean and it could even do 1600x1200@66. This was back in the day when everyone was buying 800x600 15" curved tube monitors. Even though I paid $1200 back in '94, it was still the best purchase.
I hope in 10 years I can say the same thing about the Viewsonic p95f+ I bought to replace the Nanao.

A close second is my Antec 1040B. Love this case!

I still have my Nanao F2-17ex (it's a Hitachi tube shadow mask, whereas the T2 was aperture grill, I believe), but I'm not using it although I think it still looked as good as the day I bought it until I stopped using it about a year and a half ago. Bought around the beginning of 1996. That monitor and all its accessories were quality in every respect, especially when you compare it to the cut-corner stuff I see nowadays. Cost me $1000 and I bought it sight unseen. There was NO place that demoed that sucker. It was my first new or color monitor and it was great and it would have been my choice in this thread until a year or two ago. The Planar PX191 I'm looking at now puts it to shame, though.

 

[Arcanedeath]

I'd have to say my Geforce 4 Ti 4400 back in the day, I bought it the day it was relased on a killer deal for $235 and lasted like 2.5 years and though 3 system upgrades before I finaly replaed it w/ my 9800Pro

 

[MDE]

It's a tossup between my Antec Sonata, 17" Sony monitor (that I'm looking into replacing), and any Logitech mouse I've owned.