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Coinciding with HEXUS turning 20.
A GPS tracker for the Moose.
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Ooooh difficult! But probably my Dell Powerconnect 2708 that is still in use now. And cost me 99p from fleabay because the guy mistyped the listing...
Intel i7-4790T: sips power but has the threadz when you need em,
Samsung ML-1210: been through so many toner carts, still ticking along with no fuss for my mono document prints,
Toyota Prius: Now at 153,000 miles, only major repair was some worn out wheel bearings 3 years ago, just passed MoT again with no advisories, still doing 55mpg on average.
Crikey, I was a mod here before the wipe in 2003 named Grendel, probably be around 17 year or so thinking on it now!!!
As for tech purchases my Athlon 64 from around 2003 is still in use on a little unknown motherboard brand who are even bigger now...ASRock!!! This machine is now used alongside another with a 2007 Socket 939 setup for writing floppy discs with them having internal drives, writing stuff for Atari ST and also hooking my parallel cable up to my Commodore 1540 disc drive to write C64 discs.
This fan https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01FJSJ2QK/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Series 1 TiVo.
Bought in early 2000, recently died from power supply failure.
My Sony dual alarm clock. Saved me sleeping in past the alarm going off by having that second alarm set 10 mins later (also makes it feel like I've had a bit of a lay in). Not been late for work since having it.
The one that springs to mind is a Dell 2405FPW monitor. It was a massive upgrade over the highly-regarded LG Flatron CRT it replaced.
It broke a few years later, but Dell replaced it out of warranty with a 2407FPW and it's still going strong (was used most days until last summer - now it's a spare). Got a 2408WFP-HC as a second screen now (still a very good screen) alongside my main Viewsonic VP2770-LED.
Other than that the Celeron 300A. Obviously.
T>The good thing about my '78 motorcycle, don't have to pay tax anymore, historic class.
Purchase most impressed by Marantz MCR610, beautiful design, and plays virtually any input or output. PC seems bullet proof(famous last words!), but I also appreciate simple things like Logitech G13 and Corsair gaming mouse
Difficult question, if I was to say the purchase which had the most impact, it would probably be my boss QC15 headphones.
I don't like Bose, I never have and I still don't, but when I was about to do a LOT of long haul flights, I stumped up the cash and bought them. The audio quality is decent, but coloured, but they are soooooo comfortable and the noise cancelling is excellent. They made many, many journeys that would have otherwise been rather uncomfortable, much more bearable.
There is a lot of purchases that have been good, but that's one I would do exactly the same, over and over and over again if given the chance.
Panasonic TH-42PX60B plasma television (with stand), my first flat screen tv and its still going strong being used by my brother.
Q Acoustics 2020i speakers in gloss white. Made my own wall mounts and they look like they are floating.
Philips Imageo rechargeable lights.
Lithium Ion rechargeable cordless drills with 4ah+ batteries.
My first PC.
My first home built PC.
Sat Nav.
Nothing simple about a mouse, keyboard or controller (and monitor). These are the things you interact with more than anything else on a PC and should be the most carefully considered of all your components, but sadly they are often an after-thought behind the stuff in the case.Quote:
Originally Posted by johnroe
Logitech G15 rev 1 still using it at work. Love that keyboard. If they still made it would have bought another for home now.
True. I suppose some items impress me for quality, but with accessories like mouse and gamepad it's about ergonomics. I can play for many hours without realising it, plus of course better game play. Good headphones as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by this_is_gav
Oh, that is VERY difficult, because so many things are great, but in so ma y different ways. How do I rate a camera/lens to a kitchen blender to a domestic (living room) HD/DVD recorder to a colour photo printer to .... well, you get the point.
For instance, the purpose (for me) of camera/lens is largely about taking photos to print, so the printer is critical, but without camera/lens I'd have nothing to print. Chicken and egg problem.
That would have to be either my Mpio FL100 MP3 player with 256MB flash storage + SD card expansion slot back in 2002 or my Google G1 smartphone around 2010.
Both were game changers as far as I am concerned.
Oh and of course my still functioning Samsung 830 SSD, that I bought after the OCZ Vertex 2E SSD went *poof* after about 12 months use.
https://s25.postimg.cc/ek37ps5cv/sum_screengrab_106.jpg https://s25.postimg.cc/it7xrz3hb/sum_screengrab_107.jpg
Logitech Z-5500 Speaker System - 12 years and works perfectly.
Came to say these tooQuote:
Originally Posted by shayo7
I've had some Logitech Z-2300 speakers since 2006, and they're still my main speakers now. Served me well, although it's only a 2.1 setup, so not quite as fancy as yours!Quote:
Originally Posted by shayo7
My medium range trap detector. Saved me from a couple of potentially embarrassing escapades.
That and my phaser. Great for starting fires.
My 2700K. When I bought my rig in 2011, it was an entire thing, when Sandy Bridge came out. However, when I got to Scan, they had sold out of 2500Ks, so I ended up settling for a 2500 rather than wait a week and it was the biggest mistake of my life. Not being able to OC, it felt like I left so much performance on the table, it annoyed me endlessly. When the 7700K came out I was planning on rebuilding the base system, but it was going to cost me £600+ for what amounted to a CPU upgrade, and I couldn't bring myself to do it.
So I bought a used 2700K instead. I paid £160, and it was an absolutely MASSIVE performance boost. I not only went from 3.5ghz to 4.8ghz, but doubled the thread count too. I've never gotten such a big performance boost for so little money before!
I bought a pair of Wharfedale Zaldek S1000 speakers from some dodgy guy going door to door nearly 20 years ago. Now all other speakers sound utterly gutless. I can cause an artificial quake with these buggers.Quote:
Originally Posted by =assassin=
Creative Labs 5.1 speaker set from around 1999... oh wait you said the last 20 years..
hmm, Logitec K120 keyboard...
For best purchase its got to be my i5-2500K. That said, my monitor pre-dates that by about 3-4 years as I decided to get a better than typical Viewsonic and its deserved its 'long service medal'.
Ummm, current year 2018, minus 20, = 1998 and later. Last time I looked, 1999 was later than 1998. So the Creatives qualify.Quote:
Originally Posted by big_hairy_rob
I know we're all wishing we didn't have to live through another coupke of years of Brexit-this and Brexit-that, every time we turn a TV or radio on, but still ..... ;)
Has to be my first PC from Tiny Computers, it had a PII 350mhz processor, 256mb ram and an 8.4gb hard drive.
Why this, it was the start of the never ending upgrade cycle which lead to the PC I own today.
PII > PIII > P4 > E4300 > Q9550 > i5-3570k
funny to look back
350mhz - 4.5ghz x4
256mb - 16gb
8.4gb - 8.25tb
ATI Rage Pro - RX 580
If Non-new stuff is okay: my ebay-sourced Thinkpad X220.
Only cost about £200 three years ago and turned out to be an ex-corporate laptop with maxed out upgrades :D (Fastest i7 CPU, best screen variant, upgraded Wifi card, internal 3g modem and so on) All i had to do was swap in a SSD.
I use it for tech support calls and when out and about. It's small, fairly light and built like a tank, suprisingly decent performance given it's age too. :)
Hmmm, tough to narrow down the term "Great" as it can go several ways.
I guess an SSD (any of them I've bought) sounds silly to describe as great but probably one of the best transitions I've ever made in terms of tech having a daily effect. When I've booted/used systems at work that are still regular HDD it feels like I've wasted so much time tapping fingers on desk waiting for something to complete.
i7 6700K and Samsung S9+ were also huge game changers after many years in the wilderness with their predecessors.
Oddy I've just noticed the Logitech EasyCall Speakerphone - the oldest bit of kit I think I have still in use on a proper daily basis, purely as a speaker on my main PC when it's not being pumped through the TV...... to me that feels pretty great.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....10VP1RWHNL.jpg
Hmmmm, there are a trio of items I bought ages ago and still use daily :
My Kindle, 3rd ed with keyboard.
My iRiver H120 upgraded to 128GB HDD
My Sennheiser HD580
Cheap Chinese ipad clone. Used as a ebook reader. I must've read literally thousands of books on it.Quote:
Originally Posted by HEXUS
Best thing ever invented...
For me its gotta be my Fujifilm X-H1 + Grip.
Katana ? Gawd I've always wanted one of those. never had the money, but the old GPz was enough to scare it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ttaskmaster
This exactly - I do long haul to Australia every year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Biscuit
CompuCleaner - Electric Air Duster
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....L._SL1500_.jpg
Audio-technica Pro-8HEMW : Head worn mic for speech recognition and Asus Xonar DG sound card.
A QNAP TS-877 R7 1700 16GB is on my wish list.
Oculus Rift.
Some of the immersion into some of the games I have is astounding. Definitely a massive improvement over monitor, keyboard and mouse any day :)
I'm still using one of those 2700K, with a 1060. I have no problem playing games that many complain about, so I don't intend to replace it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tunnah
I just think everyone would have voted differently if they knew that Leave meant we'd be subjected to years of speculative whinging, but yes it makes the news predictable and therefore boring.Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
Intel Celeron 300A, price for the performance cannot be ignored !
I remember when I bought two 12MB Voodoo 2 cards back in '98 for a PC upgrade. Being able to run all of my games at 1024x768-if they supported that resolution-made me feel like was the king of everything (which I was :-)).
Logitech MX518, 8+ years and counting
Core 2 Quad Q6600, Overclocked it
Kobo eBook Reader, switched to Kindle now though
Galaxy Note (1st Gen), revolutionary
For other things i'd add to this list:
1. A Razer Naga mouse.
Originally brought for use in WoW, but i'm now on my third incarnation after literally wearing out the previous ones.
There was a significant learning curve, but having a bank of 12 hardware buttons under your thumb is incredibly useful.
For most games it's very beneficial (it maps the number row or keypad block on the keyboard to that thumb-grid, so as long as you don't have a STUPID game with hardcoded keymaps, you can use it)
But oddly, i've often found non-game usage to be most useful. I have several different profiles for app usage, enabling macro keys for copy/paste/cut/new tab/undo close tab and so on.
2. A dedicated NAS. Shockingly easy to forget, as it's just always there, and always working. It's the backbone of my home network, originally specced with 3x1tb drives and now furnished with 3x3tb drives. Has suffered two active drive failures in it's lifetime but recovered the data with zero losses.
Was expensive to buy (a NAS and three large drives are not cheap) but i think it's paid for itself several times over in the many years i've had it.
I can tell you for a dead certainty that not "everybody" would have voted differently, though I doubt anybody, on either side, would have voted for the subsequent process to be handled the way it has been.Quote:
Originally Posted by johnroe
However, that risks turning this into a Brexit thread, which it isn't, so can I ask everyone, please .... don't do that. If you want another Brexit go-around, start a separate thread for it.
We have Brexit threads? I'm not sure now if I should read it...or leave it a year ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtyson
My biggest gripe with the Prius is people on the roads take one look at your car and assume you are a cabbie! Why couldn't cabbies go for some French brand?
I'm not entirely convinced anything much of significance will have changed in a year, so ... does it matter?Quote:
Originally Posted by 3dcandy
We have had Brexit threads, though none actively for a while. If you (/shudder) want another one, oh well .... but not in here, please.
My best purchase would have to be the PS2. It just changed the gaming universe for me.
Because a cabbie won't be in business long if their French car is constantly breaking down.Quote:
Originally Posted by OilSheikh
Not as good as the Dreamcast though ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by OilSheikh
Aww, now look what you've done. I've got housework to do and I want to go play Dreamcast games now instead :D :D
It was a piece of satire on what's happened after that vote. I was only taking a different viewpoint to the one you proposed. To me the whole debate was finished with once the vote was counted, end of.Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
DELL 3007WFP monitor. Still have it. Every time I upgrade the graphics card / CPU I notice subtle visual improvements. Have 980Ti / i7 4960X currently. Second would be my DAC...a Matrix Sabre Pro.
"In comes 4K, RGB..."
It's been a sad 20 years if RGB is 1 of the first things that comes to mind. I still don't get the obsession over it.
1 of my earliest of the past 20 years and my most recent are probably my 2 best purchases.
My Kiiro CA-128S MP3 player started off a long succession of DAP purchases. I think it was the first 128MB flash player, holding about 3 albums and was tiny.
My recent Ricoh Theta V purchase allows me to get 360 pictures (and videos) in a second, so I look like a muppet momentarily instead of for a few minutes like I used to by capturing photospheres with my phone.
best tech purchase would have to be an external harddrive and Norton Ghost - Not only have i had a computer completely go up in smoke and the backup saved my data.
but it has also given me an easy way to reset my system quickly, which has been a real time-saver.
Second best would be either the core i7 2600k i bought at release and am still using to this day, Or the Steelseries Merc Stealth keyboard. I never could get a "normal" keyboard to feel great when playing with WSAD or arrow-keys.
for me it was an ssd sata drive... the difference was huge!, the wife says its the rabbit vibrator for the same reasons :S
It is only the last 10 years or so I have had any opportunity to purchase tech for myself, and most of that was 2 prebuilt PCs.
If I consider the best purchase to be the one with the biggest impact, thats an SSD.
Voodoo 2
Probably my 60" 1080p Sharp that I bought around 2011-2012 for £1000 which is still doing me nicely now until a 65" OLED UHD drops for around £1500. Also my 3570k/Z77/16GB RAM that is still serving me nicely, had to replace the 3570k for a 3770k though because I needed the extra threads.
i7 2600k which I bought back in 2011, although I've recently sold it the thing pretty much handled it's own for a good chunk of this decade and still isn't quite obsolete.
I don't think any processor will have that kind of longevity, especially since AMD are now keeping Intel on their toes.
Wow it brings water to my eyes reading all the memorable comments taking me back to the early days.
For me its my first gaming PC bought by my mother in 2007 I think.
It had a AMD Athlon 64 3500+ and an ATI gpu not sure what.
My CPU upgrade to the Athlon 64x2 6400+ black edition was also great.
Then in 2011 I got a new system.
The i7-2600k with a H68 Asus board. Was a massive upgrade at the time and lasted me 5 years.
Then in 2016 I got my best system yet.
My current AMD Ryzen 1700 now clocked at 3.85GHz, with a Hero 6 board and a GTX1080ti
32GB of g.skill 3000MHz RAM and a 250GB 960 EVO.
My first true high end system and something that I won't forget soon.
Just after that I got my Honda CBR1000RR(2009) with 30k of mods already installed for a great price at the time.
(I absolutely love this bike and it looks the part to)
and that's pretty much it.
As for worst disappointments:
Nvidia 7300LE
GTS250
GTS450
GTX780(became redundant over night)
i5-4460(upgrading to it from a i7-2600 was a horrible idea)
Best GPU/CPU choices:
Athlon 64 3500+ and Athlon 64x2 6400+
GT220
GTX460
GTX660
RX480 8GB
GTX1080Ti(this is my best GPU purchase so far and is also lasting me the longest)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Iota
Quote:
Originally Posted by big_hairy_rob
All super honourable mentions in my opinion, but for me it's definitely my Huawei P9 Lite. It's not flawless, the battery is wimpy, like every Android smartphone it's constantly doing things without me asking it to, there's a minor threat of the Chinese government profiling me etc, but frankly, it's my first smartphone and I can't believe how much I was missing out on beforehand. The ability to access anything from anywhere at any time and connect to my favourite services via tiny apps on a phone, not to mention the fact that with a microSD it simply obsoletes MP3 players, has astounded me. It's competently handling everything I throw at it for less than 200 quid more than a year on.Quote:
Originally Posted by OilSheikh
Only if it was built before Jan 1st 1978...Quote:
Originally Posted by johnroe
Yeah, I didn't read the question properly...Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
Logitech mx518 - still going strong at 13 years old
Samsung S7 - just does what it should reliably and with good performance
Panasonic gd93 - superb dumb phone. Battery lasted ages, calls clear, texts delivered. Really thin and lightweight with 7 different colour backlights!
my first SSD was night and day difference and its one i still tell people to do as first upgrade. Even getting an old laptop and dropping a cheap ssd into it takes it into another world.
however for grunt power? my Ryzen 1700x. dear god the cores.... its full of stars!!!!
Amen brother I can't agree more on both of your points, but yes lets celebrate having 8 cores and 16 threads in mainstream builds. Thanks AMD.Quote:
Originally Posted by mercyground
This:
https://clickykeyboards.com/product-category/ibm-model-m13-trackpoint-ii/
I picked up 3 of these, 2 of which were NIB, from a coworker in exchange for him buying lunch. He was cleaning out his "new" office in order to move in, and knowing what he'd found, I told him I'd buy them off him. He said, "Just buy me lunch, and I'll bring them out to you." 15 years later, they're still humming along. I wish I'd had the good sense to leave at least one untouched in the box, but I've gotten more use and more enjoyment out of these than any other single tech purchase.
1. Cherry ErgoPlus MX5000 keyboard with MX5700 number pad
2. HFX Classic case
3. Q6600 CPU (replaced that one with an I5 3570s I'm still using)
1. The old Sound Blaster Live Value narrowly fits inside the 20yr range, that was an exceptional buy for me. Huge boost in audio quality back when this was still meaningful, EAX support... which still mattered at the time. Great price point. Used that for a really long time.
2. The 8800GTX, used the same GPU for about 5yrs and for much of that time it wasn't even far off the high end. Sold it for a decent chunk of money too.
3. Athlon 64 3200+, arguably my best processor buy ever aside from the Celeron 300 of long ago. Reasonably priced, great performance, sipped power. Used it through several systems.
4? It's too early to say but Mushkin 1TB MLC SSD a few years ago, and I strongly suspect that drive is going to last a very long time in use for me. Reasonably capacious, and the performs quite well. Got it at a ridiculously cheap price on sale too. I have every confidence it will be in use for a long time through many systems, even after I outgrow it as my primary drive... which itself isn't likely to happen anytime soon.
Not a specific device, and not computer related but I have to give a nod to GPS tracking too. Be in in phones, or dedicated GPS devices, or built into cars or whatever. It's been incredibly useful ever since it became commonly used at the consumer level.
mine is a toss up between 1080 ti Kingpin & ASUS Rampage V Edition 10 mobo :)
mine is a toss up between 1080 ti Kingpin & ASUS Rampage V Edition 10 mobo :)
The i7-2600K, working at 4,8 GHz and cooled by air, amazing!!
And my loved Dell 2711, these are my best purchase until now.
My now 10 years old Core2Duo E8400 setup, still using every day, although upgraded the system to SSD from HDD 2 years ago. :)
An extended battery for my Galaxy S5 phone, means it now runs for a few days, without recharging.
'little things, please little minds'!!!
Well Hexus, you've already answered this one for me!
I guess it wasn't MY purchase since I was only 9 or so (I think it was after 1998, but I couldn't be certain!), but our first PC was what sparked my interest in technology and at its heart was the AMD K6 266 MHz, as pictured in the news post (or a similar K6)!
The PC actually had some issues when we bought it, and kept blue screening all the time (I guess Windows 95 did that from time to time, but this was something more...). We had a couple of techies out from HiTech (I think that was the company, probably long gone now), but no one found any problems. After a while I took it upon my young self to take the computer apart and fix it (as I did for mowers and other things, with, thinking back, a surprising amount of success)! Upon removing the processor I discovered that one of the pins on the CPU was completely bent, "This must be it!" I thought, so I bent it back into shape, replaced the processor and put everything back together. Great success! The PC was cured :)! Shortly after, I remember installing a Voodoo 1 to it in order to play an F1 racing game (I forget which one, but it required 4 MB of VRAM and we only had 2 MB), but my most vivid memory -- and maybe some of you will remember this too -- was of playing The Sims. I will always remember that when it was time for my Sim to go to work, the taxi would 'arrive', and, I say 'arrive', because it would start arriving offscreen, but then the game would lag for about 5 minutes and my friend and I would know it was time for a cup of tea :p!
My best purchase -- and this was mine alone, that I saved up ages for! -- was an Athlon XP 2400+ T'bredB (and motherboard, RAM etc.), which was the first PC I built myself from scratch at the tender age of 12. None of my family or friends knew anything about computers so I was very proud of this achievement!
It would be interesting to know from this data. Is it the best; technologically, stylishly, or longevity and price/value for money(that makes a difference).
This is the best bit of tech I own today.>
http://gifimage.net/wp-content/uploa.../fan-gif-5.gif
What is your evidence for this assertion and how many tins of biscuits did you have to eat through during the tests? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by daymang
My first SSD, back in 2009.
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, has had a greater positive impact on my PCs performance before or since.
Flippin typical !!!!!!!!!!!!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by g8ina
I praise my Kindle and 3 days later, that damn thing wont switch on :( Sitting with no battery inside, just waiting for the caps to discharge, then I\'ll try a reset.
logitech G602. For gaming, it had the best wireless connection for a long time. For productivity and general use, the extra button are sometimes better than the extra scrollwheel on the MX master. Good sensor and battery life. Unfortunately, it\'s big and heavy.
AMD ryzen 5 1600. a 6 core chip with threads, that beat intel i7 7700k in so many real world test. THE ONLY reason the i7 7700k beat a ryzen 5 1600 in gaming, is because the i7 base core has not changed since the core 2 duo. so the lazy programmers will still only cap games to recognize up to 4 cores. anymore than that and they claim they run into issues. intel has not made a ground up cpu since the core 2duo.
Fortunately, the removal of the battery and a soft reset solved it :) happy again :)Quote:
Originally Posted by g8ina
my first proper job (workin on NHSCR recording babbys born) I earned a lil bit over £3k and promptly spent the lot on some B&W 601 S2, 603 S2, ASW600, CC6 S2 and a Nad t762.
the NAD died a poppy burny death about 5 years ago. there was some sort of manufacturing problem where the solder bath they used was at the wrong temp and the main board didn't set right, dry solders all over it. (not sure where or when I heard that)
it stopped outputting sound to the left side speakers, had it repaired, then a year later it went POP and smoke came out.
picked up another set of 601 S2 and now using a Denon AVR-x2200W in 5.1.2 Atmos/DTS-X/Neural whatnot. sister doesn't like the 2 'near ceiling' mounted speakers. her rooms above mine.
can hear them from the bottom of the garden too. I was testing full volume to see if it annoyed the neighbours :)
makes my VHS collection sound right proper.
https://forums.hexus.net/members/ste...well-works.jpg
see. there's a VHS plugged into it :p
You must have some VERY interesting tapes.. :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by stevie lee
An SSD
My first PC in '98. Pentium 2 300MHz, cost £2k! Every component has changed over the years (apart from the Altec Lansing speakers... still using them!) but it's been a cornerstone of my life for 20 years.
that sounds a bit like trigger's broom to me!Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaffo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAh8HryVaeY
Mine is relatively new, so the Threadriipper 1920 has saved me hours working on batch photos and video editing.
Tough one. I've had plenty of tech over the years that I've loved but best?
I would most likely say Kindle. As someone who spent so many years backpacking it really improved my QoL of not having to haul books everywhere!
Probably the Humax 9200 PVR. It changed how I watch TV. Watch when you want to, pause and rewind the TV, skip adverts. It lasted for years as well.
Honourable mentions for the i7 920 still powering my home PC, my first SSD, my first Voodoo 3dfx graphics card, My MX510 mouse.
A laser keyboard, pretty useless but always an attention grabber.