Have you every bought cheap tech only to be surprised how good of investment it was?

Jumptheshark

Rebooting myself
Oct 12, 2003
99,856
13,840
Somewhere on Uranus
Usually I go for top line stuff and it lets me down

My tablet gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and I needed to replace and only had £100. I ended up buying the Amazon fire HD 10 for £99. I was warned that it mostly good only for amazon and could be very annoying.

Took me about an hour youtube to figure out how to get all the google apps downloaded and stuff like that.

The tablet it replaced cost me about £300 a few years ago and the new guy is better then the one it replaced.

as for the ads--there was a youtube video to explain how to get rid of those as well
 

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
9,352
Usually I go for top line stuff and it lets me down

I almost never go for top of the line stuff because I'm cheap, but also because I'm afraid that I'll regret it. At least when you're let down by cheap stuff, it's not such a blow, you're not out much cash and you can afford to buy a different item to replace it. While some people probably feel good owning top of the line tech, I get my kicks from owning tech that does most of what others paid through the nose for, but cost me much less.

Since I always buy cheap stuff and I do my research beforehand, I'm not typically "surprised" when they work out, but I've definitely been happier with some than with others...

This Summer, I ordered some Betron BS10 earbuds, which have turned out to be the best earbuds/headphones that I've ever owned. Maybe that doesn't say much, since I never spend more than $30 on such things, but even if a $100 pair of earbuds could give you slightly better sound, it wouldn't be worth paying $86 more. That was one of the best $14 that I've ever spent.
 
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aleshemsky83

Registered User
Apr 8, 2008
17,797
424
Usually I go for top line stuff and it lets me down

My tablet gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and I needed to replace and only had £100. I ended up buying the Amazon fire HD 10 for £99. I was warned that it mostly good only for amazon and could be very annoying.

Took me about an hour youtube to figure out how to get all the google apps downloaded and stuff like that.

The tablet it replaced cost me about £300 a few years ago and the new guy is better then the one it replaced.

as for the ads--there was a youtube video to explain how to get rid of those as well
Yeah that tablet, bang for buck is ridiculous. Outside of the low brightness of the display, everything is top notch. The quality of the display is fantastic, the speakers, the build quality, the decent processor, all great stuff. There's $300-$400 tablets that aren't as well rounded.

The fire 8 is great too, but the 10 is just fantastic.

The fire 7 though is unfortunately trash.
 

Nalens Oga

Registered User
Jan 5, 2010
16,780
1,053
Canada
We bought a PS3 for like $300 in 2010, rip-off imo could've saved another $100 getting it from Kijiji an year later. But the games have been a good investment imo, it helps that we got it the same time Blockbuster was going out of business. Game prices for used games back then were cheaper too for whatever reason, most PS4 games are still above $10 excluding a few like Destiny, Battlefront, and older sports games.

Anyways, this console is a legend, I've bought a physical copy of around 80 and digital copy of around 15 games since 2014 and paid an average of under $7 CAD for them. I never owned a PS2 but there's a solid list of over a dozen really highly rated PS2 games that're available digitally for PS3 and a bunch available as an HD Remaster physically.

The other really good investment would probably be getting a used Thinkpad and upgrading it.
 

JaegerDice

The mark of my dignity shall scar thy DNA
Dec 26, 2014
25,020
9,228
Generally speaking I never got for the tippy top of the line stuff, because the extra markup for exclusivity and whatnot isn't worth the actual, practical performance upgrade.

That said, I tend to go with the high-end stuff just one or two tiers below the absolute best. In my experience, paying for high quality up front has saved me a ton of time, money and hassle over buying cheap stuff that didn't work, or broke down or what have you.
 

guinness

Not Ingrid for now
Mar 11, 2002
14,521
301
Missoula, Montana
www.missoulian.com
I was going to say my Sony 1000x headphones, but those weren't cheap, and from the reviews, I wasn't surprised about their technology (the tech is why I bought them).

Probably would be either my Harmony 650 remote or my dashcam. The remote I got for $35 (sale and coupons), and the dashcam IIRC was about $50.

The former replaces many remotes, pretty easy to setup, and can control multiple devices at once. The dashcam, not because drivers necessarily, but sometimes I use it to share views with family back home, example like the other day, to show my parents the neighborhood of a house I was looking at.
 

Bocephus86

Registered User
Mar 2, 2011
6,166
3,664
Boston
I replaced my laptop with a cheap chromebook, best choice I've ever made. Battery lasts for 10-12 hours, I have a desktop & work computer if I ever need more processing power. It's perfect for browsing/youtube, banking & basic stuff like email & the google office programs.

Granted, there are cheap laptops out there at similar prices, but the $200 chromebook is going on 2 years & I'll buy another when it's time to replace.
 

aleshemsky83

Registered User
Apr 8, 2008
17,797
424
Looking for some advice, I've got an fx 8350 with 1666 MHz DDR3 memory.

What are some thoughts on a good CPU upgrade without having to completely swap out the memory? I realize a new mobo is mandatory, but I really dont want to be forced to swap out the memory, I'd basically be getting a brand new pc for that money.
 

aleshemsky83

Registered User
Apr 8, 2008
17,797
424
Looking for some advice, I've got an fx 8350 with 1666 MHz DDR3 memory.

What are some thoughts on a good CPU upgrade without having to completely swap out the memory? I realize a new mobo is mandatory, but I really dont want to be forced to swap out the memory, I'd basically be getting a brand new pc for that money.
I just changed my case, I cant afford to spend $500 swapping out every single thing other than the gpu. New case, new me.

Focus G - Black

This is the case I got, I highly recommend it, its got a nice backpanel where you can stuff all the wires. I assume most cases do but Im coming from a really shitty case I got for free off kijiji that looked like an old 90s supernintendo that turned yellow.

Edit: just realized I posted in the wrong thread twice, lol.
 
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Individual 1

Registered User
Jan 25, 2012
1,464
352
Looking for some advice, I've got an fx 8350 with 1666 MHz DDR3 memory.

What are some thoughts on a good CPU upgrade without having to completely swap out the memory? I realize a new mobo is mandatory, but I really dont want to be forced to swap out the memory, I'd basically be getting a brand new pc for that money.
You can probably find a fairly cheap 4590k on kijiji or craigslist and hopefully it would come with a motherboard. i7 4790k were pretty popular but they will likely be more expensive as some people upgrade there 4590k and other 4th gens to those.
 

robertmac43

Forever 43!
Mar 31, 2015
23,093
15,175
I use my 175 dollar Chromebook way more than my 1100 dollar computer. It's just so smooth and lasts the whole day with complete ease!
 
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aleshemsky83

Registered User
Apr 8, 2008
17,797
424
You can probably find a fairly cheap 4590k on kijiji or craigslist and hopefully it would come with a motherboard. i7 4790k were pretty popular but they will likely be more expensive as some people upgrade there 4590k and other 4th gens to those.
thanks, yeah I was looking at an i5 4570 since its going for 150-180 bucks with the mobo online, i'll probably grab something in that area or so if I do upgrade
 

Big McLargehuge

Fragile Traveler
May 9, 2002
72,188
7,741
S. Pasadena, CA
I use my 175 dollar Chromebook way more than my 1100 dollar computer. It's just so smooth and lasts the whole day with complete ease!

My numbers are a bit higher, but my $600 laptop (I need to run a couple programs that would render a Chromebook useless) is infinitely better than the $2,000 laptop it replaced. For starters, I can actually use it on my lap. That gaming laptop was easily my dumbest purchase ever.

In 2001 I picked up a NeoGeo Pocket Color and 8-10 games for the price of a single N64 game...that handheld was a gem and a couple of those games were legitimately fantastic. Faselei! alone would have made that a great purchase at full price.
 

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