When it comes to buying hardware..

[Thesifer]

Does it just always feel to everyone else that they shouldn't buy anything dealing with electronics?

I mean part of it is my Scrooge'ness, but it seems like anytime I am just about to buy something (had time to do the research etc.) Then I read that something new and better is coming out that will "revolutionize" whatever it is that I plan on buying.

I know this is a very old sentiment, but I just feel like ranting.

Right when I buy a few wiimotes, they are coming out with Rechargeable Wiimotes. I want to get an Xbox 360, but they are coming out with v2 soon. You buy a DVD-RW drive at 4x, they come out with 8x in 2 days. Etc. etc.

Does anyone else feel they might be better off not buying anything? :) But then where would we be.. Ugh.

[Cubsfan]

Buy and enjoy. Rarely do the capabilities of what you bought diminish. Just because there's a 8x DVD writer doesn't mean that your 4x one suddenly slowed down.

[DarkFury]

Honestly, if you are always waiting and worrying about the "next best thing", then you'll never enjoy the current best thing.

Do you put off buying a car... waiting for the next model year to come out? Sometimes, you can actually save some cash on "last year's model" which isn't all that far off from the current model.

Either way, it just depends... if it is a "need", I don't wait. If it is a "want", then it just depends on how bad I want it. :D

[Napoleon54]

Hehe, very true, very true. 'Tis the nature of the beast. Though...


Honestly, if you are always waiting and worrying about the "next best thing", then you'll never enjoy the current best thing.

Do you put off buying a car... waiting for the next model year to come out? Sometimes, you can actually save some cash on "last year's model" which isn't all that far off from the current model.

Either way, it just depends... if it is a "need", I don't wait. If it is a "want", then it just depends on how bad I want it. :D

:agree:

Most of what I'm enjoying now is several years old and still plenty functional. I do have a lot of wants and there are a lot of things that it would be nice to have, but I'm not really lacking anything I need. :shrug:

[zippyjuan]

Especially with computers, there is always something new and potentially revolutionary just around the corner. I COULD buy or build a better computer, but do I NEED to? Would I be able to do anything I can't do now or do something significantly better? Not right now so it is not worth spending the money. Running an Athlon XP 2400+ with a gig of dual channel Corsair XMS and a Radeon X800XL (used to have a Radeon 9700) and a single layer 4x DVD burner (TDK). Spend wisely and live below your means.

[Airencracken]

This is the question I'm debating right now. Upgrade my current 939 machine or wait for it to die. I'm thinking upgrade...

[Thesifer]

See I think this is where I may stray from the norm. I mean I end up spending wisely and mostly living below my means, I save a minimum amount per month which is well over the "Expected amount" for someone my age. But it's almost to a fault that I can't bring myself to buy things (namely electronics) when I know something better is coming out. I will have to do the computer thing soon, but I am putting it off. I have for too long already.

But like the Xbox 360, does it make sense to wait for the v2? I mean looking at the specs it seems like it wouldn't be a bad idea, and supposedly the cooling problems will be in check.

Along with some other added goodies.

Anyways this is more of a rant about Hardware, but if anyone wants to discuss hardware that they have recently purchased and wished they had waited It'd be interesting to hear about..

[Napoleon54]

I think it's entirely a subjective question though- the balance between your availability of funds versus what you want/ need.

[zippyjuan]

The unwillingness to upgrade is also why when I do spend money on electronics, I want it to be something good so it will last a long time. At the time I built this machine, it was probably in the top ten or twenty percent of machines out there. It costs a lot more to build at that level now though.

[DarkFury]

But like the Xbox 360, does it make sense to wait for the v2? I mean looking at the specs it seems like it wouldn't be a bad idea, and supposedly the cooling problems will be in check.

Along with some other added goodies.

Anyways this is more of a rant about Hardware, but if anyone wants to discuss hardware that they have recently purchased and wished they had waited It'd be interesting to hear about..
Ask yourself this...

"Do I find myself thinking about that Xbox 360 every day wishing I had it right now so I can play Halo2 against my friends?"

If yes, then honestly, I'd just find a good deal on an Xbox now and get it. If not, depending on how long till the V2 comes out (if you have to wait till Christmas... I'd say that was too long if you REALLY want it now.)

More or less... only you can tell yourself when the proper time is. Will V2 really give you that many more features over V1? If so, then wait... if not, and you really wanna be gaming now, I'd say go and buy that XBox 360 now.

[Napoleon54]

I am glad I purchased a new camera -just a point-and-shoot Pentax Optio M20- 'cause my old one died and I do like to take quite a few pictures. Nothing fancy but it does just fine. Aside from that I personally haven't purchased a damn thing in a long time. Still happy with my Athalon 2100 rig w/ half a gig of memory, it does everything I need it to do. I think I would definately regret investing in an upgrade. I might get myself a bigger HD soon though, my 80 and 160GB drives are almost full, and I'm thinking about either an external or just a larger IDE drive to replace the 20GBer in my external enclosure with. HDs are damn cheap now so that's nothing major. :shrug:

[zippyjuan]

I had an 80gb drive and added a 300gb that cost less than the original drive. I also have a Pentax Optio. The W10- I got it for its water resistance to take on a rafting trip. It did a nice job. I need to take it down to the beach some time. After the water warms up a bit though.

[Thesifer]

I had an 80gb drive and added a 300gb that cost less than the original drive. I also have a Pentax Optio. The W10- I got it for its water resistance to take on a rafting trip. It did a nice job. I need to take it down to the beach some time. After the water warms up a bit though.


That was kind of what started me on this subject. I was thinking about when I paid $320 for a I believe it was 334 mb or so Hard Drive back in the day.. Now it's less then 50 cents per GB. At most.

[redcolours]

my own (long ass) story about losing the need to get the latest hardware:

i still have this main PC for about 3 years now, when the P4 prescott was JUST about to hit the market. I didnt get the prescott chip til after a year later. It had a 9600XT in it. with a 2GB RAM and a 36GB raptor, and its been fine since.

the latest upgrade? a cheap used dual-DVI 6600GT 4 months ago from ebay. And about a week ago an awesome deal for the Raptor X.

i was thinking of getting a wireless-N router and that new SATA samsung DVD-RW DL drive. But now im thinking both can wait.


a digital camera? my tiny SD200. 3MP. all i need for taking great pics that will only be printed in 4x6s if at all, and will only be posted online, compressed, cropped, and modified. People say "oh thats too low for a camera, you need to have at least 5 MP. what if you need to print 8x10s, or poster-sized pictures?". maybe YOU print those sizes, but i dont. I only need 4x6s, and all the pics will be cropped, modified, compressed, and made web-ready for my website, so its all overkill. I have a 6mp panasonic with OIS, but ive only used it ONCE. The SD200's pictue quality is far better. its now still in the box. waste of money.

Software wise, vista is my only other "upgrade" (if you can even call it that). Now that i see how my system runs this well without issues, i think the core2 duo/DDR2/PCI-E videocard upgrade will wait a WHOLE lot longer.

But my most surpising purchase (even to me) is a Wii. I dont game anymore (think Thief and Half-Life). When i played an eye-toy with a PS2 a couple of months ago that kind of game interested me. Then when i saw how much similar the Wii was, i knew i HAD to have it. So i got one by sheer luck. Not only will it let me play video games again with much interest, its more NATURAL to play. I hated sitting down, hunched over a keyboard and a mouse, or sitting back with a traditional controller in my hand. I wanted to MOVE about. The wii is giving me that.

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I lost the need to upgrade when i realized that IM JUST WASTING MONEY WITH EVERY NEW UPGRADE. i was never satisfied, so i kept buying, just so for what? That my piss will be higher than the next guy? That 3dmark will give me a higher score? That i can have more than 360fps with FSAA enabled? I find that with my job and other activities, i never finish games anyway, so its all a waste of time and money for me.

Also having new interests help too. Concerts and shows got me out of the bedroom where my PC is. i now long for a stable and quiet PC to get my pictures uploaded and my website tweaked, rather than adding more fans, or buying newfangled coolers, just so i can raise the overclock speeds another 2GHz.

Granted i still like a faster PC, but what i have now still fills my needs more than adequately. The money i spend on computers and electronics to upgrade what i already have is better spent on going to shows and watching a true musician play with their heart soul.

[cruelpupet]

If you can wait to get the next version...odds are you really didnt need it to begin with.

[Cubsfan]

That my piss will be higher than the next guy?

Higher? I don't know if anyone ever told you, but when holding a pissing contest, it's best to stand up, not lie on your back. Lying on your back will get... messy.

[Thesifer]

Higher? I don't know if anyone ever told you, but when holding a pissing contest, it's best to stand up, not lie on your back. Lying on your back will get... messy.


Unless he means that if you are Taller you automatically win.. ?

[LPMiller]

at this point I only really upgrade when I want the upgrade. I stopped worrying about the next big thing years ago, unless that next big thing really had something I needed/wanted. I waited for dual cores because I really wanted dual cores, but....feh, you are never on the cutting edge anyway, so why sweat it? Don't try to hit the moving target and worry about it, and don't sit and dither because the target moves.

[Thesifer]

at this point I only really upgrade when I want the upgrade. I stopped worrying about the next big thing years ago, unless that next big thing really had something I needed/wanted. I waited for dual cores because I really wanted dual cores, but....feh, you are never on the cutting edge anyway, so why sweat it? Don't try to hit the moving target and worry about it, and don't sit and dither because the target moves.

Well see that's what sucks. I'm pretty obsessive when it comes to money, spending, getting a good deal, and not getting ripped off. I feel ripped off when I buy something and something else comes out right after. I guess technically I should just stay way far away from computers except when buying a whole new one and not put them together and worry about that sort of stuff.

But I can't help it. :)

[ArkiStan]

I know what you're talking about. As for me, I have a rule of always aiming a little high when I need to make a purchase. I will never buy anything simply because it's "so cheap!" Every investment that I make is well thought out and aimed at achieving a good balance of value and quality. In the end I spend a little more money, but it pays off in the end since the item lasts longer and I get to use a quality product.

[johnnymk]

Heh..one of my computers is a 10 year old home made 400 MHz Pentium II on a PCChips MB w/Windows 98 which I use to copy CDs, mostly CDGs. It hasn't lost a beat during that time.