Mine was yesterday, I bought a papa john’s pizza of medium size and some garlic knots. I was feeling like shit because my job and store is very good at that, so I stress ate. I contemplated in the car which would’ve been more valuable for my buck to dine with. I picked pizza.
$20 (more like $27 but I took away the price of the knots) was what it cost for a meats-based medium sized pizza from there. The problem I had with the pizza was that it didn’t look like a medium, it looked like the smaller-end of a medium. Secondly, the person cutting the slices did a shit job, because I had two smaller slices than the rest. And I felt there wasn’t enough meats spread evenly.
I honestly should’ve picked a chinese buffet because at least I would have variety and I could eat as much as I wanted. Plus saving a few dollars.
This is the first and last time I’m ordering something out of my comfort budget.
I haven’t bought brand new tech since, and I have not regretted it yet.
Buying computer parts is one of those areas when buying high end is usually cheaper in the long run. My 5800X3D / 3090 build is still extremely relevant despite being two generations behind the latest hardware. I have no desire to upgrade and I’ll probably be able to push it for another 2-4 years easily.
Never bought a Windows license though, and I’ve been building PCs since 1998.
Buying just slightly below highest end (so 5700X3D/3080) is the best bang-for-the-buck of all, IMO.
I just upgraded my seven-year-old 1700X/Vega 56 system to 5700X3D/9070 XT, and I expect it to be good for probably another seven years at least, give or take failure of the original motherboard I’m still using.
I used to do the same, and for stationary PCs, that’s still my recommendation. Sure, some might actually need bleeding edge stuff for for some specific niche high performance thing, but for most people that’s a waste of money.
The only exception is for laptops. I rely on laptops as I’m often on the go, and I’ve generally had better results when going high end (within reason) than going mid-tier.
I’m thinking of buying my next set of PC parts used, but i’m scared of the reliability. Which is weird because i buy absolutely everything else scond hand
My workplace has an e-waste bin we can rummage through and I’ve scavenged many an upgrade for my machines. If it weren’t for that, I’m not sure I would have the same confidence troubleshooting used parts. Making a couple of assumptions here, but upgrading with used parts one by one would be a good starting point. I’ve had good luck returning eBay items that were described as working but were in fact defective.
Yeah i don’t have that kind of experience, so me troubleshooting parts would drag on forever. And then they could break months down the line.
In my experience, when buying second hand you trade time and effort for the price; being able to fix things means more time and more effort for even more savings. That’s what this really is.
I guess there’s something to how little i understand computer hardware making me imagine it as more fragile than it is
Of all the e-waste components I’ve tried out, the one used part that should not give you any trouble is the CPU. Except in the case of 13/14th gen Intel CPUs degrading, the CPU should be either dead or alive with no surprises.
It is actually a good filter to have. There are some things you can get second hand and no problem. But you don’t know how much wear and tear something has gone through like PC parts.