"Worst bang for your buck" thread

A

alg7_munif

Supreme [H]ardness
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We always have best bang for your buck thread, so why not start a new discussion about hardware that you should not waste your money on. My oppinion: 3x 8800Ultras for Tri-SLi...
 
alg7_munif said:
My oppinion: 3x 8800Ultras for Tri-SLi...
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When you have $3000 to spend, I don't see where else would you spend your money. At least tri-SLI has tangible benefits in gaming...

IMO
Windows Vista Ultimate
Intel extreme edition processors, pentiums...
DDR3 RAM (or any RAM that costs >$25/GB)
8800GTX (unless in triple way SLI)
1.6 KW PSU's
PPU of course
Macbooks (some may disagree)
 
How about in Harddisk department? Any nomination?

I would like to add Blu-Ray writers but the price has dropped recently.

What do you guys think about 30" LCD? If I have $3000 to spend, I would spend it on 3 systems than having an uber system.

Btw to avoid flame war, this is not about having the best but about what you actually get from your money.
 
Right now, at current prices...

E6850 (333Mhz for $85 over the E6750... definately not worth it).
X38 boards, or any board that costs over $150 definately isn't bang for buck.


alg7_munif said:
How about in Harddisk department? Any nomination? I would like to add Blu-Ray writers but the price has dropped recently.
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You mean storage? because a BD writer isnt a HDD. :p

Raptors... and I own one, lol.
 
Tri SLI is a decent choice if you have the money, it really does improve performance.
Raptors, overpriced DDR2, DDR3, 8800 Ultra, PPUs, EE Intel processors, cheap, bad water cooling, and more, are all IN MY OPINION bad choices.
 
lamboman said:
Tri SLI is a decent choice if you have the money, it really does improve performance.
Raptors, overpriced DDR2, DDR3, 8800 Ultra, PPUs, EE Intel processors, cheap, bad water cooling, and more, are all IN MY OPINION bad choices.
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You list 8800Ultra as a bad choice but how could Tri 8800Ultras be a decent choice?
 
HDD's? With consumer usage, I'd say Raptors, SAS drives, 1TB drives (with given pricing of 750GB drives).

Maybe we should compile a list?
 
The worst bang for the buck is computers in general. Don't kill me yet.
The computer industry in the last 1-1/2 years has made very little headway in the advancement area. Why you ask. Because they don't have to, if they just make little advances in what ever they do, everyone jumps on it like it the next great thing. 2 years ago Intel clamed they could make a 10 ghz chip with 8 cores in a year if they had to, well they haven't had to do it because everyone keeps buying up the junk they through at us.

So that is why I THINK computers are a big suckey hole right now.

So now I will wait for 8ghz and 8 core and 8 core gpu's. Should take a year if they get off ther arssssssss^#$^%#&**.:eek:
 
I can get a 3-3.5ghz intel quad core for $250 bucks. I think thats amazing progress .
 
SSD drives in raid :D
The 128gig ones are 4000 dollars a pop (and no faster than a raptor except in seek time and io).
I cant even imagine how much the 256meg ones are. Probably 8000 dollars. Put 4 of those in raid 0 somone ;)
 
gljvd said:
I can get a 3-3.5ghz intel quad core for $250 bucks. I think thats amazing progress .
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I'd assume the OP is talking about stock speeds/parts. Obviously taking a 2.4ghz quad core and overclocking it to 3.6ghz raises the bang/buck ratio ;)
 
nst6563 said:
I'd assume the OP is talking about stock speeds/parts. Obviously taking a 2.4ghz quad core and overclocking it to 3.6ghz raises the bang/buck ratio ;)
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Not just stock speed. Buying the $1000 QX6800 and OC it to 4.0GHz doesn't make it a better bang/buck than a $300 3.3GHz Q6600.
 
My 3 would be

Vista ----- Not needed or wanted.
Q6700 ----- Not much better than the Q6600
8800GTX ---- Becuase something new and better is right around the corner these have been out for a while and are still WAY over priced.
 
enginurd said:
X38 boards
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I must disagree with that, some X38 boards come with 1600MHz FSB support out of the box, 2x PCI-E 2.0 running at full 16X speed, tons of usb and sata ports. I think that you get what you paid for. 680i seems to be a better candidate for the award though.
 
[LYL]Homer;1031873090 said:
$200 PSU's
Quad-cores (come on, are you really using all those cores?)
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depends on what you do. If all you do is game and play around on the internet...no, most certainly not (unless the game is coded to make use of all the cores). However, if you're encoding video or audio, doing graphical work, rendering, etc...then yes... all four cores most certainly get utilized. And lets not forget about projects like Folding@home which can use all four cores...unless you think that trying to find cures to diseases and illnesses is a "waste".
 
Most people are probably assuming that this thread is only in regards to home computer equipment; which is fine considering that many of the hardware that people listed may be justified in server or niche markets (markets where most people don't care or know much about).

Quad cores, DDR3, watercooling, PPUs, Vista, and SSDs all are viable options depending on the market/person and the future, so I won't be so quick to generalize and say they're bad choices for everyone in terms of value.

I'd definately say the Optimus keyboard has the worst bang for the buck. I think it'd be hard for anyone to justify spending that much money on a keyboard. Niche markets will probably have their own or alternative solutions (like touch screens).

I also think the extreme editions of processors are a bad investment. You'll pay a lot more money on a slightly faster processor and sometimes an unlocked multiplier. Not worth it. Plus, I'd think enthusiasts would be more likely to pick up a slower clocked processor and overclock the heck out of it.
 
No one has mentioned air-cooled TECs or single rad all-in-one water cooling kits?

I would vouch personally for all Core 2 Extreme Editions chips w/ the possible exception of the QX9650, as that looks like the only Penryn quad that will hit the mythical 4ghz mark on any currently available hardware.

Mark.
 
Markyip1 said:
single rad all-in-one water cooling kits?
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There are some of those kits that are decent. Petra's tech shop has many "kits" which look to be high quality and I wouldn't sneeze at given they come with a decent 3x120 rad.
I've got a coolermaster Aquagate viva on my HTPC. IMO, for $40 it does an excellent job of cooling the X2 5000+ that's in the system and it does so quietly. Much quieter than the XP-120 + fan I had in there before, and about the same temps. Guess it depends on the application they're used in though. Going for better than air cooling...yeah...waste of money. Going for an evironment that can't fit one of those monster air coolers then yes...seem to be decent. - but that's my experience.
 
alg7_munif said:
I must disagree with that, some X38 boards come with 1600MHz FSB support out of the box, 2x PCI-E 2.0 running at full 16X speed, tons of usb and sata ports. I think that you get what you paid for. 680i seems to be a better candidate for the award though.
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Everything is relative. How much performance increase do you get over a P35 board and how much does that performance increase cost, along with the added cost for 1600Mhz FSB CPU?

Current PCI-E2.0 cards don't even saturate the bandwidth of PCI-E1.1 slots. I think it will be a while before they actually get around to using all the bandwidth of PCI-E2.0 slots with PCI-E2.0 cards. So, by the time PCI-E1.1 slots severely limit the performance of PCI-E2.0 cards, it will be time for a new mobo anyhow, IMO.

The cheapest x38 board is $210. The cheapest P35 board I'd recommend is $90 (DS3L or IP35-E). Thats over 100% cost difference. How much performane increase do you get with a 1600Mhz FSB Intel CPU over a 1066Mhz or 1333Mhz CPU? Right now, the cost of any 1600Mhz FSB Intel CPU is over $1000. The cost of a Q6700 is half that. Thats another 100% cost increase for a very slight performance increase, relative to the amount you're paying. All I'm saying is... currently, x38 boards aren't worth their price, IMO. Basically, you can get nearly the same performance for MUCH less money.

X38 boards are only worth buying if you need dual 16x Crossfire, IMO. If you want a Yorkfield along with that Crossfire, wait for it along with the X48. SLI/Crossfire is never cheap. Its only good bang for your buck if you have a large monitor and game/render at high resolutions with high detail.
 
Hands down, the PPU wins this one. It's expensive, has yet to impress beyond tech demos and tech demos disguised as games, and hurts system performance! :p

The high-end AMD Phenom parts are pretty bad too. Crazy expensive power supplies when a nice middle-range part will do just fine are also winners here. Silverstone and Lian-Li cases. NVIDIA chipsets are pretty lousy as well if you look past SLI.
 
What high end Phenom? Even the Black Edition Phenom has a much better bang/buck than the $1000 QX. The QX needs to be 3 times faster than the BE Phenom assuming the Phenom is priced at $300, however here in Germany it is priced at around Q6600's price. Even if the QX is 20% faster clock to clock than the Phenom, it would need at least 6.0GHz to justify its price when compared to the stock Phenom.
 
TJ-09 I know it's an awesome case I just can't justify spending that much money on one.

Better yet... mountain mods UFO case takes the cake for that one.
 
Jakalwarrior said:
SSD drives in raid :D
The 128gig ones are 4000 dollars a pop (and no faster than a raptor except in seek time and io).
I cant even imagine how much the 256meg ones are. Probably 8000 dollars. Put 4 of those in raid 0 somone ;)
Click to expand...


Here's 9 16-gigers in RAID 0

He tops out at 828 MB/s....:eek:


On topic: I'd go with thing already mentioned, namely "Extreme" CPUs, PPUs, and SSDs, as the worst bang for your buck at the moment. But, if you have the cash, I'd say go for those parts but I think for most of us "normal" folk we're better off not bothering.
 
SSDs are good for applications where shear ruggedness win out over gigabytes per dollar: think portable media players and ultraportable laptops. In that regard SSDs are not bad. It's hard to justify paying the premium for a desktop installation though.
 
Prices can be pretty relative, incomes vary with people. But I think most people can agree DDR3 ram is pretty awful bang for buck right now. More personally, just to me, SLI and x38 seems like bad bang for buck.
 
nst6563 said:
And lets not forget about projects like Folding@home which can use all four cores...unless you think that trying to find cures to diseases and illnesses is a "waste".
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Actually, folding at home has currently not made any advances in medicine. Last year they recommended the project be shut down but it continues. All the while causing thousands of tons of CO2 emissions. And yes, I currently fold on 3 computers. I'm just showing the flipside to this.
 
sdlvx said:
http://store.memory4less.net/bx80532pg3200f.html

http://store.memory4less.net/bx80532pg3400f.html

http://chuck888.stores.yahoo.net/comprofworsp1.html

froogle is a goldmine.
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Man, I'm not going to lie, that SP750 you linked was a beast in it's day, and you got what you paid for. I had the SP700, and it was amazing.

If you were to buy the SP750 today, then yes it's a waste. When it was new though, it was worth every penny. Compare that with the physics cards or KillerNIC which are just plain useless.
 
djkest said:
Actually, folding at home has currently not made any advances in medicine. Last year they recommended the project be shut down but it continues. All the while causing thousands of tons of CO2 emissions. And yes, I currently fold on 3 computers. I'm just showing the flipside to this.
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Was that just this past year or all together? I remember reading on F@H's site that they made some achievements in the medicine field. That not true? However trivial the advancement may be...it is still an advancement.

SETI@home IMO should be discontinued before folding (or other medical field related programs). Say Seti DOES find something...from a galaxy that's close...say...20million lightyears away. What will we do about it? By the time a directed intelligent signal or craft can reach the point of origin, the entire population of the earth will have recycled a multitude of times.

at least with a project such as folding we may see results within our lifetimes.

just my opinion though. I'm all for finding other intelligent life out there...but the precedence should be helping those on this planet first. Besides...trees and plants thrive on CO2...but then you could bring up global warming too...so it's just a vicious cycle ;)
 
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