Question: Do you consider your hardware purchases an "investment"

[yRaz]

I, probably like many of you, spend a lot of time in front of my computer. 90% of the games I play are ESO, EvE and Age of Empires 2, not very demanding games. Unfortunately for me, my screen died. I love bragging about how I use a 65" 4k Samsung as my display because my home office is also my home theater due to space constraints. I got 6 fantastic years out of this display and paid nearly $3000 for it back in 2017. It is now time for me to replace it and I'm wondering if I should consider a display as an investment in my time. It's basically cost me $500 a year for something I spend several hours a day in front of. Heck, in the winter, there are days where I spend 16+ hours a day in front of it. I plan on replacing it with a 75" 8k TV but those are also very expensive.

I'm not talking about the walmart brand(I know TCL isn't a "walmart" brand), but as someone who paid $3000 for a TV with features like full array local dimming, there is a massive difference between the cheap stuff. I wouldn't say that costs have come down on this tech, it's more like the tech has improved and the prices have stayed about the same.

These are not small purchases and I'm curious how other people view making them. I can't justify buy a $2000 graphics card every 18 months, my 6700xt is overkill for my needs anyway, but a display is different. I think of the literal thousands of hours I have gotten out of the display and from a value perspective, I've probably paid pennies an hour to use it.

I am going to be buying a new Samsung 8k QLED but I'd like to hear other peoples opinion on their mindset when making big purchases. I've gotten enough value out of my TV over the last 6 years that I consider it an investment in my private time, what are your thoughts when making big teach purchases?

 

[mailpup]

I think my thought process regarding big tech purchases is probably similar to yours. If I've gotten sufficient utility from my existing TV or graphics card or whatever and if I want a new one and can afford one, then yeah I would be willing to pull the trigger and buy it. Everyone might have a different idea of what "enough value" was but, nonetheless, at some point you reach it.

 

[pcnthuziast]

A display is literally the most important piece. Got my first OLED recently and it's a game changer. Playing games on low settings on that looks infinitely better than the same game on ultra with rtx on my IPS monitor.

 

[yRaz]

A display is literally the most important piece. Got my first OLED recently and it's a game changer. Playing games on low settings on that looks infinitely better than the same game on ultra with rtx on my IPS monitor.

I absolutely love OLEDs, but my specific use case makes burn in very likely. It's why I'm looking at QLEDs, they're good at everything but not really great at anything. However, knowing that my use case makes burn in and dimming likely, going QLED makes sense. Still a fantastic display technology but not nearly as good as OLED. It's a compromise that has to be made, I envy your OLED

 

[captaincranky]

Well my Prince, as you know, I am naught but your humble and willing servant. Therefore it is incumbent on me to save as much money as possible, in the event you might need a great deal to reclaim your throne.

Sooo, I confine, or should I say "resign", my TV purchases to Walmart. Actually, the Hisense stuff isn't too god awful.bad. In fact, my latest purchase didn't even require tweaking the color settings, unlike all the others that have preceded it.

There is one good thing about low budget TVs. You don't have any down time waiting for service or dreading the cost of it. You just throw it the fu*k away and buy another one.`

FWIW, I always hear of issues with all the high end bullsh!t, Sony, Samsung, JVC (?) and whatnot, and nothing much from the cheap seats. At this point I have quite a collection, 37" (Best Buy), 40" Proscan, a 46" whatever, a 55" Vivio, (which did take a trip to the dumpster), and my latest Hisense 58". I"m dying to buy a 65" Hisense, But I simply have no idea where I could put the current one. It "unfortunately" is working perfectly. It would make no sense to throw it away.

In direct answer to your title / question, I consider hardware purchases, not "investments", but rather, "necessary evils". And in some cases, "dumb sh!t I bought that I'll probably never use".

 

[wiyosaya]

To a certain extent, I'm with @captaincranky on this. Its not worth going after the high-end stuff because in a few years, what is today's high-end is tomorrow's commodity. When the 65" 4K QD-OLED or newer LG OLED TVs come down to under $1K, I'll buy - and it will only be for my home theater. I built a new HTPC this past year, and it is way overkill - the total build. A Ryzen 9 7900X, 32GB RAM, a RTX 3060, 4TB NVME for OTA recordings and a 1TB boot drive. Much of that I was able to find great deals on them.

If I could count on any computer/home electronics appreciating in value over the years, YES, I would call it an investment. However, we all know very well that the computers/home electronics depreciate in value - so no way would I ever consider a purchase of said items an "investment."

 

[Koseith]

Hardware depreciates over time, so it's hard to consider it an investment.

The bottom line of your post sounds like "it's okay to spend a lot of money on hardware because you get so much pleasure out of it over a long period of time". But it would depend on how much money you have, and how much pleasure you get out of it, right?

For me, there are a set of hardware components where I am VERY willing to spend more money:

1. Power supply. After seeing many cheap PSUs die in miserable ways, sometimes taking down other hardware pieces with them, I am pretty much up to spend time doing some research and money to buy a good one. With PSUs, as with many hardware pieces, it's about quality of electronics and efficiency, and not so much about flashy lights and cool pictures on them. You usually get good quality PSUs starting at about 80 €, but I am also willing to go over that budget.

2. Mouse and keyboard. I am using them 8h at work and them plenty of hours at home for leisure, so I want to have ergonomic peripherals. 100 € for a mouse? Sure, if it's good quality and ergonomic. I currently use a Logitech MX Vertical, which is easy on my tendrils and wrist and alleviates pain in that area.

3. Screen. When LED monitors began being a thing, some of the cheaper ones emitted more UV radiation than necessary. Since I am pointing my eyes at a screen for a lot of time a day, I want it to not strain my eyes more than necessary. What I look for here is a good panel, not-cheapo backlight, absence of flickering, correct size/resolution balance (based on how far it is going to be from my eyes) and that stuff.

When you have that, then it boils down to what you value. I would never spend 3000 € on a TV, and would spend my money on stuff that is nonsense to you, so I think it is important that we consider where the money goes and what we get from it without falling into the marketing trap.

Since you asked, and besides of what I wrote above, this is how I decide:

- I usually go a bit above average expenditure on speakers, sound card, headphones.
- When buying CPU, motherboard and GPU, I look for efficiency (both energy efficiency and performance-per-euro) in CPU, motherboard and GPU.
- I look for a medium-sized, sound dampened case with air intake filters to keep dust out.

I never pay for anything in the highest segment, since they usually give you less bang for the buck. For GPUs, you can check TechPowerUp's GPU reviews. They have a section called "Performance per dollar" with GPUs sorted based on how much frames per second you get per each dollar spent on the GPU. Never it's the most expensive GPU the one more cost-effective.