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Weekend Open Forum: Your most regretted tech purchase?
The tech industry has an unmatched propensity for causing buyer's remorse. Gadgets are meticulously engineered so they appeal to both the hedonist and the utilitarian, while annual refreshes ensure that you're always one step behind the curve. It's a formula that generally works well enough: you're regularly supplied with new toys and companies get to report record earnings.
However, it's only a matter of time before even the most prudent shopper gets burned -- be it their own fault or not. Whether you invested in tech that didn't pan out (like HD-DVD), built a new computer weeks before a major generational shift, splurged on a "luxury" item or have an unboxed iPad 2 in your closet, we're sure all of you have at least one tech purchase you wish you never made.
Besides preordering the occasional dud (Dragon Age II most recently), I think the Thermaltake Tai-Chi is my most regretted purchase. Although it's served me well over the last seven years, it doesn't have any of the trappings you'd expect from a modern enthusiast chassis. Yet, because it cost about $450, I feel guilty replacing it. I probably would've been better off with a $100-$200 case.
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LNCPapa said:
The closer you get to the cutting edge when you do anything in electronics the more you will see this. You just have to go into it expecting it - once you buy something it's pretty much outdated. That doesn't mean it's not any good though.
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Razer mouse and keyboard. Keyboard died on me within the first month, the mouse within the second.
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Dell Axim x51v. I thought it was supposed to be fast, with that supposedly fastest-ever PDA processor, and could do a lot.
I thought I would use it to write notes when away from comp, browse work email when away from comp, make spreadsheets of the many things I need to stay organized on with MS Excel, use as mp3 player, watch videos, add GPA software and CF-based hardware and have GPA, read ebooks, read pdfs, etc.
File management was terrible. Adding and deleting programs was terrible.EAlmost everything I tried to add was a hassle. Video codecs were a hassle. Calendar/email barely better than doing without. Battery ran out all the tim,. so I got a big bulky battery.
Never got publically available GPS maps to load, so never sprung for GPS sensor.
Overall, was passibly fair at a few things, and not really good at anything. There were a lot of axim enthusiasts then, and so I at least could sell off all my axim stuff.
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I regret those I purchased but never put into use.
- The original Xbox, never played once. Still in brand-new condition lying somewhere in my house.
- A $230 graphic card which was put into random use only about 5 years after the purchase (I didn't have a mainboard with PCI-E slot back then), and just for web surfing and such.
- To many computer cases (almost 20) which only 2 was used. The rest went into garbage when I had to move house.
- A $1,200 tattooing system
Those are the purchases that I wish I could convert them back into cash
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