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[bro1]

Past Regrets:

-Pentium 4 3.0 Northwood - Heat and power (electricity) monster. Hyperthreading was half broken with most games at the time. Totally unnecessary
-Fan controllers (early 2000s) - overkill for my need.
-Asus Xonar DG soundcard - C-media drivers are a pain when they're corrupted.
-Blue LEDs
-AsRock Fatality motherboards. Overkill and ugly BIOS until patched:




Current build regrets:
Lian-Li cases and their Blue LEDs.
16GB ram is overkill.
OC 560ti SLI (should just upgrade.)
Not building a NAS
Not doing a silent build
I still fall for the gaming mouse bs even though I hardly ever need their features. (Logitech, please come out with a true sucessor to the MX1000!)

How did the Xonar drivers get corrupted?

 

[OrangeOak]

My GTX 770 gets 70+Fps without a problem.

Mine too but not 100% of the time,there are drops in both multiplayer and in some single player levels.So it's most definitely not stable 60fps for me even if I have 100fps at some points.
I play it in 1080p in ultra with 2xmsaa.It's a little better without msaa.

 

[Seanspeed]

Eh, I've only done my first build, but I really do put some research into my choices, so I don't often have regrets with things I buy.

I think I *might* have gone Window 8 rather than Windows 7, not for performance reasons, but for support reasons. Not a huge deal, though. Its like XP in that I think it will be supported for a good while, but will ultimately be worth upgrading when a good new version comes out anyways.

Other than that, I mean:

i5-3570k
CM 212 Evo CPU cooler
MSI Z77A-G45
MSI GTX670 Power Edition OC(essentially already as powerful as a 680 out of the box)
XFX Pro 550w
Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB RAM 1600mhz
Samsung 120GB SSD
WD Blue 1TB HHD
Zalman Z5 Plus case(3 fans, lots of space, good temps, good looks, dirt cheap)
ASUS Xonar DGX

Don't really think there's anything I could have done to have made this better bang-for-buck. Should last me quite a while too, with an upgrade to the GPU in 2015 or maybe even 2016 given how well its serving me so far. Depends on how fast 16nm GPU's come.

 

[ghst]

also, numerous shit tier off brand parts from when poverty met naivety.

who knows how many bluescreens, lockups and other general headaches my ez cool PSU caused me.

 

[Hazaro]

• Buying a Zalman heatsink
• Getting an E6600 over a Q6600
• Getting a full tower
• Actually putting CCL in my case at come point
• Almost killing a GPU by trying to voltmod it
• Being convinced to get a delid CPU then put water cooling on it (Not really worth it)

That's pretty much it, everything else has been great and I've gone through tons of parts.

 

[Luigi87]

in retrospect, i wish i sprung for the q6600 over the e6750.

Oh, yeah I made that same mistake years back...

 

[djplaeskool]

Current rig is built on an MSI X79A-GD45.

Kind of regret not getting a better mobo. Not that it has lead to any major problems, but a slew of minor annoyances. The problem is that getting a decent quality LGA2011 board, even now, going on 2 years after building my current machine, is a pricey venture.

 

[KevMan1815]

I regret buying a i7 920 5 years ago, since it's so good that I still can't talk myself into upgrading.

But seriously, the last purchase of PC hardware I regret is my TV card. I never use it. And I mean seriously never. Exactly once since I put it into the system 2 years ago.

I have the i7 920 as well and go through the same thing periodically. I'll tell myself time tto upgrade, compare some stuff, then talk myself out of it.

 

[RuneFactoryFanboy]

The first pc I ever built around 12-13 years ago I bought a PC case with the LED lights blazing though the side panel like this. NEVER AGAIN.

Yep same with me. I'll add to that going with a cheap case and an over abundance of loud fans. I built my first PC when I was 19 years old and now at 30 I find that thing embarrassing.

If I ever build a PC again I will spend some extra cash to get a well built, noise dampening and minimalist case. A small black box that can sit out of sight and mind.

 

[Stabby McSter]

I'm still rocking a GTX470.

 

[Aiustis]

Not buying a nicer case. For ten or fifteen dollars more I could have gotten something that would make cable management easier.

 

[TrounceX]

I once had SLI 570's.

They were so inefficient and hot, and SLI didn't make that much difference in many games or was outright broken in others. I don't think I'd ever recommend SLI based on my experience.

So I bought a 780 which has been fantastic, but of course AMD launched their R series cards just a couple months later and Nvidia responded by slashing the price of the 780...

It's okay though because the rest of my build has been rock solid, my 2500k especially. That thing is such a beast.

 

[Serick]

Mine too but not 100% of the time,there are drops in both multiplayer and in some single player levels.So it's most definitely not stable 60fps for me even if I have 100fps at some points.
I play it in 1080p in ultra with 2xmsaa.It's a little better without msaa.

Do you have the 4GB version? From what I understand it's the 2GB GTX 770 that has trouble maintaining 60 fps.

 

[Jafku]

1GB 7850.

EDIT: This too

I built my first gaming PC in 2012, at the time RAM was really cheap. I think I paid $43 for 8gb. I wanted 16, but I decided that could wait. Next thing I know, RAM is suddenly double the price.

I think I'll stick with the 8gb...

 

[D4Danger]

in retrospect, i wish i sprung for the q6600 over the e6750.

I still have a e6600 because the q6600 I wanted was out of stock at the time. I should've waited.

 

[Mupod]

My 2500k and ridiculously huge Asus GTX580 still easily handle anything I throw at them, granted I have no interest in Battlefield. And both are overclocked quite a bit.

Considering upgrading before Star Citizen, but I see no reason to upgrade right now.

 

[Armoured Priest]

I'd like to upgrade, but my last upgrade put me at the limits of CPU/RAM/Motherboard (its a Motherboard that supports the last couple AMD chips before the APUs...I'm using a quad core 980, but it also supports only DDR2). Because of this, any upgrade I do is pretty much a new CPU/RAM/MoBo across the board...not to mention I'd love to pick up a SSD while I'm at it. I also have concerns at how much longer DDR3 is going to be around. Luckily my PC runs everything I need it to (if not at highest settings).

 

[Zakalwe]

The first PC I built was a hodge-podge of other people's left over parts.

I'd just got my first overdraft facility, so I decided to grab a gpu. I wasn't internet savy back then, and I had next to no idea about computer hardware, so I rushed out to my local PC retailer and bought the flashiest looking one.

I got a Geforce 5500 for around £250.

They saw me coming a mile away, I could have got an ati 9800 at the time for much less.

 

[jmdajr]

399.99 for an Ati All in Wonder card.

Complete waste of money. AGP was on the way out, and the current comp I had couldn't take advantage of it.

 

[llaannccee]

Voodoo 5500. Should have got a Geforce 2.

 

[cyberheater]

Nvidia 3D vision. I knew it would be useless but i had hope.
If it wasn't for helix and his mods 3d would be completely dead on pc.

You're not wrong. nVidia should hire that bloke to fix 3D games for a living.

 

[bro1]

Mine too but not 100% of the time,there are drops in both multiplayer and in some single player levels.So it's most definitely not stable 60fps for me even if I have 100fps at some points.
I play it in 1080p in ultra with 2xmsaa.It's a little better without msaa.

make sure vsynch is off. also, have a high refresh rate monitor too, it helps.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Not buying an SSD. Now it just seems like way too much hassle if I want to reformat everything to install windows again, since I lost the dvd and the dvd-drive has stopped working in the mean time anyway.

But good lord this thing has gotten slow at start up, takes like 5-10 minutes before everything stops hitching when I cold boot.

Also I got a single HD 6870 hoping to crossfire down the line, but I didn't check the specs of my mobo properly and 1 slot is x4. Urgh.

 

[cyberheater]

Well I regretted buying a Cyrix processor back in the day :-D

LOL. I know a few folks who did that.

As for me. Buying a cheap power supply. If finally burnt out the other day. I've now got a much quieter 780W job. It's great.

 

[bro1]

Do you have the 4GB version? From what I understand it's the 2GB GTX 770 that has trouble maintaining 60 fps.

The 2GB shouldn't be much of a bottle neck. Also, choose just regular AA or post process aa

 

[shuri]

Going for a sli 670 setup. Not many games really support it well and they cause massive heat issues. And the only game that I really play does not even support sli at all!

 

[Sinatar]

I regret living on the 4th floor of a 4 floor walkup building. Carrying my phantom 820 up 4 flights of stairs was... unpleasant.

 

[Serick]

Mine too but not 100% of the time,there are drops in both multiplayer and in some single player levels.So it's most definitely not stable 60fps for me even if I have 100fps at some points.
I play it in 1080p in ultra with 2xmsaa.It's a little better without msaa.

The 2GB shouldn't be much of a bottle neck. Also, choose just regular AA or post process aa

Are you sure? Any source?

Battlefield 4 is seen creeping past 2.25GB of video memory usage on cards that have it available.

 

[mflexx]

I regret nothing.

 

[TronLight]

Should have gone with 8GB of RAM instead of 4.

Everything else is fine in my opinion.

 

[biggersmaller]

I'm STILL using an i7 920. It's a BEAST CPU!

No reason to upgrade it.

Me too. My regret was getting the 5850 that came with it - but I still have yet to replace it as I primarily play graphic-intensive games on console now.

 

[-COOLIO-]

i should have got a non sli-board since i never used sli. but everything else was a perfect buy. thanks gaf!

 

[robotrock]

I wish I had purchased an SLI motherboard back in 2010, but I can't blame myself. SLI support wasn't that great back then and I don't even know if it's any better now.

 

[CrashPrime]

Going for a sli 670 setup. Not many games really support it well and they cause massive heat issues. And the only game that I really play does not even support sli at all!

Most modern games support SLI gloriously. Don't regret that shit, just play more games!

 

[creyas]

Hmh. Not much really, minor gripes. 2500+ Barton to A64 3200+ might have been unnecessary. Had the lovely NF7-S with it too. At least a bud got a decent PC out of that.

Should have got a Q6600 instead of an E6750 back then.

Wondering if i should have got a 2600K instead of this 2500K back when they came out. Would that have had enough of an edge on upcoming stuff with the 8 threads that i wouldn't need to think about doing a new build this year or the next? Lightly/moderately overclocked, running this one cool at 4.5. I'm a solid >60 hound though, but G-Sync might help with that.

Built a secondary PC i haven't had much use for around that E6750 when the motherboard busted (Asus P5E.. what a beauty. Fuck you, chassis intrusion detection.). Got a new mATX mobo and case (Fractal Arc Mini). Won't have any use for the case since if i'll do a secondary in the future it'll be mITX and it wouldn't cut it as my main rig case either. Will end up as junk.

I should've bought 16GB of RAM a year or two back when it was cheap. Instead i filled all the slots with 2 giggers when i built this rig. Why

 

[ColdDeckEd]

My biggest regret from my circa 2010 budget gaming rig is not doing enough research on cases. I had to bend the side panel the thing since the my cm hyper 212 was too tall. Fml...

 

[Dr Dogg]

i should have got a non sli-board since i never used sli. but everything else was a perfect buy. thanks gaf!

Well it's better to have something you don't need that not have something you do. Unless you really wanted the extra $'s for something else.

 

[KJ869]

A Noctua NH-D14 is INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT to fit into a mATX case

Yep, its damn hard to fit to antec sonata. Every time I there are problem with my computer, I jus t hope I dont have to check my motherboard. The part I realy regret is going stock cooling on my GPU, the noisiest part. Next time I need to spend even more money to get quiter case. Realy starting to concider checking out current watercooling rigs.

 

[Grief.exe]

I've actually been plugging along with a 560 ti SLI set up that I purchased for cheap back in 2010. Probably one of the better purchases I have made.

Only issue is the low VRAM which struggles at higher resolutions and streaming larger textures. It has been running these next-gen games perfectly though.

I wish I had purchased an SLI motherboard back in 2010, but I can't blame myself. SLI support wasn't that great back then and I don't even know if it's any better now.

Its amazing now.

 

[Thorgal]

I regret buying a I7 3770 .

It is not bad by any imagination but not being able to overklock it and therefore lose 10-20 % of performance has been a real facepalmer for me .

 

[rashbeep]

I did regret getting an i3-2100 and a 560ti a few years ago. Good bang for the buck, but I didn't realize just how much of a graphics whore I was.

 

[MattPeters]

Nothing compared to some of the people here,but I bought a 5.1 surround sound system for my PC and within a month or two I had it unplugged and was using my Sennheiser headphones exclusively.

 

[Jack Videogames]

Bought a gigantic Cooler Master CPU fan for a non-OC i5. The fan didn't even fit the case (Bitfenix prodigy with G760). Now I'm on stock and runs more than fine and I got a refund for the fan, but still I was dumb.

Also I got a nonmodular 550W. Didn't get a refund for that one. Bought a 750w modular after less than a year.

 

[Ganzor]

Getting a Nvidia 6800Ultra back in the day instead of an ATI X800XT (they where sold out).

 

[Metalmurphy]

Singleplayer or multiplayer (I'm hoping single)

MP on the big maps usually when looking at one an angle where it catches a big draw distance and some up close buildings.


SP is actually more stable.

 

[Daingurse]

Shoulda just spent a bit more, and bought a 680 instead of a 670. Especially a fucking 2GB 670, fuck. I don't want to invest in SLI, because I don't want to get capped at 2GB VRAM. I'm just waiting for the GTX 800 series now, but if I had a 4GB 680, I wouldn't hesitate to SLI that bitch. Then I'd be sitting nice and comfortable, gah . . .

 

[sniperpon]

How far back are we going? PowerVR PCX2 over 3dfx Voodoo for me...

 

[dorkimoe]

not upgrading my monitor sooner. Had a widescreen 22inch for awhile thought it was great. Then couple weeks ago i got a 27inch. DAT HIGH sweet sweet resolution

 

[KiraFA37]

Telling the clerk I needed "a PSU" when building my first PC. Basically a year later my PC shut it self down randomly when playing RA3. They couldn't find the problem, so they offered to change/upgrade my CPU and GPU for a discharge. I'm not sure what happened exactly afterwards but the problem returned in some other game and I just decided to change my PSU to a better one (From Zalman to Corsair), and behold no more issues. The Zalman just couldn't output enough amps for my GTX280, outputted only 16A per rail and it needed 40A, so if it asked for more I suppose some circuit breaker kicked in.

So my regret? Not fully researching every component of my build. Still rocking with it 6 years later!

 

[SneakyStephan]

Mine would be:
Not spending more on a better build quality psu (not because of reliability or some nonsense though).
My psu fan has always been the loudest part of my computer


Not spending either 100 euros more on a quad core phenom II or 170 more on a i7 920+intel mobo
I bought a 3 core phenom II which was the best bang for buck cpu EVER and it was dirt dirt cheap (it was a fully featured 955BE with one core disabled but the cache fully intact for half the price) and served me well for 3 years , but I assumed cpu performance would actually go anywhere in the next 5 years (I was wrong, thanks AMD)
So now it's been time to upgrade for a while and the only real upgrade path is a brand new intel mobo + i5 + ddr3 ram (my am2 mobo uses ddr2) which is like a 400 euro upgrade...
If I had bought an i7 920 back then I'd have had been a lot better off in natural selection 2, saints row 3-4 and a bunch of other games and I'd still be good for performance today
I really don't want to pay 400 euros for an incremental poor build quality upgrade over the i5 2500k with shitty Thermal paste
Alternatively I wish I had just bought an i5 2500 k when it released, that would have been good too even though my phenom II was still fine back then


Not buying a sony fw900 back in 2003
my IIYAMA was a pretty high end monitor (and not cheap) so it's pretty good but with crts going the way of the dodo and LCD monitors being guttertrash I have no upgrade path or even sidegrade path and fw900s go for 1000+ euros now
My IIyama is starting to break (some horizontal lines at the very top of the screen and the screen geometry got worse) and I have literally no way to replace it without a huge downgrade

Buying a 32GB raptor hdd in 2004, I never even installed the thing because I was too lazy to reformat and kept putting it off, one of my only impulse buys ever

Going amd again with my hd6870, it was meant to be a cheap tie me over card until I got a brand new build sometime in 2012-2013 when 28nm cards were out and when ivy/haswell released but see above as for why that didn't happen
Now there is no point upgrading my gpu with this cpu and I had to suffer with really bad amd drivers between 2011-2013 and with no way to downsample on my crt monitor...



but hey hindsight is 20/20 and the phenom II was the best hardware deal I ever found, I could've never guessed what would happen in cpu land or how shitty bulldozer would be


Next time i'll definitely buy a quiet psu and intel cpu, and keep praying that OLED monitors appear sometime before 2020...