What was the worst computer you ever bought and why?

[Keatah]

The K6-2 system I built back in the dotcom era. Liked to crash and never handled 15/16 bit palettes right. What an embarrassment!

 

Next up was the Pentium 4 rig. It was hot and heavy. Cost a fortune, over 4 or 5 grand. Easy. 
 

Runners up would be anything built following MaximumPC dream machine guidelines. Especially AMD. All very expensive, loud, niche. And not practical or stable. Much like first two I listed.

 

Then this bullshit PIII that is simply “too much”. Need to disassemble it and refactor it into simplicity.

[DragonGrafx-16]

33 minutes ago, Keatah said:

The K6-2 system I built back in the dotcom era. Liked to crash and never handled 15/16 bit palettes right. What an embarrassment!

 

Next up was the Pentium 4 rig. It was hot and heavy. Cost a fortune, over 4 or 5 grand. Easy. 
 

Runners up would be anything built following MaximumPC dream machine guidelines. Especially AMD. All very expensive, loud, niche. And not practical or stable. Much like first two I listed.

 

Then this bullshit PIII that is simply “too much”. Need to disassemble it and refactor it into simplicity.

Was the K6-2 bad? The original K6 I have is great.

[+OLD CS1]

16 minutes ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

Was the K6-2 bad? The original K6 I have is great.

My K6-2s were great, as were the K6-3s.  I am still running a K6-III+ in a Solaris 8 server in my home office.

[Keatah]

I think has to do with the 2nd rate chipsets used in AMD systems. And a lame BIOS on the videocard.

[newtmonkey]

The worst PC I had was my first PC, an IBM PS/2 386-16.  Although that's a great line of computers (very solid construction) and my PS/2 ran for years and years, it was severely under-powered when we got it.. it was marked down in price because it was several years old, at a time where things were changing so fast that it was hard to keep up.  It was probably a great choice for use in an office somewhere, but as a home PC is was pretty lacking, especially when it came to running games.  It also used a proprietary connection for expansion cards (microchannel?), and so when we wanted to expand it with a sound card, we had to order a ridiculously overpriced Sound Blaster clone (the same price, maybe even higher, as a genuine Sound Blaster!).

 

Having said that, I have a lot of fond memories with that system.  Setting up smartdrive to try to get slower games to run a bit smoother, etc.  As a big fan of RPGs, most games I wanted to play ran perfectly fine.  I remember also being shocked to find that Wing Commander ran just fine on it also!  Ultima Underworld and Ultima VII were not very playable, though I spent many enjoyable hours playing U7.

[TheDevil'sCompass]

When it was time to go to college my parents decided I should get rid of my "game" computer (as they called it) - an Apple //c tailored to my liking with various hardware components that took me several years starting at age 13 of working 2-3 hours after school and 8 hour days every summer to pay for. At the time I thought why can't I keep it and also get a new one? Nope. Need to sell it to have money to buy the new one. If memory serves right, I ended up selling somewhere between $2K-$2.5K worth of hardware for $300. Nowhere near enough to buy one of those fancy IBM compatibles. At the time 386DX systems were out, 386SX systems were more reasonable, but 286 systems were within immediate reach with my parents help. Had to get it right away for some reason, so my parents ordered an Emerson 286 system for $1500. That's right, Emerson. It's the only system I've ever seen branded by Emerson. Kind of felt like they branded one just to see if some sucker would buy it and sure enough my parents did. It was 12Mhz and came with a whopping 1MB of RAM, 40MB hard drive (think it was MFM), and VGA graphics (can't remember if it was on the motherboard or an add on card). Got an Emerson 2400 baud modem, Logitech mouse, and a refurbished Panasonic 24-pin dot matrix printer to round out the system. A year later upgraded the RAM to 4MB which helped a tiny bit. Best thing about that system was the Logitech mouse and Panasonic printer. To this day I'm still salty about having to sell my Apple //c for that piece of crap Emerson 286.

[Keatah]

It was amazing how long the 1MHz Apple II line remained viable. Useful even. Right into the mid-1990’s.

 

All the official enhancements from Apple weren’t about speed, but functionality instead. Mousetext. 128K memory. 80 columns. 800K disks. Firmware. Keyboard. Double hi-res graphics.

 

The complete opposite was true for the PC. We were seeing speed ups every 6 months. Both in raw MHz and bus size. And new processor features/instructions too.

 

All that prior to the multi-media craze, which amped it up even more.

[Keatah]

My early exposures to the 8088/8086 were minimal because they didn’t play games as good as my Atari, were so expensive, all businessy, and owned by old fat men. Smelly pigs they were. 

 

When I first started experiencing and reading about “The PC”, I so wanted a LeadingEdge 286-12. Or an AT&T XENIX based rig, 286-12 also. Was unreasonably fascinated with 286-12 for some inexplicable reason. Wish I still had the brochures for those. 
 

I would temporarily lose interest in things PC during the  386 epoch. And regain interest with the advent of the 486.

 

When came time to purchase, I went back and forth between 386-486-386-486-386-486 like a crazed madman. Intel soon came out with the clock doubled chips. I stopped that and settled right then’n’there.

 

The stars aligned! I could run my astronomy programs at speed! And and bought a deluxe model. Instantly thereafter I couldn’t imagine I dillydallied back’n’forth that much.

 

Then I discovered real PC gaming and forgot about the brewing MHz race. 
 

Next rig was Pentium 90 upgrade to the 486. Mobo, memory, CPU swap.. I got wind of faster and faster Pentiums and said fuck it all! No sooner had I got the P90, faster grades came out that same week. Full stop! Put the 486 back to original condition. And waited for the P-PRO to drop in price. It never did. That was another infatuation not realized, the P-PRO 200.

 

Enough! 
 

The Pentium II came out and I was hooked. It was like a supercharged Pentium-Pro, with big cache, and MMX, and a futuristic-looking black cartridge. Cartridge!

 

Built one up. And started running the MHz race like a full-blown idiot! Ugh!!

[Keatah]

1 hour ago, TheDevil'sCompass said:

When it was time to go to college my parents decided I should get rid of my "game" computer (as they called it) - an Apple //c tailored to my liking…

Counterpoint. My old bag gramma made me get rid of all my other consoles, EXCEPT the Apple II and its paraphernalia. Rather protective of it. If it was “Apple” it was valuable.

 

The old man had gotten a Packard Bell 286. But I didn’t know what to do with it, other than play flight simulator. I wanted it to like the Atari and Apple. But nope. DOS was generally incomprehensible. And not intuitive. And yet, as stated before, I wanted one. Very very confusing times.

Edited March 30, 2022 by Keatah

[BetaC]

Legally speaking, the worst computer I've ever bought is the often brought up here Timex Sinclair 1000. I bought it because it was complete in box, and found in the same place that I got my genuine IBM Model M. After all, why not buy one of the worst keyboards ever while also buying one of the best? As for a truer answer, it was probably the plastic fantastic $200 acer laptop that I got at walmart in 2015. It served me for about a year before the HDD died on me, and was replaced not too long after that. I didn't lose any data, luckily.

[wierd_w]

Technically, my first experiences with an 8088/8086 were my dad's old IBM PCjr.  For several outstanding reasons, I do not consider this to be the same kettle of fish as the IBM 5150/5160.

My first experiences with those came much much later, after taking my summer job at the mom&pop.  I got *REAL* acquainted with those series systems, as well as the IBM PC-AT, and the IBM PS/2 line. (complete with the warts of the MCA architecture.)

 

 

[Reaperman]

How have I not responded to this thread yet? Easy answer:

 

A computer-show parts special (1998, IIRC), and was the first machine I ever "built"

Cyrix 6x86mx "200Mhz"

'ExpertColor' sound card

Matrox Mystique 220 graphics card (was probably a later addition, can't really recall)

 

I was a kid, and to get my McD's paychecks high enough to afford even that was a challenge. I know that stuff is all garbage now, but I fell for all the package marketing. The cyrix "MX" didn't really have it running like an MMX, and "runs as fast as a 200mhz chip" doesn't make it a 200mhz chip. It also crashed at least a couple times a day.

 

This was a replacement for a fairly reliable packard bell 486 DX2 66mhz, so you can imagine how hard I had to try to convince myself that the Cyrix was an upgrade, but somehow I did.  Also the Matrox only seemed to really help on the moto racer title it came packed with. That one game was actually awesome. 

 

here's somebody playing it on a mystique:

 

But I'd say the failure of that hardware combination--especially finding out I'd need a new graphics card (again) to play any other game, pushed me to gaming on consoles until the PS3 generation. Turns out PS1s were cheaper than graphics cards and I could be sure I wouldn't buy the 'wrong one' ever again.

 

Interestingly that 1998 computer show was the same one where I got my new Atari Jaguar + 2 extra games off of a pallet for $35. I remember having to get less of a sound card because of it. Money was tight...

Edited March 30, 2022 by Reaperman

[+Gemintronic]

I've had enough consoles and computers to have many horrible, steaming clunkers.

 

The original GPD Win had an unusable, tiny keyboard.  Also charged to full then forgot it was plugged in and drained to ZERO.  Devices stopped working and needed randomly scattered new drivers for the latest Win 10 version.   sigh.

 

The OpenPandora handheld had (for me) had a shatty build quality with barely working wireless connectivity.  I had to wedge a penny inside the battery compartment to keep the batteries connected.  Never was able to obtain a promised and badly wanted TV adapter.

 

Bought a Poqet PC and quickly discovered the screen would never be readable enough for any use.

 

Used the Game Theory Admiral once and never again due to the weird angle of the NES slot converter.

 

The Multiple Classic Computer MCC-216 was an early FPGA system (I think?).  Got in too early and most of the cores for various systems always ended up only partially working.  Also, always had power issues depending on what was plugged into the system.

[Keatah]

4 hours ago, Reaperman said:

A computer-show parts special (1998, IIRC), and was the first machine I ever "built"

Cyrix 6x86mx "200Mhz"

'ExpertColor' sound card

Matrox Mystique 220 graphics card (was probably a later addition, can't really recall)

God I hated those. I was on a personal crusade to dissuade others buying that chip. Thankfully Quake killed it.

 

Marketing was in frenzy then. Deals and specials and discounts everywhere. The only way to navigate around it all seemed to be by picking the established names. Names that had been on the market for a few years. Intel, CreativeLabs, S3, CirrusLogic, WesternDigital, Compaq, Gateway, to name but a few.

 

Matrox always held a high-end connotation. In my head. In reality all their products seemed specialty and worked best in controlled niche situations. There's a short history of Cryix on youtube someplace.

 

I'm just happy all these alternate CPUs slid into obscurity. Mips, NexGen 586, IDT WinChip, AMD K5 and K6, Cyrix M2 (anything cyrix really). And more that I'm not thinking of at the moment. We really didn't need that 3D Now! crap either.

 

It's not just the lame performance, but some things weren't compatible due to the craze of CISC on RISC emulating. Or just plain old issues with the instruction set implementations.

https://read.cash/@Geri/low-end-processors-from-the-1990s-24f9a6f3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_computing_1990–1999

 

3 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

The Multiple Classic Computer MCC-216 was an early FPGA system (I think?).

Yes it was. And it was a little hot mess of lameness. I came close to buying, but thankfully was not able to afford one!

 

 

[RodLightning]

6 hours ago, Reaperman said:

How have I not responded to this thread yet? Easy answer:

 

A computer-show parts special (1998, IIRC), and was the first machine I ever "built"

Cyrix 6x86mx "200Mhz"

'ExpertColor' sound card

Matrox Mystique 220 graphics card (was probably a later addition, can't really recall)

 

 

I built just about this same pc that year.  I think we weren't alone.  I recall having a Yamaha OPL and S3 Virge in my version of the system.  Did you try to overclock?

When I went that route, trying to speed up Quake, it just added to my disappointment.  @Keatah, yeah Quake did definitely kill that cpu!  Thanks to Cyrix, I learned the difference between linear and pipeline burst cache.  At least one of the reviews tried to blame idsoftware for not taking advantage of the 6x86mx and instead writing the game as optimized for intel's pipeline burst mode.

 

I still tried to like my Cyrix and stuck with it for a couple of years.  It was small comfort that the cpu was reported to excel at spreadsheet calculation and other business related tasks.    I wish I had that board (m-tech r534g) and cpu framed and hanging on the wall of shame...

[Cebus Capucinis]

In Kindergarten I made a computer out of cardboard boxes with paper "disks" that you inserted. Stupid thing never ejected a single disk you put in it and you always had to buy more. Man, that computer sucked.

 

 

But the real answer is probably the Windows 8 tablet I bought, for the same reasons previously discussed. No storage, slow as all get out.....blech. I think I still have it somewhere, too.

[Tuxon86]

From memory... My worst was a cheap Duron prebuilt based PC I bought on eBay as a second machine for my lab. On the other hand it was the easiest machine to overclock, needing only a pencil scribble to make it go from 650mhz to 900mhz. Not that it helped all that much. I only kept it for a month or two before I got a Powermac G5 1.6Ghz running OSX Tiger.

 

Funny enough, when I think about it, all my really crappy machines are "modern" ones. Never really felt any of my 8 and 16 bit machine were crappy. In fact I used to miss some of the old computer features and capabilities on my newer system.  

[zzip]

11 hours ago, Keatah said:

Matrox always held a high-end connotation.

They did for awhile.   Probably the best 2D card on the market.    They didn't keep up on 3D and that killed them.

 

12 hours ago, Keatah said:

I'm just happy all these alternate CPUs slid into obscurity. Mips, NexGen 586, IDT WinChip, AMD K5 and K6, Cyrix M2 (anything cyrix really). And more that I'm not thinking of at the moment

There were so many 486 clones.    IBM had some,  Texas Instruments,  ST Microelectronics.   I used to see them all at computer shows when deciding which 486 to get,  and it made the choice more confusing.

[wierd_w]

MIPS

 

Not really dead, actually. Still shows up inside home routers from time to time, especially Netgear ones based on Marvell chipset. Really, its just the MIPS ISA, baked into an SoC, but still technically MIPS.

https://www.mips.com/mipsopen/

 

One could technically order a suitably large FPGA, devise a circuit description that complies with the MIPS ISA, and then use it to build up a modern SGI workstation-alike if they REALLY wanted to.

 

WinChip I believe was consumed by Via, who still makes x86 cores

 

 

[Keatah]

2 hours ago, zzip said:

IBM had some,

I had heard the Blue Lightning parts were very good. The 386 ones. Of which they made the fastest version ever. But I assumed the same of the 486 - till I learned they were just rebadged Cyrix designs.

 

Once the amount of clones and variations of 486 parts reached some nebulous saturation point I gave up on keeping track of the market and said fuckit. Just followed Intel. Always with a wary overshoulder look at AMD.

 

I decided to label everything else as substandard, even if certain numbers in select one-off benchmarks exceeded Intel. It was just TOO MUCH. There was no reward in filling my head with marketing numbers and pricing variations of $10 or $20. Or those asinine PR ratings.

Edited March 31, 2022 by Keatah

[mr_me]

4 hours ago, Keatah said:

I had heard the Blue Lightning parts were very good. The 386 ones. Of which they made the fastest version ever. But I assumed the same of the 486 - till I learned they were just rebadged Cyrix designs.

...

I had an IBM 486SLC2, not to be confused with the Cyrix chip of the same name, completely different processors (IBM used Intel's 486 design).  It came soldered to an IBM built motherboard.  Very cost effective at the time.

 

On 3/29/2022 at 9:36 PM, DragonGrafx-16 said:

Was the K6-2 bad? The original K6 I have is great.

The K6-2 I had was great, paired with an Asus motherboard, used it for nearly ten years.  Windows 98 might have been a bit of an issue, but upgrading to Windows 2000 and finally XP made a big difference.

Edited March 31, 2022 by mr_me

[atarilux]

The biggest pile of horse manure I ever had the misfortunate to use was the early Windows 3.1 PCs we suddenly got back in Uni. For the computer science classes we had until that point Sun workstations. These were not the fastest beasts (due to the lack of ram in them, unless you were lucky enough to be in the newer labs). However, nothing could prepare us for the constant crashing of Windows 3.1 for Workgroups. While I liked Office, and quite liked VB. They crashed just too much.

 

Interestingly while I loved the Atari Falcon for it's awesome hardware, it was probably the second least stable machine I came across. Constant bombs... I know I will get flamed... 

 

[MrMaddog]

1 hour ago, atarilux said:

The biggest pile of horse manure I ever had the misfortunate to use was the early Windows 3.1 PCs we suddenly got back in Uni. For the computer science classes we had until that point Sun workstations. These were not the fastest beasts (due to the lack of ram in them, unless you were lucky enough to be in the newer labs). However, nothing could prepare us for the constant crashing of Windows 3.1 for Workgroups. While I liked Office, and quite liked VB. They crashed just too much.

 

Interestingly while I loved the Atari Falcon for it's awesome hardware, it was probably the second least stable machine I came across. Constant bombs... I know I will get flamed... 

 

I had the exact same experiences using the Mac Performas in collage...slow responses with the mouse pointer dragging, mushy keyboard which suck for typing papers and always bombing whenever it felt like it.  I used them because I was trained on the "better" Mac Plus models, but it just wasn't worth the frustration so I started using the lab PC's instead. 

 

Even in DOS, I could use WordPerfect 5.0 with a mouse so the switchover was easier than I thought it would be.  Plus my STe, I had at the timel, could read DOS formated disks without any special conversion program...which were not installed on the school's Performas.

 

Oh and don't worry about what you said about the Falcon, Atari Corp's QA standards weren't that hot to begin with...

 

[Reaperman]

On 3/30/2022 at 11:04 PM, RodLightning said:

 Did you try to overclock?

When I went that route, trying to speed up Quake, it just added to my disappointment.

Nope. How would I ever know if it was stable? It already crashed pretty regularly ?

 

I hear talk of K6-2's, and I also had pretty good luck with mine--but I was coming from that Cyrix, so... 

Back then Pentiums were for rich people and businesses. I actually only got my first one kind of recently (2016) with a pentium quad.

But by that point, pentiums were most certainly not for rich people, to put it mildly.

[atarilux]

8 hours ago, Reaperman said:

Nope. How would I ever know if it was stable? It already crashed pretty regularly ?

 

I hear talk of K6-2's, and I also had pretty good luck with mine--but I was coming from that Cyrix, so... 

Back then Pentiums were for rich people and businesses. I actually only got my first one kind of recently (2016) with a pentium quad.

But by that point, pentiums were most certainly not for rich people, to put it mildly.

I had a K6-2 as well, it was very stable. Which is surprise given that it was by far the cheapest option.