When did you not get value for money?

[B00tDisk]

Ehh...computer-stuff wise:

Cyrix 6x86 Pr166 - ran moderately well doing humdrum tasks.  Oh my god don't throw anything in 3d at it (games-wise).  Suddenly it's like having a '486/sx-16 again.  I was so happy the day I got a real P200MMX I threw that chip in the garbage.

My ISA SB16 clone from the same vintage computer.  Once I got a real soundblaster (an Awe32 gold) the frame-rate in flight sims I played at the time actually went up.

Innumerable PC keyboards - until I bought my Model-M's.

A few RPGs and wargames on the Amiga (SSI I'm looking AT YOU x-( )

Winmodems.  GAAAH.  I went from a ping of 170 playing Quake II on iD Software's servers to a ping of 230+ (and then just quit bothering) when I switched from a hardware, ISA 33.6 to a PCI 56.6 software modem.

DSL.  Maybe it was just me, but I never ever* got the speeds I could have/should have.
(*=oh it was way, way faster than dialup, don't misunderstand me)

(oh and ID is cheese - but it's good, fun cheese!)

[B00tDisk]

So tell me, what was it that made you think Intel was such a great buy?

Be...cause it out ran the fucking Cyrix chip?  Because it had real honest to god MMX support that the Cyrix chip didn't?  Because it could handle 3d without collapsing in on itself like the Cyrix chip?

No, really, what in my original thesis left you uninformed?

The.  P200.  MMX.  Ran.  Faster.  And.  Better.  

And I say that as someone typing this on an Athlon II x64 (dual 3.0ghz cores).  ALL CPU manufacturers are capable of producing lemons.

Apparently Cyrix had a run of them.  I bought one.  It was a poor purchase and I didn't get my money's worth.  I stacked P120's up against it and they ran rings around it.  But no, I looked at that stupid "performance rating" marketing bullshit Cyrix stamped on there with the same grace and aplomb a ESL flea-market huckster approaches the sale of his grey market electronics with and spent my money there.

The P4 2.0ghz system I had?  Did not like.  Replaced with an AMD Athlon64.  Supplemented the Athlon with a 3.0ghz P4 Toshiba notebook that in terms of raw CPU, matched it.

Now, brace yourself, son: if there's an Intel chip on the horizon that outperforms this one, the one I'm using now?  I'll probably build a system around that!

Gasp.