Kernic

Just my toughts.

My Hardware Purchase Mistakes

· by Kernic
Category: Hardware
Tags:#hardware, #personal, #review

I deliberately tried the Meta Quest 3 with skepticism and thankfully sent it back. But over the years, I've bought a piece of hardware here and there that I've practically never used. This list only includes devices that I didn't return.

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Wacom Bamboo Pen&Touch - 115 Euros

To this day, I still create my own graphics or edit images when needed. 13 years ago, I had the idea to get more into graphic design and bought a Wacom Bamboo Pen&Touch drawing tablet for 80 euros, plus a wireless adapter for 35 euros. It’s been slumbering in my drawer ever since, but I could honestly sell it as unused. It saw no more than three hours of use. Drawing isn’t my strong suit, but using a mouse is.

Playstation Vita - 280 Euros

I loved my Playstation Portable and used it extensively. So, it was a no-brainer that I would also get the Playstation Vita—nerd that I am, I even got the 3G version. Since it was right at launch, I paid 250 euros for it, with another 32 euros for the proprietary 8GB memory card. In the end, I barely played it. Wipeout 2048 and Gravity Rush were really the only games with any significant playtime. None of the other games could win me over. Maybe my focus in 2012 was just too much on Eve Online.

Last year, I tried to revive the PS Vita, but even then, it couldn’t grab me. I tried a few games, but none of them are really good. Either the games are very simple, or the performance is poor. A shame, I actually like the form factor. I just can’t find a game for me.

ROCCAT Ryos MK Pro - 130 Euros

As a true gamer, you need a real gaming keyboard at least once in your life. Mechanical, of course, and backlit, of course. So, for 130 euros, I bought myself the ROCCAT Ryos MK Pro with blue backlighting. Unfortunately, I realized quickly—though not quickly enough to return it—that I’m not a fan of high keys, and mechanical keys aren’t that important to me either. On top of that, a few months later, the cooler version with RGB instead of just blue lighting came out, naturally. After a few months, the keyboard ended up in the closet, where it remains to this day.

USB Switch - 32 Euros

With COVID came working from home. With working from home came the work laptop. Now you have all the peripherals like the keyboard, mouse, webcam, etc., already on your desk for your personal PC. The USB switch was supposed to help with that. You connect your devices to it and the switch to both PCs, and just like that, you can switch the devices from one PC to the other. Great, right? It works perfectly, too. Except, in the end, I just used Teams, my browser, and everything else on my personal PC and only used the company laptop when I wasn’t working from home. And I still do that today, which is why I simply don’t need the hub anymore.

Foot Pedal 1x / 3x - 14 Euros / 32 Euros

I’m a fan of push-to-talk in voice chat. To make it easier for myself, I bought a foot pedal for my PC. It worked well but only had one pedal. So, I bought another one with three pedals. At some point, I was tidying up and didn’t reconnect the foot pedal. Thinking about it now, I have no idea why. I’ll probably dig it out of the box again.

Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter - 59 Euros

The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 was actually a great device, at least for its time. But with a Mini DisplayPort, the connections were limited. USB-C didn’t exist yet. So how could I easily get the video signal to the TV or monitor? Chromecast was still in its infancy, but Microsoft had (once again) its own standard: Miracast. No device could do it out of the box, so I bought a corresponding adapter, the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter. But the picture wasn’t good, the latency was high, and my need for wireless video transmission was lower than expected. The adapter was probably used less than ten times.

Final Words

To be honest, I thought I had bought more junk for my PC over the years. Okay, I left out the four Cherry keyboards; they all served their purpose, were just replaced, and are now clogging up the closet. But other than that, I seem to be more deliberate with my purchases than I had assumed. I’ve rediscovered some things through this list, while others seem to be genuinely valuable. The Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter still seems to go for 50-80 euros, the Playstation Vita could sell for 200 euros, the graphics tablet for 30 euros, and the keyboard for 20 euros as well. If I weren’t so lazy, I could invest 300 euros in some other nonsense.