- Slot 1/Socket 370 OEM motherboards without ISA slots yet have markings for one (this was a big hurdle when I looked at motherboards for my P6 rig back then).
- OEM Sound Blaster Live! PCI sound cards with driver issues/crippled functionality (CT4780 and SB0200, I'm looking at you).
- OEMs that use weird power supply shapes/connectors (dealt with this when replacing the PSU on my HP DC7800).
- Chinese-made computer cases with flimsy construction quality.
- Proprietary fan header connectors.
- The dreaded plug-in power bricks as shown on AVGN's Sega 32x review, those annoyed me especially when looking for good speakers.

I could list some cost-cutting issues all day long from this point on but I'm pretty sure you get most of it.

Kamerat wrote:

ATX powersupply that don't have on/off switch on the back.

I remember this causing issues for those who owned midnight-grey Dell desktops and wanted to upgrade the power supply, since the original Dell PSUs lacked the back I/O switch, Dell thought it was a good idea to block PSUs with the switch from being inserted into the case unless you drilled a hole for it on the back.

It's probably something else, but it's annoying some ZIF Socket 3 sockets do not have those protruding thingies for to attach a heatsink...I wonder how much money they gained with all that plastic they saved 😜

-How about Socket 3 motherboards that removed the VRM for 3.3v CPUs. So annoying.
-Cacheless Pentium machines with no provision for adding any (Packard Bell and other OEMs).
-The absolute lack of PS/2 mouse headers on generic baby AT motherboards until the late 486/Pentium era.... even though the keyboard controller on the board supports a mouse!
-The lack of VLB (and later AGP) slots in most OEM machines, even though its present for on-board video, which usually were lousy.
-Nasty cheap cases that were difficult to service the machine since they required disassembly for almost anything
-The Commodore Amiga 4000 Desktop. Everything was cost reduced and generally low quality about this machine even though it was "high end". Compare it to a Macintosh Quadra.
-IBM crippling almost all their 386/486 PS/2s with tarted up 386SX/486SLC variants. Despite being ridiculously expensive, most of the 32-bit PS/2s were limited to 16MB of RAM and a 16-bit external bus, negating one of the primary advantages of MicroChannel...... 32-bit expansion slots! The average VL-bus clone or even IBM's own PS/1 line ran circles around these machines since they came with full 386DX and 486 chips.

Apple removing ports (firewire, thunderbolt, USB, SD card, line-in, headphones) & expandability (RAM) from everything from 2011-on. And calling that "features."

NJRoadfan wrote:

-The Commodore Amiga 4000 Desktop. Everything was cost reduced and generally low quality about this machine even though it was "high end". Compare it to a Macintosh Quadra.

Pretty much all corporate decisions and new products introduced at Amiga during the rein of Mehdi Ali could be described this way.
http://www.commodore.ca/commodore-history/meh … d-of-commodore/

xjas wrote:

Apple removing ports (firewire, thunderbolt, USB, SD card, line-in, headphones) & expandability (RAM) from everything from 2011-on. And calling that "features."

This. When Apple announced their latest batch of "upgrades" to the MacBook line-up in 2016 there was a great outcry because of nixing almost all useful ports for advanced users. I then compared my 2013 MB Pro with my 2005 PowerBook, and concluded that my MB Pro had only like half the ports of the PowerBook...and the 2016 revision of the MB Pro had even less than that.

Also, older Mac portables still had decent quality distinct audio chips by reputable manufacturers. The MacBook (Pro)'s use some Apple-designed pieces of crap that sound horrible. For some reason they can't render GarageBand's instruments properly when combined with a MIDI keyboard, while the same instruments with the same settings and MIDI keyboard sound fine on my PowerBook.

And that's not mentioning the various OS X usability issues that are present in Mac OS X 8.5, but absent in 10.4.11.

Macs. They had the reputation that they were incredibly expensive for what you got. Back in 2005 that was undeserved; they were comparable to a high-end PC in price and features. Not so now: they are overpriced toys for people with too much money.

- not populating isa slots on p3 boards
- cheap caps
- cheap mechanics and rubber bands for cd eject mechanism.
- cheap fans without ball-bearing
- P60 Systems with passiv cooling... Thanks Escom!
- not populate caps, when intentet by hardware designer.. more money, less stability

hopefully my spelling is mostly correct 😁

I'd say, in addition to everything that already has been listed: Warranties.

For example, all my 3Dfx/3dfx cards came with a 10 year warranty... Fast forward to June 2015... My Evga Geforce GTX Titan X SuperClocked came with a 3 year warranty, while having a 4-digit price-tag... At least the Evga warranty is good and could be upgraded to 10 years for a small fee.

In many cases you can already be happy if you get more than 1 year warranty.

Another thing not directly related to the hardware itself... If I compare the package contents of my Diamond Monster 3D (a lot of games and demos) or my Asus V8200 Deluxe (several games, tools, 3d-shutter-glasses etc.) with the aforementioned GTX Titan X (a lot of padding material)...

All of this is interestingly inversely proportional to the general increase of the asking price...

yawetaG wrote:

This. When Apple announced their latest batch of "upgrades" to the MacBook line-up in 2016 there was a great outcry because of n […]
Show full quote

xjas wrote:

Apple removing ports (firewire, thunderbolt, USB, SD card, line-in, headphones) & expandability (RAM) from everything from 2011-on. And calling that "features."

This. When Apple announced their latest batch of "upgrades" to the MacBook line-up in 2016 there was a great outcry because of nixing almost all useful ports for advanced users. I then compared my 2013 MB Pro with my 2005 PowerBook, and concluded that my MB Pro had only like half the ports of the PowerBook...and the 2016 revision of the MB Pro had even less than that.

Also, older Mac portables still had decent quality distinct audio chips by reputable manufacturers. The MacBook (Pro)'s use some Apple-designed pieces of crap that sound horrible. For some reason they can't render GarageBand's instruments properly when combined with a MIDI keyboard, while the same instruments with the same settings and MIDI keyboard sound fine on my PowerBook.

And that's not mentioning the various OS X usability issues that are present in Mac OS X 8.5, but absent in 10.4.11.

Macs. They had the reputation that they were incredibly expensive for what you got. Back in 2005 that was undeserved; they were comparable to a high-end PC in price and features. Not so now: they are overpriced toys for people with too much money.

I couldn't agree more. And where they couldn't cut back on expansion ports they move to proprietary formats, forcing you to buy a new device every few years because you cannot upgrade, say, your SSD. And you must upgrade, because they sell their devices with ridiculously small storage devices that are filled up pretty fast. I'd rather burn my money than purchase anything with an Apple logo on it.

I still recall the day when a good friend of mine showed me the then new iPhone 5. I turned it around and read "Made in China" in the biggest font size available... I always thought you'd do that for something like "Made with pride in the USA" or whatever. When has "Made in China" evolved into something to be proud of when you create a product (out of China of course)?

One of the oldest mainboards I still actively use (Intel VS440FX) was made in Ireland, hence western Europe... Made to last for decades... I consider this "quality". Hard to find something like that nowadays...

oeuvre wrote:

Computers from around 1998-2004 that did not come with an AGP slot.

This. Definitely this. In romania no shops stocked on PCI 3d accelerators, and when you did happen to come across one it was more expensive (sometimes by up to 1/3).

But not all systems were for gaming.

But I'm with bob, those plastic lock tabs for ram suck

TheMobRules wrote:

HAHA, I hear you on that one. I have an old Antec 350w like this that I had to recap.

I ended up running extension wires for a couple of the replacement caps and zip tying them in place. Other than that annoyance, it has been a good power supply ever since.

Know the feeling just finished recapping my antec 350, that was a pain to fit the caps but I made it fit 🤣