What is the best piece of technology you ever bought?

[dgtL]

Im also upvoting ssd's. when i put my 2 new 840 pro's in raid i was just floored how fast it was.

[AroundWayOtherThe]

Well, I've only really upgraded what's in my system once, the only other times I've bought new hardware...it's been for a complete build. So...soundcard then, I guess? For lack of other options

[DLM_012]

Swapping stock fans out for something better. I replaced my rear fan in my 600T for a GEILD PWM fan and replaced the fan in my Coolermaster V8 for a Noctua NF-F12. My machine is the quietest it's ever been before. I think my stock 200mm make more fan noise than anything else now in my system

[Wauthar]

I got an awesome, comfortable chair, a headset, a new mouse and my Ducky Shine II will be on its way soon (hopefully).

It really has changed my computing experience!

[IronSoldier]

Hardware wise it would have to be the additon of an SSD.

[Pyr0monk3y]

A decent case.  I went from a noisy HAF 922 to a very mature and composed Fractal R4.  Everything is just better.

[acturisme]

Sound Blaster 16 to a Sound Blaster Live.  Soooo much awesome.  But that was like 10 builds ago.  Best recent upgrade is twin ssd's in raid 0 for boot.

[AizatRule]

a mechanical keyboard and a wacom tablet :3

[kn100]

There were two big upgrades I noticed the most over the years with my computers.

 

The first was going from 512MB of ram to 2gb of ram. OH MY GOD THE DIFFERENCE.

 

The second, as most are already saying, was going from a HDD to a SSD.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

SSD, no doubt about that! And my Meridian 563 DAC, but I don't think that counts as a computer component. :D

[T345]

1. HD 5770, only good GPU I have ever owned. Got it for £40 last year. 

2. Logitech G400. Best mouse ever. £25

3. I haven't really got any money for a good GPU or CPU etc... :( :D :)

[Snickerzz]

Just bought a samsung 840 non pro 120gb ssd :D

[Porsche]

Going from a GeForce GT 240 to 560 Ti was a big leap for me. My next big thing is an SSD.

[CaptRex635]

Adding an Intel 520 series SSD was probably the best upgrade, it made things so much faster and easier!

[That Norwegian Guy]

It feels slightly superfluous at this point, but I'll add my voice to the landslide of voices for the SSD for sure!

 

Such a massive improvement in games with long load times, boot-up, workflow... ZOOM!

[HEXiT]

for me it was the switch from single to dual core, before that windows 98's cd/dvd support before that a personal hdd on my amiga and before that a 5 1/4 floppy for my atari 800.

to me the likes of an ssd do bring improvements in usability but i they still aint worth the money to me for the performance gain you get. in some cases its not at all what people boast.yes windows boots in 6 seconds but after that i didnt notice any difference in game loading times especially on big games like witcher 2 and BF3. 

 

now the price has come down to a reasonable amount i will certainly be getting a pair of 256gig ssd's to set up a raid array to replace my current 2 TB raid 0

if you have more than 1 ssd and there identical i would suggest you raid 0 them...  dont worry raid 0 is perfectly stable as long as you dont bump your system about or mismatch the drives. (my current hdd's are in raid 0 and have been for the last 3.5 years with no issues, because i picked 2 identical drives specifically for the task)

[parashpa]

My best PC upgrade was when I moved from a AMD Athlon 1.2GHZ to I5-2500K. I had to use the AMD for a year because my old rig died. 

[tito]

First of all SSD then i would say my Corsair H100i. After using a SSD every day in my PC every time I have to work on some pc that doesnt have it I feel like im using a calculator.

[Zero Tolerrance]

My keyboard. It brought me into the world of gaming and it was the reason I built a whole new pc. I originally had some $200 refurbished pc that my mom got and I would play starcraft 2 at 10fps on low settings

[WoodenMarker]

I'd have to say my move up from a generic logitech keyboard and mouse to the G710+ and G9x has been so very wonderful.

 

Aside from peripherals and actual hardware, I'd have to say my 'upgrade'.

 

When I decided to upgrade my computer, I unknowingly upgraded every single part at once. 

So I guess THAT's my best upgrade? :unsure:

[gasho]

A few things actually... I was really surprised how comfortable the Steelseries QcK+ is. I had a stock mousepad before and son of a gun the QcK is so much better.

 

I really enjoy still my switch from a logitech 2.1 z523 to a onkyo 9155 stereo amp with a nice pair of Polestar Vanguard V-R1s . The difference is huge. The movies, the games and music just sounds like totally different. Very good nice and crisp. I can just recommend to everybody to try a real stereo setup.

[LIGISTX]

Biggest "game changer" for me was going from a core 2 duo OCed to 3.2 to my i7 920 @ 3.82 Ghz. That was when I finally had a PC that was faster than me, no longer would I try and do things only to have my PC just not be able to handle it fast enough, or only be able to do a few things at a time comfortably. With the i7, that ALL changed. It is now without doubt faster than I am. 

 

As far as upgrades, my Vertex 4 SSD was the most noticeable day to day upgrade period. Everything is just so much more responsive than a harddrive  (coming from RAID0 Velociraptors).

 

After that in terms of interaction, my mechanical keyboard, hands down. I recently got a G710+ and typing is now enjoyable, not annoying.

[Helly]

thats easy.. when i bought my voodoo 1 card back in the day, the difference in graphics i got then was crazy. Games were alot more fun, like need for speed 2 SE which suddenly got effect like rain and flies that you can see hitting ur screen.. completely unheard of then..

 

2nd best would be my old Radeon 9700 pro. Allowed me to play all games at max for over 2 years. these days thats easy but back then.. buying the most expensive card actually meant you could max out games longer then then cheaper cards.. thats all changed now.

 

the latest best upgrade would be the same as everyone else.. my SSD boot drive.

[Yashrocks9]

ssd upgrade

a samsung 840pro 256gb to be precise

:D

[Dieman566]

SSD for sure.  Greatest upgrade ever.