Depends on how we define “cheap,” really. My 3d printer is a cheap 3d printer, and has probably been the most lifechanging recent purchase. Still like $200.
If we mean something most people would be able to afford within a month, it’s between my laptop, or my server. Both were $50, and both had a massive impact on my life.
Not much, admittedly. It’s a Lenovo Thinkpad T430 if you want to look up the spec sheet. But it was enough to start me down a path of being more hands-on with my software, and making me more aware of how kinda bullshit it is that a lot of the more basic software flat won’t run on older hardware. I get that there will be cutoffs, like going from 32 to 64 bit, where there are fundamental incompatibilities, but it’s kinda bullshit that you need 16gb of RAM to just load the news, or watch videos that were on the internet before this thing released.
I’ve upgraded it a bit since (more RAM, faster CPU), but without it it still did do a lot compared to what you’d expect from a then 12 year old laptop. It did handle some light gaming, reading things, some websites loaded fine, mostly the ones that were just text with a few images, playing music, etc. Biggest problem has been the battery life, which is expected out of an old battery. Lasts about 45 minutes
Depends on how we define “cheap,” really. My 3d printer is a cheap 3d printer, and has probably been the most lifechanging recent purchase. Still like $200.
If we mean something most people would be able to afford within a month, it’s between my laptop, or my server. Both were $50, and both had a massive impact on my life.
What kind of specs does $50 get you?
Not much, admittedly. It’s a Lenovo Thinkpad T430 if you want to look up the spec sheet. But it was enough to start me down a path of being more hands-on with my software, and making me more aware of how kinda bullshit it is that a lot of the more basic software flat won’t run on older hardware. I get that there will be cutoffs, like going from 32 to 64 bit, where there are fundamental incompatibilities, but it’s kinda bullshit that you need 16gb of RAM to just load the news, or watch videos that were on the internet before this thing released.
I’ve upgraded it a bit since (more RAM, faster CPU), but without it it still did do a lot compared to what you’d expect from a then 12 year old laptop. It did handle some light gaming, reading things, some websites loaded fine, mostly the ones that were just text with a few images, playing music, etc. Biggest problem has been the battery life, which is expected out of an old battery. Lasts about 45 minutes