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Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

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    #41
    Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

    Originally posted by caphair View Post
    Ok I've always wondered what justifies "cheap" electronics from quality ones. I mean components are components correct or?
    Some of the "cheap" electronics use cheaper quality components, meaning components whose specs may be overstated or the components themselves are either undersized / just barely covering the minimum. And of course, cheap electronics are also a lot more likely to use cheap capacitors (as in, low quality).

    Originally posted by caphair View Post
    What's everyone's take? I generally use eBay a lot.
    I only buy general stuff that I think or know are less likely to have issues due to lower-tier (i.e. cheaper) components. Most connectors and adapters do fall into that category. But beware. Some connectors can be so cheap that they can burn down - literally! See this:
    https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=51607

    Originally posted by caphair View Post
    Bought myself a hot air station and adjustable dc supply (both knock offs) but they've been working fine for quite some time (knock on wood)
    Well, I myself have some relatively cheap soldering stations too. Work well, like you mentioned. And that's the whole point of this thread here - to help find/reveal the "good" cheap stuff worthwhile getting and the "bad" ones to truly avoid (like the DVI-to-VGA adapters I mentioned in my first post in this thread).

    Originally posted by ChaosLegionnaire View Post
    first time ever, i'm encountering a seller that takes over a week to even start sending an item!
    At least they replied to you...

    I've had a couple do that above, but they all let me knew ahead of time that there would be delay. There was only one guy who was an exception - he wouldn't reply to my emails at all... which was weird, because the guy was local and the whole reason I bought the item from him/her was so I could pick it up locally. This was agreed upon by PM before I even bid on the item. When I won, all of a sudden the seller never contacted me again to tell me the address to pick up my item. So eventually I gave up and opened a case for a refund.

    Originally posted by ChaosLegionnaire View Post
    btw, is the usps post office open on saturdays? i know they do delivery on saturdays but not sure if the post office opens on saturdays too?
    I *think* most are open, but they close a few hours earlier than on week days.
    Also, USPS started doing deliveries even on Sunday now - at least where I am... or at least that was the case in the fall and winter. Perhaps because of Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping seasons? I haven't taken note if they still do deliveries Sunday.

    Originally posted by mariushm View Post
    My previous purchase was a couple of adapter cables to change one sata power connector into 2 molex connectors.
    Lol, wanna trade? I'll give you some Molex connectors in exchange for SATA. I have so many good older HiPro PSUs, but it bugs me that I can't use them in newer PCs with SATA HDDs unless I have some of those adapters on hand (and I am always running short).
    Last edited by momaka; 04-27-2016, 10:33 PM.

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      #42
      Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

      i buy cheap chinese stuff,
      then i inspect the soldering and replace some caps.
      then it's as good as the expensive stuff - maybe better given that the expensive stuff is full of crap caps now.

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        #43
        Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

        So it's not necessarily cheap engineering more so components used? Didn't think anything beyond capacitors and thinner wires or poor soldering would be in cheaper electronics. Figured diodes, transistors, etc would hold up fine if engineered within their specs

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          #44
          Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

          exactly, a lot of chinese stuff is either a copy of expensive stuff, or it's just a re-creation of an application note, reference design or datasheet from the maker of the chip.

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            #45
            Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

            Another cheap purchase, not from eBay because two separate sellers (but i suspect same company as the product listing had same picture and text) had issues selling me this.

            It's from Amazon UK, 2 uk pounds + shipping for a cable to convert the usb 3 header to two female usb 3.0 jacks : LINK



            Basically, my case has a usb 3 port in the front but at the time when the case was designed, they weren't sure about the 20pin headers so they used a long cable with a male usb 3 jack, and i was supposed to route the cable out to the back of the case through a hole and plug it into a regular usb 3 jack.
            With this adapter cable, i can route the two female connectors in the back of the motherboard and connect the cable to one of the jacks, and everything in front of the case remains black (black motherboard, black gpu, black cable sleeving etc)
            Attached Files
            Last edited by mariushm; 04-28-2016, 09:31 AM.

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              #46
              Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

              My last case came with one of those.
              sigpicThe Sky Is Falling

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                #47
                Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                Just updating this thread if anyone found something cheap and cheerful on China eBay?

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                  #48
                  Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                  constantly.
                  you *really* dont want me to spam this thread with all the shit i buy!

                  but just for fun, who can tell me why i ordered this???
                  http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272338903140

                  Comment


                    #49
                    Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                    I really need to look for better fans and not buy cheap like http://www.ebay.com/itm/302077398053
                    Still haven't gotten it (it will take a while...), but even at this price I can't see how the seller can make money off of it, or perhaps the seller is going to pocket the whole thing...

                    Need to replace a fan on my SATA hot swap bay...

                    Comment


                      #50
                      Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                      Originally posted by stj View Post
                      constantly.
                      you *really* dont want me to spam this thread with all the shit i buy!

                      but just for fun, who can tell me why i ordered this???
                      http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272338903140
                      Sharpen multi meter lead tips?

                      Comment


                        #51
                        Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                        40mm fans - those piss me off.
                        if you dont get ball bearing type, they dont last long.
                        and it's hard to find them with 5v or a tacho output - and damn near impossible to find them with both!

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                          #52
                          Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                          Originally posted by vinceroger69 View Post
                          Sharpen multi meter lead tips?
                          exactly!!!!!!

                          Comment


                            #53
                            Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                            Fortunately 12V is available in this situation as this isn't for a GPU - it's for hard drives.
                            I was thinking about getting one with a tach and hooking it up to the M/B alas...too cheap to get one :\

                            ---

                            Interesting to sharpen multimeter probes this way, though I have another question which is sort of an unintentional thread hijack - how do people clean their corroded probes that cause a scratchy continuity test... buy new ones?

                            Comment


                              #54
                              Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                              just clean them regularly with IPA to get rid of oxides and if they get bad - file / dremel / dart-sharpener.

                              a bigger problem is when the wire breaks as it enters the probe or plug.

                              Comment


                                #55
                                Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                                I'm worried that these probes tend to be chrome plated, or plated base metal (what metal is the base metal?) It seems that some of the probes, most of which are shiny silver-colored, when pitted or scraped are brass colored or something not so silvery. Are they just that, chrome plated brass? (thank goodness I have not come across plated iron/steel probes, though I've seen rusty banana plugs...)

                                The funny thing is that I like the old style probes where you can easily remove the probe from the wire... it tends to break where it's soldered to the probe tip, but that's where it's easily resolderable and fixed.

                                Maybe it's time to buy a dart-sharpener, so at least the tip is cleaned off.

                                Comment


                                  #56
                                  Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                                  they are made from nickel plated brass usually.

                                  Comment


                                    #57
                                    Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                                    for 40mm fans, i got the scythe mini kaze 40mm but it cost me a bomb! US$10 a pop! and no tacho wire and its a mini-gpu 2 pin connector! really hard to find a good 40mm fan!

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                                      #58
                                      Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                                      I found some great Sunon MagLev 40mm fans on ebay for £1 each. They work on 12v and 5v and are 2 pin. I put them in a load of Gigabit network switches I reconditioned.

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                                        #59
                                        Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                                        Yeah, I'm worried about the nickel plating if I have to sand the probe tips. I wonder if it's possible to re-plate the nickel cheaply...

                                        --

                                        Hmm. I do wonder whether some fans are true to word whether they're sleeve or ball or whatnot. Alas the hotswap bay does not get as hot as a chipset or GPU so it might last a little longer.

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                                          #60
                                          Re: Cheap Ebay Stuff: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Post Your Reviews

                                          i strip fans and check them - then add new oil.

                                          btw, i NEED a tacho output because it's a safety function.
                                          if the blades stop, the power to the chip is shutdown!!!

                                          that's the difference between pc crap, and well designed industrial equipment.
                                          i also needed 20 of them - so i'm not paying $10 each - fuck that!!

                                          i used 12v fans i found in china with a tacho, and made a convertor circuit to feed them with 12v and zener-clamp the tacho output to 5v levels.
                                          Last edited by stj; 09-30-2016, 07:39 AM.

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