No matter how you slice it, that's a nice drawful of ratchets!
Flex head ratchets
- Thread starter BBQguy
- Start date
Nobody needs that many ratchets. There should be a law against it.
Perma-ban in 3...2...1...
PassnThru
Well-known member
I'm starting to have flashbacks to my computer building days.
The major players for graphics were nvidia and ati.
The fanbois were solidly encamped.
The web was full of reviews that showed the latest game performed at a solid 2 FPS better for one vendor over the other. That's right - you could score 84 FPS instead of a meager 82 FPS in the newest game at the highest resolution. With a difference like that you would no doubt be decimated in online play if you chose poorly.
Except, in another game the other vendor won by no less than 3 FPS.
So artificial benchmarks were created to fairly evaluate cards. You can guess how that went. They were slow to take advantage of the special instruction set that my card supports!!!
Hours were spent anguishing over the right card for you.
Tens of thousands of people were ready to tell you which you should choose and how you were an idiot for choosing the opposite of their extremely expert opinion. And yes, many of them started with the card you were looking at but it was a dismal failure and they returned it after only 15 minutes. It was so bad they couldn't even play a game they had played with their old card for years!
If you pointed out that the cards were very close in performance and a sub 5 loss of FPS shouldn't affect a good player, then the argument shifted to driver support. Because, well, you know.
Don't even get me started on CPUs - as in AMD versus Intel.
I can confidently say, though, that despite all the expert opinions the perfect rig was never built during that time to cover every game and every processing need.
How does this relate to the OP you ask? I had the opportunity to purchase the GearWrench 120XP 5 piece flex head ratchet set as a gift to myself for Christmas. Naturally, I went to this very forum to investigate beforehand. I read many threads - some posters consigned the 120 to junk status. Conventional wisdom was that the 84 tooth version was vastly superior.
So, I channeled my vast years of internet forum experience (see above) and bought them.
Obviously, I haven't used them yet. But I've hung a socket on them and they feel really good. And according to many posts I've seen on here, that's a solid A++ recommendation.
Don't succumb to paralysis by analysis and don't assume every post is helpful. And yes, that includes this one.
The major players for graphics were nvidia and ati.
The fanbois were solidly encamped.
The web was full of reviews that showed the latest game performed at a solid 2 FPS better for one vendor over the other. That's right - you could score 84 FPS instead of a meager 82 FPS in the newest game at the highest resolution. With a difference like that you would no doubt be decimated in online play if you chose poorly.
Except, in another game the other vendor won by no less than 3 FPS.
So artificial benchmarks were created to fairly evaluate cards. You can guess how that went. They were slow to take advantage of the special instruction set that my card supports!!!
Hours were spent anguishing over the right card for you.
Tens of thousands of people were ready to tell you which you should choose and how you were an idiot for choosing the opposite of their extremely expert opinion. And yes, many of them started with the card you were looking at but it was a dismal failure and they returned it after only 15 minutes. It was so bad they couldn't even play a game they had played with their old card for years!
If you pointed out that the cards were very close in performance and a sub 5 loss of FPS shouldn't affect a good player, then the argument shifted to driver support. Because, well, you know.
Don't even get me started on CPUs - as in AMD versus Intel.
I can confidently say, though, that despite all the expert opinions the perfect rig was never built during that time to cover every game and every processing need.
How does this relate to the OP you ask? I had the opportunity to purchase the GearWrench 120XP 5 piece flex head ratchet set as a gift to myself for Christmas. Naturally, I went to this very forum to investigate beforehand. I read many threads - some posters consigned the 120 to junk status. Conventional wisdom was that the 84 tooth version was vastly superior.
So, I channeled my vast years of internet forum experience (see above) and bought them.
Obviously, I haven't used them yet. But I've hung a socket on them and they feel really good. And according to many posts I've seen on here, that's a solid A++ recommendation.
Don't succumb to paralysis by analysis and don't assume every post is helpful. And yes, that includes this one.
Iluvbeer
Well-known member
having spent 24 years in IT as a senior level manager (who worked his way up from a low level desktop technician, I can honestly say ratchet quality and video card quality is vastly different because there are lots at play that can make a video card a good choice for one user and a poor choice for another. Ratchets are purely mechanical and aren’t really affected by the socket you attach to them. Personally, I can tell a vast difference from one companies 84 tooth and another’s 90 tooth ratchet. Not to mention you have different quality of material at play. And I was extremely eager to get my GW 120 tooth ratchet however, I’m extremely disappointed in it. Doesn’t feel any better than my 30 year old craftamans.
Read all you can read and then read some more. Make an educated purchase and hooe for the best. What you’ll find is everyone’s opinion and what they feel is junk/quality is on a pretty broad scale.
Read all you can read and then read some more. Make an educated purchase and hooe for the best. What you’ll find is everyone’s opinion and what they feel is junk/quality is on a pretty broad scale.
JBradley500
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2013
- Messages
- 781
I think you’re limiting yourself by not using eBay. I got most of the Snap-on ones here for some great deals on there. I love the dual 80s. The Armstrong locking flex used to be the best ratchet for the money IMO before they closed their doors. I won’t ever get rid of those.
PassnThru
Well-known member
You're missing the point.
The same principles exist across everything we want an opinion on thru the internet.
You did, inadvertently I'm sure, help make my point.
I quote - "And I was extremely eager to get my GW 120 tooth ratchet however, I’m extremely disappointed in it. Doesn’t feel any better than my 30 year old craftamans."
I also have 30 year old Craftsman ratchets. If you couldn't feel a difference between the two then you are the exact person people shouldn't be listening to. And yet, someone will because you will tell them with your informed, expert, unwavering opinion as you did here.
As an experiment, post a new thread here saying that you bought a Gearwrench 120 tooth ratchet and it was no better than your 30 year old Craftsman ratchets.
I'm not saying that there are no superior products - just that once you start arguing about two essentially equal products then you have started wasting your time and that of everyone else.
FYI - I have 32 years in IT starting as a programmer. But I'm not sure how that is relevant?
Iluvbeer
Well-known member
My apologies if I missed your point. I read it to be that there isn’t much difference when specs are so close to being the same, that an 84 tooth ratchet and a 120 tooth ratchet wouldn’t be much different - just like a video card with 5 frame per second faster refresh rate wouldn’t be noticeable. I was simply stating that there are lots of variables on mechanical products that can have huge affects on quality even if they have the same specs. Such as material used, machining, tolerances, polishing, etc. and my second point was that at some point in time the only real thing you can do is educate yourself and roll the dice. Opinions of others only go so far....
I spent 4 years programming over my 24 years and hated every second of it. The last ten years I maintained 38 quarries and mines, 13 business offices, and 4 owners homes - everything from unix and windows servers, to cisco bridges, Iolans, security systems/cameras, VoIP ph systems, Fiber and wireless networks running all over my sites, basically every aspect of IT that makes a business run. I managed quarries/mines in 4 states so traveled nonstop from one to the other. It was an exciting and fulfilling job with daily challenges. I had a total of 113 mines but had two other guys that took care of the others. We were one of the largest aggregate companies in the US. I do miss it.
Not that any of this matters but it’s enjoyable to discuss.