I'm considering to buy a programer and read about some of them like the top3000 and the CQ-4X. I saw this bundle in ebay is it worth to buy it?
Make a list of what devices you want to burn and see if the burner will handle that. Check if you can find adapters for them, TOP3000 has a 48pin socket while the CQ-4X has a 40pin socket which means different types of adapters for the same devices. (Do you want to upgrade in the future?) Look at what software is supplied and if there are still updates being released for them. (Then again you'll mostly burn to older chips) Neither supports more than 6.5V when burning but unless you want to burn really old stuff that won't really matter. You might want to go with something cheaper like a TL866CS if that is enough for your needs?
I just want to burn, consoles rom like genesis and snes and some arcade in case they go bad. Some bios maybe. Many people recommend this one because the program is more user friendly and better support, the top3000 is apparently more complicated.
I own a tl866 the software isn't as bad as everyone makes out it is, a very robust unit actually. The software even has a chip search function so you can easily see what chips you can burn using this particular programmer, it even tells you what adaptor to use and shows a photo of it.
I think the mcumall gq-4x is pretty solid. I got it mostly for nes dev tho--afaik it requires an adapter board for the 16bit systems. I quite enjoy that there are no jumpers to set. I've mostly played with 27 28 and 29 series parts tho. edit: I think I decided on the gq after reading through some stuff on nesdev and nintendoage so there are probably good posts out there about the differences. My runner up was about $200 more than the gq so I'm incredibly pleased for what I've used it for(no bad burns yet, but I can't say I've done that many).
