"You buy all these expensive computer parts"

[Antec-User]

Before anyone jumps me, I'll be 28 this month, I'm an Afghanistan Campaign Veteran and recently Separated from the Military after 6 years (Medical Discharge) and live 2100 miles from my parents and family -Local compared to where I USED to live.

I was on the phone with my ma today and she was giving me the whole 'schpeal of why I should save money.. She gave me that line "But you buy all these expensive computer parts!"

I told her, "Woah woah! Wait a minute! How much do computers cost if you buy them off the shelf or from a store??" (I don't know what retail computer sales are called) She likes to change the subject when she knows she's been proven wrong..

That was my whole argument.. I built my rig for around $800.. (Minus the liquid cooling, case and monitors.) Take THAT into account when someone argues with you.. You would prolly expect to pay $1200+ for THIS kind of performance if you were to buy from a store or an outlet! Maybe even $2000... Minus the customer support costs and repair over the next 5 years......


I'm talkin about:

Phenom II 940 (Or i7 940, whichever your poison)
140W CPU Support
DDR3 Sideport Memory MoBo
7 series chipsets (AMD 790 NB.. Sry intel guys.. not sure what your stuff is.)
8g of 1066 Ram
1000W PSU
4870 (Slightly OC'd) Quality Graphics
1 HDMI Connection or 2 DVI Connections

14 USB connections
2 eSATA Connections
6 or 8 SATA connections (On board)
500g Seagate Baracuda OS HDD
750G Seagate Storage HDD with cooled external case.




Really,...... Not much of an argument there is there........ This is WHY I build my computers.. That and I find it fascinating, and I am going to school for A+ Cert so I can make money doing this as a Hardware tech.

 

[Spit-wad]

but do you have a charmander?

didn't think so.

 

[b0dge]

I assume that like me, your PC dabblings are a hobby.

A hobby is a great thing to have. I spend on average about £300 a year on my PC and associated paraphernalia, which I think is a reasonably cheap hobby. I could be a classic car enthusiast or HAM radio nut, but I'm not.

Sometimes my girlfriend looks at me funny when I spend money on computer parts, like "I can't say anything because I'm always buying new clothes and handbags and shoes and ****, but seriously, 150 quid on a second hand graphics card? Get a life, you sad nerdy geek."

And I tell her to **** off. And then we argue for about ten minutes. And then we have make-up sex (for less than ten minutes...).

I'm not suggesting that should be the way with your mother. That would be wrong, but you see what I mean...

 

[Yami]

Lol b0dge your post whent really wrong after the 3rd paragraph XD

 

[saltynay]

Lmao!

I have the same argument with people quite often and they counter with do you really need that much computing power? Which stumps me as in a practical sense I don't however I know every part of my computer inside out, I know how to fix it without calling a technician, I have a longer warranty on my computer as parts then you could ever get from one off the shelf and its something I enjoy which I have built and am proud of spending time over. I like people walking in and going WOW your computers huge and it makes me chuckle thinking they are so naive that they think the larger a computer is the better it is.

When a console fanboy argues with me I simply say do you know whats actually in that box under your tv? Is there anything there which is truly personal to you (I have the benefit in the argument of being an active modder so not only is the configuration of parts unique on my pcs, so is the software and the physical appearance). I can tell most fanboys more about there consoles actual hadware then they can and actually be able to fix it.

A friend the other day called me up saying her dvd player was broken turned out the drive motor had gone so fortunately I had a spare optical drive lying around so I just swapped out the motor for the newer one and told her not to physically push the draw in and use the button (even though I push the draw every time and normally let the cd draw actually open the case door). Building a computer is a practical skill which can be transferred to many elements of life not just the obvious.

 

[Kharn]

I have a legitimate excuse for "wasting" money on hardware, I sell it an quite often to prove it's reliable etc, but I will admit I have a thing for laptops and I spend a retarded amount of cash on them a year in the last two years I have killed 5 laptops (admittedly cheep an cheerful under £700) and I have had 3 serious work machines. Thing is I love laptops from a technical standpoint but I am never happy with them the closest I have come is my IBM X41 tablet edition an that was because that thing was so ****ed robust an flexible. so all in all about 8K in total on laptops in two years is a serious addiction.

 

[saltynay]

Ever heard of a warranty Chris? I have 2 laptops (the bugger is that the charger has broke and costs £50 to replace which I would rather spend on beer) , one netbook, 3 desktops and a jailbroke itouch plus linux on my ipod mini . Love IBM for there reliability but they are fugly machines!!!

 

[Kharn]

I think the Thinkpads are quite attractive to look at I like the straight black lines.
An yea I have heard of warrinties an I use em but I end up selling the one that it's replaced with, tbh mate it's because I am addicted to a new laptop every few months.

 

[toxicity_27]

Ha, my mom say the same thing.
You're buying all these computer "things." What do you do with them all? Well I'm going to put it in my computer.
What's it do?
Stuff.

 

[TheOtis]

As with anyone's hobby, people outside of it aren't going to understand it or be into like you are so they look at it differently. We've all heard it from our significant others and/or parents, "Why do you spend so much money on your computer?" and "Didn't you just build a new computer?".

Say your good friend is a big outdoors men and spends thousands every few months on his truck, gear, guns, and ammunition. But you aren't into it at all. You might think, why spend so much money on that stuff? That's the same way people who aren't into computers may look at you.

Like my girlfriend. She spends $50+ on getting her nails done and getting a manicure/pedicure, only to have one of her nails break off quickly, ruining having any of them on. Then she'll get them done again the same or following month. Luckily, she's a hair stylist at a salon, so she doesn't pay much or anything on her hair. If she did, she would probably spend the same if not more then I historically have spent on computer hardware. Do I understand it? No. Do I try to? No. But I understand it's something she's into and she realized (After being together for four years) computers for me are what getting her stuff done is to her, it's as simple as that.

And parents, as the great Will Smith once said, "Parents just don't understand".