Knock some sense into my overspending friend ($2000+ for a PC)

trogdor9

My friend is about to overspend on a computer, please help me knock some sense into him. He does not need it for hardcore Photoshop work, video editing, or anything else one would need a super-fast computer for, and if you follow the link you'll see it's much more than he'll need for gaming too. I have already shown him the 'Buying a Computer' series of episodes and he has not wavered.

Kiey

why is he buying an intel CPU? AMD is better, and doesn't need a lot of cooling. So then he can remove the watercooling. Raptor is an overpriced HD. Why buy one hard drive for over $200 when you can get 2 hard drives for that price that have a total of 640 GB as opposed to 150?

Lets see what else...

HDTV card is good for video editing stuff I guess... but otherwise its pointless since PC monitors aren't typically HD.

And Windows Media Center for a gaming pc? HAHAHA

And that power supply is super overkill. Unless he's planning to run some sort of quad core mobo and quad core GPU SLI action.

And he can probably find cheaper RAM. Newegg has a bunch in those one day sale things. There is usually a good set in there.

Kidder

man... if you think that's extreme, you should look at my brother's shopping list for his "ultimate pc". Granted he does a lot of photo-shopping and graphics work, plus he's gonna need the power to use a butt-load of CAD programs once he starts his Engineering degree... but still! I believe the total was about 2500... UK pounds!

I'll see if he is willing to let me post his shopping cart up here.

Rym

I produce, record, edit, and process ALL of GeekNights on a six year old AMD Thunderbird 1GHz with 512MB of RAM, an old Soundblaster Live, and an ancient, failing case. I could get a computer more than twice as fast for less than $400.

Apreche

I can play HL2 perfectly on a computer that cost $1000 3 years ago. 1.8Ghz Athlon XP, 512MB RAM and a GeForce FX5900. I might buy a new computer if this one is too weak to play Team Fortress 2 and other Steam games in the works. But I would never pay $2000. Anyone who buys a computer more expensive than $1000 or so either needs a serious machine for serious work, or they are just buying a penis extension.

This video explains it all.

Kiey

I just upgrade my computer every so often, just add things as I need them.

Farragar

That mobo is a stupid price, if he were to switch to getting an AMD processor he could get a much cheaper motherboard with all the stuff that one has.

What the hell is he thinking with a 850 watt psu?! Not only could you get a 600 watt psu for around $100 and even with all those components you would never need that much, I have done just fine with a 450 watt psu running a Geforce 6600GT, 2GB RAM, an Athlon 64 3500+ and all These Lights

dreambuilder

Okay, it is I, the one building this machine. First of all, I am receiving a free Core 2 Extreme. Therefore it needs adequate cooling, so I chose an entry level watercooling system. The computer will sit in my home theater, with a high definition plasma tv. I plan on recording tv, hence the tv tuner and xp media center. I will play games, but I probably don't need the video card. This configuration allows quad sli, and fairly good overclocking. I don't need to, but I would like to play a little with overclocking. Then, I will sell this machine to one of my friends in a couple of months. I will also use this machine to compile code.

dreambuilder

Yes, I do need the video card so I can sell this machine for a profit to my extreme gaming friend.

Rym

Overclocking is a fool's game these days. Quad SLI is laughable and entirely useless. A processor will usually come with adequate cooling from the start, so after-market cooling rigs are silly. Compiling code can be done just as well with less than half of what you're buying.

Selling this machine to a friend in a couple of months is a terrible idea. You can't profit unless you're taking advantage of your friend. The cost of components is dropping steadily, and speeds are rising. In a couple of months, the "uber" PC you're building will be worth many hundreds of dollars less. You can't make a profit.

Kiey

Yeah if your just going to sell the computer in a few months to a friend, then don't buy it!

I mean if you are just going to use it as a media PC, then you really don't need a lot of that stuff, just the mobo, a lot of hard drive room, the tv tuner, and a video card. Thats really it. Don't even bother with water cooling or anything else. Just make a straight up media computer.