TL;DR: Incompetent friend bought recertified Alienware Aurora R3, plans to sell RAM/video cards and put in new ones. Never built a PC, part of part sale includes installing SLI setup & RAM in guy's computer. Meanwhile, he planned to magically use his computer without a video card for 3 months. Rage ensued.
I haven't posted here in ages, but my friend has pissed me off so royally that I had to post somewhere.
So, my buddy has been bugging me for months, while I'm in my last semester of school, about building him a new computer. His nagging finally gets the best of me (I finally get excited at the prospect of building another computer, my 5th or so I guess) and I spend several hours researching the latest parts and pricing them out.
He's originally obsessed with getting the best of the best, core i7, gtx 570, top of the line mobo, too much ram, etc. etc. I price something out at like $1800.
I tell him we can build it after my exams in late December, or he'd have to wait until after the bar exam in March for me to build it with him. He won't have the money in December, so we decide to wait until March.
Well, he's impatient, so he starts doing his own research and stumbles upon a recertified alienware here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883155310
Granted, at $1,009 it's not the worst deal I've ever seen. On top of that, someone is going to buy the two GTS 450s and the RAM for $225. That brings the price down to $784. He plans to add at least 8 gb of ram (~$45) and a gtx 570 (~$360). I figure there's a chance he'll need a new power supply, and he definitely will at some point because he has discussed going SLI later on down the line when the price of 570s drop. So, a new power supply will run ~$140. That takes him back up to $1329.
Now, the one thing I need to mention is that he's never built a computer before. Neither has the guy who is buying the video cards and RAM from him. Not to be a dick, but my friend is not particularly bright. When he told me he was going to sell the video cards right away, he told me he would then wait until March to get a new video card because that's apparently when new video cards are coming out. (I don't know if that's true, but it sounds reasonable.) When I asked him how he planned to use his computer with a video card, all I got in response was "oh" and then silence.
Meanwhile, when he first told me about the recertified alienware, I proposed an alternate build with a core i5 2500k, gtx 570, msi mobo, antec case, wd caviar black 1 tb hdd, corsair psu, and 8gb kingston hyper x ram, plus keyboard & mouse at around $1300, the same price.
So, in reality, the deals are pretty similar. Although an i7 2600 (not K) is presumably at least a little better all around than a 2500k, it really isn't for gaming. The msi mobo is probably better, and i'm guessing the caviar black is better as well. Also, I don't even know what kind of psu will fit in the aurora case.
I mean, it's his money and he's free to do what he wants with it, but I'm pissed off that he wasted a bunch of my time researching parts and coming up with a build and is instead buying some piece of garbage recertified dell/alienware.
Anyway, that's about it. I know this is a stupid post, but I had to write this down so I could move on. If you read it this post, thanks for sharing in my rage.
I haven't posted here in ages, but my friend has pissed me off so royally that I had to post somewhere.
So, my buddy has been bugging me for months, while I'm in my last semester of school, about building him a new computer. His nagging finally gets the best of me (I finally get excited at the prospect of building another computer, my 5th or so I guess) and I spend several hours researching the latest parts and pricing them out.
He's originally obsessed with getting the best of the best, core i7, gtx 570, top of the line mobo, too much ram, etc. etc. I price something out at like $1800.
I tell him we can build it after my exams in late December, or he'd have to wait until after the bar exam in March for me to build it with him. He won't have the money in December, so we decide to wait until March.
Well, he's impatient, so he starts doing his own research and stumbles upon a recertified alienware here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883155310
Granted, at $1,009 it's not the worst deal I've ever seen. On top of that, someone is going to buy the two GTS 450s and the RAM for $225. That brings the price down to $784. He plans to add at least 8 gb of ram (~$45) and a gtx 570 (~$360). I figure there's a chance he'll need a new power supply, and he definitely will at some point because he has discussed going SLI later on down the line when the price of 570s drop. So, a new power supply will run ~$140. That takes him back up to $1329.
Now, the one thing I need to mention is that he's never built a computer before. Neither has the guy who is buying the video cards and RAM from him. Not to be a dick, but my friend is not particularly bright. When he told me he was going to sell the video cards right away, he told me he would then wait until March to get a new video card because that's apparently when new video cards are coming out. (I don't know if that's true, but it sounds reasonable.) When I asked him how he planned to use his computer with a video card, all I got in response was "oh" and then silence.
Meanwhile, when he first told me about the recertified alienware, I proposed an alternate build with a core i5 2500k, gtx 570, msi mobo, antec case, wd caviar black 1 tb hdd, corsair psu, and 8gb kingston hyper x ram, plus keyboard & mouse at around $1300, the same price.
So, in reality, the deals are pretty similar. Although an i7 2600 (not K) is presumably at least a little better all around than a 2500k, it really isn't for gaming. The msi mobo is probably better, and i'm guessing the caviar black is better as well. Also, I don't even know what kind of psu will fit in the aurora case.
I mean, it's his money and he's free to do what he wants with it, but I'm pissed off that he wasted a bunch of my time researching parts and coming up with a build and is instead buying some piece of garbage recertified dell/alienware.
Anyway, that's about it. I know this is a stupid post, but I had to write this down so I could move on. If you read it this post, thanks for sharing in my rage.
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