How to convince a "know-it-all" to custom build rather than buy pre-assembled.

[Jeff7181]

My uncle is sort of a know-it-all... not one of thouse obnoxious ones who asks you a question and tells you you're wrong... but he his pride gets in the way sometimes. He's been talking about how much he hates his Sony Vaio and Windows XP... I didn't want to tell him Windows XP sucks because of all the installing/uninstalling and downloading that goes on in his house... so I offered to help him build a new computer. He wants to keep it under $500 this time, and he's been looking at eMachines with Celerons and crap like that, cause they're cheap obviously. I showed him what I can build from Newegg for $500, and he seemed like he didn't want to be shown up. He doesn't want to admit that he needs my help buying a new computer... so what's a good way to get him to let me help him out? If he buys an eMachine or a Compaq for under $500, he's going to be even less happy with it than he is now with his Sony Vaio.

 

[thirtythree]

just let him buy a crappy computer. who cares? and if you build one for him he's going to expect you to come over and fix it everytime something goes wrong.

EDIT: it sounds like he could just reformat the computer he has now instead.

 

[loup garou]

Let him do what he wants. If you build him a PC, you'll be over there every day working on it when he screws it up.

 

[Rufio]

Originally posted by: werk
Let him do what he wants. If you build him a PC, you'll be over there every day working on it when he screws it up.

i 100% agree...

who cares if he disagrees? it's not worth the tech support headache!

 

[Jeff7181]

Could I at least upgrade the hard drive in his Sony for him? Or would the Sony sh!t a brick if I did that? Cause he's only got 20 GB of space, and it's a 5400 RPM drive I'm pretty sure... which of course is crap. And between him, his son, his wife, his daughter, and his son-in-law using it, it's so full of junk that to install a new game he has to un-install an old game.

 

[Thegonagle]

Tell him to give Dell a try, rather than eMachines or Compaq. Better service, support, customizability from Dell than the other two.

 

[DumbGuy]

Originally posted by: Thegonagle
Tell him to give Dell a try, rather than eMachines or Compaq. Better service, support, customizability from Dell than the other two.

^^^^

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Could I at least upgrade the hard drive in his Sony for him? Or would the Sony sh!t a brick if I did that? Cause he's only got 20 GB of space, and it's a 5400 RPM drive I'm pretty sure... which of course is crap. And between him, his son, his wife, his daughter, and his son-in-law using it, it's so full of junk that to install a new game he has to un-install an old game.

Vaio desktop or notebook (desktop I'm assuming)? Make sure you track down all the drivers beforehand, and read up on newsgroups about others upgrading the same model. Vaios are notorious for having tons of proprietary crap...it took me awhile to track everything down for my Vaio notebook when reformatting (mostly because I wanted the JogDial to work).

 

[WarCon]

I second the suggestion for Dell, if you build a system for him then everytime you see him he will mention some problem he had on "your" system. Even if these problems are caused by him, you will still hear about them.

Let him go his own way and when he whines to you about how crappy its running, then you can just give him that knowing look that he could of been running happier with what you would of built him.

 

[roncarter]

dood, I know your trying to be a nice guy and help your uncle out, but if he wants to do his own thing, let him.

The reason I tell you this is b/c when you build that new computer for him, in your mind, your doing him a favor. In his mind, your not.. So why do it?


Thats a lot of headache for you IMO

I say let him do what he wants

 

[Jeff7181]

Yes, it's a desktop, forgot to mention that.
I'm really trying to find him a good deal online... but all I can find is stuff that has a couple good componants, and then a couple crap componants, and by the time you upgrade the RAM and whatever else needs to be upgraded, you're up around $600 or 700 again from the origional $500 cost of the computer.

 

[vi edit]

SYSTEM SPECIFICATION
Dimension 4500 S (System Identifier FCT8B7MT)
Dimension 4500S Series: Intel® Pentium 4® Processor at 2.0 GHz, Integrated Audio and Video

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

System Price $590.00
Promotion Discount ($150.00)
Discounted Price $440.00

Memory: 256 MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz (1 DIMM)
Floppy Drive: 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive
Hard Disk Drive: 40 GB EIDE Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Modem: 56Kbps Data/Fax Modem
Network Interface Card: 10/100 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
Operating System: Microsoft Windows® XP Home Edition
CD Read-Write Drive: 40X/10X/40X CDRW Drive
Software: Resource CD
Norton AntiVirus 2002 Software
Microsoft® WorksSuite 2002
Music Match 7.1 Software
Image Expert Standard Software
Software
AOL 8.0 ISP Software
Misc: QuietKey Keyboard
Shipping Material
Logitech PS2 Mouse

 

[DaiShan]

Why convince him? Let him buy a dell, they are cheap and solid. I can't build a computer as cheaply as they do, even without factoring in labor.

 

[Transition]

Originally posted by: DaiShan
Why convince him? Let him buy a dell, they are cheap and solid. I can't build a computer as cheaply as they do, even without factoring in labor.

Plus you'll have to deal with all of his support questions. Trust me, you don't want to do that!! I keep a stack of dell catalog's handy in my office. If anyone comes in my office to talk about me building them a computer, i point to the dell catalog.

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: werk

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Could I at least upgrade the hard drive in his Sony for him? Or would the Sony sh!t a brick if I did that? Cause he's only got 20 GB of space, and it's a 5400 RPM drive I'm pretty sure... which of course is crap. And between him, his son, his wife, his daughter, and his son-in-law using it, it's so full of junk that to install a new game he has to un-install an old game.

Vaio desktop or notebook (desktop I'm assuming)? Make sure you track down all the drivers beforehand, and read up on newsgroups about others upgrading the same model. Vaios are notorious for having tons of proprietary crap...it took me awhile to track everything down for my Vaio notebook when reformatting (mostly because I wanted the JogDial to work).

Just ghost the drive if you go that way.

 

[Jeff7181]

Just ghost the drive if you go that way.

Don't want to do that because that's where most of his problems are coming from... I bet he's installed and uninstalled stuff at least 500 times in the past year.

 

[amcdonald]

Originally posted by: werk
Let him do what he wants. If you build him a PC, you'll be over there every day working on it when he screws it up.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: DaiShan

Originally posted by: werk

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Could I at least upgrade the hard drive in his Sony for him? Or would the Sony sh!t a brick if I did that? Cause he's only got 20 GB of space, and it's a 5400 RPM drive I'm pretty sure... which of course is crap. And between him, his son, his wife, his daughter, and his son-in-law using it, it's so full of junk that to install a new game he has to un-install an old game.

Vaio desktop or notebook (desktop I'm assuming)? Make sure you track down all the drivers beforehand, and read up on newsgroups about others upgrading the same model. Vaios are notorious for having tons of proprietary crap...it took me awhile to track everything down for my Vaio notebook when reformatting (mostly because I wanted the JogDial to work).

Just ghost the drive if you go that way.

Bad idea.

 

[kranky]

You will be better off to walk away and let him do what he wants. You could build him the finest computer in the world, and when he has the same problems as he has now because of all the downloading and install/uninstall issues, it will be your fault. You cannot win.

 

[dexvx]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
SYSTEM SPECIFICATION
Dimension 4500 S (System Identifier FCT8B7MT)
Dimension 4500S Series: Intel® Pentium 4® Processor at 2.0 GHz, Integrated Audio and Video

Good god, just spend the extra little money to get a 4600C system. They had one for ~$700 that included a 2.8C and Radeon 9800 128MB.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
SYSTEM SPECIFICATION
Dimension 4500 S (System Identifier FCT8B7MT)
Dimension 4500S Series: Intel® Pentium 4® Processor at 2.0 GHz, Integrated Audio and Video

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

System Price $590.00
Promotion Discount ($150.00)
Discounted Price $440.00

Memory: 256 MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz (1 DIMM)
Floppy Drive: 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive
Hard Disk Drive: 40 GB EIDE Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Modem: 56Kbps Data/Fax Modem
Network Interface Card: 10/100 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
Operating System: Microsoft Windows® XP Home Edition
CD Read-Write Drive: 40X/10X/40X CDRW Drive
Software: Resource CD
Norton AntiVirus 2002 Software
Microsoft® WorksSuite 2002
Music Match 7.1 Software
Image Expert Standard Software
Software
AOL 8.0 ISP Software
Misc: QuietKey Keyboard
Shipping Material
Logitech PS2 Mouse

The problem with that is he expects to be able to play games... he plans on buying Flight Sim 2004 right when it's released (in a few days I think)... and his current system isn't going to cut it... and neither will this Dell... and even one I could build for him for $500 wouldn't do a very good job.

 

[Harvey]

You can't help those who "know too much" to accept your help. The only way through that is to let him make his own mistakes. If you're on good terms with your uncle, he'll listen to you more when he's really frustrated because whatever he buys keeps crashing.

A couple of years ago, a friend asked me if he should buy an eMachine. He said Costco was offering this machine with a guaranteed no questions asked 100% refund for one year. That deal was the only reason I thought it was a good idea. I told him to buy it, and within that year, he would learn why he didn't want an eMachine or anything else of that ilk, and he'd have all his money to buy whatever was new and good, then.

He did, and a few months later, he called to tell me how right I was.

 

[J Heartless Slick]

Originally posted by: Deslocke
just let him buy a crappy computer. who cares? and if you build one for him he's going to expect you to come over and fix it everytime something goes wrong.

EDIT: it sounds like he could just reformat the computer he has now instead.

Yeah, save yourself trouble and let him buy an emachine. If he learns from the experience he will listen to you next time. If the emachine's quality does not matter to him, then he got the system that fits his needs.

 

[Jeff7181]

Well, when he bought the Sony I told him it was going to be over priced just because it was a Sony. I think he paid $2500 for it. Came with a DVD burner, which he says doesn't work anymore.

 

[theNEOone]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: vi_edit
SYSTEM SPECIFICATION
Dimension 4500 S (System Identifier FCT8B7MT)
Dimension 4500S Series: Intel® Pentium 4® Processor at 2.0 GHz, Integrated Audio and Video

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

System Price $590.00
Promotion Discount ($150.00)
Discounted Price $440.00

Memory: 256 MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz (1 DIMM)
Floppy Drive: 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive
Hard Disk Drive: 40 GB EIDE Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Modem: 56Kbps Data/Fax Modem
Network Interface Card: 10/100 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
Operating System: Microsoft Windows® XP Home Edition
CD Read-Write Drive: 40X/10X/40X CDRW Drive
Software: Resource CD
Norton AntiVirus 2002 Software
Microsoft® WorksSuite 2002
Music Match 7.1 Software
Image Expert Standard Software
Software
AOL 8.0 ISP Software
Misc: QuietKey Keyboard
Shipping Material
Logitech PS2 Mouse

The problem with that is he expects to be able to play games... he plans on buying Flight Sim 2004 right when it's released (in a few days I think)... and his current system isn't going to cut it... and neither will this Dell... and even one I could build for him for $500 wouldn't do a very good job.

are you joking? that system can easily play flight sim. maybe go a little over budget and get a 4200 and you're set.



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