Wow, I spend way too much on computers!

[StormRider]

I just looked at some of the reports from MS Money and according to it, I've spend $1,400 during the last 6 months on computer stuff. That comes out to a little over $200 per month -- almost as much as my monthly car payments...

Am I unusual in spending so much on computer stuff?

 

[bacillus]

man you'll need some professional help for sure!

 

[RGN]

My name is RGN and I have a problem with buying too much computer hardware too.

 

[flippinfleck]

$1400 in six months you say? Nah, I wouldn't call that a problem! Just think of all the women out there that have to buy new shoes every other day. How much does that work out to? Hmmm,

$20 (for a cheapo pair of shoes) x 15 (days per month for shopping) x 6 (months of course) = $1800

So no, you don't have a problem at all as long as you are not putting all that onto a credit card and 'forgetting' to pay your bill.

 

[SWScorch]

damn you're cheap! I spend my entire paycheck on my computer, dead serious. I currently have 4 computer systems in my room, my Athlon, a Celeron 466, a P 233, and a P166. All are for a specific game or games. Of course I dont know how much I've spent per month, but I know I've spent well over $10K in the past few years.

 

[Buzzman151]

You're not the only one w/ the problem. At least you don't have your g/f bitching at you every time you wanna by anything that has to deal w/ your comp..... even cdrs.... i shiat you not. And of corse she tells me "you spending too much time w/ you comp" I pretty much laught, she gives me a dirty look, and we then "screw around" and "make up"..... Talk about fun times

 

[Marzod]

Hi, my name is Mike, and I'm a computer hardware spendaholic.

 

[chuckieland]

it's normal
that is why for sale for trade thread is getting so much traffic

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

I've probably only spent around $300 in the past year!

It helps to not have much money in the first place.

 

[dman]

It's our job to keep the economy going. What other industry requires replacement of items every 6-12mo's or upgrades every few months?

It really is addicting though, especially if you follow hot deals forum.

 

[vampiro]

I too am addicted to buying computer stuff. I think I have spent about $1200 in the last 4 months. But getting ready to start college, so no more money for a while. lol!

 

[flot]

Yeah for a while I threw all my computer reciepts in this big briefcase looking thing... one day I decided to go through it... well turns out I had years and years of receipts kicking around. I found my receipt for a 486-dx2-66 chip... $410. At the time I saw the receipt I think I was using a P2-300. Anyway, I had thousands and thousands of $ of receipts, and almost none of the hardware anymore. That sort of clued me in to the insanity of it all. So for like 2 years I didn't buy anything computer related, and couldn't be happier. Hehehe. Every once in a while I'll have a little fit of buying computer stuff, but my new rule is to never buy anything that I don't absolutely need, or isn't a ridiculously good deal. The absolutely need things don't come along very often, and the good deals I usually don't regret down the road since they'll effectively retain their value. My first CPU upgrade in 2 years was one of the $500 gateway 933 servers, which I figure will be worth it since a year or so down the road I can just pop in a second 933 chip.

The funny thing is that I used to be entirely on the other side of the argument, I knew computer people with all this outdated hardware and I just didn't get it. But eventually you see the light and realize there are better things you can do with your money. Especially now that 99% of my computer time is "on the internet" there's a baseline for performance that you need (like a nice P2-300) and you can survive just fine.

And if you're like me and still want to have fun with the "extra money" that you were dumping into computer gear, you can buy some pretty kickass tangible stuff. The latest and greatest video cards cost about as much as a decent 27" TV. Plus almost ANTYHING else will be a better investment than computer hardware.

 

[StageLeft]

Well its cheaper than throwing money into a car and better than spending it on booze.

I was spending about $1500 year for 2-3 years straight until, like flot, about 16 months ago I finally clued into the fact that its a fairly poor way to spend my money. I was upgrading all the time and the fact of the matter is my computer was better than it needed to be. I have not touched it since feb of '00 except for an extra 128 megs ram and although it isn't quite as good with games now otherwise its perfectly capable. The fact of the matter is you can spend about $500/year upgrading and have a computer _almost_ as good as if you spend $1500 a year. Sure it won't have all the new stuff or have 3X as much room as you need but you can still use it to play the newest games.

The funny thing is that I used to be entirely on the other side of the argument, I knew computer people with all this outdated hardware and I just didn't get it. But eventually you see the light and realize there are better things you can do with your money.

My God, yes!! Exactly

That said I'm going to sink some cash in and upgrade soon but the days of upgrading every month or two are long gone. Good riddance!

Edit: The worst is you guys who upgrade your computer just so that you can crunch more RC5!!

 

[tennesota]

I stopped keeping track of what I spend on components.

 

[A5]

I upgrade once or twice a year max, and I alternate each year. Like last year I did a CPU/Mobo(K6-2/400-->Duron 750) upgrade, and this year I did a video card upgrade(XPert 128-->Radeon LE)(plus a Gamecube later on). Including the periodic RAM upgrades along the way, I've probably spent $400-$500 in the last 2 years, and this computer runs great for all I do

Next year, I'll probably just pop an Athlon 4 in here if Asus releases a BIOS update to make my trusty A7V compatible