I was over at dell.com just looking around and decided that I needed one of those XPS desktop computer systems. Well anyway, after going threw the customize feature they have, my system came out to around 4 Grand and I decided to go ahead and buy it since it was no interest financing for 18 months.
Well I came up with the great idea of going down stairs and telling my girlfriend about the purchase. (She is still getting over my TV and Axiom purchase). Needless to say, she pretty much went nuts on me! She made me do the dishes and she went up stairs. (Our computer room is on the second floor.) I heard her talking to someone so I came up stairs to see who it was. She had called Dell and told them that I am a moron and I need to cancel the order!! Anyway, long story short, I need to call first thing in the morning and cancel it when that department of dell opens.
I feel like a beat down puppy!
Sounds like your going to be in the dog house for a while buddy.
Sutter
Say, NEW2 (may I call you New?). If you would like I could walk you through buying the parts for and building a monster PC. It would most likely be faster and certainly cheaper than a Dell. Probably by half. We could even go with a cool aluminum case. PM me if you are interested. No charge of course. I haven't bought a prebuilt, well, ever.
Lightingjoe, check your pm in about 2 minutes!
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I could walk you through buying the parts for and building...
That's a very generous offer! My son likes to do his own builds.
Sure will. Also check out the post by Ray about Monoprice.com. Looks like you can get some quality interconnects for your iPod Nano dirt cheap. Like
this.
I bet that would help calm down the ol' lady.
Thanks again for the link. I gotta tell ya. I have never come across a bunch of more helpful people in my life then you guys. Always willing to help and ask nothing in return. I hope I can be in the position one day to actually know something that you guys dont about A/V and actually offer my advice! haha. Thanks again guys. Great bunch of people here.
Just get your girlfriend some roses and a nice Christmas gift, and it'll blow over. Believe me, in all my years of marriage, I've done messed up far worse then that before.
Sutter
He bought the Nano for his girlfriend. *ssshhhhhh!*
NEW - Did my explanation on how to connect the Nano Dock to the receiver make sense?
Oh, sorry, I wasn't aware of that. My bad.
Sutter
Hehe. He DOES need to pick up the roses as well though. Maybe he should peruse Amie's chocolate thread as well.
Don't worry, mine was worse. A few months ago I purchased a Rotel RSX-1056 receiver in a great deal, and.... long story short.... I returned it. The reaction of my wife (that time fiance) was so bad!!!
There ya go, Chocolates always go great with roses. Believe me, I know. The combo's got me out of the dog house many times.
Sutter
Yep, LightingJoe the ipod to dock explaination made perfect sence. Im going to get that set up before christmas.
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Always willing to help and ask nothing in return.
We wait a whole year, then send you a bill!
Great story, by the way.
Remember girlfriends may come and go but Axiom is forever!
Now wifes thats another story.
She might aswell be my wife. We have a house together, 2 dogs, and we both moved down to NC from New Jersey together.
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That's a very generous offer! My son likes to do his own builds.
If everyone knew how easy it really is to build one nowadays Dell would be in trouble. With standardized fool proof slots and connectors, plug and play everything, auto-configuring BIOS's, etc it's really not too difficult. Not like the old days where you would spend hours trying to find which solder point on which memory chip was loose on the motherboard (you would get your 256K of ram in 16 soldered chips, for example). Or for the love of Pete those damnable internal ISA modems. Dip switches and IRQ's. And DOS no likee da modem.
What you really get with Dell is the warranty/tech support. And they run razor thin margins on the low end "499 plus free 15" lcd upgrade" tv-ad computers then sell you a bunch of periphs where they make fat profits.
DAYAM! I haven't seen personal computers that cost $4k in a while. Just curious what were the specs on that badboy? Must have been something like an SLI setup with a top of the line vid card, oodles of RAM, and a RAID array. Of course you prolly got dual core Intel or AMD64 chips.
I think I've only seen Alienware charge such prices.
I guess I got lucky with my wife then.When I was out shopping for a new amp some time ago I was dead set on a Rotel RB1070.When it was time to go get it my wife came along.While at the store she said why don't you just get that bigger amp over here (the RB1080) of course I told her she was right and went ahead and got it.
Rick, can I borrow your wife?
Purchases! I have PURCHASES in mind, you sickos!
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If everyone knew how easy it really is to build one nowadays Dell would be in trouble.
No kidding. Trust me on this -- if I can do it,
anyone can do it.
I believe there
is a certain price point (maybe it's your mom just looking for Internet access and nothing else) where it does make sense to just buy the $299 off-the-shelf model. But for anything else, a Frankenstein is the way to go. It's cheaper, and you learn how to build/repair/replace stuff later on down the road.
She's your girlfriend, not your wife!! You can't let her start controlling your finances already. You're doomed if you ever tie the knot.
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You're doomed if you ever tie the knot.
Hmmph. I think that statement's applicable regardless of a particular individual's behavior.
hashts, i also had someother stuff that was included in that price. i had the wireless lazer key board and mouse. 5.1 surround system, dell handheld, allinone printer, and a bunch of other crap that i dont need. lol. i think the actuall price ofr the computer was around 2 grand.
im about to blow a gasket!! i have been on the phone for and hour and a half trying to cancel this damn thing. for starters they are all from India. they transfered me to the cancelation department and a pharmaceutical company picked up the phone!! lol. Then I called back and they gave me a different number to try and the girl said, "im sure this will work sir". Well guess what, that number is no longer in service. As of right now I have been on hold for 10 minutes.
Yep... that's a wife alright!
This seems like Deja-vu, but does she have a sister?
oz
Looks like you might be on the phone for a while. Good luck. After your finished with Dell call Axiom to upgrade to the m80's and EP600 since your in the spending mood. If your do it right your girlfriend will never find out.
I guess I must have lucked out like Rick up there. My wife doesn't usually ever say too terribly much but she will let me know if my spending habits are going in the wrong direction, which almost always is to my benefit in the long haul. To her it's a matter of 'need', "Just get the thing if you *need* it" ... to me it's a matter of convincing her what *I need*.
Like another 600.
My lovely bride didn't flinch when we talked about a new audio system budget. But I can tell you that if she's decorating the house for the holidays, there had better be Christmas Carols in the air.
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I believe there is a certain price point (maybe it's your mom just looking for Internet access and nothing else) where it does make sense to just buy the $299 off-the-shelf model.
Yup. Granny doesn't need a supercomputer. DIYers could never compete with the Dells on the low end market as far as build cost. They probably take losses on the TV specials. And the TV special machines are still far more powerful than most users need. Heck the lowest-end Celeron in current release is more powerful than Granny could ever need. Plus then Granny can call Dell when there's a problem, which would be 3 times a day. Not you.
Yea, I just spec'd out a system with all the components I would want and it came over 5 THOUSAND DOLLARS! Just as Joe says, I could probably build a better box for half that.
The box I spec'd for NEW2 (Jay) was a dual-core 64-bit Intel @ 2.8Ghz, 1GB Corsair XMS Pro DDR2, 320GB SATAII HDD, Dual-layer 16x/16X DVD-RW/CDRW, Samsung 19" LCD, ATI All-in-Wonder X600 Pro 256MB (he doesn't game much so I spec'd a card with video in/tv out for fun), Aluminum Coolermaster Wavemaster Case (my favorite!), Antec True-Power 480Watt PSU, and Windows XP Media Center Edition. Plus some odds and ends. Cost was around $1600. Fast and solid. Maybe switch to an AMD platform and get a bleeding-edge vidcard and you would have a pretty nice gaming system. Heck this system would play most games with no complaints. I thought about upping the RAM to 2GB but 1GB for normal photo editing and such would work. Unfortunately NEW's GF put the Kibosh on building a computer as well.
Jay, this whole sad affair will result in several demerits on your Man Card and a full one month suspension in your testosterone subscription.
I know the "Sell The Wife" solution is always available. In this dire emergency I believe it can be invoked to encompass the girlfriend as well.
BTW, I'm guessing you watch Figure Skating with her on Sunday afternoons instead of football.
Please - eat more red meat and in large quantities!!!
I think Ray just told you to grow a pair, in a nice way of course
haha. nobody takes my football away from me!! im actually glad that i cancelled the order. i now know from lightingjoe that i can build one for alot cheaper.
lightingjoe, i will be in touch with you in a few months. i am going to build that system. just going to do it at a slower pace so i dont have to spend alot at one time. anyway, i will keep in touch with you my friend.
Frankly, I think she just saved you from spending way too much money on a computer. But that's just my admittedly tactless opinion.
Besides, building a computer is fun! Or at least researching building a computer is...
TigerDirect has a section of their website for Bare Bones kits. I've built 2 PCs using their products and have been pretty pleased.
Also - take a look at monoprice.com. Just stumbled across them and research indicates they get high marks combined with dirt cheap prices.
I prefer NewEgg and ZipZoomFly to TigerDirect.
I used newegg for my last major upgrade and had a great experience. I've not tired the others so have no comment.
And K is right, about 85% of the fun of building a new PC is researching and deciding what to put in it!
jr
Heh... yeah. And the pain of it is assembling it, having it not work, and then disassembling it. Big cases help in these circumstances...
My current machine had a 5V pin pushed out of the logic board/power supply connector when I first assembled it..
Ken, all 3 vendors seem to be pretty decent. I've had good luck with Tiger. Matter of fact, check
this badboy .
Eh, I just don't like TigerDirect for reasons other than their customer service.
Not a bad machine, but I'd stay away from socket 754. Maybe I'm just feeling combative today...
NewEgg is fine. My fave's are mwave.com for parts and buyxg.com and xoxide.com for mod toys. I've never dealt with TigerExpress but they have been around forever. I don't do the barebones kits but only because I'm very picky about components. I do have friends who have gone that route and couldn't be happier.