Am I being a snob?

[underemployeed]

I had a guy tell me ,"I just bought of state of the art computer for $300, it is a compaq and I got it at walmart!", it was really hard for me to keep a straight face. espeically when he was seriously about to start listing how one wasn't likely able to get a better deal on such a powerful computer, but I had to get going and my gf saved me from by herding me out the door before the conversation continued

First off, when I think state of the art I don't expect any of those 3 things to follow the statement let alone ALL three of them at the same time. Sure, you can get decent bang for your buck, especially when previously rocking a 04-06 Era pentium 4 3.0-GHz it is a vast improvement.

But I am of the mindset that it is by no means state of the art as I have considered computers from wal-mart and notice many of the specs to be at least a year out of date if not more when they arrive and it seems like the models sit there for another year or two.

When I think state of the art I think $1000+, I spent $750 building my current Pc since I have been few years behind and even then. I don't have near high end stuff, most of it was a good value.

Then you have Compaq, the low end of HP.

[EricKei]

To answer yer question: No, you're not. I agree with you -- If even ONE of those 3 things are in the sentence, it automatically nullifies the "SOTA" part. With the trifecta there, you're getting into NEGATIVE technological progress...

[protege]

When I think state of the art I think $1000+, I spent $750 building my current Pc since I have been few years behind and even then. I don't have near high end stuff, most of it was a good value.

Then you have Compaq, the low end of HP.

Seconded. I built my last PC for about $600, and it was by no means the most powerful thing out there. Sure, it was fast, but it was quickly left behind. AMD-powered, 1.25Ghz, 2GB RAM, etc. etc., it wasn't built for speed...but simply so I could play some games, put my resume together, watch some flicks, and get some work done. Of course by now, that thing is seriously outclassed, and has been rebuilt with used parts. In fact, it's 8 years old, and ready for the scrap pile now.

Back on topic, I've always told people that if you want Ferrari performance, you're going to pay a bit for it. Same with computers. Most people get the analogy, some do not. They either don't know what they're talking about, or are perfectly happy with the 'Chevette' in their computer room.

[dalesys]

Check out Maximum PC's 2011 Dream Machine! $12,588 in parts to assemble yourself. These crazies must fuel the barbie with $20 bills.

[Captain Trips]

Sounds like my ex-brother-in-law's twin brother telling me he knew everything there was to know about computers. His example was what to do about deleting something by accident - just remove it from the trash bin.
Me: What about in Unix?
Him: Every computer has a trash bin.
Me: DOS?
Him: EVERY computer has a trash bin.
Me: HP9000's don't. (That was the platform we used at work at the time.)
Him: EVERY COMPUTER HAS A TRASH BIN!
Me: Only GUI's have a trash bin, and only for things from the local drive. Networked files don't go into the trash bin.
Him: EVERY COMPUTER HAS A TRASH BIN, JUST PULL IT OUT OF THERE WITH THE MOUSE!!!!
Me: <gets up and goes into another room>

(Note: my ex BIL's name is Bob. His twin brother's name is Bobbie. And they are from the hills of Kentucky...)

[underemployeed]

Oh and it turns out someone might have actually bought the computer and taken it back because there were files on there created in 2009. Without actually seeing the computer and knowing the tech skill, I'm thinking those were system or manufacturer installed files..... so they upgraded him to an HP desktop, not sure if it was free upgrade. But at any rate... I'm actually kind of wondering will my two year old laptop that I spent $600 on be able to beat it? It was actually $900 at the time but I was about to buy the ex-gf a Wii and if you bough the laptop and the WII the bundle was $800..... to me that is finding a value. I am kind of thinking the manager at Wally world just wanted him to go away, I know when he is complaining I do, and I can't imagine him coming in there complaining he got screwed and the threats of legal action (OH wait, that did happen to me once when the gf had me backup his data and reformat to remove all the Viruses and AOL)

[Teskeria]

Yes you are being a snob. But since you didn't say it to him, it was internal. Not everyone has the need or knowledge for a personally built computer. for someone like me, who does just a very little bit on a computer, a compaq (or similiar,never a piece of excretment from the company that rhymes with Hell) is a perfectly fine computer. For someone who needs more than a basic home pc, then yes, building it yourself (or having an expert do so) is the way to go. My daughter's BF builds his own PC's. And never once has he made me feel less than him, because I use a basic store bought.

[BrightEyedKitty]

I spent ~$350 building mine, not including OS, monitor, or a couple things I already upgraded. Works fine for me.

Walmart seems like a pretty good place to get a cheap laptop, though.

[Seshat]

You're being more knowledgeable. Being snobbish would be if you sneered, condescended, patronised, or even thought less of him as a person.

If the computer does what he needs and wants it to do, and is worth what he paid for it, then so be it: he doesn't need anything more powerful. Let him he be happy with his purchase.

Even if he could have got it cheaper elsewhere if he'd known about (say) that hole in the wall self-build computer store run by those geek friends of yours; well, he's not in the industry. How could he have known about it? What reason would he have had to trust them?
Sometimes you pay for convenience, and for not having to do all the research. Sometimes that's worth it.

Smile, nod, shrug it off, let it pass. It does no harm for him to be happy with his purchase.

[Racket_Man]

Me: HP9000's don't. (That was the platform we used at work at the time.)
Him: EVERY COMPUTER HAS A TRASH BIN!
..)

now there is a machine I have not been associated with in like 30 years . the BASIC was good enough for the time (text games and running a nice sized community college) but little else.

*****rummages around in my stuff and finds a reel of 9-track tape that I saved several games I wrote on my schools HP9000 ********

heck as little as 11 years ago I was the only person in a small office that knew MS-DOS. we got hit with a virus and I was happily using the DEL and ERASE DOS commands (booted my machine from a DOS boot disk I made at home) to kill off all of the virus generated files in the WINDOWS restore folder. my co-workers just could not get that I was using MS DOS while they were encountering file deletion blocks (error kept coming up that these files were in use by windows and could not be deleted at that time) from Windows.

[Blade_Raver]

State of the Art computer technology can't even be manufactured for $300, much less purchased at a Wal-Mart for $300.

I completely understand your position, but have learned over the years just to ignore people when they don't know any better... unless it directly affects your day to day operations.

And to answer your question -- No, you're not being a snob. You're just realistic and have more of a clue about technology than Mr. Walmart $300 guy over there.

[protege]

Of course, then we have the other side of the coin--the people who will gladly overpay (by that, I mean they'll spend over a grand apiece) for a basic computer. My boss is one of those people. Awhile back, he'd bought some new computers for the office. IIRC, they cost about $1000 to build and configure. They're not bad machines, fine for running our applications, word-processing, spreadsheets, etc. However, they're overpriced for what they are.

Shortly after that, I brought my own computer in so I could use their 'net connection to download some updates--at the time, my parents still had dial-up, and I wasn't about to tie up their phone and wait all day for the updates to download. Boss said I could use the company connection, provided that it wasn't taking time away from work.

Naturally, he asked me how much I'd spent to build the computer. He nearly choked on his cigar when he realized that I'd spent less...and my machine would blow his away

[EricKei]

My old boss was like that. Spends $Texas to make sure he has a nice new comp, a spare large HD monitor, AND a 40+ inch LCD TV hanging on the wall that duplicates the main monitor. The rest of us have to deal with $300 refurbished Hells (when we're lucky) or the handmedowns, some of which dated back to the year 2000 (I checked the manufacturer dates). I got so fed up with it that I just used a laptop I had been required to buy (against my will and without my knowledge nor consent...which is illegal here; he took the $ out of my paychecks and more or less dared me to complain about it) for a training conference he had sent me to. It was a decent comp when I got it in late 2007...and it STILL kicked the ass of most systems there when I lost my job there early this year.

[Merriweather]

It isn't being a snob to know that Wal-Mart really doen't carry "state of the art" computers, or that a state of the art computer is not, under normal circumstances, ever cheap. Even wanting state of the art for your own use isn't being a snob.

Being a snob is dismissing anything less than state of the art as being useless, etc, when for many users, those cheap basic computers do everything they need them to do, and for a decent price. Most computer users read email, compose documents and surf the internet. They don't need more than a cheap basic machine to happily do all they want. And if they insist on thinking their little machine is state of the art, why burst their bubbles, LOL.

So nope, you don't sound like a snob to me.

[EricKei]

So nope, you don't sound like a snob to me.

QFT ^_^

My idea of the perfect computer is "whatever board/cpu/card just dropped to 20% of its original price/$120", whichever is lower I have NO problem running hardware that's just a bit behind the curve if it means I can build an entire really nice comp for the price of ONE "SOTA" component.