It may make sense for you to spend hours fussing with building a computer. I have a 1 year old, a wife, a full time job, a house to care for, etc. It makes no sense for me to waste a day building a PC when it costs me $100 extra for a professional to do it right and ship it to me for free. Building a PC is simply not high on my list of priorities.
Don't confuse lazy with smart. Stupid people work hard for no reason, and at the expense of things they care about.
I think it's fine for people not to build their own PC's...if you don't know what you're doing, and if it doesn't boot up correctly the first time (which is usually the case), it's going to be a stressful few hours while you try to figure out what's up. That will be the case even if you DO know what your doing.
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It may make sense for you to spend hours fussing with building a computer. I have a 1 year old, a wife, a full time job, a house to care for, etc. It makes no sense for me to waste a day building a PC when it costs me $100 extra for a professional to do it right and ship it to me for free. Building a PC is simply not high on my list of priorities.
Don't confuse lazy with smart. Stupid people work hard for no reason, and at the expense of things they care about.
If it's not laziness then it's a lack of understanding of how building your own computer gives you a leg up versus everyone else in the market doing your same job (assuming it involves computers in any way). While someone else would be stuck waiting for someone to fix their computer or, worse, spending money to have someone fix it (and it's almost always something exceedingly simple to fix), you would be saving time (which as you said is money) and actual cash by fixing it yourself right away. And you would get more work done.
I also think everyone should learn basic programming skills, because it will make you vastly more efficient over others in whatever job you're in when you realize you can have a computer do most of your computer work more efficiently and with far fewer errors.
That is, unless you're the CEO and your time really is worth $500/hr+... then in that case it really is a waste to learn. Just pay others to do everything for you.
By the way, I'm not trying to be a dick here. I honestly believe this stuff, and especially for someone that I respect like you (or anyone else on these forums). Computers rule the work world. You're better off knowing as much as you can about them, and the BEST way to learn is to build your own.
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Last edited by manasecret : 08-13-2011 at 06:22 PM.
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Re: Buying a new Gaming PC
Uhm about that static electricity thing with the motherboards, I've probably built about 15 computers now for myself and friends throughout the years since I graduated high school and I've never grounded myself and never had an issue with the motherboard.
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Re: Buying a new Gaming PC
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vampyr
I don't think you learn that much about computers by building one. :\
It's really just the equivalent of putting together some large lego blocks.
Well that's not really true, you learn quite a bit about them while building them.
Yes it's really easy, but at the same time think of all the stuff you do before you build one:
match parts together
usually you read about the individual parts in some manner that tells you what they do for the computer, it may be simplified but you still learn
You learn about your specific rig and what to fix if something goes wrong, and since you put it together once you know how to replace anything in it
You usually learn about fun little errors that can happen to your computer after the initial building.
You learn how to format hard drives and what that all means, change settings in BIOS etc.
Learn how to install an operating system if you've never done that before and a lot of people haven't
Learn how to install hardware drivers and all that fun stuff (Well windows 7 takes care of most of that these days.)
It really is quite the learning experience if you've never done these type of things yourself. I can also see where it would be overwhelming, and it is time consuming. Around an hour to put the PC together and then anywhere from 3-6 hours getting it setup after that, depending on if anything went wrong during the setup. (SPOILERZ: SOMETHING ALWAYS GOES WRONG! Like the time I was sent a PSU that had been switched to european voltage, can we say smoke and fire?)
The drivers thing is probably an issue cause I'm sure I've heard about things like that from ATi users, but you also have to understand that when games are coded specifically for nVidia cards, it's all marketing bullshit. How can you expect things to run perfectly when you're not doing your job as a developer and making games that run well on all hardware, driver issues aside? There's a money thing happening behind the scenes, I'm sure of it. Why else would games be marketed with nVidia as "the way it's meant to be played"?
Your analysis is fascinating. Gave me a good laugh.
Uhm about that static electricity thing with the motherboards, I've probably built about 15 computers now for myself and friends throughout the years since I graduated high school and I've never grounded myself and never had an issue with the motherboard.
Anyone else have any input?
Provided you weren't standing around on carpet or touching any volatile areas of the mobo, you probably were okay. You also ground yourself by touching the case so...
Might also be that there's high humidity where you live. I could walk around all day on carpet here in Houston and never get a static shock, while I remember being in Dallas one winter at my sister's carpeted house and shocking everything. The moisture in the air absorbs the charge.
Well that's not really true, you learn quite a bit about them while building them.
Yes it's really easy, but at the same time think of all the stuff you do before you build one:
match parts together
This I can do easily, and in fact when I researched my PC I compared it to a self-build with parts I chose on new egg. Also, I tend to upgrade my own machines (GPU, PSU, RAM), which is why my old one lasted as long as it did.
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You learn about your specific rig and what to fix if something goes wrong, and since you put it together once you know how to replace anything in it.
This I can do to a point, mainly if the issue is with the GPU, RAM or PSU.
Quote:
You usually learn about fun little errors that can happen to your computer after the initial building.
Now we're starting to come off the rails... this does not compute with my definition of fun. To me, this is an economic equation.
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You learn how to format hard drives and what that all means, change settings in BIOS etc.
Learn how to install an operating system if you've never done that before and a lot of people haven't
Right here is where I check out. Once the BIOS, setting, etc. all get involved my face turns bright red and I go into a blind beserker rage. When I come to, the house is destroyed and there is a slaughtered goat with teeth marks in my living room.
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Learn how to install hardware drivers and all that fun stuff (Well windows 7 takes care of most of that these days.)
This I've handled in the past as well.
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It really is quite the learning experience if you've never done these type of things yourself. I can also see where it would be overwhelming, and it is time consuming. Around an hour to put the PC together and then anywhere from 3-6 hours getting it setup after that, depending on if anything went wrong during the setup.)
Time is really the issue. It all comes down to how much time will it take, and how much money will I save by doing it myself. I fully expect to lose an entire day to putting a PC together myself, especially if I've never done it before. It only costs me $100 to pay someone else to put it together for me, and I pay myself WAY more than $100 a day. (That translates to $26,000 a year for a 5 day work week.)
When I compare that to my salary, and the value I place on my "free" time, I've losing well over $100 in opportunity cost if I do it myself.
This, my friends, is the basis of our economy and wealth creation.
First off, oh please. That argument only holds up if you had spent the time you would have spent building the computer making money by working instead. By your own admission you wouldn't have. You would have done, what? Fixed a leak in bathroom sink, or painted your house, or cleaned up, or some other household chore? Talk about useless knowledge and skills, yet I bet you don't pay someone to do most or any of your housework, am I right?
Now, playing with your kid, fine, that's lost opportunity. But I'm sure not even the majority of that time would have been spent playing with your kid.
Secondly, I think you're still arguing the wrong point. Computers rule the work world. It's not like you're learning how to change the brakes in your car, which for most people does not supplement their work knowledge. Instead you have just lost a great opportunity to pull yourself ahead of everyone else in the market doing your job. I don't know the economic term for it, but I know the worth of that knowledge is far more than $100.
Thus, laziness. It's ok, call it opportunity cost if it makes you feel better.
First off, oh please. That argument only holds up if you had spent the time you would have spent building the computer making money by working instead.
Absolutely not. If you're not applying a dollar value to your non-work time, you basically consider it worthless. My non-work time is the most valuable time I have. Its the time I spend with my wife and child, and maintaining my home (my single largest investment).
And if you don't think you spend the majority of your free time with a 1 year old, then you've never had a 1 year old...
By your own admission you wouldn't have. You would have done, what? Fixed a leak in bathroom sink, or painted your house, or cleaned up, or some other household chore? Talk about useless knowledge and skills, yet I bet you don't pay someone to do most or any of your housework, am I right?
Again, we're talking about opportunity cost. It would cost me about $300 to pay a plumber clear a clogged drain line (not a sink, a main line). Takes me about an hour or less to do it myself.
Having someone build my PC costs me $100, and saves me 6-8 hours (likely).
Economically, it makes sense for me to clear my own drain AND pay someone to build my PC. Then again, if I needed to replace plumbing it may pay me to hire someone. It all depends on the cost vs. time equation. We make these tradeoffs everyday (and it keeps McDonalds in business).
Quote:
Secondly, I think you're still arguing the wrong point. Computers rule the work world. It's not like you're learning how to change the brakes in your car, which for most people does not supplement their work knowledge. Instead you have just lost a great opportunity to pull yourself ahead of everyone else in the market doing your job. I don't know the economic term for it, but I know the worth of that knowledge is far more than $100.
What I know is that every time I even think about "fixing" a PC at work the OPs department smacks me on the back of the head and tells me to "cut the shit". Tech people don't want me to fix a computer. That's what they're paid to do. I'm paid to teach and provide consultation. This is another important economic concept called "specialization" that creates efficiencies and wealth.
Re: Buying a new Gaming PC
That argument only holds up if you had spent the time you would have spent building the computer making money by working instead. By your own admission you wouldn't have. You would have done, what? Fixed a leak in bathroom sink, or painted your house, or cleaned up, or some other household chore? Talk about useless knowledge and skills, yet I bet you don't pay someone to do most or any of your housework, am I right?
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