SaintStryfe

That's pretty good. It's clear. I think that might be part of it - "Ghz measures the work the processor is doing, not necessarily that it's doing the work efficiently.", saying it more succinctly. Thank you for your input.

Ah, okay, that helps. Now, as I understand it, a cycle is the ability of a computer to go from 1 to 0 in binary, so the number of cycles is related to the number of calculations the processor can do. is this correct? I can add on "It's like RPM in a car- your tachometer shows you how fast the crankshaft is spinning, it doesn't infer what the computer can do with that power." Cars are a great place to explain the difference as they're how everyone gets around here (when I worked in NYC I found that car allusions don't work.).

I had to replace a fan and rebuild one of these once. It was a miserable experience which I was underpaid for. i ran into the same issue.

Hello, I'm a retail sales associate at a major big box computer sales store. I constantly work to refine and explain how I sell computers, mostly prebuilts, to customers. I deal in a rural area that use to be a major IBM hub, so I have lots of customers who knew a lot of computers in the early 90's. Now they're older but still need a computer, and sometimes I get asked questions that are not easy to explain, and I'd like to start up a thread here to talk about how to describe computer terms to non-technical people. As easy as it is to just say "Don't buy this one, buy this", I don't think that's a good way of actually earning people's trust. I like to be able to explain this to people. I have developed a lot of good examples (I use the idea of a desk to describe Processor, RAM and Storage for instance), but I've come into a snag. Lately, I've been dealing with a lot of questions about Clockspeeds. Our store prints the clockspeed of a computer on the fact tag that hangs in front of it, and of course, clock speed a terribad way of measuring a CPU. But I'll be honest, I'm not a chip designer so explaining what the difference is not always easy. I've come up with this: When a customer asks what 1.7ghz is, my reply is "Gigahertz is a measurement of clock speed, how fast the computer can process information. However, gigahertz by itself is just a measure - it's like Watts is on a motor. It doesn't measure the capability of a system, or how good it does its job, only the amount of electricity going through it. Likewise, ghz only measures the amount of data going through the chip. Just because a large amount of data is going through doesn't mean its being processed efficiently." Does this sound right, or accurate? Any other sales people out there with experience I'd love your input.

I'm a 10 year vet of retail computer sales. Your wife's experience is not uncommon. Saying the difference is the look of a system is not wrong - there's plenty of computers that I sell that are rather weak, but are decorated with lights and aggressive plastic to look more gamer-y. And then you got a rather basic looking computer that actually performed rather well. The sales person issue is common - you don't know who's wearing a blue shirt. It could be a stocker, a manager who doesn't actually work with tech, or it could be a many year season vet like myself. It is a random roll. Don't ever be afraid to ask "I am trying to buy a gaming PC, do you have anyone who's especially versed on the topic?" - Most store workers will not mind passing that off. A store like Best Buy is not commissioned, meaning they're trying to reach revenue goals. They'll get it to the person who can get the most Revenue per hour, which if you ask that, will likely be the person who knows the most. Also, Best Buy specific: If two people help you out, if you do buy something, ask them to please include the first sales person on the sale if they treated you respectfully. The go-to-a-different store problem you had is not uncommon. My store right now, for instance, does not carry gaming PCs - we are rather small and in an area where GPCs just don't sell much. The big store 30 minutes away does. When we do a local pickup order, it has to go to the other store, get recognized, then get picked and put at a register. It definitely happens where we have one left of a computer, order it, then it's in the process of being sold. It's an annoyance, but it's how things work. It is not an organizational or logistical problem usually, it's just bad luck. In your case, at least they called. Also, lay off workers for offering the extended warranty. It's part of the sales, in a lot of stores it's how sales people make money individually (the computer might go to the store, but upsells like that might be part of personal earnings). It is not hurting you listening to it. If you want to make a sales person just hate you, cut them off when they're selling something like that. Someone does that to me, you're guaranteeing you I'm gonna press on everything then because my biggest upsell is gone, so I gotta try for everything else - Office, Internet Security software, power options (power strips and UPSes), cables, cases for laptops, ect. Let me finish and say no thank you, I usually assume you've got a budget. But I still have 2-3 things I have to hit (usually Office, Internet Security and Warranty). Let me do my job and we'll get done faster, and you just might get something you could need but not know.