Posted January 18 · Original PosterOP I ran into some shit today that i feel like i need to share with some people who would understand. I will try to link picture of parts so you can get an idea of what stuff was. I got a call from a customer today that I have never dealt with. I was an elderly gentleman who wanted me to come and clean up his computer digitally and physically, I didn't really want to since my company mostly deals with business clients but he said that he would pay for at least an hour so I was basically forced into it by my boss. Last call of the day. So I get there, this guys is living alone in the smallest studio apartment in town that mildly smells like dog fart and mothballs. He has no actual furniture except for the counter which is built into the wall, and metal laundry rack that is his pantry/microwave stand, 2 card tables(one for the pc one,one for one janky looking TV from 2001), and everything else is stacked in clear plastic bins scattered everywhere. Immediate mental yikes. I get to the PC, Start doing general OS maintenance, msconfig, AV, Browser cleanup, and all that shit. Aside from him running windows 7 home with High contrast mode and having about every media player on the planet, everything is normal. I explain what I have done and we go on to the physical cleaning, I ask "where is the PC?" as i don't see it either on the table under the table or in any of the places a normal. He moves the Monitor aside and moves the curtain behind it that I though was there to hide the shitty cement wall. Behind this curtain there is this random cubby hole where he has crammed this PC in a old Coolermaster HAF case, and it is one of the nastiest Looking PCs i have seen. This is where shit gets weird. Here is a Part Picker list to the best of my ability of what is was. PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant Type Item Price CPU Intel - Core i7-4790K 4 GHz Quad-Core Processor $469.00 @ SuperBiiz CPU Cooler Corsair - H100i v2 70.69 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler Motherboard Asus - SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK S ATX LGA1150 Motherboard Memory Corsair - Dominator GT 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR3-1866 Memory Storage Kingston - A400 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $72.99 @ Amazon Video Card Asus - GeForce GTX 660 2 GB Video Card Case Cooler Master - HAF X ATX Full Tower Case Power Supply Corsair - RMx 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply $199.89 @ OutletPC Optical Drive Asus - BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer $119.88 @ OutletPC Optical Drive LG - UH12NS40 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer $45.88 @ OutletPC Operating System Microsoft - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 32-bit $69.00 @ My Choice Software Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total $976.64 Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-18 00:11 EST-0500 (the only thing on here im not sure of are the optical drives) I make a comment about how gross the PC looks, and he tells he has had it for a little over a year and has no idea how it got so dirty. To which I respond "how much did you get it on eBay for?". He proudly looks at me and says he built it himself around the beginning of last year for $4000. To which I am trying really to be professional and not look shocked or laugh. To distract myself I start taking the side panel off I can blow this thing out and GTFO. Meanwhile he starts asking me if I know anyone who wants a used gaming PC and " do you think I could get $4000 for it". At this point I am just done with this whole situation and I start being extremely blunt and just answer "I highly doubt it". He start arguing that he spent $$$_____ on this or that part alone that it should worth something. So I brought up the Intel ark for the 4790k and tried to explain that he has an almost obsolete platform and an even older GPU, to which he was very defiant. The only new parts in the build where the SSD, PSU, and the cooler. If the case was new it certainly didn't look it. Upon further inspection the optical drives where also dead, not unplugged, dead. My guess was he bought from those listings on newegg or amazon that have old hardware at above retail for some reason and thought that since it was at the top of the price bracket that it was the best. I don't know how it totaled $4000 and I didn't want to stay to ask. I wish I would have managed to take some pictures. I7-4770\\ Corsair Air 240 \\ RTX 2070 \\ 16GB DDR3 2400 \\ 1KW EVGA Supernova\\ Maximius Impact Vii Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 18 2 minutes ago, Taswell said: He start arguing that he spent $$$ Those people will never learn the economics of depreciation. How to deal with that, tell him the truth and leave it at that. Tell him to look at the online classifieds and ebay for similar pc's and he can then judge what price he thinks he can get for a $150 pc. Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 18 I would have explained that parts appreciate quickly over time, especially Intel, and that you could probably get 6 or so grand for it, easy. Looking for RX 570/580 equivalent or better for $200 or less! Will trade! 2600X @ 4.275 | H150i Pro w/Kryonaut | X470 Gaming 7 | Liquid Vega 64 | 3400c14 Memory | EVGA P2 750W Platinum | 500GB 970 EVO | 512GB SSD | 2TB HDD | 32" 4k Display | Corsair K55 Keyboard | Roccat Tyon Mouse | Phanteks Entho Pro M Case | PCPARTPICKER Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 18 I'm trying to figure out why would he buy "presumably" top of the line PC if he doesn't need that much compute power? Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 18 Crummy video card and 470 bucks for a 4790k is the biggest rip off.... You can get a 9900k spending just 80 dollars more lol, Also shitty video card too. I don't understand how he spent 4 thousand bucks on that crummy box. Asus Sabertooth x79 / 4930k Hexa @ 4514 @ 1.408v / Gigabyte WF 2080 RTX / Corsair VG 64GB @ 1915 @ 9CL & AX1600i & H115i Pro @ 2x Noctua NF-A14 / Carbide 330r Blackout AOC 40" 4k Curved Monitor / Samsung 40" 4k TV Flat 120 MR / LaCie Porsche Design 2TB & 500GB / Samsung 950 Pro 500GB / 850 Pro 500GB / Crucial m4 500GB / m.2 Card Scarlett 2i2 Audio Interface / KRK Rokits 10" / Sennheiser HD 650 & HD 4.50BT SE / Logitech G910 & G700s & C920 / SL 88 Grand / Cakewalk / Win10 / NF-A14 Intake / NF-P12 Exhaust Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 18 The I7 4769K is €200, together with the mobo and RAM that's ~€400. PSU is another €200 and the rest together somewhere around €150. So this dude spent $4000 on a €750 pc... I spent $2500 on building my PC and all i do with it is play MTGA & watch anime at 720p... Builds: The Toaster Project! Northern Bee! The Cassette Deck! The original LAN PC build log! (Old, dead and replaced by The Toaster Project & 5.0) Spoiler "Here is some advice that might have gotten lost somewhere along the way in your life. #1. Treat others as you would like to be treated. #2. It's best to keep your mouth shut; and appear to be stupid, rather than open it and remove all doubt. #3. There is nothing "wrong" with being wrong. Learning from a mistake can be more valuable than not making one in the first place. Follow these simple rules in life, and I promise you, things magically get easier. " - MageTank 31-10-2016 Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 18 Thank you for not providing any pictures Here's a list of Discord servers, cause why not. Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 18 2 hours ago, ChewToy! said: I would have explained that parts appreciate quickly over time, especially Intel, and that you could probably get 6 or so grand for it, easy. To be fair, high end old motherboards practically retain their msrp... Pro tip, before you reply to an question or topic, answer these three questions: 1) Do I actually have an answer for OP at all? 2) Am I giving an answer that is based in multiple reliable source tests and not personal opinion or heresay? 3) Is my answer on topic, clear and concise? If you answered "no" to any of those, close the tab. Do not give people information you personally think is correct. Source, research and then reply. If you plain and simple don't know what you're talking about, don't talk about it. It's harmful to support questions on forums to be providing people with wrong or misleading information. As well as going off topic from the original question. i.e. "What B360 motherboard should I buy?" >someone replies with a PC partpicker list with a ryzen system Not what was asked. Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 18 I don't think the guy ever understood the concept of depreciation. When you buy a car for $60,000, you can't sell it at $60k years later because it would've depreciated over time. The only exceptions to the rule are buildings, very limited-run items and some other stuff. Please tag me if you need assistance or if you want me to contribute to a topic ASUS RoG STRIX GL502VM Intel Core i7 7700HQ | GeForce GTX 1060 6GB | 16GB DDR4-2133 | 128GB SanDisk M.2 SATA SSD + 1TB 7200RPM Hitachi HDD | 15.6" 1080p IPS monitor @ 60Hz w/ G-SYNC | Windows 10 64-bit Samsung Galaxy Note8 SM-N950F Exynos 8895 (4x Mongoose @ 2.3GHz, 4x Cortex A53 @ 1.7GHz) | ARM Mali G71 MP20 | 6GB LPDDR4 | 64GB Samsung NAND flash w/ UFS 2.1 dual-lane controller + 128GB SanDisk C10 UHS-I microSD | 6.3" 1440p "Infinity Display" AMOLED | Android Nougat 7.1.1 w/ Samsung Experience 8.5 Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 18 On a used platform I'd only spend $200 and change on a 4790k if the motherboard was bundled (of course it'd need to be z97 and have a decent VRM). I'd probably be willing to spend $300 maximum for a package deal of 16 GB RAM (all I'd use), mobo, and 4790k since I can spend just $70 more and get this: Spoiler PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant Type Item Price CPU AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor $164.99 @ Amazon Motherboard MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard $114.99 @ B&H Memory G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory $92.99 @ Newegg Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total $372.97 Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-18 03:14 EST-0500 The PSU is nice, but it's more than I'd need. I'd only be willing to pay $50 for it since I could get a new RM550x for $60. Spoiler PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant Type Item Price Power Supply Corsair - RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply $59.99 @ Newegg Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total (before mail-in rebates) $79.99 Mail-in rebates -$20.00 Total $59.99 Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-18 03:20 EST-0500 Everything else except the storage and H100i is worthless to me. I probably couldn't sell an old GTX 660, Windows 7 is starting to become a malware hazard, the effort of cleaning an old and un-kept HAF case is more than the case is worth to me, and I will never use optical drives (and they're broken in this case). H100i: $20 since the PC was obviously neglected and it might not have much life left. Probably not a problem since the odds are very low, but a leaky hose due to age (aged plastics/rubber = cracks) could kill the build. Storage: $40 since it's a decent size ssd, but it is a cheap kingston unit that may or may not have seen a lot of writes in its life and I'll have to zero it out before touching it. I'd either pay $60 for a nice Phanteks P300 or go for some cheaper case for $30-40. In total I'd pay a maximum of $500 for this. That's only because I could profit off of selling the RM850x and buying a cheaper new RM550x to replace it and I could sell 16 GB of ram that I won't use. Getting rid of the GPU and case would be a pain. Cleaning and replacing the thermal paste and moving the components to a new case will take time and always has the inherent risk of damaging components (however unlikely). CPU: i7 4790k @ 4.7 GHz GPU: XFX GTS RX580 4GB Cooling: Corsair h100i Mobo: Asus z97-A RAM: 4x8 GB 1600 MHz Corsair Vengence PSU: Corsair HX850 Case: NZXT S340 Elite Tempered glass edition Display: LG 29UM68-P Keyboard: Roccat Ryos MK FX RGB Mouse: Logitech g900 Chaos Spectrum Headphones: Sennheiser HD6XX OS: Windows 10 Home Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 18 47 minutes ago, D13H4RD said: I don't think the guy ever understood the concept of depreciation. When you buy a car for $60,000, you can't sell it at $60k years later because it would've depreciated over time. The only exceptions to the rule are buildings, very limited-run items and some other stuff. Also land, some antiques, some stocks, cars if you are a scummy used car dealership, and GPUs back in the mining craze! CPU: i7 4790k @ 4.7 GHz GPU: XFX GTS RX580 4GB Cooling: Corsair h100i Mobo: Asus z97-A RAM: 4x8 GB 1600 MHz Corsair Vengence PSU: Corsair HX850 Case: NZXT S340 Elite Tempered glass edition Display: LG 29UM68-P Keyboard: Roccat Ryos MK FX RGB Mouse: Logitech g900 Chaos Spectrum Headphones: Sennheiser HD6XX OS: Windows 10 Home Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 18 Just leave the old man alone, he’s part of a older generation that doesn’t follow modern day tech so it’s not something surprising or to be angry about. most people that age are at the point of stagnation, never learn and never change, hence the saying of “stubborn old man” Link to post Share on other sites
