So this happened today.....(story)

[Taswell]

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. 

[Canada EH]

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.

[ch3w2oy]

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.

[PopsicleHustler]

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? 

[Turtle Rig]

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.

[Bananasplit_00]

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... 

[lewdicrous]

Thank you for not providing any pictures

[D13H4RD]

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.

[ATFink]

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).

[ATFink]

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!

[Bcat00]

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”