People buy overpowered computers

[Anayo]

My friend, who wanted to minor in business at his university, had his laptop crap out on him. The business program required all students to have a computer (I guess for accounting software or something), so he bought one through his school so he could have the school tech support take care of it in case in broke again before he graduates. He got a machine with an Intel I5 processor and 4 GB of RAM. I tried to install Fallout 3 on his laptop, and the integrated video card screamed in protest before crashing.

My Grandmother (affectionately called “Mee Maw”) decided to get a new laptop lately as well. I checked the specs just yesterday to discover her CPU and OS are way higher than mine – she's got an Intel I3 CPU and Windows 7 64 Bit professional. (I have an Intel Core Duo and Windows XP 32 Bit). She uses it for computationally expensive things like.... facebook, email, and skype with family members.

I don't think Mee Maw's video card can play Fallout 3, either.

When I was in high school I did 3D animation as a hobby. It was the only time I ever saw had to pay much attention to the performance of my hardware. For instance, I couldn't turn on certain effects (like ambient occlusion), or else each frame of animation would take a month to render. So I had to learn shortcuts. When I got my current PC, it was really cool to see render times go down by half, and I could use more effects, higher res textures, more detailed models, etc.

For email and facebook, though? Heck, my mom has an antique Pentium 4 with 1.5 GB of RAM, and it manages two desktops for email/casual browsing/youtube just fine. As for me, when I went laptop shopping, I got myself a netbook with a 1.5 Ghz Intel Atom and 1 GB RAM, and it's perfect... plus the laptop itself doesn't weigh 5 pounds. The thing's basically the size of a paper composition notebook. If I had comically oversized cargo pants I might be able to put it in my pocket. (I use it to play Half Life, N64 emulation, MS DOS games like Hexen, Duke 3D... )

As for my desktop, it's midrange, but I made darn well sure the motherboard had PCI express so I could play some games. I played Crysis on high and Resident Evil 5 maxed out.

… But Mee Maw and my business-minor friend don't plan to do anything involving PCI-express, so why the heck do they get these absurdly overpowered laptops??? It's (quite literally) like the grandma who just wants to drive to the grocery store once a week buying a Porsche.

The only people who could possibly need so much processing power are either artists, gamers, hardcore multitaskers, or programmers/software engineers, not the casual email/facebook/youtube/gotta write an essay for school crowd. I don't know how to break it to these people that they wasted their money.

[8bit]

Its like buying a car... sure all your grandma or friend may need is a chevy malibu but instead they go out and buy a bmw 3 series... sometimes they just want to ride in style

seriously though, most people who dont know computers just have a set budget and get the best thing they possibly can with that budget. they dont worry about what they really need and saving money. they see it as simply something they hope will get them through to the next couple of years without "being slow".

[Anapan]

I have to agree. I do computer tech support on the side for friends, colleagues and family underpriced because I don't feel it's worth what the professionals charge and it's a fun hobby keeping up with the latest viruses ($50 an hour going up after the first hour?!? Beer money is quite sufficient.) despite being better at than most of them are. The newer machines are better at being able to hide viruses because they have the power to give complete control to whoever has taken over and not interfere with the owner checking their email and facebook. I have to say, recently it's making me look bad and I've been accused of inventing and deploying those viruses while debugging their machines. I've always had underpowered machines because I streamline them to do what I need them to do and have rarely had need for the computing power of the machines I regularly work on. I usually make my client's Windows XP machines do stuff faster and easier than their friends' windows 7 machines computers do. It's a really effective marketing ploy to say the the malware that plagues most machines is a sign that the users need to upgrade to a improved and therefore impervious operating system to make their menial tasks run well. As they say, it's the 10d10t virus...

[AppleQueso]

My mom's been talking for a while now about wanting to buy a new computer. I have no idea why, all she uses is facebook and other similar sites and her current PC is MORE than powerful enough to handle it.

She says it's 'running slow', I keep telling her that she needs to take better care of it. Average folk really have no idea how to care for their computers...

[YoshiEgg25]

As they say, it's the 10d10t virus...

It's the ID10T virus.

[Erik_Twice]

People have the idea that computers are so technologic and misterious that any kind of "magic box" should cost 1000€ and are quite happy to pay that much for a mediocre box.

So when you recommend a cheap computer that suits their needs perfectly and they discover that the price is much lower than they think you are ripping them off or that they are getting a low quality magic box.

After all, how powerful must a computer be to run Microsoft Word and watch Youtube videos? I cringe everytime I see libraries and schools spend thousands of dollars on computers that are never going to do anything.

It's not just overpowered either, they also overpay because they go to huge franchises staffed by random teenagers payed minimun wage.

8bit is right on the money. They have a budget and simply don't care about saving. They made up their minds long ago, way before even asking themselves why they want a new comptuer or what kind of computer they should buy. After all, a newer magic box is better than an older one.

Average folk really have no idea how to care for their computers...

They need to be taken care of? What a rip-off, I'm buying a new computer!

People just lack common sense. If everyone followed this xkcd strip, the world would be a better place:
http://xkcd.com/627/

[AppleQueso]

I'm honestly baffled at how incompetent some people tend to be with google.

[Hatta]

People like this subsidize the rest of us. I have no problem with this.

[AppleQueso]

People like this subsidize the rest of us. I have no problem with this.

My mom's always asking me to fix her shit and I find it annoying personally

[Croooow!]

I'm honestly baffled at how incompetent some people tend to be with google.

This. I've explained to my numerous times how Google searches work but she still types full questions into Google. We also have a search bar next to our address bar and I always catch her typing www.facebook.com into the search bar