People buy overpowered computers

[Jamisonia]

thinkpads are definitely several notches above all others.

I can see how people would want newer computers though. Internet applications and general web browsing does require greater and greater computational ability as they become more and more complex.

[AppleQueso]

I can see how people would want newer computers though. Internet applications and general web browsing does require greater and greater computational ability as they become more and more complex.

The problem is that most of the time these people already have a computer with sufficient computational ability to run web applications,.

[Ivo]

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

Very true.
Same goes for the people that buy new release games for $60 a pop.

I have problems with this, but it is true. These people are indirectly funding the advance of the respective technologies.
It also helps the "average specs bar" advance a bit faster (which is good and bad) so that software can have more features and be more demanding (again, good and bad) while still not being just available to small % of users with higher end machines.

Still, I would rather that at least my DAD would have listened to me and not spend that much on overpowered machines - but I just give him my advice and tell them it is his money and his decision.

Ivo.

[Ivo]

(...)
It's all about what you touch and look at, IMO.

How could you possibly write that in a reply about clit mouses? You must have done that on purpose, otherwise that was pretty terrible!

Ivo.

[Limewater]

thinkpads are definitely several notches above all others.

I don't think that's true as much anymore, ever since Lenovo took over the branding. They might be really good again, but there was a little bit of a rough transition, and the keyboard was noticeably inferior in the early days of the T series. I think they fixed that problem, though.

At the time I bought it just under two years ago, I am convinced that my Dell E series was the superior machine, but only by a slim margin.

[Hobie-wan]

It also helps the "average specs bar" advance a bit faster (which is good and bad)

I'm not so sure about that. Lots of my work customers are still trying to use a computer that's 6-8 years old. I upgraded our software on 2 customers this week with the following PC specs:

1.6 Ghz Semperon - 1 G RAM
1.8 Ghz - 704 M RAM

Our software uses SQL Express and positively crawls on these systems, especially once it gets bogged down with all the crap and toolbars that they always have on their PC since they aren't generally computer savvy people. We recommend a minimum 2 Ghz and 2 G RAM which you could pretty much go buy any bargain basement sale PC of the week and achieve, but many of our customers chug along with their ancient bogged down PC.

[GamerMON]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-d ... ics,19195/
Thought this was relevant to this thread.

[Ivo]

It also helps the "average specs bar" advance a bit faster (which is good and bad)

I'm not so sure about that. Lots of my work customers are still trying to use a computer that's 6-8 years old. (...)

Right, but if when they do upgrade they get an overpowered machine instead of the one that actually fits their needs you see that it moves the overall average upwards. That's what I was saying. I'm aware there are also some old machines in use.

Ivo.

[Anapan]

In regard to the Lenovo brand; My next machine will be the higher-end ruggedized type (where you can pour a drink through the keyboard and it'll drain out the bottom) and it's still well within my price range and necessary specs. I still have a lot of respect for Thinkpads as the best all-around laptops in the mid (affordable) range with what the average computer users needs handled with good quality and pricing. My reason for this is that I've repaired many laptops, replacing screens, motherboards, graphics cards, hard-drives and also written many off as not worth fixing. I've never done that to a thinkpad. It's always been HP (mostly quosimos), Acer (cheap but worth it - buy another), Toshiba (sometimes harddrives die don't sit on them), or off-brands (sony outsourced). No matter the price, the hardware inside's gotta be balanced, the shock-proofing needs to be well built, and the heat dissipation needs to be optimal and clog-proof. Thinkpads do that well. If you're looking for a gaming machine, just get a tower.

[Croooow!]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-d ... ics,19195/
Thought this was relevant to this thread.

Damn, beat me to it.