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Originally Posted by Ooble
For those of us with low-paying jobs, computer hardware is expensive, in the same way fancy restaurants, jewellry and cars are expensive. We're not arguing the price - we just can't afford it. Unfortunately, buying at the cheaper end of the scale usually culminates in me cursing at my broken RAM sticks, so I'm stuck with my setup right now. Ah, to have a real job...  |
Not to be overly cynical but there's truly 2 types of users that need a 'great' computer setup. Gamers, and those in the industry. If you're in the industry, a powerful desktop is no more than a couple of days work maybe a week or two's pay for a good laptop, (if you're a gamer there's cheaper alternatives out there to computer games, but that's a different story).
If you're dabbling in programming (and not making it your job, hardware isn't that expensive either because you don't need as much, just watch deals, buy at the right time (and if possible buy gently used items off of friends that 'need' the latest and greatest it's not a big deal to relax an have a beer during a long compile or large number crunch). In college I probablly only spent $600-$700 on computer equipment in 3 years (and that included buying a second hand computer at the start of college, and a new computer half way through), and I always had a great setup for what I needed, even decent for gaming.
In the grand scheme of things it's cheap for three years my (related) bills generally are:
Phone: ($35/month) = $1260
Internet: ($40/month) = $1440
As for spare computers I knew which dumpsters would occasionally see spare computers get tossed. There were 3 main ones at OSU, always good for a bit extra number crunching or experimenting with a new linux distro.
I'd have a hard time justifying that computers are expensive, but that's just my $.02.
-MBirchmeier