step away from the computer... (little sister content)

Let's start in August, this will become relevant (and worthy of a laugh)

For going to college, my little sister bought a Dell inspiron N5030 with an i3-380m, 4GB DDR3-1333, 320gb 5400rpm HDD, etc., which for basic school use doesn't sound terrible... it even came with a "free" xbox 360 (note this, it will become relevant shortly). As my mom and my little sister were gabbing about how great DELL was and the prospect of a "Free XBox 360", I was in my room trying to configure a nice Sager NP5160 for school use for the twerp. (Somehow they were ogling the fact that the N5030 + XBox 360 = $980 and figured the XBox was worth it). Well, last night for poops and giggles I found her configuration online for $399. I did the math and I determined two things.

a) My Little Sister's "Free XBox 360" actually cost her $581.
b) Never let the computer-illiterate go near a Best Buy without proper supervision.

But I digress. As I was looking for RAM upgrades for my mom's inspiron M5030 (different computer, M5030 has an AMD P360 in it), I hear from her room "Jase, why won't it let me put 'Need For Speed: Shift' on it?". I walk over, take a look, and realize she's trying to put an XBox 360 disc into her laptop!

I admire her wanting to game, but she put her $581 in completely the wrong avenue... instead of a quadcore and a 540m, she got a dualcore, an IGP, and a $581 4GB "promo edition" XBox 360.

Jason.

 

For some reason, I think we're related. My parents are HOPELESS.

 

Shakes fist...

I can relate.

 

You can't grab a hold of every computer illiterate person.

And you certainly can't shut down horrible sale representatives that have no idea what they're saying and just read off the specifications sheet.

I know how to read durr

 

Where was the $399 deal at? Was the original price $780? [980-200 ?]

Was this a one in a lifetime chance at an unknown website or very limited quantities? Just curious....

 

Even better: never go to Worst Buy period.

And I have my own batch of not-so-tech-savvies. The landlord keeps thinking unplugging the power strip to the server and my encoding machine is a good idea when her internet isn't working. (Turns out she had the "enable wifi button" set off).

 

the kicker is, she didnt even buy it on bestbuy. She surveyed it at bestbuy, bought it on dell.com during a backtoschool promo. no fone calls no online chat, just click and buy.

mom's m5030, another winner, came from bestbuy. (that one was SOO good they went back, analyzed, then went home and bought online....)

i'm floored (and i found the invoice from DELL for my sister's)

 

Lol.

Dell Engineer: Our system wont play modern games very well.
Dell Manager: How can we advertise it to uni kids then!?
Dell Engineer: Well I had an idea to balance the sys....
Dell Marketing: We should just bundle a console and give up!
Dell Manager: Ship it!

 

I dont see that Dell would charge a high price on purpose on a Arrendale based Core i3 notebook.
Here in Norway notebooks based on Arrendale are either in the "bargain bin" or discontinued.

Still wish we had more choice on AMD Llano APU based notebooks.
All i found are HP or Asus.

Edit: Seems they actually did it. LOL

 

I don't think being computer illiterate is the problem.

 

It's pretty much this one Twerp's Computer.

 

this happens most of the time, i have seen some of my relatives waste such money and when they got their rig, they actually regret it, they are overcumbered by the 'sales talk' strategy. it looks like in the first impression, its a good deal, but nevertheless in the long run, you don't really need it, and if you don't need it, its a waste

 

Tell me about it. I woulda rather had twerpy been on a 2630qm / 540m / 8gb rig than a i3-380m / igp / 4gb rig. The former at least is a solid all around machine that would last her 4 years in college without a hitch.

 

To OP I say:

 

What? What's up Wingnut?

 

The Sager was that much cheaper than the equivalent Dell?

 

Update: I snuck in 8GB donor from my NP8130 (it started life as 4GB DDR3-1333, now it's 8GB DDR3-1333). Runs better, but still graphically challenged (and then some).

Jason

 

Reminds me of my family. Of Course my family mindlessly buys Apple products for Facebook and Microsoft word.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2

 

I guess changing such products yearly for the same use is a bigger problem.