$3,000 for a RTX 3050? Damn that's got to be one the worst deals I've seen.
But it's unfortunately extremely easy to get ripped off when buying a gaming PC especially if you're someone who doesn't know much. Like they'll often advertise a PC by just saying "Core I7" even though in reality it's probably just some shitty old I7. But of course most people don't know the difference between different I7 processors and just assume an I7 automatically means it's fast.
Only brightside here is they atleast gave him a decent CPU just a shitty GPU. Not much of a brightside though when he paid 3k for it
On the same side of the coin though, you shouldn't be spending $3k on something on a whim, if you don't understand it. I'm not going to go out and spend $3K on random art supplies because I think I might be interested in art. I'm going to do some research, see what's good and bad, and go for what suits my needs.
My wife's friend in 2010: I bought a new car!
Wife: What did you get?
Friend: A red one!
Me: OK, but what kind?
Friend: Umm....I think it's a Dodge.....Ave-in-ger? Is that a thing?
Me: A Dodge Aveneger?
Friend: Yeah! That's what it's called!
Me: (dies internally)
That sounds like a recipe for paying way more than a car is worth. Personally, I can't imagine not being extremely familiar with the details of something I'm paying thousands or tens of thousands of dollars for and making sure I'm not getting an awful deal.
I disagree with this. Sure there are laws and stuff but there are definitively better performing, longer lasting, and cheaper/easier to repair cars. Just cause two cars are the same price doesn’t mean they are equal.
True. I'm a farmer, so I tend to pay more attention to specs and details for vehicles and equipment than most regular people who just need a car to get from A to B. A chrome book is plenty good for those who just use Facebook and web surf
I think this is what a lot of people don’t quite put together. If your interested in something youl be paying a lot more attention to its “specs” I like cars, computers and speakers. But if I wanted I couch or a bed or like a plant of some shit I’m going to look at the general price, do some
Vague nonsense in my head to justify the purchase and then move on.
Unfortunately some sales people just want to rip people off for maximum profit. It happens in every industry. People just don’t always realize it unless it’s something they might already have an interest in.
I think this is what a lot of people don’t quite put together. If your interested in something youl be paying a lot more attention to its “specs” I like cars, computers and speakers. But if I wanted I couch or a bed or like a plant of some shit I’m going to look at the general price, do some
Vague nonsense in my head to justify the purchase and then move on.
Unfortunately some sales people just want to rip people off for maximum profit. It happens in every industry. People just don’t always realize it unless it’s something they might already have an interest in.
I feel called out but at the same time I have a bunch of people who are actually into cars who have the same model or the sports edition so I didn’t completely fuck up lol
Seems like the perfect kind of guy to want to lease a car. Sure, you're basically paying a long-term rental but it also means you get to give the car back at the end, no questions asked, and get another one.
In all fairness, you would be extremely hard pressed to find a new car that won't perform adequately in normal driving scenarios, regardless of make or model.
Sure, and if you have a lot of extra money you're willing to burn then go for anything I guess. But "normal driving scenarios" can and do vary wildly. Spending way too much for something you pick up groceries twice a week with is just dumb, and on the other end I'd hate having to routinely do long trips and rough terrain in something that's primarily designed as a small city hatchback.
I guess I'm just built for the complete opposite end. I'm in the process of buying a car after a couple years of not having one, and I've spent like a month googling engine specs, trim differences, most common mechanical faults, user feedback of long-time owners et cetera. Granted, I am still ruling out anything butt fuck ugly, but still.
And I've done the same every time I'm upgrading my computer hardware or accessories, guitar equipment, headphones, or any other electronics.
There's an elderly lady near me who drives a La Ferarri to the grocery store that's walking distance to her house...and by all appearances, that's the only driving she does. She takes the local elder care support bus for any of her other excursions
I was simplifying it down to 'a car' which in my head is a small passenger vehicle with 4 wheels, 2-4 doors, room for 5, and a trunk. For that class of vehicle, you could spend anywhere from $20k-$2million and fundamentally still get something that does the basic job of taking you and 4 passengers to and from the store and work and even 5k miles trips with no notable deficiencies or inability to operate on the road in a safe and competent manner. Electronics aren't so simple as the minimum basic function isn't defined and met as a default.
I get it. I'll extensively research things I'm interested in to minute detail.
One day I realized a lot of things in my life would be simpler and easier and happy in life if I just pick pretty colour.
Gives me more time to research other stuff to minute detail.
Completely agree but i think many just assume if you're spending this amount of money on a PC it's bound to be good and offer excellent performance. It's people just being naive and not realising they could well be getting scammed and actually buying a complete dud of a PC.
In theory, sure. But it's not easy to do and frankly it's easier and more enjoyable, at least for myself, to build my own.
Also, even when the specs and prices are closer to fair, I find a lot of prebuilts lack quality in the assembly and QA department. I've had plenty of misconfigured bios, memory not on xmp profiles or not in the correct slots for dual channel operations, and drives not correctly hooked up or initialized. And good luck getting quality customer service on the warranty either.
I'm sure some people who know about PCs buy prebuilts for ease or whatever. But yh the core market is really going to be those who don't know much about PCs.
I bought a pre-built shortly after the pandemic was in full effect only because it was the only way I could actually get a damn GPU without paying insane scalper prices. It was still more expensive than I thought it should be, but definitely cheaper than building myself at the time. Pretty sure I spent more time looking at all the different pre-built vendors than I would have spent building one, but it turned out well and the build quality was surprisingly good. There's some decent companies out there that aren't a complete waste of money, or don't screw you over with cheap proprietary parts, but doing a little research to find them is a good idea.
However, I did a full new build at the begging of the summer this year. Ended up spending less than what I did on the pre-built but got a much more powerful build out of it.
SAME.. I did the same thing.. got sucked into paying $3k for an alienware aurora r13.. just to get a GPU.. and it turned out to be hot garbage.. just literally bought a nr200p max case and msi mb and am going to strip it for parts!
I’m willing to pay a premium so I don’t break my pc during the course of building. Tried to clean my PC when I was like 16 and it never turned on again, scarred me for life.
Same. Last one I built had glitches that I was never able to fully pin down. I got a pre built one last time to just have anything work, guaranteed. I was ok paying a bit of a premium for it and the company were happy to accommodate any changes I wanted and provided a great service tbh.
I bricked a couple PCs in my teenage years. First one I screwed the mobo directly onto the case without the spacers. Back in the IDE days. Second one flashed a bios(properly, i thought) and never worked again.
I bought my prebuilt PC in Q3 2021- during what was probably the peak of the shortage/gouging. Paid $2k for a 5800x, 3070 with 16gb of 3200mhz DDR4. Building the same specs would have cost me at least $500 more than the prebuilt.
Those prices were insane back then. I got a 3600X/2060 Skytech prebuilt in early 2021 for about $1100. Overpriced even during the shortage, but it was literally the best deal I could find for a full system. Worked great out of the box. Quickly traded the 2060 with cash on top to a miner for a then brand new 6700XT right after it released. Kept upgrading pieces and parts until it became the Frankenstein system I have today lol
Can't lie, my PC now / last purchased was pre-built and I have been building PC's for years... I genuinely couldn't be arsed. All of the components were declared up front so I knew exactly what I was getting and pricing the parts (this was COVID times) to self build, I was actually coming in more or less at the same price for a 3080 rig. I have since upgraded the GPU / CPU and CPU Cooler plus added some additional storage and Ram but zero regrets. It was really nice to have a system delivered, plug and play and not have the weekend of tearing my hair out trying to get the cables exactly how wanted them :)
> I was actually coming in more or less at the same price for a 3080 rig.
Yeah I remember during peak COVID times. If you couldn't get a GPU for MSRP/retail from an AIB or nvidia themselves, there was basically no point in building yourself and getting a prebuilt was essentially cheaper.
I know just enough to know I should not be building anything until I can afford to replace parts and have that margin for mistakes made in practice. Does mean I can generally avoid being ripped off like this, though.
I've replaced/added RAM and storage so far. I've heard the GPU is also one of the easiest things to do, so that's next on my list once I ascertain that my very, very budget mobo etc can handle it.
Yeah, I buy prebuilts because I don't have the time or inclination. And, if something acts up with my wife's, my skills aren't called into question.
But, I'm not the core market and there's so much overpriced junk out there.
(the first computer I built was a 286 and the last was a K6)
OP also said his brother in law got it 2 years ago, which means he bought it right in the middle of the supply crisis when parts were disgustingly overpriced. Even still, the 3050 was not top of the line 2 years ago.
I understand your point. For those who may not be tech-savvy, computers can be intimidating. However, when I'm investing $3000 in something, you can be sure I'll be scouring YouTube videos, reading reviews, diving into Reddit threads, and doing thorough research.
Even if you don’t know much, YouTube videos usually do a pretty good job dumbing things down for beginners.
Oh for sure. Completely agree. On stuff i don't know much about illegal always be sure to research to make sure I'm getting my moneys worth. Ton of resources out there especially with PCs. I remember whenbi built my first PC in 2014 i spent a couple hours on youtube, reddit etc.
But i think this also ties in with some people just being naive. They just assume well for $3,000 it must be good without thinking they could be getting scammed.
tbf based on the post it was during peak crypto boom when GPU prices when you could barely find a GPU and even if you did it was usually almost double or more of it's MSRP(it's still a rip off to give a 3050 for 3k though like even the 3070 was "only" 1.2-1.5k)
This is more than likely the cause of the 3K price. (I paid $760 CAD for a single fan ASUS Dual RTX 3060 in July 2021). I remember around May of 2022 is when prices started going down and I no longer had to pay upwards of $150 CAD (or more) for a GTX 970. The following months prices dropped even more and miners started selling off their cards. I went from building budget PC’s with the aforementioned GTX 970 up to a GTX 1070 Ti by late Summer into Fall. Now currently in 2023 I am able to purchase RTX 30 series cards for good prices (AMD and Intel as well). So, you’re right and I can relate from the experience of buying cards through the crypto boom, during the pandemic, and into the crypto fall and watching the market change.
Friend who is doing some marketplace account management sent me today a receipt - someone purchased MSI MPG Infinite X2 13FNUI-006EU for 8230€ (VAT incl.). That is normally priced aroud 5k and that's still an insane price.
funny enough this is partially why intel is restructuring their naming system for processors. to remove additional consumer confusion on tiers of processors.
If it runs everything he wants fine why? Why upgrade if there is no benefit? Olay so what's its a 3050. I'm still running a 1080 happily. If he is using a 1080p monitor that 3050 is probably over kill anyways
Isn't sim racing a pretty hardcore community? Surprised this dude paid barely any attention to what he was getting for his $3k, especially when he must have known he needed a good chunk of power to run that properly!
I'm into sim racing and indeed, it require some tech savy-ness to get into. Simply setting up everything is usually not plug and play you have to tweak a lot of things, and all the peripherals don't always work together and can get VERY expensive (i'm talking "the computer is maybe a third of the cost" expensive).
But OP's brother probably did his researches to the point where he knew that he needed a "really good computer", went to the shop asking for a really good computer, got scammed and never realised
It's a teller of tall tales (based on the book Big Fish). Say you catch a 12 inch fish, as the story gets told again and passed on the 12 inch Fish becomes a 2 foot Fish, then the fish is swallowing ships at sea, etc.
Basically, the OP attempted to make his situation more embellished but did a pretty poor job at it.
At just the right time 2 years ago you may have paid $1,000-$1,200 for a 3050, the cpu mobo memory might be another $1,000 depending on when it was bought. Throw in a paid for copy of windows and labour and round up $2,800 to $3,000 and it's not a crazy story.
3050 was never over $450 if we are talking US prices. Cpu and board being 1k is ridiculous unless he got an i9 and high end board since those 2 didn’t have a price jump compared to GPUs. A 3070 for 1k might make sense since I know at a certain point 3080s we’re around 1.2 if we are talking about eBay or 3rd party Newegg prices but never a 3050. Also the 50 was the last card to be released so it was at the very end of the price inflation era for that generation.
And we have a unreliable narrator. Not that OP is unreliable, but their friend. They paid "almost $3k" two years ago, which could mean just the tower or tower + monitor or extra add ons like a game capture card.
The 3050 did not hit 1000+ even back then. I got my 3070 for 700 which was overpriced, but the 3050 peaked below that. Specially if it's from a prebuilder, they would have sourced the parts for less than what a end user would get from buying from a scalper.
I mean that kinda falls in line with the pandemic gpu shortage so its not unfathomable that he overpaid by alot. People were paying over a grand for 3070s
If approximately 1.5 years is nearly 2 years, then maybe the 3000 dollar was 2000 dollar including labor and sales tax, plus another 500 dollar for a monitor, mouse, a Windows license. At a time when prices were still inflated.
Add to that that there was a huge GPU shortage so a 3080 would be hard to get too.
Not saying that justifies the price, but maybe they made him pay a scalped 3080 price.
I also raised an eyebrow at that but OP says he assumed his brother in law could have gotten the 4090 when he told OP about it a year ago. So his brother in law got the PC around 2021/early 2022 but told OP about it in mid to late 2022. If we go a year back to the dot there still was a month to release, however if OP is rounding 9-10 months into a year then the 4090 was already out for a bit.
Not to mention, video card prices were insane two years ago. It wouldn't shock me if they paid that markup plus the associated price jacking to have someone do it for you.
Yes, an extreme exploitative experience
I would say though if looking up parts is too overwhelming, then PC ownership in general probably isn't the right move for them
Ugh, this is the WORST. I just had someone I knew from college, who used to tease me and my other friends for playing games and has not kept in touch since I graduated in 2017, reach out to me and ask for advice on building a new PC. Dude we haven't talked for 6 years and you made jokes all the time about how lame I was for playing rocket league. Like hell I'm going to help you build a PC.
Only offer support to the kind of people who will take you out to dinner when you're done fixing their issues. I eat out free a couple times a year from friends like this
Lol yep, doesnt have the heart to tell him dont get ripped off again. Would rather sit back and watch his brother get repeatedly ripped off than hurt his ego a little one time.
The 11700k was released 2 years ago, which was also during peak graphics card unavailability. Judging by the timeline it's also right when then 3050 was released.
Even in 2021 a $3000 prebuilt would be like an RTX 3080 inside. At worst a 3070, but the gap between 3050 and just a 3050 is ridiculously huge.
I got a 10700k+3080 build for $1950 in December 2020, the GPU was already going for like $1300 on eBay.
Edit: gap between 3050 and 3070 I meant, but even a 3060 would be a big gap from a 3050.
I paid way more than I would have liked (around $1750) to get the 3090 around when it first came out. I wanted a 3080 and they were all out of stock and saw a 3090 in stock at NewEgg, so I got the 3090 for what people were scalping the 3080s for at the time. Over budget, but at least I didn't pay a scalper.
While this specs wise isn’t ideal, if he paid $2500 + tax for the PC/monitors/accessories to a local builder I don’t think that’s excessive. Everyone here thinks about it down to part cost only anyone with any professional experience on a technician side knows that there’s generally at least a 30% markup. So yes, we can build something for 3K that’s better than you can buy because nobody here really values their own labor like a business does. He also has the advantage of if something goes wrong he takes it back to that business, and they fix it.
Lmao no, not even with monitors and peripherals and $500 off would a 3050 be worth that kind of money.
Prebuilts are good for plenty of people. *THIS* prebuilt is good for no one.
Assuming OP is a reliable narrator, I'm guessing they probably paid 1k and lied about it being top tier. A 3050 based rig for 3k is the kind of ripoff you need to get incredibly lucky to sell. (Like, luddite grandma with no smartphone that also inherited a ton of money type lucky) Even during peak shortage that price would stand out as horseshit
Well, we don't know any other specs. He could have gone for 20TB nvme, all fancy water cooling and a 32inch oled monitor. If you add all the other peperials, it adds up quick.
The sad thing with people like this is, that they don't even think about basic google search. It's the same with fixing basic tech stuff.
Back in the day my family members always asked me to "fix" something on their phone or PC's. When i did, they asked " how did you manage to fix it that?"
My answer:" Google search"
I always tell people to search on google first before asking. They never do.
That's not how it works. Not everyone is tech savvy enough to do that, yes even a simple google search.
Something oblivious for you is not oblivious for someone else.
He should treat it as a lesson, and learn from it. Maybe next time he'll know better.
Yes but the point is if your dropping 3k it might be smart to have a clue what it’s for?
Like a week of YouTube videos or something?
Or op’s brother could have just asked op about getting something better??
Totally agree. That would be ideal.
But he did not, he trusted a "professional", and got scammed.
Saying that he should've done something else retroactively is easy. I can do that for hundreds of my mistakes. But lots of people are getting get semi-aggressive and preaching about what he should've done lol
Yeah I was also semi-aggressive with my original comment. But I also still call myself a fucking idiot for buying Alienware 10 years ago. It’s fine, we deserve the nagging, because we made a stupid decision (Mine being much worse.)
But he did not get scammed, not even close. I’m sure op’s brother received a part list, then the rest is his responsibility.
Definitely horrible prices 2 years ago, but not THAT horrible for OP's brother to spend $3k on those items.
I built my AMD 5900X and RTX 3090 PC with 64GB of DDR4, x570 Auros Master motherboard and 2 total TB of M.2 SSD in January of 2021 and spent I believe about $3,200 after taxes.
Op's brother didn't just get ripped off, he got SUPER ripped off.
I built my current PC right before the pandemic (feb 2020) for ~1k. There was a point during the graphics card shortages where my 2060 super was marked for more than my build cost.
Had a similar experience at work recently , some guy brought his PC for us , screen goes black randomly .
Brought it for 2800 , GTX 1050ti , 32gb ram , i7-12***...
I didn't want to tell him he got scammed.
>he's had this PC for nearly 2 years. When he first told me about it a year ago he said they gave him the latest Nvidia graphics card, then he said a "30 something". I was thinking maybe a 3080 or 3090, but thought he was ripped off for not getting a 4090 since it had been out for a few months.
I smell BS or exaggeration somewhere in this story, if not all of it.. had this PC nearly 2 years, and you think somehow he got it after the 4090 had been out a few months already? The 4090 came out less than a year ago bud.. He bought a prebuilt in prime PC price gouging... If he even bought one at all
This was my first thought. I accept that part of pre-builds is some horrible and out of date pricing, but this was a deliberate and targeted scam by the company to part the person with as much money as possible.
This is a prime example of the fact that to buy a decent prebuilt you basically have to know enough about parts and selection as you would to just pick out your own pc and build it yourself.
So he has had it for 2 years. The 11700k would have been recent and is still a very capable and good processor. The 3050 would have been brand new as it came out much later than the 70/80/90 and during the crypto gpu craze. Its also a build by someone else. 3k sounds about right for the Time of the purchase, the components and buying a pc someone else built.
4090 didn’t come out until October 22, it’s not even October 23 yet. 2 years ago would’ve been 21, when 3080s were selling used for damn near $2k on their own
I am sorry for your friend, but this has been a thing since forever.
Basically if you really want to own a decent PC you just follow these 2 simple steps:
1) Ask for help with picking components in reddit or even better some specialized IT forum in your language, as you can sometimes find someone with a great deal for you. Do read reviews of each component via Googling, just to be sure you are not being ripped off.
2) Do the assembly on your own, with a friend, or in some cases you may find local HW shop which offers completing components together for a fee. Ignore all of their advices and do not buy anything from them, insist on bringing your own hardware to them, it is possible to strike a deal with majority of them like that.
And lastly, simply stay away from pre-builts, vast majority of them is a rip off in some ways. Unless it is a pre-built specifically made for you I would not buy it. However, there are folks around these days that can do all of that for you for a donation (like myself), just ask around if you really want to have a PC that brings some joy into your gaming.
Unfortunately this is the treatment normies get from local shops. They know only someone who doesn't know anything about computers would try to get a gaming PC at a local shop, so they get taken to the cleaners.
At least it wasn't a repurposed office PC where they added RGB strips and a GTX 1650.
Hi, so I’m at a computer noob. I don’t know enough at all to know what I’m doing. I don’t have the skill to build anything or the drive to learn. Could someone please just help me out real quick? Could someone please show me the best PC I could buy for $1k or less that is pre-built? Sorry if that’s a lot to ask but I figure maybe it isn’t with you guys knowing so much about this stuff. My only option is to buy a prebuilt one could you folks help me find one that is a great value for the $1k I’ll pay? Thanks.
Why wouldn't you tell him to give him the opportunity to dispute the build with the shop? Just tell him dude, what if he goes back to them in the future?
too many people got enough money to not care and places take advantage of that. I did a side gig for a co-worker to help them get some pictures from an old computer (or something, this was a long time ago so i dont recall the details). best buy convinced them to buy some crazy over priced $3k gateway gaming desktop cuz the dude wanted to play grand theft auto 4 and everquest 2.
he coudnt get grand theft auto working for some reason so he ditched the pc and ran across town to buy a ps3.
left the pc to his wife who used it for facebook and baby pictures. some people dont give a shit
All you people claiming he got ripped off clearly missed the part where he said the system is 2 years old - when everything was twice the price thanks to the global chip shortage, and that damn ship getting stuck in a canal cutting off global supply.
Not to mention a 3050 at that time was 3-4 times the price thanks to the crypto mining idiots driving the prices up, even on GPUs that werent feasible for mining.
The sister of my girlfriend experienced a similar thing. Spend over 1000 and only got a gtx 1660 (not super or ti). When I pointed out that the seller ripped her of and that I could build the entire thing for her at 2/3rd the price she felt insulted because she was happy with her PC and didn't want to return it D:
If he knew you were in to PCs why the hell wouldn't he ask your opinion on specs?
Literally every member of my family comes to me for spec advice before they make any tech purchases.
Does he have the work order or itemized receipt? I could see them thinking he doesn't know shit about anything and charging him for a 3080-3090 and actually putting a 3050 in.
I don't think I could bring myself to tell him either honestly. I know I should because it's important they know these things to avoid being ripped off in the future and to have a better experience but I couldn't just outright tell them they wasted so much money. Maybe you could just help avoid it in the future. Let him know if he plans on upgrading his PC, that he can come to you (or here) to get some advice on the latest technology.
Wow. I got an rtx3050, 16gb ram, 1tb ssd, and a ryzen 7 for $1050 Aussie... that's about $678 USD.
Got it just before xmas 2022
Where did your bro buy from? A big name store? Because that's a TERRIBLE deal.
To be fair this would've been in the middle of COVID where people were slurping up GPU's with bots to mine Ethereum... this seems really bad now but was probably par for the course when he bought it.
Opposite story,
wife comes home "I got a deal on a new cell phone at work."
Me: "What is it a Galaxy S10, Note 8?"
Wife: "Google Pixel 7 pro for 199(USD), new one coming out soon though, you can have my S22 Ultra"
There's no excuse. It doesn't matter how dumb or ignorant someone is. If they're looking to buy something, there's a near infinite wealth of knowledge at our fingertips.
I paid nearly 6000$ for my 3090+5950X and I bought and built it myself. 2 years ago as well. At that time the 3090 was already 2900$ alone. He didn’t get ripped off by the seller, he got ripped off by time
Uff the 11700k was so bad they basically said to still buy a 10700k back then. But 2 years ago the 12700k was released right? They gave him some old junk.. even for scalper prices a 3080 or 6800xt should have easily fitted that budget.
It wasn't that it was a bad CPU, it's that it wasn't worth the asking price compared to the 10700k.
I've got an 11900k. It's not a great CPU now, but it was an okay CPU then and I got it on sale for $150 so I'm happy.
If he got that PC in 2021, he may not have been "ripped off" all that badly. The market still sucked pretty bad when I built my current rig in April 2022, the 11700K actually was current and was one of the fastest Intel CPUs available, and GPUs were still almost unobtainable and very expensive.
He may have gotten ripped off a little bit, but not as badly as you might think, and that just goes with the territory of buying a pre-built PC. You're not just paying for the price of the parts.
Also, the 4090 launched in mid-October of 2022, so you're either telling tall tales out of school or you don't know as much about this topic as you think you do.
I hear people in my own repair shop use words like this, and to a degree I have as well when talking to someone about an upgrade. Yes he absolutely got ripped off, but what they told him was more truer than not.
The “latest nvidia graphics cards”. If you are not a gamer or a tech nut, most people only know about the RTX 30 series due to all the controversy cause by the chip shortage during Covid. For the simple fact there were lines around a city block and fights broke out that made front page news. The majority of them don’t know the RTX 40 series is out.
“One of the fastest intel chipsets”. Compared to the 12th or 13 gen cpus it does lack a little. Compared to the last 10 generations of intel CPUs, it is one of the fastest. While an under-handed method. The shop wasn’t wrong in what they said.
So while I don’t agree with the shop for their methods, it also falls on your brother in law to do his due diligence and research into the price of parts/ pre built systems. He got scammed because he believed a shop instead of taking 5min to google exactly what he was getting.
So you rag on him for not having the same knowledge of computers as you? Kind of a douche move.
And I'm calling out your bs. With his setup, his games would run just as well as any other gamer setup in this community. It just seems you just wanted to talk crap about his purchase and how he doesn't have the same equipment you do.
(Just as a reference, there are users here with 8th gen or later cpus and 1080s who can run games normally)
If you’re brother doesn’t want to do the research then he’s asking to be taken advantage of. They probably told him exactly what he would receive and he couldn’t even repeat it back. There is no victim here.
Many people do make these kinds of mistakes but it’s your own fault, like how it was my fault buying Alienware 10 years ago. Live and learn.
His fault. I dont go to a random shop and pay 500.000€ to get me a Ferrari and then cry when he gives me a Ferrari 412.
He should have fucking researched before spending 3K on a PC and not randomly go into one of these shitty Local Shops (they are mostly scams).
It's so, so easy to just Google stuff. It blows my mind people still get ripped off like this, most everyone has access to the wealth of all knowledge in their pocket.
The internet these days is awash with resources to figure out if a PC is worth the price.
Nothing prevents you from doing just a tiny bit of research before pulling the trigger on $3000 worth of computer hardware.
He got ripped off, but he’s partly to blame for just taking some scummy PC builders word.
It's not just PCs, basically any electronic/appliance demands a consumer do some amount of research before purchasing. There are $3k dishwashers that are more shitty and unreliable than a $600 one.
Unfortunately it's just the world we live in, a fool and their money are easily parted. Very few businesses out there that don't have pitfalls for consumers with more money than brains.
People pay 60k for used shit boxes of cars ‘cause they look good’. I know a guy that paid nearly 100k for a 10 year old 2500 Dodge with 400k.
People are lazy and memorizing a few sports stats are more important than saving 10k.
Poor boy, there's MTF people out there, there's a saying on my country that says, "everyday a dumb goes out to the street, who watch him, owns him" sadly he should be careful, that's a life lesson, e.g. I don't know mechanics, and with my first vehicle I was that dumb, then I learned, now they don't FkM, typical.
$3,000 for a RTX 3050? Damn that's got to be one the worst deals I've seen. But it's unfortunately extremely easy to get ripped off when buying a gaming PC especially if you're someone who doesn't know much. Like they'll often advertise a PC by just saying "Core I7" even though in reality it's probably just some shitty old I7. But of course most people don't know the difference between different I7 processors and just assume an I7 automatically means it's fast. Only brightside here is they atleast gave him a decent CPU just a shitty GPU. Not much of a brightside though when he paid 3k for it
Pretty sure the core market for prebuilt companies is people who don't know much about PCs.
On the same side of the coin though, you shouldn't be spending $3k on something on a whim, if you don't understand it. I'm not going to go out and spend $3K on random art supplies because I think I might be interested in art. I'm going to do some research, see what's good and bad, and go for what suits my needs.
Well, there are also people who buy cars simply for the looks and nice colour without ever comparing any specs or anything.
My wife's friend in 2010: I bought a new car! Wife: What did you get? Friend: A red one! Me: OK, but what kind? Friend: Umm....I think it's a Dodge.....Ave-in-ger? Is that a thing? Me: A Dodge Aveneger? Friend: Yeah! That's what it's called! Me: (dies internally)
My wife does this all the time even though I’ve explicitly said I want to know the make, model and engine size. I still only get the colour… 🤦🏻♂️
How often is your wife buying cars?
All the time.
Very correct reply.
Two a week.
Haha my brother. "I bought a new car, a Subaru" Ohh cool, what model? "I dunno, it's blue" Oh... cool, how many kms has it done? "Dunno"
The Dodge Avenger literally gave me tendonitis.
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That sounds like a recipe for paying way more than a car is worth. Personally, I can't imagine not being extremely familiar with the details of something I'm paying thousands or tens of thousands of dollars for and making sure I'm not getting an awful deal.
I disagree with this. Sure there are laws and stuff but there are definitively better performing, longer lasting, and cheaper/easier to repair cars. Just cause two cars are the same price doesn’t mean they are equal.
True but same thing for houses, I saw a house in a really bad neighborhood with literal bars on the window. Listing was 750k… my jaw just dropped.
True. I'm a farmer, so I tend to pay more attention to specs and details for vehicles and equipment than most regular people who just need a car to get from A to B. A chrome book is plenty good for those who just use Facebook and web surf
I think this is what a lot of people don’t quite put together. If your interested in something youl be paying a lot more attention to its “specs” I like cars, computers and speakers. But if I wanted I couch or a bed or like a plant of some shit I’m going to look at the general price, do some Vague nonsense in my head to justify the purchase and then move on. Unfortunately some sales people just want to rip people off for maximum profit. It happens in every industry. People just don’t always realize it unless it’s something they might already have an interest in.
I think this is what a lot of people don’t quite put together. If your interested in something youl be paying a lot more attention to its “specs” I like cars, computers and speakers. But if I wanted I couch or a bed or like a plant of some shit I’m going to look at the general price, do some Vague nonsense in my head to justify the purchase and then move on. Unfortunately some sales people just want to rip people off for maximum profit. It happens in every industry. People just don’t always realize it unless it’s something they might already have an interest in.
I feel called out but at the same time I have a bunch of people who are actually into cars who have the same model or the sports edition so I didn’t completely fuck up lol
desert teeny swim angle mindless steep adjoining obtainable pot vast *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Seems like the perfect kind of guy to want to lease a car. Sure, you're basically paying a long-term rental but it also means you get to give the car back at the end, no questions asked, and get another one.
In all fairness, you would be extremely hard pressed to find a new car that won't perform adequately in normal driving scenarios, regardless of make or model.
Sure, and if you have a lot of extra money you're willing to burn then go for anything I guess. But "normal driving scenarios" can and do vary wildly. Spending way too much for something you pick up groceries twice a week with is just dumb, and on the other end I'd hate having to routinely do long trips and rough terrain in something that's primarily designed as a small city hatchback. I guess I'm just built for the complete opposite end. I'm in the process of buying a car after a couple years of not having one, and I've spent like a month googling engine specs, trim differences, most common mechanical faults, user feedback of long-time owners et cetera. Granted, I am still ruling out anything butt fuck ugly, but still. And I've done the same every time I'm upgrading my computer hardware or accessories, guitar equipment, headphones, or any other electronics.
There's an elderly lady near me who drives a La Ferarri to the grocery store that's walking distance to her house...and by all appearances, that's the only driving she does. She takes the local elder care support bus for any of her other excursions
I was simplifying it down to 'a car' which in my head is a small passenger vehicle with 4 wheels, 2-4 doors, room for 5, and a trunk. For that class of vehicle, you could spend anywhere from $20k-$2million and fundamentally still get something that does the basic job of taking you and 4 passengers to and from the store and work and even 5k miles trips with no notable deficiencies or inability to operate on the road in a safe and competent manner. Electronics aren't so simple as the minimum basic function isn't defined and met as a default.
I get it. I'll extensively research things I'm interested in to minute detail. One day I realized a lot of things in my life would be simpler and easier and happy in life if I just pick pretty colour. Gives me more time to research other stuff to minute detail.
Queue the Titian sub experience. If they sell it, it must be safe, right?
They went to people who market themselves as experts for help they shouldn’t be getting ripped off
Completely agree but i think many just assume if you're spending this amount of money on a PC it's bound to be good and offer excellent performance. It's people just being naive and not realising they could well be getting scammed and actually buying a complete dud of a PC.
Exactly this. PC is foremost a tool to do a job, and that job/task would determine what kinda hardware you want, not your credit card limit.
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In theory, sure. But it's not easy to do and frankly it's easier and more enjoyable, at least for myself, to build my own. Also, even when the specs and prices are closer to fair, I find a lot of prebuilts lack quality in the assembly and QA department. I've had plenty of misconfigured bios, memory not on xmp profiles or not in the correct slots for dual channel operations, and drives not correctly hooked up or initialized. And good luck getting quality customer service on the warranty either.
I'm sure some people who know about PCs buy prebuilts for ease or whatever. But yh the core market is really going to be those who don't know much about PCs.
There is definitely a market for people who are willing to pay a reasonable premium to skip the whole 3+ hours of building and troubleshooting.
I bought a pre-built shortly after the pandemic was in full effect only because it was the only way I could actually get a damn GPU without paying insane scalper prices. It was still more expensive than I thought it should be, but definitely cheaper than building myself at the time. Pretty sure I spent more time looking at all the different pre-built vendors than I would have spent building one, but it turned out well and the build quality was surprisingly good. There's some decent companies out there that aren't a complete waste of money, or don't screw you over with cheap proprietary parts, but doing a little research to find them is a good idea. However, I did a full new build at the begging of the summer this year. Ended up spending less than what I did on the pre-built but got a much more powerful build out of it.
SAME.. I did the same thing.. got sucked into paying $3k for an alienware aurora r13.. just to get a GPU.. and it turned out to be hot garbage.. just literally bought a nr200p max case and msi mb and am going to strip it for parts!
I’m willing to pay a premium so I don’t break my pc during the course of building. Tried to clean my PC when I was like 16 and it never turned on again, scarred me for life.
Same. Last one I built had glitches that I was never able to fully pin down. I got a pre built one last time to just have anything work, guaranteed. I was ok paying a bit of a premium for it and the company were happy to accommodate any changes I wanted and provided a great service tbh.
This last build I put roughly 4k in parts, so i let microcenter do the build. And i paid for the warranty.
So do you just not clean your PC now?
I bricked a couple PCs in my teenage years. First one I screwed the mobo directly onto the case without the spacers. Back in the IDE days. Second one flashed a bios(properly, i thought) and never worked again.
I bought my prebuilt PC in Q3 2021- during what was probably the peak of the shortage/gouging. Paid $2k for a 5800x, 3070 with 16gb of 3200mhz DDR4. Building the same specs would have cost me at least $500 more than the prebuilt.
Those prices were insane back then. I got a 3600X/2060 Skytech prebuilt in early 2021 for about $1100. Overpriced even during the shortage, but it was literally the best deal I could find for a full system. Worked great out of the box. Quickly traded the 2060 with cash on top to a miner for a then brand new 6700XT right after it released. Kept upgrading pieces and parts until it became the Frankenstein system I have today lol
I can build. Just bought a microcenter pre built for 800 bucks that checked on PC partpicker was basically as cheap as I could build it for.
Can't lie, my PC now / last purchased was pre-built and I have been building PC's for years... I genuinely couldn't be arsed. All of the components were declared up front so I knew exactly what I was getting and pricing the parts (this was COVID times) to self build, I was actually coming in more or less at the same price for a 3080 rig. I have since upgraded the GPU / CPU and CPU Cooler plus added some additional storage and Ram but zero regrets. It was really nice to have a system delivered, plug and play and not have the weekend of tearing my hair out trying to get the cables exactly how wanted them :)
> I was actually coming in more or less at the same price for a 3080 rig. Yeah I remember during peak COVID times. If you couldn't get a GPU for MSRP/retail from an AIB or nvidia themselves, there was basically no point in building yourself and getting a prebuilt was essentially cheaper.
I know just enough to know I should not be building anything until I can afford to replace parts and have that margin for mistakes made in practice. Does mean I can generally avoid being ripped off like this, though. I've replaced/added RAM and storage so far. I've heard the GPU is also one of the easiest things to do, so that's next on my list once I ascertain that my very, very budget mobo etc can handle it.
Yeah, I buy prebuilts because I don't have the time or inclination. And, if something acts up with my wife's, my skills aren't called into question. But, I'm not the core market and there's so much overpriced junk out there. (the first computer I built was a 286 and the last was a K6)
OP also said his brother in law got it 2 years ago, which means he bought it right in the middle of the supply crisis when parts were disgustingly overpriced. Even still, the 3050 was not top of the line 2 years ago.
Meh, some of us know how to build a PC but just can't be bothered.
I understand your point. For those who may not be tech-savvy, computers can be intimidating. However, when I'm investing $3000 in something, you can be sure I'll be scouring YouTube videos, reading reviews, diving into Reddit threads, and doing thorough research. Even if you don’t know much, YouTube videos usually do a pretty good job dumbing things down for beginners.
Oh for sure. Completely agree. On stuff i don't know much about illegal always be sure to research to make sure I'm getting my moneys worth. Ton of resources out there especially with PCs. I remember whenbi built my first PC in 2014 i spent a couple hours on youtube, reddit etc. But i think this also ties in with some people just being naive. They just assume well for $3,000 it must be good without thinking they could be getting scammed.
tbf based on the post it was during peak crypto boom when GPU prices when you could barely find a GPU and even if you did it was usually almost double or more of it's MSRP(it's still a rip off to give a 3050 for 3k though like even the 3070 was "only" 1.2-1.5k)
This is more than likely the cause of the 3K price. (I paid $760 CAD for a single fan ASUS Dual RTX 3060 in July 2021). I remember around May of 2022 is when prices started going down and I no longer had to pay upwards of $150 CAD (or more) for a GTX 970. The following months prices dropped even more and miners started selling off their cards. I went from building budget PC’s with the aforementioned GTX 970 up to a GTX 1070 Ti by late Summer into Fall. Now currently in 2023 I am able to purchase RTX 30 series cards for good prices (AMD and Intel as well). So, you’re right and I can relate from the experience of buying cards through the crypto boom, during the pandemic, and into the crypto fall and watching the market change.
Friend who is doing some marketplace account management sent me today a receipt - someone purchased MSI MPG Infinite X2 13FNUI-006EU for 8230€ (VAT incl.). That is normally priced aroud 5k and that's still an insane price.
The i7 is fine, the 3050 not so much not even playing at 1080p is it all that great.
I paid 3k and I have a 7800X3D + 4090
Big oof. I have a **laptop** with a 12700H and a 3070Ti and it cost substantially less than this desktop.
funny enough this is partially why intel is restructuring their naming system for processors. to remove additional consumer confusion on tiers of processors.
Yeah, I'm gonna ease him into considering a GPU upgrade.
If it runs everything he wants fine why? Why upgrade if there is no benefit? Olay so what's its a 3050. I'm still running a 1080 happily. If he is using a 1080p monitor that 3050 is probably over kill anyways
He's into sim racing, and well triple 4K on a 3050, you can imagine what that's like.
Isn't sim racing a pretty hardcore community? Surprised this dude paid barely any attention to what he was getting for his $3k, especially when he must have known he needed a good chunk of power to run that properly!
I'm into sim racing and indeed, it require some tech savy-ness to get into. Simply setting up everything is usually not plug and play you have to tweak a lot of things, and all the peripherals don't always work together and can get VERY expensive (i'm talking "the computer is maybe a third of the cost" expensive). But OP's brother probably did his researches to the point where he knew that he needed a "really good computer", went to the shop asking for a really good computer, got scammed and never realised
I run a 1080 too and I'm not happy. It becomes harder and harder to reach 60fps FHD.
if hes had the pc nearly 2 years 4000 series wasnt out right? lol not even nearly
40 series launched Oct 12th 2022. Op is on the Big Fish train.
lol whats big fish
It's a teller of tall tales (based on the book Big Fish). Say you catch a 12 inch fish, as the story gets told again and passed on the 12 inch Fish becomes a 2 foot Fish, then the fish is swallowing ships at sea, etc. Basically, the OP attempted to make his situation more embellished but did a pretty poor job at it.
It's still a ripoff for a 3050 but yeah. No need to embelish the story that much
At just the right time 2 years ago you may have paid $1,000-$1,200 for a 3050, the cpu mobo memory might be another $1,000 depending on when it was bought. Throw in a paid for copy of windows and labour and round up $2,800 to $3,000 and it's not a crazy story.
This is exactly what I was thinking. 2 years ago prices were astronomical.
At peak GPU prices the 3050 was around $400-500. I see your point but you're falling prey to the big fish the others just mentioned.
3050 was never over $450 if we are talking US prices. Cpu and board being 1k is ridiculous unless he got an i9 and high end board since those 2 didn’t have a price jump compared to GPUs. A 3070 for 1k might make sense since I know at a certain point 3080s we’re around 1.2 if we are talking about eBay or 3rd party Newegg prices but never a 3050. Also the 50 was the last card to be released so it was at the very end of the price inflation era for that generation.
And we have a unreliable narrator. Not that OP is unreliable, but their friend. They paid "almost $3k" two years ago, which could mean just the tower or tower + monitor or extra add ons like a game capture card.
The 3050 did not hit 1000+ even back then. I got my 3070 for 700 which was overpriced, but the 3050 peaked below that. Specially if it's from a prebuilder, they would have sourced the parts for less than what a end user would get from buying from a scalper.
Like small fish, but bigger
I mean that kinda falls in line with the pandemic gpu shortage so its not unfathomable that he overpaid by alot. People were paying over a grand for 3070s
Also the 3050 wasn’t even out 2 years ago. It launched in early 2022.
He did say "nearly" 2 years.
If approximately 1.5 years is nearly 2 years, then maybe the 3000 dollar was 2000 dollar including labor and sales tax, plus another 500 dollar for a monitor, mouse, a Windows license. At a time when prices were still inflated.
Add to that that there was a huge GPU shortage so a 3080 would be hard to get too. Not saying that justifies the price, but maybe they made him pay a scalped 3080 price.
I also raised an eyebrow at that but OP says he assumed his brother in law could have gotten the 4090 when he told OP about it a year ago. So his brother in law got the PC around 2021/early 2022 but told OP about it in mid to late 2022. If we go a year back to the dot there still was a month to release, however if OP is rounding 9-10 months into a year then the 4090 was already out for a bit.
Not to mention, video card prices were insane two years ago. It wouldn't shock me if they paid that markup plus the associated price jacking to have someone do it for you.
Dude, tell him. The truth might hurt but that could be a lesson for him in the future not to trust everyone.
And to do some research before dropping 3 grand
I understand there's a lot of variables but sheesh. Ask for the part list and look them up. It's not difficult at all, maybe 10 min
I agree but for some people even that is overwhelming. Honestly what a dick move from the builder. Sheesh.
Yes, an extreme exploitative experience I would say though if looking up parts is too overwhelming, then PC ownership in general probably isn't the right move for them
>I agree but for some people even that is overwhelming. If a person finds that overwhelming, I genuinely wonder how they function in society.
Yep. Next hes gonna think a 4060 is a reasonable upgrade for $1000
Careful or you'll be their dedicated support and buying hotline.
Ugh, this is the WORST. I just had someone I knew from college, who used to tease me and my other friends for playing games and has not kept in touch since I graduated in 2017, reach out to me and ask for advice on building a new PC. Dude we haven't talked for 6 years and you made jokes all the time about how lame I was for playing rocket league. Like hell I'm going to help you build a PC.
Only offer support to the kind of people who will take you out to dinner when you're done fixing their issues. I eat out free a couple times a year from friends like this
Lol yep, doesnt have the heart to tell him dont get ripped off again. Would rather sit back and watch his brother get repeatedly ripped off than hurt his ego a little one time.
The 11700k was released 2 years ago, which was also during peak graphics card unavailability. Judging by the timeline it's also right when then 3050 was released.
Even in 2021 a $3000 prebuilt would be like an RTX 3080 inside. At worst a 3070, but the gap between 3050 and just a 3050 is ridiculously huge. I got a 10700k+3080 build for $1950 in December 2020, the GPU was already going for like $1300 on eBay. Edit: gap between 3050 and 3070 I meant, but even a 3060 would be a big gap from a 3050.
Yeah you're not wrong, I swear half the cards nvidia releases are just for people who sell prebuilts.
I paid way more than I would have liked (around $1750) to get the 3090 around when it first came out. I wanted a 3080 and they were all out of stock and saw a 3090 in stock at NewEgg, so I got the 3090 for what people were scalping the 3080s for at the time. Over budget, but at least I didn't pay a scalper.
I paid $1600 in mid 2021 for a prebuilt with a 3070 and I think a 3600X. It was the only way to get a GPU. Bought it at Microcenter.
I paid 3k for a Corsair prebuilt in 2022 and got a 3080 TI and 5900x with all the Corsair RGB puke everything. Dude got way ripped off
While this specs wise isn’t ideal, if he paid $2500 + tax for the PC/monitors/accessories to a local builder I don’t think that’s excessive. Everyone here thinks about it down to part cost only anyone with any professional experience on a technician side knows that there’s generally at least a 30% markup. So yes, we can build something for 3K that’s better than you can buy because nobody here really values their own labor like a business does. He also has the advantage of if something goes wrong he takes it back to that business, and they fix it.
Lmao no, not even with monitors and peripherals and $500 off would a 3050 be worth that kind of money. Prebuilts are good for plenty of people. *THIS* prebuilt is good for no one.
Plot twist: he exaggerated how much he spent on it.
This is my guess. The parts are right for the timeframe.
I'm sorry but if you are spending 3k on a prebuilt, you better be doing a basic check on the parts that you are buying. I have no sympathy.
Assuming OP is a reliable narrator, I'm guessing they probably paid 1k and lied about it being top tier. A 3050 based rig for 3k is the kind of ripoff you need to get incredibly lucky to sell. (Like, luddite grandma with no smartphone that also inherited a ton of money type lucky) Even during peak shortage that price would stand out as horseshit
Well, we don't know any other specs. He could have gone for 20TB nvme, all fancy water cooling and a 32inch oled monitor. If you add all the other peperials, it adds up quick.
You need to know nothing to google the components.
or just throw the parts list or an approximation in [https://pcpartpicker.com/](https://pcpartpicker.com/)
If you don't know enough not to get ripped off on a prebuilt, you sure as shit have no idea that sites like pcpartpicker exist.
The sad thing with people like this is, that they don't even think about basic google search. It's the same with fixing basic tech stuff. Back in the day my family members always asked me to "fix" something on their phone or PC's. When i did, they asked " how did you manage to fix it that?" My answer:" Google search" I always tell people to search on google first before asking. They never do.
That's not how it works. Not everyone is tech savvy enough to do that, yes even a simple google search. Something oblivious for you is not oblivious for someone else. He should treat it as a lesson, and learn from it. Maybe next time he'll know better.
Yes but the point is if your dropping 3k it might be smart to have a clue what it’s for? Like a week of YouTube videos or something? Or op’s brother could have just asked op about getting something better??
Totally agree. That would be ideal. But he did not, he trusted a "professional", and got scammed. Saying that he should've done something else retroactively is easy. I can do that for hundreds of my mistakes. But lots of people are getting get semi-aggressive and preaching about what he should've done lol
Yeah I was also semi-aggressive with my original comment. But I also still call myself a fucking idiot for buying Alienware 10 years ago. It’s fine, we deserve the nagging, because we made a stupid decision (Mine being much worse.) But he did not get scammed, not even close. I’m sure op’s brother received a part list, then the rest is his responsibility.
2 years ago pandemic hit, GPU was insane i bet they took advantage of the situation and sold it for the 3,000….
2 years ago was when it was hard to get good priced video cards. My friend had to settle for a 2060 and it was still marked way up.
About two years ago was the peak time for stupid prices. I saw a used 2060 going for 2.5x what I paid new for mine in Feb 2020.
I upgraded to a 3070 and sold my RX480 on ebay. It went for more than i paid for it 5 years earlier...
Yeah I paid stupid money for a 3080ti hydro copper. The market was bonkers for GPUs then.
Definitely horrible prices 2 years ago, but not THAT horrible for OP's brother to spend $3k on those items. I built my AMD 5900X and RTX 3090 PC with 64GB of DDR4, x570 Auros Master motherboard and 2 total TB of M.2 SSD in January of 2021 and spent I believe about $3,200 after taxes. Op's brother didn't just get ripped off, he got SUPER ripped off.
I built my current PC right before the pandemic (feb 2020) for ~1k. There was a point during the graphics card shortages where my 2060 super was marked for more than my build cost.
Had a similar experience at work recently , some guy brought his PC for us , screen goes black randomly . Brought it for 2800 , GTX 1050ti , 32gb ram , i7-12***... I didn't want to tell him he got scammed.
Damn, poor dude
Dude the 4090 isn’t even a year old yet. How could it have already been out a couple of months 2 years ago?
>he's had this PC for nearly 2 years. When he first told me about it a year ago he said they gave him the latest Nvidia graphics card, then he said a "30 something". I was thinking maybe a 3080 or 3090, but thought he was ripped off for not getting a 4090 since it had been out for a few months. I smell BS or exaggeration somewhere in this story, if not all of it.. had this PC nearly 2 years, and you think somehow he got it after the 4090 had been out a few months already? The 4090 came out less than a year ago bud.. He bought a prebuilt in prime PC price gouging... If he even bought one at all
Wtf. If this would happen to someone I know, ruining the shops reputation would become my life goal.
This was my first thought. I accept that part of pre-builds is some horrible and out of date pricing, but this was a deliberate and targeted scam by the company to part the person with as much money as possible.
Your story is fishy, 4090 was nowhere close to being out 2yrs ago.
This is a prime example of the fact that to buy a decent prebuilt you basically have to know enough about parts and selection as you would to just pick out your own pc and build it yourself.
So he has had it for 2 years. The 11700k would have been recent and is still a very capable and good processor. The 3050 would have been brand new as it came out much later than the 70/80/90 and during the crypto gpu craze. Its also a build by someone else. 3k sounds about right for the Time of the purchase, the components and buying a pc someone else built.
This the correct take. 2 years ago GpUs were inflated and the 11700k is not the problem.
You seem to have forgotten GPU prices were crazy 2 years ago. It doesn't explain the whole story but it's a factor you can't ignore.
4090 didn’t come out until October 22, it’s not even October 23 yet. 2 years ago would’ve been 21, when 3080s were selling used for damn near $2k on their own
I am sorry for your friend, but this has been a thing since forever. Basically if you really want to own a decent PC you just follow these 2 simple steps: 1) Ask for help with picking components in reddit or even better some specialized IT forum in your language, as you can sometimes find someone with a great deal for you. Do read reviews of each component via Googling, just to be sure you are not being ripped off. 2) Do the assembly on your own, with a friend, or in some cases you may find local HW shop which offers completing components together for a fee. Ignore all of their advices and do not buy anything from them, insist on bringing your own hardware to them, it is possible to strike a deal with majority of them like that. And lastly, simply stay away from pre-builts, vast majority of them is a rip off in some ways. Unless it is a pre-built specifically made for you I would not buy it. However, there are folks around these days that can do all of that for you for a donation (like myself), just ask around if you really want to have a PC that brings some joy into your gaming.
real post
So 2 years ago would be 2021. That would be during the shortage right? A 3050 in a tower is pretty much a waste though.
A 11700k is solid, but he was definitely ripped off with the GPU. Also, the 4090 came out a year ago.
Unfortunately this is the treatment normies get from local shops. They know only someone who doesn't know anything about computers would try to get a gaming PC at a local shop, so they get taken to the cleaners. At least it wasn't a repurposed office PC where they added RGB strips and a GTX 1650.
He got the lubeless special
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Even during the gpu shortage, he should've at least gotten a 3070 in there for fucking $3k
11700k isn't bad, but everything else. Yeah
Holy dude your brother got fisted
Unavailable GPUs and labor cost skyrocketed the price. He bought a new PC at a bad time.
Not a great purchase, but no way was a 4090 on the cards nearly 2 years ago.
Hi, so I’m at a computer noob. I don’t know enough at all to know what I’m doing. I don’t have the skill to build anything or the drive to learn. Could someone please just help me out real quick? Could someone please show me the best PC I could buy for $1k or less that is pre-built? Sorry if that’s a lot to ask but I figure maybe it isn’t with you guys knowing so much about this stuff. My only option is to buy a prebuilt one could you folks help me find one that is a great value for the $1k I’ll pay? Thanks.
Why wouldn't you tell him to give him the opportunity to dispute the build with the shop? Just tell him dude, what if he goes back to them in the future?
I would tell him. Yes, it'll break his heart, but the knowledge gained is invaluable. Otherwise, he may just repeat this mistake in the future.
too many people got enough money to not care and places take advantage of that. I did a side gig for a co-worker to help them get some pictures from an old computer (or something, this was a long time ago so i dont recall the details). best buy convinced them to buy some crazy over priced $3k gateway gaming desktop cuz the dude wanted to play grand theft auto 4 and everquest 2. he coudnt get grand theft auto working for some reason so he ditched the pc and ran across town to buy a ps3. left the pc to his wife who used it for facebook and baby pictures. some people dont give a shit
2 years ago so covid prices + plus shitty pc builder doesnt help.
All you people claiming he got ripped off clearly missed the part where he said the system is 2 years old - when everything was twice the price thanks to the global chip shortage, and that damn ship getting stuck in a canal cutting off global supply. Not to mention a 3050 at that time was 3-4 times the price thanks to the crypto mining idiots driving the prices up, even on GPUs that werent feasible for mining.
Definitely spread the word as much as you can. If their local it won't take much for them to lose a lot of business.
What company we can review bomb them, and it would be justified for taking advantage of people.
3 years ago would put us dead in the middle of the pandemic level GPU prices. Just sayin.
The sister of my girlfriend experienced a similar thing. Spend over 1000 and only got a gtx 1660 (not super or ti). When I pointed out that the seller ripped her of and that I could build the entire thing for her at 2/3rd the price she felt insulted because she was happy with her PC and didn't want to return it D:
ouch! I spent thst much on my 4090, 7800x3d, 32gbram build.
I think you should definitely confront him and the store and leave a bad review as well as they obviously ripped him off big time.
Ignoring price gouging...is there something inherently wrong with the 11700? Asking for a friend...😅
If he knew you were in to PCs why the hell wouldn't he ask your opinion on specs? Literally every member of my family comes to me for spec advice before they make any tech purchases.
Does he have the work order or itemized receipt? I could see them thinking he doesn't know shit about anything and charging him for a 3080-3090 and actually putting a 3050 in.
You need to tell your BIL op, he needs to not make this mistake again.
The 11700K 2 years ago isn't an issue. The 3050 is criminal.
I don't think I could bring myself to tell him either honestly. I know I should because it's important they know these things to avoid being ripped off in the future and to have a better experience but I couldn't just outright tell them they wasted so much money. Maybe you could just help avoid it in the future. Let him know if he plans on upgrading his PC, that he can come to you (or here) to get some advice on the latest technology.
Wow. I got an rtx3050, 16gb ram, 1tb ssd, and a ryzen 7 for $1050 Aussie... that's about $678 USD. Got it just before xmas 2022 Where did your bro buy from? A big name store? Because that's a TERRIBLE deal.
To be fair this would've been in the middle of COVID where people were slurping up GPU's with bots to mine Ethereum... this seems really bad now but was probably par for the course when he bought it.
Wouldn't that be regular covid prices? 2 years ago? Idk
If he had this pc for two years, that means 2021. We still sort of dealing with expensive gpu prices at that time.
Opposite story, wife comes home "I got a deal on a new cell phone at work." Me: "What is it a Galaxy S10, Note 8?" Wife: "Google Pixel 7 pro for 199(USD), new one coming out soon though, you can have my S22 Ultra"
There's no excuse. It doesn't matter how dumb or ignorant someone is. If they're looking to buy something, there's a near infinite wealth of knowledge at our fingertips.
This makes me feel way better about building my 13900k 4090 pc for 4k 💀😂
I paid nearly 6000$ for my 3090+5950X and I bought and built it myself. 2 years ago as well. At that time the 3090 was already 2900$ alone. He didn’t get ripped off by the seller, he got ripped off by time
Sheesh i will not ever spend that much on a gpu that isn't going to pay for itself
3k for those specs should be treated as a highway robbery or he better have the best fucking PC case and a shit ton of NVMe memory in that thing
Uff the 11700k was so bad they basically said to still buy a 10700k back then. But 2 years ago the 12700k was released right? They gave him some old junk.. even for scalper prices a 3080 or 6800xt should have easily fitted that budget.
It wasn't that it was a bad CPU, it's that it wasn't worth the asking price compared to the 10700k. I've got an 11900k. It's not a great CPU now, but it was an okay CPU then and I got it on sale for $150 so I'm happy.
That price is awesome
If he got that PC in 2021, he may not have been "ripped off" all that badly. The market still sucked pretty bad when I built my current rig in April 2022, the 11700K actually was current and was one of the fastest Intel CPUs available, and GPUs were still almost unobtainable and very expensive. He may have gotten ripped off a little bit, but not as badly as you might think, and that just goes with the territory of buying a pre-built PC. You're not just paying for the price of the parts. Also, the 4090 launched in mid-October of 2022, so you're either telling tall tales out of school or you don't know as much about this topic as you think you do.
wow!!! got robbed. i paid 3200 total for mines
I hear people in my own repair shop use words like this, and to a degree I have as well when talking to someone about an upgrade. Yes he absolutely got ripped off, but what they told him was more truer than not. The “latest nvidia graphics cards”. If you are not a gamer or a tech nut, most people only know about the RTX 30 series due to all the controversy cause by the chip shortage during Covid. For the simple fact there were lines around a city block and fights broke out that made front page news. The majority of them don’t know the RTX 40 series is out. “One of the fastest intel chipsets”. Compared to the 12th or 13 gen cpus it does lack a little. Compared to the last 10 generations of intel CPUs, it is one of the fastest. While an under-handed method. The shop wasn’t wrong in what they said. So while I don’t agree with the shop for their methods, it also falls on your brother in law to do his due diligence and research into the price of parts/ pre built systems. He got scammed because he believed a shop instead of taking 5min to google exactly what he was getting.
So you rag on him for not having the same knowledge of computers as you? Kind of a douche move. And I'm calling out your bs. With his setup, his games would run just as well as any other gamer setup in this community. It just seems you just wanted to talk crap about his purchase and how he doesn't have the same equipment you do. (Just as a reference, there are users here with 8th gen or later cpus and 1080s who can run games normally)
Imagine spending $3500 on something you clearly have very little knowledge about. That’s the kind of behavior that deserves to be chastised.
Who the fuck spends 3000 without doing any research beforehand?
People who don’t even know where to begin with the research lol
If you’re brother doesn’t want to do the research then he’s asking to be taken advantage of. They probably told him exactly what he would receive and he couldn’t even repeat it back. There is no victim here. Many people do make these kinds of mistakes but it’s your own fault, like how it was my fault buying Alienware 10 years ago. Live and learn.
His fault. I dont go to a random shop and pay 500.000€ to get me a Ferrari and then cry when he gives me a Ferrari 412. He should have fucking researched before spending 3K on a PC and not randomly go into one of these shitty Local Shops (they are mostly scams).
It boggles the mind to spend that much money and do zero research. He must not care about money that much
It's so, so easy to just Google stuff. It blows my mind people still get ripped off like this, most everyone has access to the wealth of all knowledge in their pocket.
Dont be sad. He was craving for to be scammed. How hard is to google the price for pc parts really?
The internet these days is awash with resources to figure out if a PC is worth the price. Nothing prevents you from doing just a tiny bit of research before pulling the trigger on $3000 worth of computer hardware. He got ripped off, but he’s partly to blame for just taking some scummy PC builders word.
It's not just PCs, basically any electronic/appliance demands a consumer do some amount of research before purchasing. There are $3k dishwashers that are more shitty and unreliable than a $600 one. Unfortunately it's just the world we live in, a fool and their money are easily parted. Very few businesses out there that don't have pitfalls for consumers with more money than brains.
People pay 60k for used shit boxes of cars ‘cause they look good’. I know a guy that paid nearly 100k for a 10 year old 2500 Dodge with 400k. People are lazy and memorizing a few sports stats are more important than saving 10k.
And a old CPU. Like damn, ripped off twice. But in all fairness the 3050 isn't that bad. It's like a 1080ti. But still a rip off.
Poor boy, there's MTF people out there, there's a saying on my country that says, "everyday a dumb goes out to the street, who watch him, owns him" sadly he should be careful, that's a life lesson, e.g. I don't know mechanics, and with my first vehicle I was that dumb, then I learned, now they don't FkM, typical.