What do you guys spend your money on?

Started by clutchtho
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Eeeeeesh that's a pocket cannon. Guessing no one wants to carry the Judge after what happened to that Oklahoma pharmacist (or rather, what he did).

Just wanted to add:

Nothing good ever happened in Oklahoma, ever, and nobody from Oklahoma should influence anyone
 
Damn that's a pretty sick rig, SSD too, (16 GB ram would've been nice imho though too many bloated programs hogging ram nowadays)
16 GB would be ideal for 100 chrome tabs. 8 GB DDR4 RAM runs around $80 nowadays, but this model only has 1 screw to open the back panel to add more RAM if you want to. The open slot is right in front of you. It has pretty good review with thunderbolt (if you have GTX 1080 laying around lol) where high end laptop with just GTX 1060 runs at $1-1.4k normally. It will run most 1080p AAA games at high to max settings for a while so I will be pretty happy about that for how cheap it is.

 
Dell Inspiron 7000 Gaming Laptop: i5-7300HQ, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, GTX 1060 $750 after $150 Slickdeals Rebate + Free S&H

Got this budget gaming laptop GTX 1060 $750 to play games when I float once in a while XD
Select Walmart Stores: HP Omen 15.6" Laptop: i7-7700HQ, GTX 1050Ti $499 (Availability May Vary)
Man I went to Walmart to try and get this laptop but they were sold out. $499 for i7-7700HQ, GTX 1050Ti, 12GB, 1TB no SSD.

I think it's time I upgraded my desktop. Still using a Core 2 Quad Q6600 with Vista from 2008 lol. What do you think about this deal (already expired):
Dell XPS Tower Desktop: Intel Core i7-7700, 8GB 2400MHz DDR4, 1TB 7200RPM HDD (w/ Intel Optane), GTX 1060 6GB, Windows 10 Home - $749.99 after $150 SD Rebate + Free S&H 11-02-2017

Is Optane ok vs SSD? 8GB RAM is pretty low right?
 
Select Walmart Stores: HP Omen 15.6" Laptop: i7-7700HQ, GTX 1050Ti $499 (Availability May Vary)
Man I went to Walmart to try and get this laptop but they were sold out. $499 for i7-7700HQ, GTX 1050Ti, 12GB, 1TB no SSD.

I think it's time I upgraded my desktop. Still using a Core 2 Quad Q6600 with Vista from 2008 lol. What do you think about this deal (already expired):
Dell XPS Tower Desktop: Intel Core i7-7700, 8GB 2400MHz DDR4, 1TB 7200RPM HDD (w/ Intel Optane), GTX 1060 6GB, Windows 10 Home - $749.99 after $150 SD Rebate + Free S&H 11-02-2017

Is Optane ok vs SSD? 8GB RAM is pretty low right?
I saw that deal too but they were sold out everywhere in socal lol. The 2nd link has a separate graphics card GTX 1060. That alone costs $300, do you play game at all? If not, you really don't need to buy a dedicated graphics card (GTX 1060, RX480, etc).

My only worry about your desktop isn't the processor, it's the fact you are still running on Windows Vista since they discontinued support on Windows Vista in April 2017. It means you aren't getting any security updates at all. I'd upgrade the OS immediately or buy a new computer.

8GB RAM is still enough for 90% of people out there. If you need more RAM to open 100+ tabs on your chrome browser, or do heavy video editing, you can always add a stick 8GB more for $60-80 easily. You just need at least 256 GB SSD + a decent i5 processor (anywhere from 6th generation to 8th generation, it will show i5-6xxx, 7xxx, 8xxx) for office task. SSD is an absolute must. The difference in performance can't be overstated. It will make your computer runs twice or three times as fast. External hard drive is cheap, 4 TB runs around $90. Don't worry about not having extra space with SSD.

$480 Office tasks - 7th generation quad core kabylake, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM
Acer Desktop Computer TC-780-NESelecti5 Intel Core i5 7th Gen 7400 (3.00 GHz) 8 GB DDR4 256 GB SSD Intel HD Graphics 630 Windows 10 Home 64-Bit - Newegg.com

$650 For gaming @ 1080p (if you monitor isn't 4k monitor). Missing the SSD, buy it separately for $80 and transfer the whole OS to boot on SSD. Keep the 1 TB hard drive for data storage.
Acer Desktop Computer Aspire GX-785-UR16 Intel Core i5 7th Gen 7400 (3.00 GHz) 8 GB DDR4 1 TB HDD AMD Radeon RX 480 Windows 10 Home 64-Bit - Newegg.com
editted: This is a great deal on a gaming desktop, I'm posting it on Slickdeals
 
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Lenovo IdeaPad 320 15.6" Laptop: i5-8520U, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD $520 or Less

Great deal on 8th generation Coffee lake processor (quad core, 8 threads) + 256GB GB laptop. Prefect laptop if you don't game and you have microcenter nearby. @pezdispenser

If you have a monitor, just buy a hdmi cable $2 and hook it up that way to your monitor.
Thanks. Funnily enough I got a Lenovo IdeaPad a few years ago on a slickdeal and am still using it today just like you said, hooked up to a monitor for watching the stock market next to my work computer.

I will probably get a gaming desktop and a racing wheel and seat for some driving sims.
 
This is where some of money goes.....
open
 
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Thanks. Funnily enough I got a Lenovo IdeaPad a few years ago on a slickdeal and am still using it today just like you said, hooked up to a monitor for watching the stock market next to my work computer.

I will probably get a gaming desktop and a racing wheel and seat for some driving sims.

I actually got their Powerspec 17 as part of a meat raffle.

Micro Center - Computers and Electronics

Quite amazing for the price, I would have bought the laptop outright at $1400. Handles S-Plus and E/R Studio like a dream.
 
I actually got their Powerspec 17 as part of a meat raffle.

Micro Center - Computers and Electronics

Quite amazing for the price, I would have bought the laptop outright at $1400. Handles S-Plus and E/R Studio like a dream.
There was a slickdeal for the same laptop refurbished Asus Strix Gtx 1070 16GB ram, 256GB SSD, i7-7700hq for $1050 at eBay daily deal about 1.5 month ago. I missed it or I would've bought it, it was sold out in less than 2 hours lol . I'm pretty happy with inspiron 7557 Gtx 1060 for $750. Will probably last me 5 yrs to game on 1080p.
 
Where do you work where it's slow enough to play games? Are you an overnight pharmacist?
During my day offs lmao... Not at work. But yes, when I worked overnight before I have about 4 hours of nothing around 2-6am.

Float far enough, they will put you in a hotel.
 
I got the Dell Doorbuster deal on the Alienware i5 8400 with a GeForce GTX 1060 for $800 and added the liquid cooling for $50 and 256 GB SSD for $180 (ugh... but too lazy to transfer the OS to a new boot drive). Hoping I can stack the $200 slickdeals rebate on top.
 
I got the Dell Doorbuster deal on the Alienware i5 8400 with a GeForce GTX 1060 for $800 and added the liquid cooling for $50 and 256 GB SSD for $180 (ugh... but too lazy to transfer the OS to a new boot drive). Hoping I can stack the $200 slickdeals rebate on top.
Use easeus backup free. Just clone your primary hdd to the ssd. Unplug and HDD and reformat for data storage. 30 mins max.
 
Use easeus backup free. Just clone your primary hdd to the ssd. Unplug and HDD and reformat for data storage. 30 mins max.
Oh man, now you tell me. Does it transfer the recovery partition and everything?

Anyway, I have another question. I got an SSD to milk some more life out of my 9 y/o desktop. What's the best way to upgrade it from Vista to Windows 10? Get a volume license key off ebay and clean install to the SSD?
 
Oh man, now you tell me. Does it transfer the recovery partition and everything?

Anyway, I have another question. I got an SSD to milk some more life out of my 9 y/o desktop. What's the best way to upgrade it from Vista to Windows 10? Get a volume license key off ebay and clean install to the SSD?

Yes, that's what cloning mean. It will copy every files and partition.

Yes, clean install windows 10. Make sure you have your driver installation disk. Or, go to dell/hp website (where ever you got it from) and download all the drivers for your old computer. Clean install and reinstall all drivers (don't lose the wifi card driver).

You can also clean install + use driver booster (free) to download remaining driver.
 
Yes, that's what cloning mean. It will copy every files and partition.

Yes, clean install windows 10. Make sure you have your driver installation disk. Or, go to dell/hp website (where ever you got it from) and download all the drivers for your old computer. Clean install and reinstall all drivers (don't lose the wifi card driver).

You can also clean install + use driver booster (free) to download remaining driver.
I cancelled the Dell i5-8400 and got a hp i7-8700 with GTX 1060 for $770. No SSD so what should I get? An NVMe?
 
I cancelled the Dell i5-8400 and got a hp i7-8700 with GTX 1060 for $770. No SSD so what should I get? An NVMe?
1060 isn't getting bottle necked by i5-8400. In fact, it's over kill for that. i7-8700/i5-8400 (six core) will get bottle necked by your GPU. Any quad core will be sufficient to max out performance of 1060. I think the Dell deal was best with GTX 1080 for $800 with rebate. There is a massive jump going from 1060, 1070 and 1080
in gaming performance. You can game at 4k resolution with gtx 1080, but now there is no way to get that deal again lol.

Get any deal on SSD, you don't really need nvme also. Gaming/boot performance is never bottle necked by nvme vs SATA ssd. Once the drive can keep your CPU busy (not waiting around for data access), it becomes moot point. This is the same issue, CPUs aren't bottle necked by data transfer speed once you get a decent SSD. You will get 1-2 seconds performance boost by going to nvme in LOADING times but that's about it. Look up youtube reviews if nvme for gaming is worth it. It doesn't improve frame rates at all.
 
If we are looking at the same deal hp omen, I think the omen 1060 GPU is only 3GB (weaker) version as well vs. 6GB 1060 alienware.

If you already buy the machine and will keep it for yrs, just use it until you are ready to upgrade to a better monitor (a 4k - they are still expensive), by then, GTX 1080 will be dirt cheap, you can just swap out 1060 with 1080 (Assuming your psu is at least 500 watts). 1060 is great to max out 1080p (1900x1080) monitor, but it will struggle past that resolution.
 
If we are looking at the same deal hp omen, I think the omen 1060 GPU is only 3GB (weaker) version as well vs. 6GB 1060 alienware.

If you already buy the machine and will keep it for yrs, just use it until you are ready to upgrade to a better monitor (a 4k - they are still expensive), by then, GTX 1080 will be dirt cheap, you can just swap out 1060 with 1080 (Assuming your psu is at least 500 watts). 1060 is great to max out 1080p (1900x1080) monitor, but it will struggle past that resolution.
Yeah that's what I did with my old computer, and intend to do with this new one. I want to get a good CPU and just upgrade the other components when I need to and as they get cheaper. I don't play the latest games right now and certainly not in 4K. I just sometimes use Photoshop Lightroom and it's quite slow to load and to apply filters on my i5-3210M lol. So should I get a $128 Samsung 960 EVO 250GB NVMe or save a few bucks and just get a M.2 SSD?
 
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Yeah that's what I did with my old computer, and intend to do with this new one. I want to get a good CPU and just upgrade the other components when I need to and as they get cheaper. I don't play the latest games right now and certainly not in 4K. I just sometimes use Photoshop Lightroom and it's quite slow to load and to apply filters on my i5-3210M lol. So should I get a $128 Samsung 960 EVO 250GB NVMe or save a few bucks and just get a M.2 SSD?

Read this for more info.

I don't think you understand M.2. M.2 capable motherboard (the socket/slot) can support PCIe connection (NVME drive) or SATA connection (standard SSD drive capped around 600 MB/s). There are 2.5 inch SATA SSD (looks like a normal looking small laptop drive), M.2 SATA SSD, and M.2 PCIe NVME SSD. M.2 drives will look like barebone circuit board connected directly to the motherboard. If you want absolute fast loading times NVME SSD is the way to go. For daily operation, I don't think there is anything wrong with SATA SSD.



Just don't stay regular spinner HDD, your processor is bottle necked by your hard drive coz it's waiting around to access the data and chit.
 
Man, so confusing. I guess I still want to use the M.2 slot to leave the drive bays free for some old mechanical hard drives that I still use for backups. Funnily enough I did buy that Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5" SSD for $65 to put into my laptop. So yeah, the Samsung 960 EVO NVMe 250GB is twice the price, but I think I can afford to 'splurge' on it.
 
Select Walmart Stores: HP Omen 15.6" Laptop: i7-7700HQ, GTX 1050Ti $499 (Availability May Vary)
Man I went to Walmart to try and get this laptop but they were sold out. $499 for i7-7700HQ, GTX 1050Ti, 12GB, 1TB no SSD.

I think it's time I upgraded my desktop. Still using a Core 2 Quad Q6600 with Vista from 2008 lol. What do you think about this deal (already expired):
Dell XPS Tower Desktop: Intel Core i7-7700, 8GB 2400MHz DDR4, 1TB 7200RPM HDD (w/ Intel Optane), GTX 1060 6GB, Windows 10 Home - $749.99 after $150 SD Rebate + Free S&H 11-02-2017

Is Optane ok vs SSD? 8GB RAM is pretty low right?

Not yet, it's a gimmick for now. For instant Windows startup to be viable in Optane, continual power has to flow to 16-24 GB of RAM as that's the savestate written on sleep. That is viable with analytic systems and heavy transaction loads, but it is not yet consumer ready. Wait until the current data center versions migrate down to consumer products (a tick and a tock, so 7 nm, and then refinement) as there's interface issues with it. A lot of this is governed by PCI-e lane overload being the limiting factor. Even with a complete RAM SAN solution (as in an 8 TB all RAM system where all transactions and storage are done in RAM), most programs will not exceed the PCI 3.0 size limit because the processor can't handle it, so you don't see magnificent performance gains just by I/O swaps. We, uh, did some *research* with the ORNL Summit system specs (with the prototype Summit cards) with CS and Crysis to figure this out. It's sad that it takes something of that caliber to run Crysis 2 in the natural framerate with all settings turned up. Most of your games will need to be rewritten for the low-level graphics card implementation rather than the high level abstractions to take advantage of the gains right now, which again, is basically restricted to high end analytics work where you can pay a supercomputer programmer to rewrite your normal using the parallel libraries.

The 1050 is a RAM crippled 1060. I would probably try to go for a 1060 as you won't throttle yourself as much (and most of the baselines that the 1050 has over integrated are because users don't know how to partition RAM in the BIOS). For emulation and old games, even integrated graphics will do except for anything byuu programmed (which will take another two-three generations of hardware to run efficiently on machines) or games that specifically are one core heavy (games made between 2002 and 2006) as current machine architectures are just approaching those single P4's from that era. For most games though, you're better off with at least the 1060 as you won't be resource competing which is a real problem with power consumption as well as performance. The main difference between the mainline and the Ti for all but the top line versions (and new for this generation, the 1070) is software tuning of the hardware. At the top line versions (980 and 1080 and the midline 1070), they are stripped down versions of their next-gen equivalents or core overloaded versions of the current generation. However, this is the first generation where the laptop performance difference from desktop is negligible enough that you can forego the desktop card if you want to now.

That deal is not bad, not good. Depending on how much fun you want to have, it's usually "better" for enthusiasts on cost/performance grounds to buy a last-gen Xeon system and slap in a graphics card of your choice:
digitalmind2000 | eBay

Also, I'm not a fan of spinning HD's as the failure rate for those is higher under consumer loads (SSD's actually fail quite a bit faster under enterprise loads, but that's priced into the support plan). And also, you should span your drives such that the operating system goes on one, and your speed-critical applications go on the other. So, I have Microsoft stuff (OS, Office) on one drive as even Office really doesn't compete, and all my apps on the second drive with my laptop.
 
Man, so confusing. I guess I still want to use the M.2 slot to leave the drive bays free for some old mechanical hard drives that I still use for backups. Funnily enough I did buy that Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5" SSD for $65 to put into my laptop. So yeah, the Samsung 960 EVO NVMe 250GB is twice the price, but I think I can afford to 'splurge' on it.

Do you really want to do so with the power consumption in a laptop? Why not get enclosures and keep them as true external backups?
 
Do you really want to do so with the power consumption in a laptop? Why not get enclosures and keep them as true external backups?
Your prior post went straight over my head lol. I hardly ever buy leading edge stuff. Usually I just upgrade parts with mid-range stuff whenever they can't cope anymore. But I can answer this question. I was talking about putting the hard drives into the new desktop I bought. It's a hp Omen i7-8700, GTX 1060 3GB with no SSD, and I think it has 4 x 3.5" drive bays. I just think it'll be a lot tidier to put them in there rather than having enclosures for each. I'm mostly concerned about mechanical failure rather than theft/fire/water/etc anyway.
 
Your prior post went straight over my head lol. I hardly ever buy leading edge stuff. Usually I just upgrade parts with mid-range stuff whenever they can't cope anymore. But I can answer this question. I was talking about putting the hard drives into the new desktop I bought. It's a hp Omen i7-8700, GTX 1060 3GB with no SSD, and I think it has 4 x 3.5" drive bays. I just think it'll be a lot tidier to put them in there rather than having enclosures for each. I'm mostly concerned about mechanical failure rather than theft/fire/water/etc anyway.

Ok, the 1060 should be ok (although you probably could have used 6 and not 3). If it's a desktop, you're fine, I thought you were sticking those antiquated drives in a laptop.
 
I spend money on investing in real estate. Got 5 houses now and already paid off 4. I am making money while i am sleeping. The best feeling ever. Thought about getting 2 door mercedes but it is wise to pay off my mortgage first.
 
I'm not sure anyone in America understands "true poverty." Even our country's "poor" enjoy luxuries like cars, cell phones, and free healthcare. Just like many others, I have dispensed expensive (and possibly unnecessary) ADHD medications to Medicaid patients as they sit in their BMW talking on their iPhone in the drive-through. How much are they paying in taxes? Very little. They may even be receiving an earned income tax credit. Meanwhile, pharmacists lose about $40K off the top for taxes. As I'm sure you know, America has a progressive tax system. The higher your income, the greater percentage of your income goes to taxes. A lot of folks making $40K/year don't realize that those making $120K/year aren't actually taking home 3X as much money. I'm not suggesting $120K is "not enough." It's more than enough. What I meant was... many people assume that someone with an annual income of $120K is "rich." In reality, $120K will not propel someone to "wealth" unless they are frugal and live well below their means for about two decades (+/- a few years). I understand what you are saying about the primary care physician who thinks he is broke, but he does have a point... What the doc (or pharmacist for that matter) may not realize is that it's 100% his own fault. Many people have high incomes and don't have any money to show for it. If they buy a lot of status artifacts (e.g. big house, luxury cars), they won't have money... because they spent it. Granted, the house should appreciate over time, but the cars, the vacations, the restaurants... those are all sunk costs. Like flushing money down the toilet. If you make a lot of money, but flush it all down the toilet... yeah, you'll be broke.

I think that student loan payments should be tax deductible just like 401k contributions. So if I make 120k and pay 20k towards student loans, my taxable income should be lowered to 100k. A pharmacist making 120k will not walk away with 3x as much as someone making 40k not only because of taxes but also because of student loans. We are essentially getting taxed based on spending power that we don't actually have, and on top of that we are paying interest to the government on the loans!
 
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Paying down the mortgage so if/when the **** hits the fan I'm able to change careers and can afford to take a huge hit in pay

You could have also bought a house that was only 2x income so if it did take a job that pays half you would have a mortgage equivalent to what the banks think you can afford lol.

In 2 years I'll have about 2k in extra free cash flow when cars and loan is gone. I'll probably by my wife that nice SUV she wants about a year later and put some towards my church. The rest will be invested
 
This is me so far in 2017. Most of my pay goes into my investments and student loan payoff.
sTdanm2.jpg
 
You could have also bought a house that was only 2x income so if it did take a job that pays half you would have a mortgage equivalent to what the banks think you can afford lol.

In 2 years I'll have about 2k in extra free cash flow when cars and loan is gone. I'll probably by my wife that nice SUV she wants about a year later and put some towards my church. The rest will be invested

My current mortgage balance is probably less than what you took out in student loans.
 
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My current mortgage balance is probably less than what you took out in student loans.

Took out 80k (would have been about 55k but the govt changed the state scholarship as well as subsidized loans in Obamacare) I was being sarcastic about the mortgage amount. although if you owe very little if **** hits the fan you could always refinance.