What do your friends and family think of your computer hobby?

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My friends don't really care, but my family think I'm spending too much money on my PC and don't understand why I am. What do you guys' friends and family think of your PC hobby?
 
I don't spend on a PC, but they were simply baffled when I bought the DFGT l.

My girlfriend said, "your spending £100 on a controller when you got one with your PS3 and have a spare?".

I just couldn't explain why it was worth it, so she had a go, and still didn't understand it. Lol.

She also moans about how much I play on it, but I'm sure that would still be the case If I only went on it twice a week.
 
My friends don't really care, but my family think I'm spending too much money on my PC and don't understand why I am. What do you guys' friends and family think of your PC hobby?

I think only one or two of my friends have adequate computer knowledge, but yeah my family also thinks I'm crazy even when I'm just looking at computer component webstores (always asking me what's wrong with my current setup, is it broken or something?).

I'm actually happy with my current setup but I like to read about the latest hardware and check the prices. And I wouldn't want to put over 200€ on a graphics card or a processor either, but hey, that's what you have to pay nowadays if you want a powerful one.
 
I don't spend on a PC, but they were simply baffled when I bought the DFGT l.

My girlfriend said, "your spending £100 on a controller when you got one with your PS3 and have a spare?".

I just couldn't explain why it was worth it, so she had a go, and still didn't understand it. Lol.

She also moans about how much I play on it, but I'm sure that would still be the case If I only went on it twice a week.

Let her have a go on it, she might understand that way :P
 
They think its too much money. But then i show them all the cool stuff and.... they still think its too much lol
 
Actual conversation:

"Wait, you spent $750 on a monitor, what was wrong with the one you had"
"This one is so much better, colours are more accurate, higher resolution, the other one was garbage, I got it cheap like 4 years ago"
"....looks the same to me, I wouldn't have known it was different if you hadn't of told me"
"..."

In terms of what people think though, generally goes something like this:

"Oh, so you work in IT, you must be rich, and super smart"
 
To people who are not really into electronics it can seem like a waste of money. But its basically a hobby an i know some people who i think have stupid hobbies... but to them its worthwhile. lol
 
For any given hobby, it's not hard to find people who will tell you that it's a waste of money and/or time (of course their hobby is great). I just ignore comments like that.

In other words, I don't much care what others think.
 
I'm studying electronic engineering and none of my friends or family really have a clue, so when questioned my response is usually "Yeah, it's expensive, but I [need it for my work/have learned a lot from building my own PC/... Er... Ah, shut your face!]".

Fortunately no one has thought to Google what a GTX 680 is, but then even if they had they might not realise that it's massive overkill for running basic circuit design and simulation programs... College PCs run them fine with 8MB VRAM cards and Pentium II CPUs, after all.

My girlfriend did start to raise an eyebrow when I bought my third monitor, but then I told her that it's possible to build a PC to run OS X (she's a graphic designer trying to work with an absolutely dead 2006 MacBook 13" and can't afford a new Mac) but I didn't have enough experience building PCs do it it (lies). She stopped questioning me after that as she knows anything I replace in my PC will probably benefit her in some way. Like, for example, when I said I wanted to buy three 1080p monitors her first reaction was "So... Does that mean I can have your old ones?"
 
"Stop playing with your computers and get a hobby" is something I use to hear.

Parents finally realized this is a hobby and pretty much leave me alone about it or even help me out in getting some stuff.
 
Well, my friends all understand, as most of them have their own gaming computer.

Same with my girlfriend. She has her own gaming computer. :lol:

I'm actually one of my few friends who doesn't have one, but I've been wanting one before they have.

My parents don't understand. My mom still thinks Macs are better because they use better parts :lol: Whenever I try to explain that the parts are the same, just twice the price on a Mac, she says they're better because they don't get viruses. My dad understands more though. Not when I state the price, but understands that gaming computer isn't just for games necessarily.
 
My Dad understands as he used to build PC's himself. (Electronics engineer, he writes software for a living.)

Everyone else just says "HOW MUCH?"
 
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