8 Signs a Geek Has Too Much Money
8 Signs a Geek Has Too Much Money
Posted 06/21/2010 at 2:23pm
| by The Maximum PC Staff
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1. Leatherman Del Rey
Custom-made to order, the Leatherman Del Rey 25th Anniversary multitool is crafted by artist Adrian Pallarols and boasts handles made of 18K gold from the Andes. $40,000 · leatherman.com
2. Chrome-Plated PC
Our dual–Core 2 Extreme Dream Machine 2008 isn’t anything to boast about these days, but its custom chrome-plating remains the height of decadence. $5,000 - $10,000 · computer-choppers.com
3. Sharp LB-1085 LCD
You’re looking at 108 inches of 1080p goodness. It comes with three HDMI ports, two component ports, and a single DVI input, so you can peel your eyelids back with multiple HD devices. It weighs 430 pounds, but if you’re buying this, you’re not lugging your own hardware. $150,000 · sharp-world.com
4. Transmission Audio Ultimate Speaker Systems
Imagine if you will, six seven-foot-high panels loaded with supertweeter ribbons and subwoofers bundled together with six 500-watt dual-mono amplifiers and a preamp. If your friends object to the price, you can jack up the volume and blow them out the nearest window. $2,000,000/set · transmissionaudio.com
5. Xten Pininfarina Office Chair
Made by the renowned team that dresses Ferrari interiors, the Pininfarina Xten is maximized for comfort and durability, offering a Dynatec fabric seat and the patented Armtronic system, which adjusts to fit people of all sizes—but only the uppermost economic strata. $1,695 · xtenchair.com
6. Sony XEL-1 OLED TV
This 11-inch display is small, but it gives you the bragging rights of owning a TV based on the long-vaunted OLED technology. Organic light-emitting diodes are reported to improve contrast ratios and offer superior color quality, including absolute black levels. Couple that with a panel that’s 3mm thin, and you’ve got some big technology in a tiny package. $2,500 · sonystyle.com
7. Art Lebedev Optimus Maximus Keyboard
Every one of this board’s 113 keys is embedded with a micro OLED display capable of up to 10fps video, allowing the user to reprogram each of the keys to perform different tasks for different apps. $2,400 · artlebedev.com
8. Intelligent Design Emotion Mouse
When no luxury is too small, an artfully designed wireless laser mouse hand-crafted from grade 1 titanium and high-quality plastic resin makes sense. $1,200 · intelligent-design.nl
More like this
devgoswami075
January 13, 2011 at 6:56pm
If I have that LCD television in my drawing room, then it would be a dream come true for me.
JohnP
June 22, 2010 at 1:56pm
Give me a memory foam chair with a high back, adjustable arms, height, tilt, slides, etc. Jobri used to sell this wonderful tempur-pedic foam chair (I swear I bought the last one) that I am using right now. 10 hours of WOW? no problem, mate. The chair I would recommend (even though I have never sat in one) is:
http://www.ergodirect.com/product_info.php?products_id=14155#Fabric%20Choices
Lots of choices but with a memory foam (5 lb is same density as tempur-pedic), a couple of great adjustable arm rests, whatever color you would like, and all sorts of adjustments.
My Jobri chairs have lasted for years (8 for one of them) with virtually no sign of wear except seat cushion is a tad stained. All the mechanics and the foam is still as good as new.
Never buy an office chair without adjustable arms!
Blues22475
June 22, 2010 at 6:25am
I would love to have that chair in my room. But why does it cost 1.6k? xD
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Ignorance is man's greatest enemy.
Fefe
June 21, 2010 at 10:22pm
Wow, the prices on some of these items are ridiculous. Surely nothing I would buy.
COMMANDER_COOK
June 21, 2010 at 7:54pm
This is like the segment called "Platinum" off of the Colbert Report.
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Donate blood! http://www.redcrossblood.org/
K0BALT
June 22, 2010 at 3:33am
Wag Of The Finger!
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i7 920@4.4GHz,Heatkiller 3.0, EVGA GTX480, EVGA GT240(PhysX), EVGA X58 3X SLI, 6GB DDR3 OCZ Gold @ 1770MHz 9-9-9-
Havok
June 22, 2010 at 7:27am
Maximum PC has been doing top 8-10 lists for forever it seems! Where have you been? I know there's been a list in every issue since at least Aug, 07 (when I started reading it) if not way longer.
YES! This post made it through the Spam Filter!
K0BALT
June 21, 2010 at 4:26pm
I think a Geek is smart enough to know NOT to spend that much money on useless things. It's a slap in the face to geeks everywhere. The article should be called 8 signs a douchebag has too much money.
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i7 920@4.4GHz,Heatkiller 3.0, EVGA GTX480, EVGA GT240(PhysX), EVGA X58 3X SLI, 6GB DDR3 OCZ Gold @ 1770MHz 9-9-9-
Mosher
June 21, 2010 at 7:04pm
Yea! and what would you do with a knife made of gold? store it in some safe?
YoshiHNS
June 21, 2010 at 3:57pm
Sort of seems like you guys just went out and found the most expensive computer/tech items and slapped them on the same page. Not much of this really says geek. It really just says "I have a lot of money and don't know what I'm buying, but it's shiny!"
kiaghi7
June 21, 2010 at 4:53pm
EXACTLY!
The leatherman multi-tool is a nifty gadget, but I for one don't want a multi-tool that does 50 things poorly, I'd rather have 50 separate tools that do the job RIGHT.
The Chrome plated case is mediocre at best, not because of the chrome, but because the formfactor is castrating to any serious builder. It's most definitely sleek and interesting looking, but I'm not going to sacrifice capability for it to look interesting. You can make it as interesting looking as you want -=AFTER=- you've ensured it's working as intended... Decorate the house after it's built...
The 108" jumbotron would be awesome for the superbowl, but I know I wouldn't want to use my PC on it, I want to sit modestly close to the monitor and get something in the 24-30" range since at that distance it's going to look enormous anyway but not balloon the faults in the game(s) and programs you're using. Add to that, 1080p is -LOW RES- by PC specs. I was running a 19" 1920x1440 monitor nearly TEN YEARS AGO as my secondary/backup monitor. Frankly, it's about darn time other media has just barely caught up to what is today considered passe on PC's.
As for the speaker system, I have to admit to a modest amount of autophile tendencies and have built a huge sound system of my own. That being said, while loud speakers will be the only thing to really let you "feel" the music, for the highest fidelity you're ever going to achieve, the intracanal earphones are worlds apart from anything else. Some find them hard/annoying to use, but if you don't mind their use then you also are likely in love with a good set of them. (Great job MaxPC, on the entry level earbuds the other day BTW)
The office chair is just expensive fluff. If you want to buy something just because they also happen to do something related to an exotic car, then you will get exactly what you want, an excuse to spend a lot of money on something that isn't really any better than an alternative.
The 11" OLED is great, but for what? It's not a primary display, heck my very first computer had a 15", so size isn't helping it. If it's a desktop (since it clearly isn't part of a laptop), then why the necessity of 3mm thickness? If you're using it as a secondary monitor, or a large-ish display for system stats, temperatures, and fan RPM's like some case-screen accessories, then why OLED? What does it do "extra". Now, if it was more than twice the screen size, maybe we're starting to talk, the technology is great but the formfactor is mediocre at best.
The Optimus keyboard has already been reviewed by several places as being a turd for typing... Which is kind of the entire point in a keyboard. Don't get me wrong, the idea of having an entire troop of evil squirrels skittering animations of letters on my keyboard is of course a strong argument for the Optimus keyboard, but if typing with it is more akin to having your fingers pounded by a hammer than a productive result of thought and energy, then the keyboard has failed miserably in its true function in the universe. I don't ask of my toaster to have its singular button "animated", but if it were it might be interesting, however if it didn't toast very well I'd still want a better toaster and not be factoring in "animated buttons" into the equation of whether or not the replacement toaster was sufficient for my needs of toasting.
Finally the intelligent design emotion mouse... A more ironic name has never been chosen for any product, because the only emotion it stirs is how ire at how unintelligent the design is. There is a reason ergonomic mice have pretty much dominated the mouse market for ages now. People want a mouse that's easy to hold, use, and doesn't hurt their hands. Making something out of Titanium simply because you can make it out of titanium isn't much of a selling point, and little more than an excuse to pretend like it's good. Titanium is a good metal, but isn't even remotely useful or necessary in computer mice, and it's arguably counterproductive when in many cases a lighter mouse is preferred.
The list is great for "pricy techno toys", but it's not what a geek with too much money has. If you have to know that answer, look on Bill Gates' desk.
compro01
June 21, 2010 at 7:36pm
1. Missing the point of a multitool. The idea is to have those 50 tools on hand. A slightly poorer version of a tool is way better than no tool at all.
2. agree.
3. agree.
4. agree. i hardly every use my speakers. i always have my headset on.
5. A good chair ranks up there with a good mattress in terms of value. Both get lots of use and are worth spending a good bit of money on. Though $1600 is too much. Looks pretty comfy though.
6. I also fail to see the point of the tiny OLED screen.
7. Neat concept, though I fail to see the point as i practically never look at my keyboard.
8. I also hate that mouse design. Viva la MX Revolution!
kiaghi7
June 22, 2010 at 1:37pm
I agree a multi-tool is better than nothing, but we're not asking if it's better than nothing, we're asking if the $40,000 version of a tool trying to do everything modestly is even remotely what a Geek with a rediculous amount of money would actually covet? A geek with a blank check would likely gravitate toward a super computer or some such, and have a team of experts to maintain it at all times... Those workers wouldn't have $40,000 multi-tools either...
!Warning! Obligatory "Does it run Crysis?" joke...
Sadly even with the super computer it wouldn't run Crysis very well... More power shouldn't be necessitated to compensate for shoddy programming.
Peanut Fox
June 21, 2010 at 7:30pm
FACT: Bill Gates' desk just has stacks of money on it. Better described as stacks of money with a desk under it. Honest.
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