Oh man, this reminds me of one of my coworkers when we were getting new computers in the office a couple months back.

He was adamant that his new computer be a laptop with a video card and an i7 processor. For a dell business laptop, that is out of the question expensive (for us). Not to mention such a high-powered laptop would struggle with battery life.

The thing is, we don't really need that kind of power at all. We run accounting software and outlook, and need one computer to display 4k video at conventions. We also don't need laptops, a desktop would serve just fine.

He ends up getting an i5, 8GB ram latitude with a 500GB 5400rpm drive, as two other people do. Myself and one other coworker get an i7, 8GB ram Optiplex with video cards and 1TB 7200 RPM drives. We also get 21.5 inch monitors that include (crappy speakers), all for about $800 less than the laptops.

Keep in mind every computer we are replacing is 5+ years old, except this one coworker who already has an i5 with 8GB of ram. The first thing he says is "you lied, you told me it would be faster". Seriously? You're the only person who may not notice a difference, because you have the newest computer in the office.

He goes on to freak out that my desktop has a faster hard drive, an i7, a video card, and a "giant fancy screen" (21 inch is pretty small these days). This partially because we will use it to drive 4k 60FPS video for work, so it actually needs to be able to do that. This is also because desktops are just cheaper than laptops.

Eventually I take a look at his laptop as he was complaining. When I transferred everyone's data and e-mail over I asked people to trim down their e-mail, and obviously he didn't. This resulted in me staying hours late while it transferred to his computer, and his 500GB hard drive being 80% full the day he got it.

He complains every day about it, while everyone else is stoked to have a new machine. His reason for needing top-end specs on his work laptop? Diablo III.