Chapter 233 - 231: Conjugate Father and Son

Chapter 233: Chapter 231: Conjugate Father and Son

The three of them spent nearly two hours at the all-you-can-eat barbecue, sticking to pricier items like seafood, beef, and lamb. They had definitely eaten their money’s worth; it was no loss.

A glance at the time showed it was already past two in the afternoon. Their classmates were probably picking up their textbooks right now.

Jiang Xia pulled out his phone and glanced at the class group chat. Five minutes ago, the class president, Song Qingshu, had tagged everyone with a message to pick up their textbooks from the academic affairs office.

He certainly wasn’t going back; besides, it was too late now. He figured he’d just have to trouble Nanny Su, and he’d bring a savory crepe back later to reward Song Qingshu for his trouble.

"So... where to now?" Wang Ming asked. "If we’re done, I’m going to head back to campus."

Jiang Xia thought for a moment. "Let’s go check out Baonao Hui."

Baonao Hui was basically a large electronics market specializing in computers. In a few years, brick-and-mortar stores like it would be crushed into oblivion by the rise of online shopping and mobile payments, and Baonao Hui’s own flagship store in the Imperial Capital would announce its closure in 2019.

But right now, Baonao Hui was still the number one choice for most people looking to buy a computer.

"You didn’t bring a computer with you, did you?" Jiang Xia glanced at Wang Ming.

"I brought a laptop," he said, scratching his head. "But the specs are pretty average and the cooling is terrible. It’s fine for schoolwork and some single-player games, but it can barely handle online games. It would probably crash if I tried to run the Adobe suite."

Jiang Xia nodded. He could already picture the software crashing.

In this era, the best processors were still Pentiums and the Ryzen II series, and RAM was usually just 2GB. Trying to render animation would push even a decent desktop to its limits, and system crashes were a common occurrence.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but miss the 40-series graphics cards and 12th-gen CPUs from his previous life.

"Then let’s get you a new one," Jiang Xia said. "You can use the laptop for classes and work, and I’ll buy you a desktop to keep in your dorm."

"Holy shit, Old Jiang, are you serious?" Wang Ming was stunned. A decent computer wasn’t cheap in this day and age. The graphics card and CPU alone could easily cost over ten thousand.

"What’s the relationship between us? We’re practically father and son. Shouldn’t a dad buy his son a computer?" he teased.

"Get lost, you asshole. Stop trying to act like you’re my dad."

Old Wang rolled his eyes, ignoring the joke. After all, this kind of "father-son" dynamic was perfectly normal among guy friends. Who didn’t have a few "sons" with no manners?

Hearing this, Lin Yanwan chuckled softly beside them.

She, of course, knew that wasn’t what Jiang Xia was really getting at. He just felt that Wang Ming’s computer was too weak and would hurt his productivity if he used it for animation. He wanted to get him a better tool for the job. It was a classic case of "a sharp axe is a great timesaver."

The three of them took a taxi to the nearest computer megastore. Without wasting any time, Jiang Xia walked directly into the official Lenovo store, even though he knew that in the future, the company would be universally reviled.

Despite future slogans mocking it as "The Sainted Martyrs of the Liu Clan" and "The American Empire’s Traitorous Conscience," there was no question that in this era, Lenovo was still China’s top computer brand.

He had considered buying the components and building the PCs himself, which would have been cheaper than buying pre-assembled machines, but he’d decided against it.

He needed a fair number of computers. As soon as his business application was approved, he’d have to buy twenty or thirty of them immediately. Buying genuine, pre-built machines guaranteed quality and came with an official warranty if anything went wrong.

"Hello, are you three looking to buy computers?" a salesperson asked, approaching as soon as Jiang Xia’s group entered the store.

"Yes, desktops," Jiang Xia confirmed with a nod.

Hearing the confirmation, the salesperson’s smile broadened. ’Three sales at once,’ he thought. ’That’s a nice commission.’

"You look like students. Since it’s the back-to-school season, we’re offering a 12% discount on all Lenovo products. Are you buying these for gaming or for your studies?"

"Graphic design."

"For design work, you’ll need higher specs. I recommend this K305 model: powerful quad-core processor, 4GB of DDR3-1066MHz RAM, and a large 640GB hard drive. The price is a little steep, though—6,300 yuan for the whole setup."

Jiang Xia sighed softly. ’Salespeople who don’t mention the specific CPU and GPU models are just looking for a sucker to rip off. Do I really look like I don’t know anything about computers?’

"What are the GPU and CPU models?"

"Uh... an AMD Phenom II X4 810 and an ATI HD 4650 dedicated graphics card." The salesman’s voice faltered. He hadn’t expected a college kid to know his stuff.

"If I’m not mistaken, that’s a low-to-mid-range GPU and CPU, isn’t it?" ’God, I miss my RTX 4090 Ti.’

"Well, yes, that’s true, but the power consumption and heat management on this card are excellent. Its graphical performance is solid. You can even run major 3D games on high settings with no problem."

"Do you have anything with better specs?" Jiang Xia frowned. He wasn’t buying a computer to play games, after all.

"If you’re talking about a custom build," the salesman said earnestly, "just the Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition CPU costs 8,000, and a GeForce GTX 295 graphics card is 9,000. More importantly, the Lenovo K350 is our newest desktop model. If you want a higher-end pre-built PC from another brand, you’ll probably have to look elsewhere, and it will be very expensive."

He had a feeling that if he didn’t start being honest, he was going to lose this sale.

The salesman’s words left Jiang Xia speechless. ’Were computers in ’09 really this expensive? At this rate, a high-end rig would cost at least fifty or sixty thousand.’

His company would need to buy 20 computers. The starting cost for that would be over a million.

’Forget it, I can’t afford that.’ Suddenly, the K350 started to look pretty good. The GPU and CPU were a bit weak, sure, but it wasn’t like they were unusable. Hadn’t the salesman said it could run big 3D games on high settings and still maintain 60 fps?

"Alright then, give me three K350s," Jiang Xia said.

He suddenly realized that buying K350s for the whole office would still cost over 100,000. ’Damn, starting a company is expensive,’ he thought.

And that was just for starters. It didn’t include rent, salaries, or other equipment for things like audio recording, photography, or printing. All in, the whole setup would probably cost a couple hundred thousand.

"I don’t need a computer," Lin Yanwan said, tugging on Jiang Xia’s sleeve.

She was a business administration major, so a powerful computer wasn’t particularly useful for her. Even if she needed to do voice-over work later, she could just go to the company office. It wouldn’t be far.

"Hmm... alright. We’ll just get two for now, then," Jiang Xia said. "I’ll use one for a bit, and if it performs well, I might come back and buy another twenty or so."

The salesperson just assumed Jiang Xia meant he would promote the computers to his classmates. After all, what kind of college student could spend over a hundred thousand yuan on that many computers at once? It’s not like he was opening an internet cafe.

"You guys offer delivery and installation, right?"

"Yes, we do. Just leave your address and phone number, and we’ll have someone deliver them."

"Okay. I’m at Tsinghua, and he’s at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The phone numbers are..."