[Knifeblade]

So the Dream Machine was somewhat parted out? That's what I gather.

>snip<

so I have decided to donate most of the PC stuff ( come on I'm not going to giveup all that good stuff .

>unsnip<

K, that's cool, I'd be interested in a raffle ticket, yet I'd like to know what the final prize is, ya know? Man, I would love a chance to O/C the thing past it's parameters, already O/C'ed or not, LOL.

[rgreen4]

As a true number bunny, I think Bill had the right idea. If he had kept the machine, he would have been responsible for the federal and state income taxes on the stated $32,000 value of the machine. At an estimated fed tax rate of 25% and state tax rate of 5%, that means he would have been responsible for $9,600 in taxes on the machine.

Prize winnings and Gambling winnings are taxable. You can offset Gambling winnings by the losses for that year. That's why you many time at horse races see people picking up losing tickets off the ground. Just In Case they ever win.

I did not bother to enter because the machine was way, way, way over what I could ever use.

[drbasic]

I agree with Number3124 Bigger and Faster.

Would like to see it without trying to be 32bit compatiable but a 64bit OS with 16 gigs or more of ram 2 of the new 8 Core processors "4nm Penryn" Intel is coming out with at the end of the year provided Vista will support 16 cores, those same monitors again would be nice , some SATA2 15k drives with NCQ enabled in a raid 5 array Can think of all kinds of fun PC World could have with it, couple of Video cards in SLI what ever seems fastest at the time.

Then you could post some benchmark numbers probably never achieved before. B-)

[Adama]

I know what you mean, RGreen. That's the reason I said that if I won, I would have to donate it to someone else, in order not to pay the humongous taxes on it.

[mrbgibs]

Hey Folks,

The dream machine is still intact, I am keeping just a few things that in no way will hamper the machine at all.

Actually I bought a few things to go with it that I thought the new owner might need.

So never Fear the Dream PC is alive and well in Alaska ;)

Bill G.

[rgreen4]

But, to avoid the taxes, you would have to contribute it to a non-profit like Bill is doing. If you donate it to a friend, you would still be liable for the taxes.

[smax013]

rgreen4 said:

But, to avoid the taxes, you would have to contribute it to a non-profit like Bill is doing. If you donate it to a friend, you would still be liable for the taxes.

I am no tax expert...but...



To my knowledge, you don't "avoid" the taxes if your donata to a non-profit, but rather are in a position to "offset" some or all of the taxes with deductions due to donating to a non-profit charity/organiztion. As I understand it, even if you win say a $1000 (as an example) you are liable for the taxes on the $1000. If you donate that $1000 to a charity, then you can take a $1000 deduction. But, you still have to be careful about limits related to charitable deductions. This can potentially have the effect offsetting the amount you ow for taxes.



The other "downside" about donating (i.e. giving it) to a friend is that you are still liable for the taxes and DO NOT get a tax deduction (to my knowledge, Uncle Sam does not consider a friend an acceptable "charity")...AND your friend would have to pay a tax on the gift if worth more than $10,000 (I believe that is still the limit). So, if you gave the $30,000 computer to a friend, not only would YOU be liable for the tax on $30,000, but your friend would be liable for the taxes on about $20,000 of the $30,000.

[coastie65]

Hi smax, Yep, you are are dead on point. About 15 years ago, my mother decided she wanted to remodel the kitchen which mean't an addition as well. She was also going to replace all the windows with thermal pane stuff as well as the furnace and put in Central Air ( now she wishes she had gone with a heat pump). Any way the total cost was around $25,000. She was going to take out a home equity line to pay for it as the house had full equity. I said no and that I would give her the money. She said she didn't want to have to pay the taxes. I looked in to it, and found that I could give her $10,000, and my other siblings could gift a like amount to enable her to get the work done, and not have to worry about taxes, as you could gift up to that amount without a tax liability. I think that has increased to $12,000 now though. Anyway that is what we did. I went the full $10,000 as did my Sister & Brother-in-Law and my other Sister went $5000. All were within the cap and she got the work done. coastie
Edited on the advice of my CPA LOL coastie

[rgreen4]

Smax - you are right, I was generalizing. Now, I had prepared a lengthy post about how you would have to show it as received income in the income section and then list it among all the other charitible contributions, which could then be limited based upon who received it (has to be a recognized, qualified charitable organization) and then also by your total income (limitiations come into effect a low income levels as well as high income levels).
This is such an exciting field, that the IRS has a 23 page publication describing the thrills and chills as you try to decide if it is deductible, does it qualify, does the recipient qualify, does my income limit the deduction? Tune in next week, same Bat time, same Bat channel to find out the answer.
I posted it last night, and it must have bored the posting routine so badly it has never shown up. So much for the Exciting Action Thriller - Tax Accounting. !http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1!
Now, as to a gift to someone that is not a recognized and qualified charitable organization, the IRS Gift tax is on the giver not the recipient, although they can agree to pay the tax. But the giver is responsible to see that it is paid.
BTW - in the interest of full disclosure, I do not pour through these exciting and scintillating IRS publications, but instead I wimp out and use Turbo Tax. (I do mirror it with my own multi-year Excell spreadsheet. When they both agree, I figure I'm done and it's correct.)

[MotleyDogg]

The problem with this,.. is that in my opinion it is not worth $32,000. It is just not even close, as the bang for buck you can get the same performance for a couple thousand at most. Secondly, this is all taxable income now,... the tax liability on it for the average person is going to be around $5000 to $6000,... heck I could build 4-5 sweet computers for that price alone, and still have money for software and misc.

[charles849]

I agree Dogg . four years ago I had this PC built for me $700 later added more RAM $60 so you can see my budjet is on the low side and I can do everything I want .

[Jackie40d]

For the Amount of Tax's on this thing I cold make computer that would have made this one look like a backwards pre 486 computer !

I wonder where they got the prices of the parts at ! Must have went to some expensive store front to get the parts and paid tons of money over and above

the cost of the parts !

[Jackie40d]

I am working on my next computer now and with all the up grades it will make the thing they sold a laugh and it under $600.00 but then I am not buying stuff at some expensive store like they did and since they are coming out with DDR2 wich will allow 8 gig chips in the same slots as the 2 gig chips . . and I am getting a quad core Intel P4 so it is up todate for at least 6 months . . and have 2 of the 500 gig SATA drives and a blue ray burner Not the super fancy one either !

I have already tried the SATA drives in my present computer it was not any faster . . Sooooooo !

[KellieCM]

The costs listed for the parts are the retail values for the items set by the manufacturers.

[JustMe2]

What is a " a quad core Intel P4"



LOLOL

[kanid99]

"I am working on my next computer now and with all the up grades it will make the thing they sold a laugh and it under $600.00"

The only laugh is that you think your $600 system would be better. Just ONE of the Scsi hard drives in this system is more expensive than your whole system, and those things in a RAID array kick-butt.

I did a breakdown of their system pricing, and at the time (8 months ago almost) it was very comparable to the better prices online. It breaks down then and now (as found doing online searches for pricing using pricewatch, shopping reputable vendors) as:

System Then $15,979, Now Appx $10,750; the biggest drops coming in that the 9800 GX2 has already been 'outdated' and dropped dramatically as has ram and hard drive prices.

Display Then $4881, Now Appx $3950; though Im not a big fan of the screen they chose, you get 3 of them and the price remains stable (its a professional quality screen for graphic art work)

Acessories Then $2014, Now Appx $1625; general price drops all around in this category

Software Then $4985, Now Appx $4500; Office Ultimate is much cheaper than they list and you can get the other software for a bit less now.

Total Value Then: $ 27,900 or so. Now: $20,825 and thats not including the excellently blogged labor involved in putting it together.

Key things it still has that you wont find in most <$1000 systems today:

SSD Drives (2x64GB)

4 300GB Serial SCSI drives (very fast),

2 blu-ray burners (though one would be enough haha)

8GB DDR2 1600, Water Cooled Case

1200W PSU, Quad nVidia 9800 GPU's

EMU 1616M

3x 24" Screens

Quad Core 9650 Extreme.

Now granted, you could replace the SAS drives with SATA drives to save lots of money, you could replace the SSD drives if they arent to your liking, and you could put in a set of GTX 280s or put in an ATI 4870x2 based system (with crossfire mobo) and probably save a $4,000 or so.

You could make a system 'good enough' with performance CPU wise about 85% of this one and drive performance 75% of this system for probably WELL under $2000 (no screens) if you leave out the BD burners, go to a more conventional storage system, get a more consumer level case, drop the paint job, drop down the RAM and go with a single video card option.

[coastie65]

It was never about cost. It was about letting it all hang out on the build and just go extreme which was accomplished. coastie65

[Jackie40d]

Well I am guessing your not very proficient at running a computer from your reply ! Its almost a laugh to defeat your reply as I am working on a quad core

now and it is under the $600.00 and it will make what ever you got seem slow . . Also going to DDR2 since it has large chips like over 8 gig per and 2 chips

will be 16 gig and memory if you remember is the thing which makes it run FAST . . and SCSI drives haha SATA drives are faster at transfering data !

And I do MAJOR graphics EVERY DAY I have the software already ! So I do not need their stuff ! 900 gigs is less then the 1 terra byte I will have

And like I will have video which makes the one given away seem slow and still under $600.00 a Terra byte is under $ 120.00

Oh well !

[rgreen4]

Yep, when you go out for the absolut maximum performance in any area the last 10% generally quadruples the price. It's real easy to get a standard V-8 engine to replace the one in your car for $4-5,000, but to get the 800HP dyno tuned Nascar Nextel Cup V-8 (any brand) will set you back about $100 Grand. Max performance takes max bucks.

[rtfire1]

Very good point rgreen. I was talking to the guy I get most of the new and used parts that from i don't have around the house. He went and ran the numbers and thought they where high at first but once you look at the chips and so forth that where in the system the price was right on line with what the venders say the cost would be.