overpowered

[hkgonra]

I haven't spent more than $500 on a pc in years.
There is just not that much more power for the money.
You can get all this for $439 from Dell.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E7400 (2.8GHz, 3M, L2Cache, 1066FSB)
1 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 1 Year NBD On-Site Service
3GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHZ - 1x2GB 1x1GB
Dell 21.5 inch S2209W Full HD WidescreenFlat Panel Monitor
Single Drive: 16X (DVD+/-RW) Burner Drive
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Integrated Video, Intel® GMA X4500HD
Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio
Dell USB Keyboard
Dell Optical USB Mouse
Resource CD and DVD
Vostro 220 Mini-Tower

Why do you need more for an average user ?

[LowSky]

look at the post #76 in here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1148452&page=8. (the poster's sig i mean).

unless your running VPSes on that rig, or are using it to run a server, or are playing a few games at once, running several video converters, theirs really no reason why you should consume 100% cpu. thats kind of a waste of money aint it?

I rather have a processor that can do more than one that creates a bottleneck. Sure a Core i7 might seem like overkill but when it can do 9 processes at once and not be taxed, then it seems worth it to me.

For instance lets say I was recording four TV shows in MPEG4, playing MP3's, ripping a DVD to Xvid, Watching a HiDef rip of another Movie, writing emails, looking at websites that are java/flash intensive, and maybe a little Folding@home. Sounds like a lot of stuff for even todays processors, but someday that maybe something that even the cheapest CPU could do in idle mode.

Just look at the progress computers have made in 15 years. Heck Bill Gates was once quoted saying "No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer"... Boy was he wrong!

[Skripka]

I haven't spent more than $500 on a pc in years.
There is just not that much more power for the money.
You can get all this for $439 from Dell.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E7400 (2.8GHz, 3M, L2Cache, 1066FSB)
1 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 1 Year NBD On-Site Service
3GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHZ - 1x2GB 1x1GB
Dell 21.5 inch S2209W Full HD WidescreenFlat Panel Monitor
Single Drive: 16X (DVD+/-RW) Burner Drive
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Integrated Video, Intel® GMA X4500HD
Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio
Dell USB Keyboard
Dell Optical USB Mouse
Resource CD and DVD
Vostro 220 Mini-Tower

Why do you need more for an average user ?

Well, integrated graphics stink.

[LowSky]

Well, integrated graphics stink.

=D> So true...

[PurposeOfReason]

Well, integrated graphics stink.

As does integrated audio. Not as bad, but still not good.

[Skripka]

As does integrated audio.

Perhaps-but integrated audio always works painlessly...audio cards never do. Especially when the manufacturer's name starts with "Sound" and ends with "Blaster".

[PurposeOfReason]

Perhaps-but integrated audio always works painlessly...audio cards never do. Especially when the manufacturer's name starts with "Sound" and ends with "Blaster".

That's why you stick with ASUS and the hell away from Creative.

[collinp]

The primary reason: because you can

The secondary reason: Because many people run resource-intensive applications and actually need a powerful computer. How powerful matters not; you don't want to have to upgrade your computer every time you buy a application that is too heavy for it to run.

And yes, people actually *need* a Core i7. Gamers *need* a Core i7. Video encoders and graphics designers *need* a Core i7. Don't try saying that they don't need them, because they do.

[FalloutMan]

Especially when the manufacturer's name starts with "Sound" and ends with "Blaster".

If only there was a company named Sound Blaster...

To be on topic, it isnt too hard to max out a gfx card with todays games so I buy the best card I can get and slack a bit on CPU. For a media person, they should get the best cpu they can and slack on the gfx card since it isnt as detrimental to the system. People buy pc for people. If your a gamer, you get a little more spendy pc, if your a media person, you buy a spendy pc. If all you do is surf the net and type docs and emails, you buy a pc thatll have a decent CPU and good discrete gfx card. Lets face it, today's "average user" is evolving into a more resource hungry pc due to media and the such. I always recommend to people to not go with the cheapest pc because A: almost everyone I know runs Winblows and B: they get sub-par experiences and in the end it makes em mad while they wait for x process to do x thing. Take it for what its worth.

[pookiebear]

Perhaps-but integrated audio always works painlessly...audio cards never do. Especially when the manufacturer's name starts with "Sound" and ends with "Blaster".

Tru that, but the onboard cards eat cpu cycles as they are similar to the old winmodems. Steer clear of sound blaster but you still need a good real add-on card if you are mixing audio for production work.