Do you need what you pay for?

[thebrowneman]

Ok, First - I'm currently running an e5200 @ 3.25 (stock 2.5) with no volatage increase with an Akasa 965 cooler, with a 4870 512 (@785GPU/960RAM) on dual 19 inch monitors. Im using 4gb standard ddr2 800 (@866 no voltage increase) with my younger bro's old Foxconn G31 (!) mobo and the 650 watt psu that came with his pre built Zoom system, in an Antec 300 Case. All bought about 2 months ago.
I can run Crysis, Farcry 2,Grid, anything using the older Doom 3 or Unreal T engines(All in 1400*900 at highest graphics and 4X AA under DX 9c on XP)while downloading using Utorrent and firefox in the background with no problems at all.

Total tower cost - Case,CPU,RAM,Cooler,GPU,320gb hd =£300 UK - about $420 US (depending on the current exchange rate!) Mobo, and psu came from my bro, plus old dvdrw and XP I had already.

My question is- If, as most people seem to, you are just using your pc for gaming and browsing then is it worth spending so many dollars on an uber system? Is this just becoming another market where we are encoraged to spend our hard earned cash by the egging on of the Industry on upgrades that we don't really need, to benefit what we want? (note the deliberate capital 'I'! )

Damn I'm a cynical bastard and have been into PC's for 20 yrs (And I'm only 28 !) but I can't help feeling that younger and less experienced people of all ages are are being conned out of their cash for better componants than they need by this fast moving market especially at this time.
Your collective thoughts and opinions would be appreciated.
TheBrowneMan

ps sorry for posting twice - took a while to update on both UK and US forums ;^)

 

[jitpublisher]

Of course that is exactly what is going on. The whole point of selling ANYTHING is to get people to think they really have to have it, at any cost, even if they don't.
I can think of dozens of products right off the top of my head.
Cell phones. I lived practically my whole life without a cell phone until about 10 years ago. Never bothered me in the slightest bit. I had a home phone. If someone called and I didn't want to talk because it was dinner time, or I was in the middle of something, I didn't answer it. Now people think that when the phone rings, no matter where they are or what they are doing, they have to answer and blah, blah, blah, for 20 minutes about absolutely nothing at all. They just like to hear themselves run their mouths. I have one now because it is convienent, but no one "needs" a cell phone.
A hell of a lot of people THINK they do because they have had their minds advertised to the point they actually think they cannot live without one.

 

[MaDMagik]

I totally agree, the thing that makes me laugh the most is "Gaming RAM". Definition of marketing: "sponge off those who dont know" ;]

But as far as gaming go, if you have a 1080p display and you like having AA enabled than i guess you need a bit of a monster pc to play crysis at this resolution. If you dont - than you dont need that monster.

 

[jsc]

Hey, everyone wants the fast, new Binford BitBasher 7000 - the one with the hotrodded i7. .

My computer budget, while not unlimited, is largely self imposed. I could have upgraded to an i7. It just didn't give a large enough improvement in capabilities for what I do with computers to be worth it to me.
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Overclocking since 1978 - Z80 (TRS-80) from 1.77 MHz to 2.01 MHz