Why are new PCs shipping with slow CPUs

[VirtualLarry]

This surely proves that todays CPUs are ALL *more* than fast enough for daily tasks.

On Black Friday, BestBuy was offering an Emachines desktop for $300, WITH 19" LCD monitor AND printer.

The interesting part to me was the CPU. It was an AMD 64-bit single-core, 1.5Ghz. Another writeup on the web claimed that the CPU was only 15 watts! I can't find that CPU for sale itself anywhere, but I thought that was pretty neat.

I also thought it was slightly disturbing, because I've got some "obsolete" 2.4-2.8Ghz P4 desktops beside of me (looking for new homes), and those machines would likely be faster than that AMD machine.

No-where in the ad did they actually mention that the CPU was single-core or what it's speed was.

 

[AzN]

To keep cost down. For basic computer tasks you don't need the best of processors.

1.5ghz should be enough long as it has decent graphics to offload when watching movies.

 

[Andrew1990]

Well the Athlon Low Voltage 1.5GHz processor is meant for a low power PC. They are ok with doing average computing or very mild gaming, but try hardcore encoding or gaming and you might want something better.

Also, when someone is going to buy a PC for $300 that includes a monitor and printer and has emachines written on the side, I doubt they are going for performance and instead going for a cheap computer that will probably sit idle 95% of the time.

 

[CurseTheSky]

It's a combination of things, really. People are worried about the economy, and people are finally realizing they don't need to spend $2,000 to get a computer for email, Internet, Word, and the occasional movie or online puzzle.

The sad thing is, many peoples' current computers are nearly as fast as these $300 specials they're buying. Once it gets bloated with software, pictures and music they've lost track of, spyware, viruses, etc. and slows to a crawl, they assume the computer should be left for dead and head out to the nearest B&M store. I've amazed so many of the non-computer-savvy simply by backing up important files and doing a fresh reformat / reinstall.

The only real advantage is the power savings, and usually some extra RAM. It helps, but I'd be curious how much money you'd actually save in electric bills versus buying another 1GB DDR (~$20-40), reformatting, and pocketing the rest.

 

[tim924]

Simply because it's a reflection of our economy,have you missed those Big-Screen TV deals from the past few years,Consumers are being conservative so are the manufactures

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
The interesting part to me was the CPU. It was an AMD 64-bit single-core, 1.5Ghz. Another writeup on the web claimed that the CPU was only 15 watts! I can't find that CPU for sale itself anywhere, but I thought that was pretty neat.

I wonder if it is a mobile processor? Some "desktop" systems use mobile chips, and even SODIMMs (RAM typically found in notebooks).

 

[Lemon law]

At least at a retail level, one can buy a decent Sempron for $21.00.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...CjCWw0fzTCjCVqHCjCdwwp

Or spend $300.00 for a fire breathing cpu and the pricey goodies that will help them perform. And at this point in time, its mostly only gamers or people that do video editing that really need the speed.

Personally I think its better to budget about $100.00 retail to get a better CPU for future needs, but many computer shoppers are basically ignorant, and they look only at the price.

But then again, your basic 8088 cpu based computer used to cost $3000 in 1982.