Building custom machines is hardly necessary for the "average" consumer anymore. In Dell's heyday, you could allocate your money toward the components that mos

Building custom machines is hardly necessary for the "average" consumer anymore. In Dell's heyday, you could allocate your money toward the components that most-impacted your day-to-day usage. Want a bigger monitor? How about a faster processor? Don't store many pictures? No worry, no need to pay for what you won't use. Now, for $500 the average consumer can get a computer that meets the vast majority of their needs.