Honest question. But it depends on the person, the more involved in computing they are and more things they need it for usually raises the price. And many people just like the idea of the wiz bang bleeding edge stuff.
Not to mention companies like nvidia raping regular people now for graphic cards who do just 2d stuff and no games.
I have an aged mac pro laptop and can get everything I'd want in a desktop for under 1200. Because I game and do graphics/photos, I'd be paying a bigger percentage of the budget on a graphics card.
And in addition to the computer question, mostly concerning desktops. People with lower computer needs do fine with a computer with everything on the MB hard wired like internal graphics and network etc, but these mb's come with expansion slots, which allows 3rd party standalone cards for graphics, network. All sorts of goodies which would drive up costs per card. Laptops have some expand-ability, but not nearly as much as desktops.
Why do people who likely just want one for ordinary use pay $2500.
What do you consider to be "ordinary use"? People have all kinds of different computer needs.
And those $300 computers tend not to have nearly as much memory as most people would want. Next time, you should consider not making a spur of the moment decision.
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