Think of a computer being somewhat akin to being a racy automobile or military aircraft. Both are designed around the engine, with an idea of the performance specs needed.
If you really want something that will endure, buy components individually and build your own (or have it built). This is especially true for computers since almost everything off the shelf is made to power your computer with only some basic upgrades. Working with photos, no big deal. Adding Crossfire or SLI dual-video cards means $150-$250 power supply.
My current power supply is rated 485W while I'm running an Asus EN9600GTO with only 384MB of DDR3. Yet it supports my monitor's highest setting of 1600 x 1050 in 32-bit colour. Only using 1Gb of DDR2 RAM on the main board, but I can run multiple tabs of Firefox, Yahoo IM, IRC chat, have media player open, volume control panel open, etc. It runs Gimp fine, but some of the filters you apply will take some time to process because of the sheer amount of computations needed. I have dual core 1.8Ghz CPU, so it's better than it was.
Buy a top-notch PSU and you'll get a decade or two out of it... as long as you have your surge protection in place.
The PSU can be migratated to bigger and better boards, video cards, drives, devices, etc. You just need to know the standards for the future cases or main-boards/video-cards.
First of all, I don't really understand why you posted this. The OP asked about prebuilt computer systems for ~$600, and you recommend buying a power supply (without a computer) for 1/4 of that budget.
Second, I have an SLI system with an SLI certified power supply from a quality manufacturer. It cost me $50 on sale, $75 every day price.
Third, so you have an aging computer that can run a browser and the GIMP. Congrats, I have a netbook that can do the same, but it doesn't mean that that's what you should go out and buy for your shiny new desktop. (For the record, I've never had a dedicated video card since the 90's that couldn't push 1600x1200 for typical word processor/OS usage)
A dual core 1.8GHz processor doesn't tell us much. I had a 3.0GHz Pentium D Dual-core that was significantly slower than the 2.3GHz Core 2 Duo I picked up to replace it. Clock speed only matters when comparing apples to apples, not mystery meat to umbrellas. A pentium D was just 2 pentium 4 processor die's slapped atop one another, while the Core line and then the Core 2 line, and then the i line used completely new manufacturing processes and new architectures to allow for faster real world performance with less power usage.
Lastly, and really the only reason I replied: 1 or 2 decades from a power supply? Just 1 decade ago, the average computer was an AMD K6/2 or a Pentium III. Since then, the Pentium 4 came out, adding a 4 pin ATX12V connector to the power supply. Then the Core line came out, changing the 20-Pin ATX connector to a 24-Pin connector. SATA started gaining ground in the early/mid 2000's, and used a new type of power connector from the old molex ones on IDE drives. Then, nVIDIA announced SLI in the mid 2000's, which required the 4-pin connector to now be an 8-pin connector. Then came PCI-e based video cards, which required a special 6-pin power connector for the card. (Some newer cards require more than 1 of these connectors, or an 8-pin.) All the while, a system's power requirements went from ~300W for a beefy PC to ~700W+.
I don't care if you bought the best PSU on the market in 2000, it is in no way viable today. The main power connector has changed once, a second connector has been added, and then changed, hard drive power has changed, video card power has changed, and computers are using power at levels much higher than in 2000. (As for 2 decades ago, in 1990, you weren't even likely using Windows yet, as the first truly commercially successful version 3.1 wouldn't be released until 1992.)
"You just need to know the standards for the future cases or main-boards/video-cards." Advice for those who can see the future.
I don't mean to offend you here, but some things you said are misinformed, some are just plain not true. I agree whole-heartedly that when building a PC from scratch, you should pick up a quality PSU (I like OCZ or Corsair), but there's no reason to spend more than $75 unless you're building an extremely high end computer, and plan on over-clocking. That's hardly relevant to this topic. I went back and forth all morning on whether or not I should post this, because I don't like looking like I'm picking on someone, or that I'm arrogant or a know-it-all, I've just been building computers for many years, and have picked up some good information on the matter.
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