Unless one is deeply involved with highly complex video/photo processing, extreme photoshop, mega 3D gaming, serious architectural/design CAD, and/or multiple high processor usage applications at the same time there is little economic justification of a mini-Cray at home.In my time, in the beginning we learned, in some basic programing and DOS on a 286 back in '84, and certianly the adaje is the same, maybe today there is a new acronym, but then it was - GOGO!
Then it becomes just bragging rights.
Web surfing, normal spreadsheets/accounting apps, emails, entertainment (not mega gaming), simple Photoshop/Dreamweaver, youtube video processing, etc., can be easily done on a pedestrian low-to-midrange machine with a decent processor, 2-3gb RAM and a good video card with decent onboard memory.
The best development in hardware in the last few years is the advent of the SSD. A lot of the other stuff is planned obsolescence.