I've used Linux for a few years now, and since gaming wasn't a big part of what I do, Linux has allowed me to work on older, lower powered computers, quite effectively/affordably.
My main Linux system is a dual core celeron and I have been wanting to build a more powerful Kodi system then the Raspberry PI (and leave up as the NFS/Samba system), so I have been accumulating parts, as I find good deals.
I am pretty much down to the cpu (will get memory at the same time) and have begone arguing with myself about realistically what I need, verses want. (never really had a high powered system and while I don't need it, I am thinking of doing it once) So now I am wondering about using the celeron as the Kodi system and putting possibly one of the T based processors (35 or 45 watt, so I can use an existing power suppy), for the computer. (verses just slapping in the anniversary dual core pentium)
Wanting to see what others have and uses (how much processor does it use), as there is a list of stuff I want to play with and need a push one way or another.

Thanks

Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-3220 CPU @ 3.30GHz

SSD: 32GB drive for linux OS

HDD: 320GB for home partition

RAM: 8G DDR3 @ 1600Mhz

I don't monitor the CPU or memory usage when doing specific tasks. It's boring. I'm using linux as a desktop and I'm the only one in my household that uses linux.

If I were running a local or public server and it had more than one user, then yes, monitoring the CPU, memory, disk space and etc would be important.

Intel i3-3220 CPU 3.30GHz
HDD: 500GB
RAM: 6GB DDR3

I bought what was popular at that time.
I use Puppy linux which runs completely in RAM as my everyday use system.
It does it's job very nicely.
I only use VLC, LibreOffice, LibreCad, Firefox, Gimp etc.
And occasionally I try out some different softwares.
For general use my machine has too much power, never felt a lag.
I have tried Puppy on friend's older Pentium II, 521mb Ram, still smooth.

- Neeraj.

This won't be much use to you, but anyway:
8GiB RAM @ 1600MHz

Using full GNOME 3.14 or KDE/Plasma 5 my system idles at 0.1-0.5%

Top shows:
I probably should have bought a cheaper laptop...


EDIT & Update: Had to recompile glibc for a bug report & managed to get the "load average" to just over 4.00 using `make -j4` for about half an hour -- I haven't seen my box work so hard since I installed Gentoo...

Haswell i7. 16GB RAM.

Some things that I actually need that much power for include: building software from source, running Gamecube and Wii games in Dolphin (game console emulators are CPU-bound, not GPU-bound), and transcoding video from one format to another. If I ever decide to get back into video editing, I'll need the horsepower for that too.

AMD FX8320 8-core 3.5 GHz, 16 GB DDR3. Using KDE

Yeah, outdated processor, built on an archaic architecture, but it gets the job done still.

Most of my machines are Intel Atoms 1.6GHz with 1Gb of memory, they do all I need of them; internet, music, movies, & photo manipulation.

(I did buy an Intel i3 3.2GHz with 4Gb of ram but don't use it much because it's too loud & irritating.)

Fatmac, I have a couple of them, that work fine for day to day use.
Then I have a few Raspberry PI's for electronics and learning stuff (don't screw up your main system).

Dugan, how long does it take you to compile a kernal?
One of my wants, is to build a system with something like Gentoo or Tiny Core, where I compile it, verses just an install, day to day use system. (this was one of the area's where I thought I might benefit)

Keep em coming guys, this helps.

Usually, compiling software is good to get the most of your system usually in speed and performance -- perhaps more suited in the days of dinosaur computers. However, with today's CPU's, faster memory and bus speeds the difference between a compiled program or a binary install is neglectable in my opinion.

If I were to compile software it wouldn't be for speed or performance but an educational learning experience.

> 2nd generation Core i5-540M inside a Thinkpad with 4GB of DDR3 RAM. Running Linux Mint 17-x64 as a host with 2 Slackware -current Virtualbox guest machines, the best playground for the kernel programming activities.

> Till the last month, had the powerful Haswell i5-4440 on my desktop workstation which I bought with much enthusiasm but had to sell. So as a replacement, planing to buy an ARM board to act as a torrent box plus another playground. Still confused among Cubietruck, RPi B+ and BBB Rev c.


Regards.

CPU: Core i7-2600K @ 4300MHz
RAM: 32GB @ 1600MHz
GPU: GTX 550Ti
SSD: 64GB
HDD: 2TB x 3 (striped)

I use my machine for a little bit of everything. Game emulators (GPU does help), transcoding, compiling software, VMs, etc...

CPU: AMD FX-9370 8 Core OC @ 5Ghz
RAM 32GiB @ 1833 MHZ
GPU: x2 ATI HD 7970's /w Toxic Firmware (crossfire)
SSD: Samsung 128GiB
HDD: Seagate 4TiBx 3 (RaidZ)
FFD: 5.25' 1.22MiB Floppy, 3.50' 1.44/120MiB Superdisk Floppy

I use my machine for gaming, for the most part. Dosbox, WINE, Native, other Emu

However, I also use it for 3D graphics design (blender, softimage(2003)) and coding.
I have infastructure in place at home for virtual machines and other services that should be up all the time.

For compiling, a fast processor & plenty of ram.

intel q9300 4 core overclocked to 3ghz
8 gigs of ram
1 tera hdd

edit: load average: 0.10, 0.18, 0.12

Don't forget the ODROID's.
The PI's have a big user base with lots of examples, and the beaglebones are a bit faster (plan on one for a dedicated, learn KALI system, rather then just booting from a drive, where I can't use that computer as a test platform then). But on the higher end, one ODROID I was looking at (until I got some good deals on parts, for the primary system), has a multi core processor, and USB 3. (only missing SATA IMHO)

Honestly I think Linux has made computers more of a ubiquitos appliance, rather then a large expensive machine. (picked up the case and power supply today, only have the CPU and memory left)