Omnimaga
General Discussion => Technology and Development => Other => Topic started by: DJ Omnimaga on February 04, 2010, 04:37:49 pm
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Ok so as some of you heard from me for several months alerady, this month I am supposed to buy a new desktop computer. No I'm not gonna build it myself. I am illiterate about that stuff and with Canada shipping costs, it will cost me more to build one myself, especially that stores includes Windows 7 for free with their prebuilt systems.
So for the past year, I've been looking flyers and stores to see how powerful and expensive are the computer they have on sale most of the time. However, I've been noticing something scary: as time goes by, flyers started showing more and more laptops and barely anymore desktop PCs. Only one year ago, there were 2 pages of desktop PCs in them, then around Christmas time, only two or three per flyers. Today, none at all! During that time, I also went to stores to see computer prices and same thing, despite to a lesser extent, was happening. At Staples, they only had 3 desktop PCs for sale the last time I checked. Walmart had none anymore. The rest were expensive and less powerful laptops. Zellers no longer sells computers since at least 2 years so that one is to forget and The Source by Circuit City only had two desktop PCs the last time I checked and about 10 laptops. The only exception was Future Shop (AKA Best Buy stores that has yet to be renamed): they are the only store that still sells a decent amount of desktop computers, and even then, they had some empty shelves the last time I checked.
Since the desktop computers currently for sale would fit my needs pretty well, I shouldn't have to worry about if I'm gonna be able to locally buy a computer instead of having to buy parts online and get charged incredibly high for shipping. But this is still something that made me wonder: Are desktop PCs dissapearing for good?
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Maybe they are where you live but on a global scale desktop computers are far from endangered. As of yet it's either impossible or too costly to put the power of modern desktops into a mobile form. Well, as far as I am aware. It's possible that simply there's waning demand for desktops in your area so, naturally, businesses are stocking less and less because an item that does not sell is an item not worth stocking.
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Its true that Desktop PC's are becoming less common, but I think it will take a fair ammount of time for them to disapear completely, if they do at all. Desktops will always be faster than laptops just because you have more space to work with, easier cooling, ect... Only the future will tell though, I'm rooting for them to stay around ^^
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But desktops won't disappear, laptops are just too hard to cool and to put more stufz in
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It makes me wonder if there's going to be a point where it will be plain impossible to make anything smaller...that is, I wonder if, 100-200 years from now, if you want 10,000 TB Hard Drive, 100 GB RAM and a 50 GHz processor, you will have to get a computer the size of a desk
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Things are always going smaller, and proof of this is the cheap "desktops" that are being produced that use many laptop parts and solid state drives. There are also the computers that have touch screen technology with all things being built into the monitor. I think there will always be "desktop computers" in a sense, at least for the near foreseeable future. The design will just be constantly evolving. @Dj Your specific issuse seems to be more of a local dilemma. Desktop computers are in plentiful supply where I live, I'd say it's just the local market in your area catering to what is sold the most there. That said, Bestbuy sounds like it would be your best bet locally.
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It makes me wonder if there's going to be a point where it will be plain impossible to make anything smaller...that is, I wonder if, 100-200 years from now, if you want 10,000 TB Hard Drive, 100 GB RAM and a 50 GHz processor, you will have to get a computer the size of a desk
100-200 years from now you won't need a 10 PB hard disk drive or 100 Gigs of RAM or a 50 GHz CPU. You'll be able to download your porn directly to your brain :P
On a more serious note, I agree with art_of_camelot. Desktops and computers in general will keep evolving over the years. Nothing will disappear, they'll just take on new forms.
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I personally dislike laptops because they tend to break easier. They are not done for heavy usage, they're done for school and smaller tasks in general, aka not for use several hours a day. I heard countless rants about how someone's laptop broke in the community so far. Not to mention you can get a desktop PC for $200 cheaper and it will still be as powerful
I'M not sure, but in Quebec city, the fact the shopping centers are located near an university and three colleges, this might not help desktop PCs sales, since most students will go for the laptop. IN my city, there aren't as many schools, but most people who come to buy new computers here are students anyway. I guess this might just be a local market thing, which sucks, kinda x.x
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Desktop are turning less common.
And the actual desktops sold are for people who need powerful computer and build from parts or people looking for cheaper computers and can't afford laptops.
I think desktops for home use will not disappear easily unless laptops can be as powerful as desktops without cooling problems.
But in long term, I think "fixed" computers will be servers, supercomputers, kiosk and working computers.
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Well since I had to choose between laptop or desktop (not willing to spend all my money to get both) I got a laptop.
I fixed the cooling probs with a $20 thingy that I can use to set my laptop on an angle, has 4 extra USB ports, and has 3 FAN's to cool the laptop. So it's a win win win for about $20
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Finally got my new comp!
At least the max fps at max settings in Unreal Tournament 2004 will be a huge improvement from the 15-20 at medium settings I got on my old comp and I can play Halo CE again
As for what I got, it's an Intel Core i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80 GHz with 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, 1 terabyte harddrive and a NVIDIA GeForce GT 230 graphic card with 1.5 GB video memory. I guess I should be fine for a while :P
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Niiice!! I'm assuming you got a desktop? Stats sound that way, 1 terabyte hard drive? Wow that's a lot of memory. Congratz! :D
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dam that friggin nice i wish i had a comp like that X.x
im stuck with a 897mhz 512 ram no graphics card(dell integrated graphics controller) as my desktop :( great to here though i hope you enjoy it XD
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yeah desktop computers. I am happy Staples got some new ones the other day.
I was debatting to choose Dell at first but my credit card cap is not that high to allow me to get such powerful comp and shipping might have become an issue (I and my bro are not always at home and our work schedules are unstable, so no way to setup a specific shipping date either if that's even possible)
As for building it myself I am not tech-savy and getting the pieces online would have costed a lot for shipping here, so in the end I wouldn't have got a big price difference, not to mention I would have got to buy (or... er... pirate :P) a copy of Windows
I will probably move some of my stuff over this comp at one point, altough I may still use the old one for some calc stuff if I get any issues regarding my 64-bit Windows 7
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That is a really nice PC. Congrats!
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Awesome! Congrats! Have fun! :)
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Epic bump:
So I was curious because people said Crysis is very ressource intensive and decided to give the demo a try on my computer. Let's say it is REALLY ressource-intensive XD. At 1920x1080 with everything maxed out (including anti-aliasing set at maximum), I got about 4 FPS. With anti-aliasing turned OFF, I got about 12-13 FPS. TO have like 20-23 FPS I had to reduce pixel shader quality to medium and remove post processing (what makes the image blur when turning around very fast). Then it gets quite enjoyable. But yeah let's say that game seems rather intensive on graphical card and other system requirements x.x
Starcraft 2 gives me about 15-20 FPS with every setting maxed out, 30-40 ish at 1366x768 or 1280x720 resolution.
One funny thing is how I get higher framerate in Unreal Tournament 2004 than the GOTY one (1999) :P (I get about 90 in UT2K4 and 70 in UTGOTY)
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Desktops, as in the big, bulky ones that have anything from a micro-tower and up, aren't very efficient. I don't just mean their size, but also in terms of power-usage. An average gaming desktop generally runs on a 1000 W PSU. (and this is often because the graphics processing unit demands it) There is this misconception that anytime you buy a new computer, you need to buy the absolute best components, fastest processor, most memory, etc. If you aren't actually putting this power to use, you're throwing money down the drain. What do you think you're monthly utilities bill is going to look like when you're running a 1000 W beast 24/7? This is where green computing comes in. We're getting to a point where the whole "green" lifestyle is becoming more and more popular. Computing is no exception. Newer computers are gradually decreasing their power requirements, either because hardware itself is trying to take a more power-efficient approach, or by substantially reducing the system's capabilities.
If you build a system that both fits your needs and uses power-efficient hardware, then you're getting the best deal out of it. If you're buying expensive, powerful hardware in anticipation of not having to upgrade later, you're just wasting your money. By the time significant improvements are made to memory and processing maximums, there will be some new architecture to accompany this technology, and you will likely have to rebuild your computer from the ground-up anyway. (or in the least, replace your motherboard)
Right now, I'm running 512 MB RAM and a 1.6 GHz single-core CPU. My PSU is only 200 W. I haven't upgraded because I haven't needed to thus far.
This probably seems like a long digression, but the point is: Consider what your needs are, in terms of hardware and performance. Desktops offer the flexibility of upgrading and having interchangeable components. You're also getting the most power with a desktop. Laptops are mostly good for travel / portability, but aren't as robust when it comes to gaming. Netbooks are great for ultra-portability, but are likely to only play much older games, or the few newer games that have fairly low-end requirements. They also lack any CD / DVD mediums.
Also consider how much power you need. If you're not going to be playing games like Crysis, then you don't need to worry about getting the latest and most powerful graphics cards and processors. Knowing this information can help you pick a computer that's not only more practical for your needs, but also substantially less expensive.
There are also portable desktops (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client) to consider. These are pretty awesome, but generally lack any real graphics capabilities.
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Yeah my needs were mostly so I could play most recent games at relatively good framerate, especially SC2. I could have went with what my bro bought 2 years ago, but then I would have got choppy framerate at SC2, one of my favorite game, and not enjoy it as much. I could have went for a more high end computer, but I finally decided it was not really necessary. As for power it is not much of a worry for me, though, because since I got this computer, I pay about $3 more per month on the power bill, which is partly due to the fact now my bro let his computer on 24/7 like me, and we split the costs (which are $65 a month total in average) in half.
That said, if I ever needed a computer just to program and not for gaming or multimedia tasks like video editing, I would probably never have bought a new computer. I would have got my old one repaired.
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I have 256 MB RAM and only 991.0 MHz clockspeed. I win. :P j/k
("Margin"-edit: I have to say I run a very outdated linux, so speed is not a concern. I haven't updated anything in some time. The computer is almost 10y old and not connected to the internet, so nothing fancy, but it also means I hardly need/want any bloatware like antivirus :P )
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I think Geekboy1011 has 768 MHz :P
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Damn. Someone has me beat. :P
I used to have a 600 MHz PC. It actually wasn't half-bad. I was able to run XP on it fairly well. (but it also had 512 MB RAM)
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Currently I still got my old 2.93 GHz computer. I no longer have my 350 Mhz one, tho. My bro also got a 3 GHz computer somewhere, I think. The 2.93 GHz comp has XP on it and is still used for when I make music on the old Playstation game MTVMG/Music 2000 (which requires me to record using audacity, a software that has yet to be ported fully to Windows 7)
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Ok so as some of you heard from me for several months alerady, this month I am supposed to buy a new desktop computer. No I'm not gonna build it myself.
Hi there DJ. My post is following an older topic but I am sure it will be read and found encouraging by many Desktop Owners. I am a gamer, (can you tell by my nickname? ;) ) But I am also a remote support tech. Which means all the experience I have connecting to computers around the world gives me a good insight as to the preferences people are leaning toward. I can tell you for certain that Desktop Gaming Computers will be in the mainstream for years and years. Why? Because we gamers want the "Big Experience". We want a rugged keyboard to bang out our text, a huge screen or dual screens to play our games and plenty of customizeable personal upgrades in our Towers a.k.a Cases. The software industry is deluged with game designers and they don't want a "cartoonish" experience for their end users. They want us to be "blown away" with the best software possible that takes advantage of PhysX and all other technologies for our machines to knock us out of our comfy-computer chairs! :w00t:. Desktop computers are the only way to give us the tactile, visual and audio experience we all crave. Whether it's surround sound or a magnificent pair of light-weight bass throbbing headphones, the sounds make the games so real we sometimes forget that 10 hours have passed-by since we sat down to play our games! :angel:
Nope. Desktop Computers for gamers and many other fields are here to stay, at least until everything plugs directly into our gray-matter. :crazy:
Here is my latest Desktop Build:
http://s1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff475/onlinegolfer/?action=view¤t=pcdualmon.mp4
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Heya and welcome to the forums OnlineGolfer :). Yeah you have a good point because desktops always had better specs for the price than any laptop. It just seemed that where I live, stores are trying to push people to buy more expensive laptops instead of desktops, by making desktops as hard as possible to get and advertising the laptops' mobility and usefullness for students and work.
Nowadays it's not as bad as it was it seems, but maybe it's because I went to stores in the middle of the Christmas rush recently. :P Still, there were one and half an aisle of laptops in one of the store, plus a bunch of others nearby and some Mac stuff. Yet, there were only about 5 desktop computers. In addition to that, The Source near where I live had no desktop at all anymore and Best Buy, while they had a bunch of desktops, had way more laptops and tablets.
Also something I noticed is that a lot of laptops seems to break after 2-3 years when used a lot. Not sure if it's a coincidence but it seemed desktops were more resistant to intensive usage.
By the way that's quite a nice computer you have there. Mine isn't really an high-end gaming computer, as for example Crysis will run at 12 FPS if I set shaders to something higher than medium and Starcraft II will run at choppy framerate if I max out both the shaders/lightning settings and the resolution at once, but at medium shader with everything else maxed out it runs kinda fine unless I'm playing Fastest Possible Map Ever, so it kinda suits my needs well for now. Plus Starcraft II in medium shading settings but with everything else maxed out doesn't really look that much different anyway.
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I love desktops. I have had 2 laptops with broken screens (stepping on it, lay a book on it, etc.) Desktops just seem better. And I love large screens.
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Heya and welcome to the forums OnlineGolfer :)
Thanks. I really do encourage you to visit tigerdirect.com , zipzoomfly.com or any other reputable technology/hardware site and buy a "bundle". You can even call someone and ask quesitons during the process. In truth, the bundles with a case, fans, processor, power supply, graphics card, memory, optical drive etc. is the same as putting together a model car or airplane (minus the glue) . Just take your time and assemble the computer---it's really that easy. Best of all, you will be able to buy something for about $400.00 that's worth $900.00 in the retail stores and you'll be darn proud of your first desktop build. It's the best way to get the confidence about hardware for your future desktop computer experiences.
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Just wondering... do you own a calc, online golfer (no offense if you dont, just wondering)
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Do these sites ships outside United States and do they charge a lot for it, though? I know that on Ebay, just by buying a tiny graphing calculator device, people from USA charges me $40 for shipping fees most of the time, and it takes 3-4 weeks for the item to arrive. Granted, the price would be much lower than in Canada, but if they charge incredibly high for shipping and I end up paying more in the end... D:
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Just wondering... do you own a calc, online golfer (no offense if you dont, just wondering)
No offense taken. If you are referring to some software coders use, no I don't. I am strictly an Expert Windows Advanced Power User/Tutor/Troubleshooter. I can fly the shuttle but (J/k) I didn't engineer it. ;)
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Do these sites ships outside United States and do they charge a lot for it, though? I know that on Ebay, just by buying a tiny graphing calculator device, people from USA charges me $40 for shipping fees most of the time, and it takes 3-4 weeks for the item to arrive. Granted, the price would be much lower than in Canada, but if they charge incredibly high for shipping and I end up paying more in the end... D:
Wow. maybe you should have them send them to someone in the US, who could send it to you ;)
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Actually he refers to the Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus, 84 Plus, 89 Titanium, TI-Nspire series or even Casio FX-9860G and Prizm graphic/graphing calculators we use in late hi school and college. Being the main Omnimaga website theme, several people around here love to program games, be it using the built-in program editor or via assembly/C language, for those devices, and some other people around here used to do so. Of course we got some computer/web programmers too, though.
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I was just reading about them so I would know what your abrev would mean in the future. I knew the site was for coders but when I stumbled upon DJ's thread when surfing the web for the "future of personal computers" I thought I would join and offer him my subjective point of view about desktop computers. I've connected to desktops and laptops Windows OSes only about 3000 imes since 2003.
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I was just reading about them so I would know what your abrev would mean in the future. I knew the site was for coders but when I stumbled upon DJ's thread when surfing the web for the "future or personal computers" I thought I would join and offer him my subjective point of view about desktop computers. I've connected to desktops over 2000 times since 2003 and about 1000 laptops since then. It's all on my web site.
OK. Like i said, we'll like you all the same. :)
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Welcome OnlineGolfer! Those are all good and valid points you make there. I doubt PC's are going anywhere, but the portable market does really seem to have exploded lately with all these notebooks, tablet pcs and even phones that seem to do damn near everything.
Anyhow, I don't know what your interests are, but other than calculator programming there are many PC programmers, musicians and gamers here as well. Maybe you'll find something that suits your interests here. :)