How many friends of yours that: 1) Used to own/use desktop PCs, and 2) Used to build desktop PCs themselves, still do?

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OccamsToothbrush

Golden Member
Aug 21, 2005
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825
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I do but I don't know anyone else that does anymore. Mine is like 7 years old and aside from SLI'ing a second video card 5 years ago and putting in a much bigger SSD this year I've just left it.

I'm like you, but do even less. I built my last 4 or 5 PCs and still would do it if I needed a new PC. These days though I'm long past the point of worrying about upgrades. If something goes bad it gets replaced, otherwise I don't bother. Current machine the motherboard/cpu/RAM are about 5 years old now and other pieces like the keyboard and speakers are much much older than that. The last thing I did inside the case was a new storage drive in December 2015.
 

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
58,054
12,240
136
The thing is, back in the 90s/2000s, if you wanted a competent, like, ACTUAL gaming PC, you couldn't really rely on the Dells and HPs of the world (well, back then, Micron Millenia and Gateway 2000, I know a guy that still has one of those), you had to find your corner neighborhood "whitebox builder", who generally had Taiwanese or Chinese heritage, and barely spoke a lick of English. (Not trying to be racist here, honest. Just what I remember, from a number of years doing Computer Shows in the 90s.)
I remember when we had those here. One of them knew their market and was open until something like 3AM :D
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,255
403
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I don't pry into the PC lives of my friends and coworkers but as near as I can tell, I'm the only one I know (other than my parents) who still uses a desktop. Everybody else I know has switched to laptop and phone or just phone with a few tablet users. My parents will likely switch to a laptop with their next computer purchase (if they live long enough to bother; they're really old).
Yeah my parents switched to laptops several years back and now they've actually moved on to tablets (and really love them).