Is pc building a dying trend?

[Capt Caveman]

These are the same idiots who said mobile computing would replace desktop computing starting back in 2008.

Seven years later, desktop computing is stronger than ever.

And no, building your own will never, EVER die.

Ever.

Yeah, okay.

In 2015 tablet sales will finally surpass PCs, fulfilling Steve Jobs’ post-PC prophecy

 

[KMFJD]

? Mobile computing has been replacing desktop computing for years. It's a slow and agonizing decay for desktop computing.

There has been a gradual shift from desktops to laptops in terms of unit sales. Currently, notebooks far outsell desktops worldwide.

Furthermore, the total combined unit sales from desktops and laptops have been decreasing on a yearly basis. In contrast, tablet sales have been increasing dramatically. Tablet sales are predicted to plateau off soon, but part of that is due to increasing large phone sales.

Our company has gone from about 80% desktop to over 90% laptops in the last 10 years, it's very rare that we deploy desktops anymore, i'd say we deploy as many Panasonic toughbook tablets as desktops now.

 

[Ns1]

Yeah, okay.

In 2015 tablet sales will finally surpass PCs, fulfilling Steve Jobs’ post-PC prophecy

shut up with your facts man.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Yeah, okay.

In 2015 tablet sales will finally surpass PCs, fulfilling Steve Jobs’ post-PC prophecy

They've revised those numbers significantly:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/15/ta...android-smartphones-continue-to-soar-gartner/

There might even be more up-to-date numbers than those above, but tablet sales seem to be struggling currently compared to past years. I believe the plateau Eug referred to earlier might be happening.

 

[Capt Caveman]

They've revised those numbers significantly:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/15/ta...android-smartphones-continue-to-soar-gartner/

There might even be more up-to-date numbers than those above, but tablet sales seem to be struggling currently compared to past years. I believe the plateau Eug referred to earlier might be happening.

It still deflates the argument that pc sales are soaring compared to mobile devices. Less tablets but more mobile phones

 

[preslove]

It still deflates the argument that pc sales are soaring compared to mobile devices. Less tablets but more mobile phones

Not soaring, but they'll be around for a long time.

Mobile phones aren't replacements for PCs. They're either a 2nd device, or a 1st device for someone too poor to have a dedicated PC.

But either way, personal computers are not going away. Anyone who thought tablets would replace PCs was full of shit.

Tablets are starting to plateau for the same reason that PCs already did: why get a new tablet/pc when your current one is "good enough?" The market is saturated.

Phones have more to go because of developing markets and the entrance of super cheap chinese smartphones. For some poor dude in africa, a smartphone that calls, sends email, and surfs the web is the best, most economical device to purchase. Also, phones break more than just about any device because of butter fingers, and the US carriers hide the cost of new phones from consumers with higher fees.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

It still deflates the argument that pc sales are soaring compared to mobile devices. Less tablets but more mobile phones

Sure, I wouldn't claim PC sails are soaring or stronger than ever but I do think they'll tick up this year.

 

[mikeymikec]

Alright. I'll start keeping track here and I can let you know if I find any other place full of as much hate as this place.

P.S. Good job stereotyping me by the way.

When did I do that? I observed your behaviour:

1 - you accused ketchup79 of something
2 - when called out on it, say you can't remember if it was him, just people on this forum are like that.

And came to a conclusion that you apparently are rather quick to judge/pigeon-hole people.

Now you're accusing me of stereotyping, though it's not apparent which stereotype I've suggested you conform to.

 

[MongGrel]

Exactly. Not only that, but would you want to be a part of this conversation?

COMPANY PRESIDENT: "IT Guy, our external web presence just went down. Orders aren't coming in and we can't ship anything!"

IT GUY: "Oh, yeah, that white box VM host containing the firewall and several other servers I built looks dead."

COMPANY PRESIDENT: "Can you fix it?"

IT GUY: "Hmmm, let me check (silence for a few minutes). Ah, the motherboard is dead. I see a big black spot where the VRM used to be."

COMPANY PRESIDENT: "How long to fix?"

IT GUY: "Let me see -- well, Newegg and Amazon are out of stock on that motherboard and won't have it for another week. Microcenter and Frys don't carry it. So we're looking at 7 days for a replacement board which SHOULD be a simple swap, or I'll have to run over to Frys and grab a board that is on VMWare's HCL and build it from scratch. That'll take me a day or so."

COMPANY PRESIDENT: "WHAT?!?!?! Don't we have a service agreement with a vendor who can fix it within 4 business hours?!?!?!"

IT GUY: "Uh, no. As I posted on Anandtech, I can save money building our own servers. I saved $300 on this puppy!"

COMPANY PRESIDENT: "YOU'RE FIRED!"

As far as company things, pretty much true.

When I used to be at Honeywell, all of the in house computers where Dell's, and they even had an in house Dell office on campus to support IT there.

Everything you did, logging in for time, training, Intraweb mail and scheduling meetings, etc, was done on that system and it was consistent through 6 or so plants.

Worked for the corporation, everything was compatible to each other and easily replaceable, but I still wouldn't personally use one at home.

Have a pretty decent HP Workstation I use for MasterCam at work now, and the old huge HumVee sized X58/X5680 OC'd build I use at home on the main for general purpose, like gaming which I haven't even done much lately, and concerts in the living room, etc.

 

[AdamK47]

All of us can unequivocally agree that PC building is not dying. Those who had opinions to the contrary were obviously in the wrong and now know this. There is no point in further discussion.

 

[rsbennett00]

When did I do that? I observed your behaviour:

1 - you accused ketchup79 of something
2 - when called out on it, say you can't remember if it was him, just people on this forum are like that.

And came to a conclusion that you apparently are rather quick to judge/pigeon-hole people.

Now you're accusing me of stereotyping, though it's not apparent which stereotype I've suggested you conform to.

Alright, let's see if we can put this together and sort out the confusion.

I tried to quote all the relevant comments but this board software is terrible and doesn't allow multi-quoting more than 3.

Basically numerous people commented about how they couldn't configure a dell the way they want. I commented about how I don't understand why people thing dell is the only prebuilt game in town and that I considered people posting here naive because of that in addition to mean and hateful. Someone asked me to elaborate on that, which I thought they were just trolling. This forum has an established reputation among all the other tech forums as being "the" forum of hate. If anyone has not seen evidence of such, then they've not been reading a lot of the threads, or are glossing over it, or aren't 'getting' it. It's like ferarri has a reputation of building fast expensive cars, no one really needs proof, it's common knowledge.

IMO you're going to think that of a lot of places on the Internet if you're willing to ruthlessly pigeon-hole people into a stereotype you find objectionable.

Here is where I considered you stereotyping me, assuming I find the hate posts objectionable. I come here to laugh at the hatemongers.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

All of us can unequivocally agree that PC building is not dying. Those who had opinions to the contrary were obviously in the wrong and now know this. There is no point in further discussion.

It might not be dead but it's peak has waay past.

 

[AdamK47]

There is no point in further discussion.

 

[Sulaco]

I logged into HP's site, went to the z230's and sorted by price, then found the first CMT i7 with 8gb and without a video card. I didn't use a coupon.

And what is it with people *coughCoPhotoGuycough* that only look at one vendor before deciding the entire market can't accommodate. That would be looking at ford and saying "no one makes a decent car".

Hmmmm. Looking at HP's site, there are no Z230s in the $800s, save for this one at $829, with an i3 and 4GB RAM.
or
this one, that's even worse.

In fact, the only Z230 on their site with the specs you listed is this one, for about $1200.

(Which, not to mention, is a slim form factor with a 240W PSU)

I'm not sure what you were looking at.

 

[ultimatebob]

These are the same idiots who said mobile computing would replace desktop computing starting back in 2008.

Seven years later, desktop computing is stronger than ever.

And no, building your own will never, EVER die.

Ever.

Stronger than ever?? Laptops are now outselling Desktop PC's 4 to 1 now, and almost nobody bothers to go to the effort to custom build a laptop.

 

[boomhower]

It is for me. I used to be big into building and overclocking but haven't in years. The biggest I got into it was a water-cooled Q6600 machine. I started cutting back going to air cooling. I built a HTPC in 2011 and a NAS in 2012 and have even given those up.

I've went completely prebuilt with mostly Apple, about as polar opposite from home built as you can get. My computer is an Apple MBP. For a server I have a Synology box. For HTPC I did convert an Asus Chromebox to XBMC. I can't see myself building anything else. I just prefer to buy and go, getting lazy as I get older. Plug and play is my way. Guess that's why I like Apple so much.

 

[Ns1]

It is for me. I used to be big into building and overclocking but haven't in years. The biggest I got into it was a water-cooled Q6600 machine. I started cutting back going to air cooling. I built a HTPC in 2011 and a NAS in 2012 and have even given those up.

I've went completely prebuilt with mostly Apple, about as polar opposite from home built as you can get. My computer is an Apple MBP. For a server I have a Synology box. For HTPC I did convert an Asus Chromebox to XBMC. I can't see myself building anything else. I just prefer to buy and go, getting lazy as I get older. Plug and play is my way. Guess that's why I like Apple so much.

same. built dozens of rigs over the years, bought an iMac in 2011 and then stopped giving a shit.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Stronger than ever?? Laptops are now outselling Desktop PC's 4 to 1 now, and almost nobody bothers to go to the effort to custom build a laptop.

Laptops came on strong in the mid 1980s!!

NOBODY will do anything useful for hours on a stupid tablet or even a laptop (unless forced to by economics, etc).

Mobile will die before desktops do.

Its common sense.

 

[KMFJD]

Laptops came on strong in the mid 1980s!!

NOBODY will do anything useful for hours on a stupid tablet or even a laptop (unless forced to by economics, etc).

Mobile will die before desktops do.

Its common sense.

We are in the process of getting rid of all our laptops for our field techs with tablets (around 200-300), they're smaller, and way more mobile that the old toughbooks they had in their trucks.

Toughpad FZ-G1 Specifications

Hardware & Software Windows 8 Pro 64-bit
(with Windows 7 downgrade option)
Fourth-generation Intel® Core™ i5vPro™ Processor
Durability MIL-STD-810G, 4-foot drop and all-weather IP65 dust and water resistant design
Display 10.1-inch, HD daylight-readable, ten-point gloved multi touch + digitizer The thinnest and lightest fully-rugged, 10.1–inch, Windows 8.1 tablet
Interface & Expansion
USB 3.0 + HDMI ports + 11 optional configurations, including a choice of bridge battery, magstripe reader, SmarCard reader, or UHF 900MHz reader. And a choice of barcode, GPS, Serial, Ethernet, MicroSD, or 2nd USB port
Wireless Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth® and Optional integrated 4G LTE multi carrier mobile broadband with satellite GPS

Way better for their needs than the old Panasonic Toughbooks

 

[njdevilsfan87]

Feels good to not be part of the 99% that don't get good use out some high end PC hardware. Long live my PC building hobby. :biggrin:

Mobile is a joke, and always will be a joke for computational purposes.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Feels good to not be part of the 99% that don't get good use out some high end PC hardware. Long live my PC building hobby. :biggrin:

Mobile is a joke, and always will be a joke for computational purposes.

What I think the mobile computing apostles are missing is this - almost everyone HAS a desktop. While a short love affair for some varieties of mobile computing developed over time, people spent less upgrading or buying new desktops.

The apostles and some large hardware/software/website participants are MISINTERPRETING this temporary market adjustment as *replacement* of desktops. That simply will not happen. Ive mentioned lap tops, introduced on a wide scale in the mid to late 80s. They too never *replaced* desktops, and neither will tablets and phones accomplish that.

You might buy gloves and a hat, but you still need your jacket!

 

[mikeymikec]

Alright, let's see if we can put this together and sort out the confusion.

I tried to quote all the relevant comments but this board software is terrible and doesn't allow multi-quoting more than 3.

Basically numerous people commented about how they couldn't configure a dell the way they want. I commented about how I don't understand why people thing dell is the only prebuilt game in town and that I considered people posting here naive because of that in addition to mean and hateful.

<snip>

Yep, it still doesn't make any sense the second time you try to explain it. Perhaps it's because you're using some words in an incredibly odd and incorrect manner, such as 'naive', 'mean' and 'hateful'.

According to you, somehow it's "mean and hateful" that people didn't mention OEMs other than Dell, but it's not hate if you say nasty things directed at certain people without any justification.

Here is where I considered you stereotyping me, assuming I find the hate posts objectionable. I come here to laugh at the hatemongers.

Furthermore, I think you should avoid using words like "stereotype" until you know what they mean. If I'm stereotyping you, then I would be labelling your behaviour as being conforming to the generally known behaviour of a particular group of people (at least to users of this forum). Since ruthlessly pigeon-holing people is something common to a subset of probably every stereotypical collection of people out there (e.g. go into P&N and watch them call each other "libruls" and "conservatards" all day long), calling what I did "stereotyping" really doesn't work.

 

[irishScott]

Didn't read the entire thread but damn this forum is pessimistic. Do you guys all get off on being apocalyptic prophets or somethings?

PC building is like car modding. There will always be an enthusiast crowd large enough to keep it going. It may have been better is the heady days of the Pentium III, who cares? Is there anything stopping you from building a PC if you want to? No. So why the pessimism?

If you want objective evidence that it most assuredly is NOT dying, just look at any popular tech youtube channel like Linus Tech Tips. 295,000 views in 6 days on a 15 minute PC build guide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbDiSMQ_L_k

Dying my ass.

 

[Carson Dyle]

PC building is like car modding. There will always be an enthusiast crowd large enough to keep it going.

I'm not convinced that's true, although I'd say it's most likely safe for the next ten years or so.

But I expect most game developers will eventually abandon the PC platform as consoles become more and more powerful. PC gamers comprise the bulk of the market for DIY components, and without them most of the motherboard and case manufacturers in existence will go out of business. Combine that with the dwindling use of desktop PCs by non-gamers and the writing is on the wall.

 

[ultimatebob]

Laptops came on strong in the mid 1980s!!

NOBODY will do anything useful for hours on a stupid tablet or even a laptop (unless forced to by economics, etc).

Mobile will die before desktops do.

Its common sense.

Heh... I haven't been issued a desktop machine as my primary work system since 2001. At least I have a port replicator so I can use a real keyboard and monitor.