I was speaking more of home environments, and "personal" computers. I can still see a need for a "desktop" (sort of) form-factor, although as I'm sure
@Kaido can attest too, more and more businesses are going with mini/micro-PCs, both for ergonomics, as well as power-savings, and possibly even cost.
Depends on the need, but for businesses, yeah mostly mini computers these days. Common tower desktop users include:
* Gamers who want big video cards need desktops
* DCC users who need GPU horsepower & big-boy toys like Threadrippers & video encoder cards
* Some businesses have special card requirements for video capture cards or specialty-connector cards
But by & large, most consumers I know go with equipment in this order:
1. Late-model smartphone
2. Laptop running Windows
3. Tablet
4. Desktop
5. Laptop running Chrome
Most home users either go with a $300 to $600 Windows 10 laptop or a full-bore desktop tower, usually for gaming purposes. Unfortunately mini computers haven't really jumped broadly into the consumer sector yet, because most people would rather go with a flip laptop or a brand-new $$$$ iPhone or Galaxy phone or something. From what I've seen, the number of people (outside of gamers) who still use a desktop PC's at home is dwindling...most people are either on their phones or laptop these days.
As far as the professional sector goes, I pretty much only install HP Z2 Mini computers in businesses these days. There are the odd times when a particular machine needs a tower cards that don't have viable USB equivalents (and I haven't had much luck with external PCIe chassis) or a DCC user needs some insane video card setup (ex. a 24gb P6000), but mostly a Z2 Mini with
vPro (remote restart & built-in IP-KVM for BIOS-level remote access) does the trick. This is my standard model: (upgradable to 64GB RAM, 8TB 2.5" SSD, etc.)
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I used to use a lot of NUC-style PC's, but an 8-core i7 in the HP MIni's is fairly future-proof for most office users (especially if the client is willing to spring for them), plus it has an excellent cooling system, built-in remote access tools, support for a bunch of displays, yada yada yada. PSU is 200 watts max, but usage typically doesn't go anywhere near that.
I have a tower myself at home for gaming, VR, and video editing, because I have a big video card & a bunch of storage drives inside of it. But it seems like most people just buy a console these days if they want to game at home. You can buy a stick computer for basic PC use for pretty cheap these days:
Plus a nice big HDMI screen:
Amazon.com: LG 32ML600M-B 32” Inch Full HD IPS LED Monitor with HDR 10 - Black: Computers & Accessories
www.amazon.com
I think largely the public psyche still has "buy a tower PC setup" in their minds, but when they go to the store & see nice laptops for reasonable prices, they usually shift towards that instead.