Why the desktop PC is far from dead

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    Why the desktop PC is far from dead


    Posted: 21 Jan 2015
    Pundits love making bold proclamations that things are dead, and if the commentators are to be believed, the desktop PC needs to get ready for the biggest die-off since the dinosaurs. The idea is that the more agile notebooks are leaving the lumbering desktop PCs in their dust.

    Do the people who make these boldly overconfident claims even use PCs?

    Don't worry, the desktop PC isn't going anywhere. Yes, I know that the bottom has fallen out of PC sales in general - with desktops being harder hit than notebooks - and people nowadays find tablets and smartphones to be far more exciting, the desktop PC isn't going anywhere.

    Here are just a few reasons why:

    Read more: Why the desktop PC is far from dead | ZDNet
    Brink's Avatar Posted By: Brink
    21 Jan 2015



  2. lehnerus2000
    Posts : 4,049
    W7 Ultimate SP1, LM19.2 MATE, W10 Home 1703, W10 Pro 1703 VM, #All 64 bit
       New #1

    Axiomatic. :)
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  4. jimbo45
    Posts : 5,941
    Linux CENTOS 7 / various Windows OS'es and servers
       New #2

    Hi there.

    That sentiment has been posted on W8 and W10 Forums too. Funny though as ZDNET was telling us only a few months ago why the PC WAS Dead !!.

    BTW some of the comments mentioned are incorrect in the ZDNET article -- for example if a keyboard breaks on a notebook then it's a showstopper. NOT TRUE- Keyboards on laptops are actually quite easy to replace (I bought my laptop in GERMANY cheapest place) and changed the keyboard from DE to ISL without any problem - 4 screws !!. In any case use a USB wireless one until you can get it repaired.

    Sales of Slabs (other than the "convertible type") have been declining now for a long time - an event predicted a long time ago by myself amongst others on these very Forums and we were ridiculed when "Tablet-mania" was at its height.

    PC sales did very well indeed over Xmas and are showing quite a big come back - laptops at least. People have discovered that while slabs are great for email, surfing the web and possibly watching movies while travelling in a train / bus / plane/ship etc they are NO good when you need to create say a complex presentation, mess around with spreadsheets or do other genuine "work" things where a keyboard and mouse still work more efficiently than anything else yet discovered.

    Yes you can do limited work with a tablet but it's a real pain and you certainly wouldn't spend HOURS doing that type of work just using the touch facilities of the tablet.

    Decent smart phones in any case have larger screens and can do more than the average tablet can in any case and has a lot more processing power too.

    No surprise here then.

    Cheers
    jimbo
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  5. ThrashZone
    Posts : 20,583
    Win-7-Pro64bit 7-H-Prem-64bit
       New #3

    I believe we were also ridiculed saying the surface can not replace a laptop or a desktop the later was even funnier,
    Most laptops can do almost everything a desktop can do
    It's all clean fun though
    Cheers.
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  7. jimbo45
    Posts : 5,941
    Linux CENTOS 7 / various Windows OS'es and servers
       New #4

    ThrashZone said:
    I believe we were also ridiculed saying the surface can not replace a laptop or a desktop the later was even funnier,
    Most laptops can do almost everything a desktop can do
    It's all clean fun though
    Cheers.
    Hi there

    I have a Surface 3 pro which I use daily for REAL work -- I still have a laptop (or two) on which I'm messing around with some of these new builds for testing.

    I haven't had ONE SINGLE PROBLEM in using the Surface pro 3 instead of a laptop or even a desktop -- especially with a docking station - for what I'd usually do on a desktop / laptop and the Video resolution beats the standard 1366 X 768 you see on most laptops HANDS DOWN !!!.

    I just wish the SP3 was cheaper -- but I think the brilliant flexibility of the convertible format makes it absolutely ideal for working in "Slab mode" or as a Real computer.

    Cheers
    jimbo
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  8. Lady Fitzgerald
    Posts : 9,600
    Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       New #5

    jimbo45 said:
    ...BTW some of the comments mentioned are incorrect in the ZDNET article -- for example if a keyboard breaks on a notebook then it's a showstopper. NOT TRUE- Keyboards on laptops are actually quite easy to replace (I bought my laptop in GERMANY cheapest place) and changed the keyboard from DE to ISL without any problem - 4 screws !!...
    It depends on the machine. Some are easy to work on, some are real bears, and some are impossible. I've found Lenovos are far easier to work on than Asus and Acers (the latter are in the impossible category).

    jimbo45 said:
    ...In any case use a USB wireless one until you can get it repaired...
    True that.

    jimbo45 said:
    ...Sales of Slabs (other than the "convertible type") have been declining now for a long time - an event predicted a long time ago by myself amongst others on these very Forums and we were ridiculed when "Tablet-mania" was at its height.

    PC sales did very well indeed over Xmas and are showing quite a big come back - laptops at least. People have discovered that while slabs are great for email, surfing the web and possibly watching movies while travelling in a train / bus / plane/ship etc they are NO good when you need to create say a complex presentation, mess around with spreadsheets or do other genuine "work" things where a keyboard and mouse still work more efficiently than anything else yet discovered.

    Yes you can do limited work with a tablet but it's a real pain and you certainly wouldn't spend HOURS doing that type of work just using the touch facilities of the tablet.

    Decent smart phones in any case have larger screens and can do more than the average tablet can in any case and has a lot more processing power too.

    No surprise here then.

    Cheers
    jimbo
    Right on!
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  9. Lady Fitzgerald
    Posts : 9,600
    Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       New #6

    ThrashZone said:
    I believe we were also ridiculed saying the surface can not replace a laptop or a desktop the later was even funnier,
    Most laptops can do almost everything a desktop can do
    It's all clean fun though
    Cheers.
    That depends one's needs. Multitasking that requires several windows can be a royal hurt in the donkey on the smaller single screen of the laptop. I recently had to depend on a 15" notebook for a little over seven weeks while I was out of town. Fast as the little guy is (boot time is amazing due to its SSD), I went through serious withdrawal from my three 24" monitor desktop setup with 18 macro keys on the keyboard that wasn't relieved until I got back home. All seriousness aside, as much as I love my little notebooks for traveling, multitasking, high detail graphics work, working with large spreadsheets, storing large amount of data, etc. are far more efficient and practical on a desktop than a laptop.
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  11. Lady Fitzgerald
    Posts : 9,600
    Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       New #7

    jimbo45 said:
    ThrashZone said:
    I believe we were also ridiculed saying the surface can not replace a laptop or a desktop the later was even funnier,
    Most laptops can do almost everything a desktop can do
    It's all clean fun though
    Cheers.
    Hi there

    I have a Surface 3 pro which I use daily for REAL work -- I still have a laptop (or two) on which I'm messing around with some of these new builds for testing.

    I haven't had ONE SINGLE PROBLEM in using the Surface pro 3 instead of a laptop or even a desktop -- especially with a docking station - for what I'd usually do on a desktop / laptop and the Video resolution beats the standard 1366 X 768 you see on most laptops HANDS DOWN !!!.

    I just wish the SP3 was cheaper -- but I think the brilliant flexibility of the convertible format makes it absolutely ideal for working in "Slab mode" or as a Real computer.

    Cheers
    jimbo
    If (a huge if) I were to get a tablet, it would be the SF3. It would have to take over the duties of a notebook for traveling to even barely approach justifying its procetag.
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  12. jimbo45
    Posts : 5,941
    Linux CENTOS 7 / various Windows OS'es and servers
       New #8

    Hi there

    Sometimes for all sorts of reasons we indulge in a bit of "expensive luxury". I agree the SP3 IS expensive (but no more so than APPLE kit of comparable spec- or even a really top end laptop).

    I find when travelling (of which I do a lot) being able to relax and watch say a movie in Slab mode with a nice long battery life is well worth it. On a plane EVERY gram is important - especially with baggage allowance getting tighter and tighter -- definitely if you have to travel in "Cattle Class".

    I've attached it to a huge 60 cm monitor via the docking station - the 4K video resolution is unbelievably Stunning. You do need a desktop though for quite a variety of purposes too and I haven't found a way of using a genuine multi-monitor set up away from a desktop system --I'm installing some Stock Trading software where I'll need at least THREE and preferably FOUR or even FIVE large screens -- I agree for this a desktop is the only sensible (or possible) solution so I've bought an old desktop back into service for this -- you don't need a mega fast CPU but you need very fast Internet to get good real time market data and to be able to trade almost instantly.

    Do I regret buying the SP3 in spite of the price -- No way !!!.

    Cheers
    jimbo
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  13. fireberd
    Posts : 8,135
    Windows 10 64 bit
       New #9

    There are a lot of recording studios, mine included, that still use a desktop for the main recording computer. With a desktop, I'm not concerned with cooling like a laptop. Cooling (quiet cooling) is still an issue but its controllable with a desktop. Having a large amount of I/O ports (mostly USB) is needed in recording system PC's and laptops are limited to only two or three. Using external USB hubs is not a viable option.

    My main recording studio system is relatively old in computer technology as it was built almost 3 years ago with an i7 3770, 16GB of RAM and an SSD for the OS and recording software (Sonar). But that is more than most Laptops. Probably a new desktop will be built next year.
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