Desktop PCs - Do You Still Have Them?

[yubby24]

Currently using laptop pero I want a desktop for my gaming needs. Mas madali at mas murang iupgrade.

[Jun aka Pekto]

The desktop PC still has the best bang for the buck when it comes to function, flexibility, and performance.

I still remember articles from around 2012 where journalists (aka mobile fanbois) were predicting desktop PCs would be extinct by 2016. Well, it's 2019. Ha Ha!

[grss1982]

The desktop PC still has the best bang for the buck when it comes to function, flexibility, and performance.

I still remember articles from around 2012 where journalists (aka mobile fanbois) were predicting desktop PCs would be extinct by 2016. Well, it's 2019. Ha Ha!

I remember this as well. But low and behold in 2019 I'm still rocking this oldie:

CPU =Intel i7-3770
Motherboard = MSI MS-7798
RAM = 16GB DDR3 (2x8GB)
GPU = ASUS 660 Ti (192-bit & 2GB DDR5)
Case = Antec 300
Storage = 1 each of a Seagate and Western Digital 1TB drives
PSU = Seasonic S12II-620
Display = HP Compaq LE2202x
Cooling = Deep Cool Ice Edge Mini FS
Keyboard = Dell SK-8115
Mouse = Dell MO56UOA USB
Operating System = Windows 7 with SP1

Whether people like it or not, desktop PCs are here to stay.

[oj88]

^You think that's old? I still have two PCs at home that has seen better days...

Really Old:
Main PC: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550... still going since 2009.
Lab PC (was my 24x7 media server from 2010 to 2016): Athlon II X4 630

Relatively Old:
Current media server (24x7 since 2016): Intel i5-4570

Suffice to say, Microsoft Windows 10 and productivity apps like Office made it VERY difficult to ditch PCs. That said, even the latest Windows 10 1909 still runs on 10-year-old hardware... it boggles the mind.

[Ry_Tower]

^You think that's old? I still have two PCs at home that has seen better days...

Really Old:
Main PC: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550... still going since 2009.
Lab PC (was my 24x7 media server from 2010 to 2016): Athlon II X4 630

Relatively Old:
Current media server (24x7 since 2016): Intel i5-4570

Suffice to say, Microsoft Windows 10 and productivity apps like Office made it VERY difficult to ditch PCs. That said, even the latest Windows 10 1909 still runs on 10-year-old hardware... it boggles the mind.

Agree on this. Athough we don't have a PC anymore but we have vintage laptop (a decade old) hehe.

[badkuk]

i thought i was over my builder phase a few years ago....but then they pull me back in :D

i had to build a new homelab server about a month ago. Am thinking about bumping up the RAM to 64GB and buying a couple of 120GB SSDs....and maybe a second homelab PC. So much i need to learn...

The current generation seems to be growing up without PCs though, ipads and laptops have gone down so much that it's practical to make it your home pc.


btw, is it just me or are 16GB DDR4 modules hard to come by these days? puro out of stock.

[Jun aka Pekto]

i thought i was over my builder phase a few years ago....but then they pull me back in :D

i had to build a new homelab server about a month ago. Am thinking about bumping up the RAM to 64GB and buying a couple of 120GB SSDs....and maybe a second homelab PC. So much i need to learn...

The current generation seems to be growing up without PCs though, ipads and laptops have gone down so much that it's practical to make it your home pc.


btw, is it just me or are 16GB DDR4 modules hard to come by these days? puro out of stock.

Most regular folks will be fine with mobile or a laptop. But, for those who do a lot of content creation (like my oldest kid), there really is no substitute for a desktop PC. She tried going full-time with a laptop. She ended up going back to her desktop PC as the primary with the laptop mainly for small spot-check stuff.

It's like the tax center where we get our taxes done (by volunteers). They went all-laptop the year before. Last year? I mean, earlier this year. They went back to desktop PCs.

[badkuk]

Most regular folks will be fine with mobile or a laptop. But, for those who do a lot of content creation (like my oldest kid), there really is no substitute for a desktop PC. She tried going full-time with a laptop. She ended up going back to her desktop PC as the primary with the laptop mainly for small spot-check stuff.

Way cheaper too, and you can reuse parts from older builds. Laptops are increasingly becoming disposable these days.

It's like the tax center where we get our taxes done (by volunteers). They went all-laptop the year before. Last year? I mean, earlier this year. They went back to desktop PCs.

i guess it can be cheaper as you can reuse the monitor, keyboard, etc. It's just so tedious to set up, especially for one-off events.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Way cheaper too, and you can reuse parts from older builds. Laptops are increasingly becoming disposable these days.




i guess it can be cheaper as you can reuse the monitor, keyboard, etc. It's just so tedious to set up, especially for one-off events.

I remember asking one tax preparer why they switched back to desktop PCs. He said the laptops were more prone to having their SSD/HDD get corrupted. That and the often brand-peculiar UEFI/BIOS that came with laptops. It gave their technicians headaches. Taking apart laptops were also more time-consuming. Gone are the days of user-serviceable laptops. They're becoming glorified tablets.

[grss1982]

Way cheaper too, and you can reuse parts from older builds. Laptops are increasingly becoming disposable these days.




i guess it can be cheaper as you can reuse the monitor, keyboard, etc. It's just so tedious to set up, especially for one-off events.

I've gotten this feeling a lot as well with relatives coming to me for help on their laptops. I sometimes end up telling them to buy a new one since the one they have are not even capable anymore of running Windows 10 or can barely run it with their 4GB of RAM and hobbled AMD, i3 or i5 processor. I keep telling them a 20K desktop is gonna last longer than a 20k laptop. And that the desktop is easier to fix but they insist they need the mobility of a laptop. However, I rarely see them take it out of the house, it's mostly functions as a desktop at home instead of the mobility aspect being used at all.

[chronicle]

Re laptop vs desktop.
Kahit sa bahay lang ang laptop, it takes up less space.

Yes, sadly, almost all new laptops have soldered cpu. Kaya disposable na. Unlike before na socket pa kaya you can swap out cpu's when you want to upgrade.


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[oj88]

Re laptop vs desktop.
Kahit sa bahay lang ang laptop, it takes up less space.

Yes, sadly, almost all new laptops have soldered cpu. Kaya disposable na. Unlike before na socket pa kaya you can swap out cpu's when you want to upgrade.


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I haven't seen a socketed laptop since the 90's. I was a Compaq (before they were bought by HP) techie back then.

It was a gimmick anyway. The way laptops were built back then, it would have disintegrated well before it reached the point that it needed a new CPU. Besides, this "feature" was ultimately dropped when people figured out that newer CPUs would oftentimes need newer chipsets or faster memory, etc., to take full advantage of the newer CPU.

And believe it or not, the socket takes up some space as well. The trend has moved on to making the laptop as slim as possible. And in that, every millimeter of laptop real estate is precious.

[chronicle]

^
As late as intel 3rd gen, manufacturers are offering laptops with socket.
Used to have 3 (now only 2), acer, toshiba, and hp - which is now dead.

Sadly, ultra slim is the trend like skinny pants [emoji23]

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[oj88]

^
As late as intel 3rd gen, manufacturers are offering laptops with socket.
Used to have 3 (now only 2), acer, toshiba, and hp - which is now dead.

Sadly, ultra slim is the trend like skinny pants [emoji23]

Sent from my BLL-L22 using Tapatalk

I guess it was re-offered on limited models only but never really went mainstream. Anyway, nowadays, the trend is leading everyone with older PCs and laptops to migrate to an SSD and/or adding more RAM. An SSD upgrade alone made it possible for legacy hardware to run the latest version of Windows 10. The PC in our church library has an i5 3rd gen with a conventional SATA hard disk. It's running Windows 10 1903 and it's practically unusable.

Anyway, outside of graphics professionals, enthusiasts, gamers, and boutique PC builders, CPU performance is becoming less important nowadays, at least for the general PC-using public.

[yubby24]

I want to build a Micro/Mini iTX desktop. Para madaling bitbitin kung kailangan kong dalhin. Medyo limited lang kasi ang choices pagdating sa board,gpu at coolers na pasok sa Micro- at Mini-iTX setup.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Looking at my current desktop PCs (mine only).....

My current: Intel i5-8600 with 6GB GTX 1060. I'm sticking with 1080p. So, I'm not in a hurry to upgrade the video card.

I have a 2006 1st gen Intel Mac Mini. It's been left behind even with the OS upgraded from OSX Tiger to OSX Snow Leopard. But, it's still useful as a homework computer (MS Office 2008 for Mac) and general Internet surfing.

I have a 2009 DIY: AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE with a GeForce GT 640 video card. It's currently my Linux box.

I have a 2013 DIY: AMD FX-8350 with a 4GB GTX 770. It's currently idle. I'll probably give it to my youngest kid as a replacement for her AMD A10-7850k.

[badkuk]

Dunno if it's still worth reviving my old rig. i have a feeling it's the mobo that conked out, and that the i5 processor and RAM are still OK. Problem is i think DDR3's are on the way out already?

[Jun aka Pekto]

I guess it was re-offered on limited models only but never really went mainstream. Anyway, nowadays, the trend is leading everyone with older PCs and laptops to migrate to an SSD and/or adding more RAM. An SSD upgrade alone made it possible for legacy hardware to run the latest version of Windows 10. The PC in our church library has an i5 3rd gen with a conventional SATA hard disk. It's running Windows 10 1903 and it's practically unusable.

Anyway, outside of graphics professionals, enthusiasts, gamers, and boutique PC builders, CPU performance is becoming less important nowadays, at least for the general PC-using public.

Correct. Ever since multicore CPUs appeared, CPU performance has been more than adequate for most people. Even a lowly Celeron would be more than adequate. Plus, GPU-based rendering has taken off in a big way.

I would check the RAM on that church i5. My kid has a laptop with a dualcore Celeron, SSD, and 8 GB of RAM. It does most tasks quite well outside of gaming and heavy 3D rendering.

Also, Windows 10 uses GPU-acceleration. So, older graphics might not be supported, especially older Intel ones. For example, my 2010 Toshiba netbook uses the GMA 3150. Its drivers has GPU acceleration for Windows 7, but not for later Windows. All I got from Intel is a generic driver. It feels sluggish in Windows 10 which is why I reverted it back to Windows 7. I'll convert it to Linux next year.

[oj88]

I would check the RAM on that church i5.

It's got 4GB RAM. It's not great but it ain't the worst. The unresponsiveness is attributed to its use of a mechanical SATA HDD. Otherwise, it runs Win10 just fine. You just get to see a lot of the HDD LED while you wait.

Really, SSDs makes all the difference.

[JohnM]

Really, SSDs makes all the difference.

I bought an Asus laptop with an i5 and bulked it up with 16gb RAM but kept the 1TB HDD. Not a good idea. It kept locking up and eventually collected some bad sectors. I installed a 500gb SSD and moved the OS to it. Runs like a champ now.

Just recently i got a company-issued Dell with 20gb RAM but still with a 1TB HDD. Slapped another 500GB into it a few days after.

I am now at the point where I won't mind the processor and RAM specs that much as long as it has an SSD.





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