Death of the PC - The Gadget Show

Shocky-FM · 2 Mar 2014 at 17:39

If you could only keep one platform, a smartphone/tablet or a desktop PC I would keep my PC.

I could live with a basic dumbphone, but not without my PC as there's just so much it can do that my phone and tablets just can't.

tbyeah · 2 Mar 2014 at 17:41

A DVD player will fail before your average PC in my experience (I've got a PC still going after 15 years, I've had two DVD players fail in three or four). So that you have to fix or reinstall something is irrelevant and untrue anyway.

airwave99 · 2 Mar 2014 at 17:46

tbyeah said:
A DVD player will fail before your average PC in my experience (I've got a PC still going after 15 years, I've had two DVD players fail in three or four). So that you have to fix or reinstall something is irrelevant and untrue anyway.

It depends what you regard as an item failing. I had a DVD player that worked perfectly for 10 years without any hardware failures. I've had a PC have hardware failures after just 4 years (however the failure was the RAM so I replaced it and it worked fine from then on). The user serviceability of a PC means that it's easy to keep going, but I think given the complexity of a desktop PC, you're more likely to get some sort of hardware failure sooner than with a DVD player.

Sliver · 2 Mar 2014 at 17:49

The Gadget Show has run it's course in my opinion.

I remember a show (think it was on Sky) called 'Chips With Everything' which was a dedicated PC show. It was hosted by Kate Russell who now does the 'Webscape' segment on BBC's Click. It was a great show and I loved it but Sky cancelled it some 10 or so years ago. Their reason seemed to be not enough viewers, which implied the PC was on the way out.

Here we are over a decade later and the PC is as strong as ever. To fill my need for TV PC shows, I just watch Newegg on YouTube now. Great reviews on all the latest PC tech and entertaining too.

DangerMoose · 2 Mar 2014 at 18:05

Ten years ago, I think the PC was still on its way in. I can certainly see how such a show might have been seriously niche back then but it was perhaps not a very forward thinking decision all the same.

SC0TTRS · 2 Mar 2014 at 18:30

airwave99 said:
The choice of desktop PCs over laptops, tablets and phones is a bit like comparing a hifi separates system to an ipod speaker dock. The smaller/cheaper solutions technically fit peoples needs, but don't offer the same level of user experience. It's surprising how many people choose to buy the not so good option, even if it doesn't really save them money.

Good explanation.

Pawnless Endgame · 2 Mar 2014 at 18:40

tbyeah said:
A DVD player will fail before your average PC in my experience (I've got a PC still going after 15 years, I've had two DVD players fail in three or four). So that you have to fix or reinstall something is irrelevant and untrue anyway.

I'm the same but with CD burners (pre-DVD times). I went through 6 burners in 3 years! :eek:

Sure a couple were warranty replacements, but the fact that I still had to buy 4 drives at £130 a pop was a bit shocking. Then in the DVD era, I think I went through just 2 drives over the next 10 years. Then I went blu-ray :-)

arknor · 2 Mar 2014 at 18:55

airwave99 said:
It depends what you regard as an item failing. I had a DVD player that worked perfectly for 10 years without any hardware failures. I've had a PC have hardware failures after just 4 years (however the failure was the RAM so I replaced it and it worked fine from then on). The user serviceability of a PC means that it's easy to keep going, but I think given the complexity of a desktop PC, you're more likely to get some sort of hardware failure sooner than with a DVD player.

I've had 2 soon 3 hardware failures since I got into Pcs sometime way back around 1998-1999

1 dead GPU that died within warranty(sold the RMA and got me an upgrade

)
1 dead HDD
soon another dead HDD because one of my ancient drives is dieing.

it's 160gb drive that's about 10 years old if not more.

in my experience Pcs rarely suffer a hardware failure and when they do it costs peanuts to fix

SC0TTRS · 2 Mar 2014 at 22:36

arknor said:
I've had 2 soon 3 hardware failures since I got into Pcs sometime way back around 1998-1999

in my experience Pcs rarely suffer a hardware failure and when they do it costs peanuts to fix

I can relate to this with a stack of desktop components and old laptops in the cupboard refusing to stop working! lol

Sure I got my old Voodoo 2 FX card somewhere! lol :cool:

bitslice · 3 Mar 2014 at 00:24

Energize said:
Hardly, SSD's have a throughput of around 5Gbit/s and latency of 150 microseconds. Even decent LAN's aren't that fast.

I was thinking more of Fibrechannel, it's up to 16Gb/s now.
Couple that with less I/O overhead for the host.

[TBR]MadMark · 3 Mar 2014 at 01:18

Just watched this and yes technology is moving on but there will always be a market for desktops I would personally say the laptop is more danger. The gadget show used to be good and im afraid it is now a shadow of the early series.
Used to go to the same school as Jason Bradbury - if I remember he was a bit up himself - a complete pratt tbh.

Wizzfizz · 3 Mar 2014 at 02:56

Sliver said:
The Gadget Show has run it's course in my opinion.

I remember a show (think it was on Sky) called 'Chips With Everything' which was a dedicated PC show. It was hosted by Kate Russell who now does the 'Webscape' segment on BBC's Click. It was a great show and I loved it but Sky cancelled it some 10 or so years ago. Their reason seemed to be not enough viewers, which implied the PC was on the way out.

Loved that show, .tv

Lance9394 · 3 Mar 2014 at 05:20

Hmm I wonder if they use a PC to edit the videos of this show

SC0TTRS · 3 Mar 2014 at 10:18

Lance9394 said:
Hmm I wonder if they use a PC to edit the videos of this show

Obsolete according to them, right?! :rolleyes:

iPad is FAR superior in every way! * Extreme sarcasm

arknor · 3 Mar 2014 at 10:35

Lance9394 said:
Hmm I wonder if they use a PC to edit the videos of this show

probably use imacs

Lance9394 · 3 Mar 2014 at 13:12

Haha PC and macs are the future, without them how do we make films, animations, photo and video editing, the list goes on

fiveub · 3 Mar 2014 at 13:26

Also servers... I doubt they store their recordings on a laptop or a tablet device.

Yes Tablets are great, however comparing a Tablet with a Laptop or a Desktop is like comparing a Toaster to a Kettle and a Cooker. They do different things!

mrk · 3 Mar 2014 at 13:34

5UB said:
Also servers... I doubt they store their recordings on a laptop or a tablet device.

Yes Tablets are great, however comparing a Tablet with a Laptop or a Desktop is like comparing a Toaster to a Kettle and a Cooker. They do different things!

Although a tablet and computer do the same thing technically whereas a toaster and kettle etc do different things

fiveub · 3 Mar 2014 at 13:39

mrk said:
Although a tablet and computer do the same thing technically whereas a toaster and kettle etc do different things

I'd like to see a tablet store 4TB worth of data and act as a NAS storage device, whilst doing film editing at the same time.

mrk · 3 Mar 2014 at 13:44

5UB said:
I'd like to see a tablet store 4TB worth of data and act as a NAS storage device, whilst doing film editing at the same time.

With Android anything is possible

If I had a spare 4TB drive then I could post a better up to date pic but for now have an old SSD flavour one!