Desktop computers becoming a "thing of the past"

Lysander said:
I just saw that line in this article here:

http://laptoplogic.com/resources/detail.php?id=22

I've never read such rot. Who writes this kid of drivel? Laptops would never outdo desktops in terms of performance.
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But they dont need to. Your average desktop PC in a commercial environemnt will not be some dual GFX card, quadruple core 4 gig of memory, multiple drives in a RAID array behemoth. It will be a minimal spec machine, capable fo running office and a few other things. Only people with very specialised needs require specially performant hardware.

So in that respect a laptop could happily replace 90% of office-bound desktops.
 
Saying they are becoming a thing of the past implies that they will soon be outmoded and unused, which is surely not the case. People will still use desktops.
 
I went to a laptop and bought a 360 quite a while ago and have never looked back, i know a lot of people who have also moved to laptops and they seem happy too.

Most people dont need super high spec, i only wanted gaming and the 360 fixed that :)
 
I read an article recently that said laptops are outselling pcs now. It said the trend pointed to the decline of desktops.

In my opinion we will see thin clients before we see this happen. Terminals that go off the super quick internet. Lets face it if a company can get you to subscribe to something they will do there best to ake it happen. Nothing makes busines more happy than the ability to charge you for the same thing over and over again.
 
they are implying that desktops will become a minority, used in specialist applications, and by geeks who just cant imagine not having folding statistics and synthetic benchmarks to compare with other geeks.
 
With computer architecture heading the way it is I see no reason why laptops couldn't replace desktops. They won't be the amazing omgwtfbbq performance beasts but they'll be able to perform just as well as most.
 
Interesting no doubt. Its been a good 3 yrs since i last had a desktop pc..the only desktop pc i use now is the one in my office. Been using my dell laptop for the last 3 yrs and tbh i havent once missed my desktop pc, which incidentally is still sitting in the corner of my bedroom gathering dust....spent over £700 on watercooling for it but tbh couldnt be bothered to set it all up. Should really just ditch the system but havent got the time these days to do anything abouyt it.

Saying that though, my laptop which is 3 yrs old is getting a bit slow these days so over the weekend i splashed out £1600 on a new dell laptop, xps1210 one which has a 12" screen...comes with all the top end components...all in all got a pretty sweet deal.

So for me the desktop is no longer an attractive option....my laptop does everything that my desktop would do and probably more tbh.
 
Its a moot point, most people who buy a laptop have a desktop pc already, desktop market is reaching saturation, therefore the only growth to be seen is that of laptops... Makes sense...
 
Visage said:
Im not so sure. Every 10 years or so this is suggested and it keeps failing to come true....
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The infrastructure was never in palce though. I think thats whats always held the idea back.
 
Desktops are becoming a thing of the past in business. As stated most PC users do not need top of the range powerhouses PCs They need something that will run XP well, browse the internet, run a few apps, check their emails fill in a spreadsheet and write a document.

Laptops can do all this well and are able to be taken home. (thus workers are more able and willing to do overtime and can work more flexibly)


Desktops/towers are only needed by enthusiasts, gamers and developers. (imo)

Personally all my home PCs for the next 4-5 years will defiantly be desktops, however I can not say in 6 years that I will not be using a laptop as my main pc and I will no longer have a requirement for my Media center PC or my other desktops.
 
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Spawn said:
Saying that though, my laptop which is 3 yrs old is getting a bit slow these days so over the weekend i splashed out £1600 on a new dell laptop, xps1210 one which has a 12" screen...comes with all the top end components...all in all got a pretty sweet deal.
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Wouldnt mind an XPS, you can use 'em to save the galaxy and control stargates and such.
 
JaFFa said:
The infrastructure was never in palce though. I think thats whats always held the idea back.
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Not really - even in office environemnts with high speed networks it never caught on.

Even if you've got a top spec BB connection you've only got maybe a 16Mbit connection.

Compare streaming an application from your HD (sata runs at about 1.5Gbps) with one streamed over your braodband connection that runs 100 times slower.

Another example - the Office directory on my desktop machine is about 500MB in size. Streaming that over the network would take 4 minutes at least. Who wants to wait 4 minutes to open Word?
 
Visage said:
Im not so sure. Every 10 years or so this is suggested and it keeps failing to come true....
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The amount of technology they can fit into a small space now is boggling. Low-end processors that can run GUIs are now incredibly cheap too. I think the way that Web 2.0 is going most PCs used by people are going to effectively be thin clients anyway, with a lot of their PC's power going to waste just simply running a web browser.
 
platypus said:
Wouldnt mind an XPS, you can use 'em to save the galaxy and control stargates and such.
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LOL well dont think ill be doing any of that, just need something small, light and powerful and the xps1210 fits that just perfectly. But yeh they are pretty powerful laptops especially the 17" and 20" ones...they come with some pretty top end hardware and with a price tag to match as well.
 
Visage said:
Compare streaming an application from your HD (sata runs at about 1.5Gbps) with one streamed over your braodband connection that runs 100 times slower.
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You'd be surprised at how poor your hard disk's performance actually is. 50MB/s is pretty par for the course, unless you have SCSI.
 
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