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The PC is interesting again

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Re: The PC is interesting again

#11

Post by nommm-nommm »

muninn_ wrote: post #5

That Dell has a nice looking screen, but then they go and ruin it with the carbon-fiber-looking body. I'd also have to be able to run some operating system that isn't Windows (I'll never use Windows again) without having to screw around with drivers or other annoying quirks. Until it's beautiful and comes with a non-junky operating system I'm stuck with Mac. With that being said, I'm very glad to see other manufactur…

I don't know what the options look like but Dell sells Linux laptops too. So does System76 but those ones looked a little clunky last I checked them out.

Re: The PC is interesting again

#12

Post by dostick »

delegate wrote: post #7

Yep. Yesterday was the first time in many years when I decided to check out how much a good gaming PC would cost me today. The price for a i7 6700K 4.1GHz, 32GB RAM, 500GB SSD and nVidia GTX 1070: €1515 EUR (case and CPU cooler included). Add a €360 27" Monitor and the total goes to € 1875. Let's round that up to €2000. A similarly powered iMac (i7, 32GB RAM, 500GB SSD and an inferior Radeon R9 M395X) costs exactly:…

Well that iMac has 5K display. Try to find that for your PC and see how much it costs together.

Re: The PC is interesting again

#13

Post by 0x0 »

freehunter wrote: post #9
delegate wrote: post #7

Yep. Yesterday was the first time in many years when I decided to check out how much a good gaming PC would cost me today. The price for a i7 6700K 4.1GHz, 32GB RAM, 500GB SSD and nVidia GTX 1070: €1515 EUR (case and CPU cooler included). Add a €360 27" Monitor and the total goes to € 1875. Let's round that up to €2000. A similarly powered iMac (i7, 32GB RAM, 500GB SSD and an inferior Radeon R9 M395X) costs exactly:…

Ridiculous argument. Macs have never been the value proposition, especially when they get fully loaded. Any literally any point in the history of the Mac, you could say "but you can get a comparable PC cheaper!" and it would be true. Macs have always been expensive, everyone has always complained that they're expensive, and they will continue to be expensive. This isn't new.

Nah. In 2013, macs were slightly more expensive than a comparable PC spec-wise, but still a fairly good deal. In 2016, the prices appear to have almost doubled and is totally unreasonable, while the specs are... malnourished. They even took away the escape key and the magsafe port. :(

Re: The PC is interesting again

#14

Post by freehunter »

zouhair wrote: post #8

When did they stop being interesting?

I would actually argue that this is the least interesting that PCs have ever been. The only thing they're doing that's interesting is copying features from more interesting form factors like tablets and cell phones. The PC (laptop/desktop, doesn't matter the OS) is complete.

This years fastest processor is exactly the same speed as last year. This years video card plays the same games as last year. What interesting things do we have? A touchscreen? It's interesting because it turns out PC into a tablet. Folds over on itself? Turns the PC into a tablet.

4K is nice but it's not any more interesting than any other resolution. VR is nice but that doesn't make a PC more interesting, it makes VR interesting. You can do VR without a PC.

PCs are commodity products with little compelling reason to upgrade anymore. VR is the most interesting thing happening, and most people are doing it on their phone instead of on a PC. They sell the Gear VR at Walmart, for crying out loud.

Re: The PC is interesting again

#15

Post by tyingq »

douche wrote: post #6

I'm not sure PCs are really any different than they ever have been. It's always incremental improvements, year over year. Maybe with Intel essentially stonewalled on Moore's Law improvements, graphics cards pretty well maxed out, and ssds becoming relatively standard, there's not a whole lot of room besides going after different form factors and better efficiency.

I suspect the only near-term actually interesting innovation will be docking stations (keyboard/mouse/video screen) for our phones so that we're always carrying around the same PC.

That doesn't seem too far off in the future to me.

Re: The PC is interesting again

#16

Post by adamors »

freehunter wrote: post #9
delegate wrote: post #7

Yep. Yesterday was the first time in many years when I decided to check out how much a good gaming PC would cost me today. The price for a i7 6700K 4.1GHz, 32GB RAM, 500GB SSD and nVidia GTX 1070: €1515 EUR (case and CPU cooler included). Add a €360 27" Monitor and the total goes to € 1875. Let's round that up to €2000. A similarly powered iMac (i7, 32GB RAM, 500GB SSD and an inferior Radeon R9 M395X) costs exactly:…

Ridiculous argument. Macs have never been the value proposition, especially when they get fully loaded. Any literally any point in the history of the Mac, you could say "but you can get a comparable PC cheaper!" and it would be true. Macs have always been expensive, everyone has always complained that they're expensive, and they will continue to be expensive. This isn't new.

Exactly. This has been true of every Apple product. If you compare only the specs, Macs, iPhones, iPads etc. are more expensive. If you factor in resale value or the fact that they last twice as long as a comparable Acer/Samsung device then they are absolutely worth their price.

Re: The PC is interesting again

#17

Post by freehunter »

codingdave wrote: post #2

I think this article misses the point of what we are seeing. Input and output devices are changing for the first time in decades. At the same time, cloud computing is disconnecting the computing power from the input and output devices. You now can select from keyboards, mice, touch, voice, and use local or remote computing power, to get results delivered in real time or async to screens, devices, messages, VR, voice,…

I just wrote a very long and pointless comment trying to express this very idea. It's not that the PC is any more interesting than it has been, it's that a lot of interesting things are happening in tech, and the PC is the way to access them.

It's like saying that cars are interesting again because the city built a new stadium. No, the stadium is interesting. The car is just how you get there.

Re: The PC is interesting again

#18

Post by agumonkey »

freehunter wrote: post #9
delegate wrote: post #7

Yep. Yesterday was the first time in many years when I decided to check out how much a good gaming PC would cost me today. The price for a i7 6700K 4.1GHz, 32GB RAM, 500GB SSD and nVidia GTX 1070: €1515 EUR (case and CPU cooler included). Add a €360 27" Monitor and the total goes to € 1875. Let's round that up to €2000. A similarly powered iMac (i7, 32GB RAM, 500GB SSD and an inferior Radeon R9 M395X) costs exactly:…

Ridiculous argument. Macs have never been the value proposition, especially when they get fully loaded. Any literally any point in the history of the Mac, you could say "but you can get a comparable PC cheaper!" and it would be true. Macs have always been expensive, everyone has always complained that they're expensive, and they will continue to be expensive. This isn't new.

Yeah, it's been a historical constant that Apple desktops were very pricey compared to PC with similar specs.
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