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News PC sales down in US and Europe

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by arcticstoat, 14 Jul 2011.

  1. Whirly

    Whirly What's a Dremel?

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    Part of the problem also lies in the fact that there is a lot of 1-2 generation old tech sitting in stores and warehouses unsold. In order to get rid of it the price gets slashed and makes it even harder to sell current tech.

    Take me for instance. My business PC recently started blue screening (Pentium D 2.8Ghz). I've had it for so long I can't even remember how old it is. Anyway I was going to build a new ultra-efficient PC for myself using the i3-2100t at the end of this month. I'd costed it at £350 - £400.

    Then, last week, I came across this spec: Core i3 550, 4Gb Ram, 1Tb Samsung F3, Windows 7 Home in a SFF case for...£185 delivered. On top of that it came with a wireless kb/mouse and a WiFi N usb adapter.

    Buying the components in the PC would cost me nearly twice that. And while they are 1 generation old they are more than enough for the sort of work I do on that computer. (Heck, my old computer is up to the task and if it wasn't dying...)

    I *really* wanted to build my own work PC this time - it was going to be a project to see how low I could get the power usage. But in reality (and after much soul searching) I couldn't justify spending more than twice as much on building something very similar.

    I suspect the whole tech industry is in for some pretty lean times as more and more of this "old tech" starts to come on to the market a very low prices. Especially as much of it is more than capable of doing everything the average user wants.
     
  2. daverobson08

    daverobson08 What's a Dremel?

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    @adnoctum I think you meant to say, "have resulted" and not "has resulted"
     
  3. XXAOSICXX

    XXAOSICXX Minimodder

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    Factola #1: Massive economic crisis (thanks, bankers) - tax increases, costs of living and business increases.

    Factola #2: Game development has slowed down - graphics aren't increasing at previous rates

    Factola #3: A 3-5 year old PC *does* still play most current games at med-high settings

    Factola #4: Most people don't use their PC for games. Most people use them in businesses.

    Thus...PC sales are slowing down. Nothing to do with anything except money, and it's temporary.
     
  4. Ayrto

    Ayrto What's a Dremel?

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    The paucity of native DX11 games.
     
    Last edited: 16 Jul 2011
  5. RenaissanceMan

    RenaissanceMan What's a Dremel?

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    Challenge accepted. I completed Crysis 2 on my 3 year old relic (some parts are considerably older). This is the same "relic" I use for work every day. Usual workload consists of: 3+ browsers, one or more of Netbeans, Photoshop, Fireworks, Apache, MySQL, SVN. It does its job perfectly, although I'm tempted to add a SSD for added responsiveness. Would I notice the difference between a Vertex 3 on my motherboard and a Vertex 3 on SATA 6Gbps in daily use? Probably not, and neither would you.

    "Relic" hardware:

    Asus P5K-E
    Xeon X3350 @ 3.4GHz (400FSB - Really need to get this higher when I have the time, ran my last CPU at 450)
    4Gb Corsair Dominator 1066
    1Gb Sapphire HD4890 Vapor-X (technically only 2 years old, but it's a die shrink of a 3 year old GPU).
    Seasonic M12-600
    Tuniq Tower 120
    Antec P180 with Silent Eagle 1000s throughout.
     
  6. mrdanie

    mrdanie What's a Dremel?

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    As people have said before I believe it's due largely to the popularity of console gaming. I have a 4-5 year old build which has lasted me well until now, but I have not had a need to upgrade. Before I would upgrade at least every year, the reason being mainly so I could play the next upcoming A grade title. Those were the days when games were made not for the console gamer but were designed to be the next best thing visually, you had to upgrade to keep up and you gladly did so.

    As well as my trusted pc I own both a 360 and ps3 and play black ops on both pc and 360, just depends whose online, even though it looks far better on pc :). Both the 360 and ps3 are a few years old now, but software sales direct the developers so they make games for those in mind and the pc ports come later. Why buy a new pc for £400+ when a second hand £90 360 will suffice.

    I am now upgrading my pc, finally! :) But only because of battlefield 3, this is a game made for the PC in mind. Developers need to start thinking more about the pc gamers e.g. Hard Reset, with their far superior hardware, build a good game and people will pay to play it. I have several friends and now me and my girlfriend, all console gamers, who are upgrading solely because of the new titles being released. I hope more developers jump on board this, assuming these games do well, and we see a greater incline in pc gaming and hardware purchases. Nvidia, ati, intel etc need to push some marketing campaigns once again aimed towards the average joe console gamer "buy this to play this and it will look this amazing!" :)
     
  7. tom_hargreaves

    tom_hargreaves Comfy shoe wearer

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    Talk about making someone look like a massive cock, that was awesome! :D
     
  8. N19h7m4r3

    N19h7m4r3 What's a Dremel?

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    Oh really?!

    I played it fine on my Intel Q6600
    8GB DDR2
    and GTX 280

    Which is a 3 years old relic. These were also not at LOW settings.

    The only thing I'm upgrading/replacing is my 5 year old monitor.
     
  9. OCJunkie

    OCJunkie OC your Dremel too

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    I blame the whole tablet BS fad, people are buying $600 oversized smartphones instead...
     
  10. The_Beast

    The_Beast I like wood ಠ_ಠ

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    I don't think tablets are a fad by any means. I think they are here to stay but we need more competition to drive down prices. And just because XYZ makes a tablet doesn't mean they are competition to Apple.
     
  11. TheMusician

    TheMusician Audio/Tech Enthusiast/Historian

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    Challenge kind of accepted. My rig is 2 years old. Crysis 2 at med-high settings. HD4850 and Phenom II still running strong. Defining 3 years as a "relic" is just plain dull. Were you born yesterday? You could call my old Pentium IV 7600GT rig that, maybe, but let's be honest, in the last 3 years, not a whole lot has changed in terms of what people need in their daily lives, and surprisingly, games haven't become much more taxing. Sir, some of the original Core 2 Quads are that old, and they're just as powerful as brand new high-end i3s and Phenom II X3s!

    THIS.
     
  12. dancingbear84

    dancingbear84 error 404

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    I haven't tried crysis 2 but my phenom 555 and 4870 seems to handle recent games at 1920x1080.
    Sure I'm probably not considered a pc gamer though as I'm not running a triple screen, sli rig with an ssd. I know I will have to upgrade at some point and the spec isn't the best, but if it handles games then I kind of think "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
    By the way sorry for the tone, I just re-read it and it came across a bit... I dunno. it wasn't meant to but it's late and I can't be bothered to re write it.
     
  13. Fizzban

    Fizzban Man of Many Typos

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    I'm still using a modestly overclocked E8400 and I see no need to upgrade. When Ivy bridge arrives I won't upgrade either. I will likely wait until the next thing after that, and then get an Ivy system on the cheap...maybe. Depends if this system still holds up then. Perhaps all I will do is upgrade the gpu.
     
  14. The_Beast

    The_Beast I like wood ಠ_ಠ

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    Same here, I'll run this computer until it stops play the games I want to play or I find a really good deal and am compelled to upgrade
     
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