Are the days of big flashy computers coming to an end?

[Imbadatnames]

Dunno. For the 3000 series Nvidia basically cranked to power dials (and size) to 11

[Quackers101]

Just now, Imbadatnames said:

Dunno. For the 3000 series Nvidia basically cranked to power dials (and size) to 11

4000 will be twice as big. and 5000 will be over 9000!

[Imbadatnames]

35 minutes ago, Quackers101 said:

4000 will be twice as big. and 5000 will be over 9000!

9000W for the 5999TiS Titan Star Wars edition. Costs $8999 which is less than $1 a watt! Great deal! “It’s so power hungry so miners won’t want it, it’s a feature”

[LogicalDrm]

Like said, these go in trend-waves. Currently we are in "big and flashy" phase with tempered glass, RGB and big AIOs. Just 5 years ago, bit after I have made decision to upgrade with ATX standard, mATX and even ITX became very popular with cases using horizotal mobo tray instead of normal vertical. This meant better airflow for GPU and case overall, something that was the biggest hinder with smaller form factor. Even AIOs started to become more popular, and cost effective to support trend to moving smaller footprint. Until RGB took over. Now small cases are only for those who want sleeker look.

 

Looking at whats popular, with enthusiasts and especially with streamers, RGB will probably keep its place for a while. And this means big and flashy will remain too. Even when the more popular streamers are for non-intrusive backgrounds with their setups, maybe with couple of colored lights for contrast.

 

On the other side, heat production vs performance in CPUs means that we could easily have very small cases with cool builds, but GPUs remain the big question. If gamers can't hold their money, backbone and principles now and demand better by not buying expensive stuff, it will be long time before competition from Intel (and others) challenges markets to adapt and look for different approach.

[Heliian]

17 hours ago, BondiBlue said:

You must be seeing some old laptops then. The newest laptop I've got around here that has an ethernet port (without being a high end laptop) is from 2015. Since then they simply haven't included it. 

I think we're living in parallel universes.  My work dell has one, it's cheap.  My personal junk dell has one.  Lenovo has them, msi has them.  

 

Maybe they're not on sub $500 laptops but they're not high end. 

 

Optical drives are gone. 

[IPD]

5 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

Like said, these go in trend-waves. Currently we are in "big and flashy" phase with tempered glass, RGB and big AIOs. Just 5 years ago, bit after I have made decision to upgrade with ATX standard, mATX and even ITX became very popular with cases using horizotal mobo tray instead of normal vertical. This meant better airflow for GPU and case overall, something that was the biggest hinder with smaller form factor. Even AIOs started to become more popular, and cost effective to support trend to moving smaller footprint. Until RGB took over. Now small cases are only for those who want sleeker look.

 

Looking at whats popular, with enthusiasts and especially with streamers, RGB will probably keep its place for a while. And this means big and flashy will remain too. Even when the more popular streamers are for non-intrusive backgrounds with their setups, maybe with couple of colored lights for contrast.

 

On the other side, heat production vs performance in CPUs means that we could easily have very small cases with cool builds, but GPUs remain the big question. If gamers can't hold their money, backbone and principles now and demand better by not buying expensive stuff, it will be long time before competition from Intel (and others) challenges markets to adapt and look for different approach.

This.  Which is why I think there's something to be said for removing all the hardware that isn't a portable furnace--and putting it in a SFF case.  Then you can custom-tailor cooling solutions strictly around the GPU and do balls-wild on how exotic and expensive you want to get with that.  I bet you could do all sorts of things that would be physically impossible or prohibitively expensive--if you were using an entire tower--but could be readily feasible with just a GPU in question.

[Mark Kaine]

On 12/22/2021 at 12:54 AM, Loozher said:

So are the days of the Big Beefy RGB Leave No Room On Your Desk Sized PC's Gone?

yeap, since ca. 1994.

 

Got any more questions,  im quite knowledgeable!  

17 hours ago, aDoomGuy said:

Well I got the Phanteks P400s and it's the smalles size I would ever want. After all I'm gonna work inside it from time to time and I'd like to do that without ripping everything out of it.

*weeps in inwin301*  there's like no space, and it was my first build too!

 

[Loozher]

Ill definitely miss this phase although its annoying and wallet breaking, i will miss it

Sooner or later our "Full Size Computer" Will be smaller than an xbox 

[Mark Kaine]

13 hours ago, Heliian said:

My work dell has one, it's cheap.  My personal junk dell has one.  Lenovo has them, msi has them.  

 

yup, my 2018 Lenovo has it of course! i feel like these things (like headphone jacks for phones) only go away because people actually seek them out and then go "yeap, its gone!"...  like if someone actually cared, they'd buy a device with features they want, there are always options.

 

13 hours ago, Heliian said:

Optical drives are gone. 

wait, what, my Lenovo has that too, of course! 

 

 

7 minutes ago, Loozher said:

Full Size Computer

i do agree atx has its advantages,  easier to built and often better (actually working) features,  but the cases are so big, even the "small" ones, almost outweighs all possible advantages imo...

 

9 minutes ago, Loozher said:

Will be smaller than an xbox 

yeah, but for mainstream probably not in our lifetimes, manufacturers will ride out current tech for decades  to come and devices won't get significantly smaller, it almost seems like cpu/gpu sizes are going up currently due to how inefficient they really are, despite smaller actual die sizes (also seen by the fact power consumption also goes up... moores law is weeping...)

 

 

[Jaesop]

On 12/21/2021 at 10:40 PM, Heliian said:

I haven't seen a laptop without one. 

You absolutely have to go out of your way to find one at this point.

[Loozher]

23 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

 

yeah, but for mainstream probably not in our lifetimes, manufacturers will ride out current tech for decades  to come and devices won't get significantly smaller, it almost seems like cpu/gpu sizes are going up currently due to how inefficient they really are, despite smaller actual die sizes (also seen by the fact power consumption also goes up... moores law is weeping...)

 

 

Since were getting closer to having mainstream quantam computers for the public, hopefully we can forget about inefficiency

People hope for mainstream quantam computers to be avaliabe around 2030, but who knows

[Beerzerker]

This is the case I bought back in March 2016 and it's the foundation of my daily: Core X5

Plenty of room for what I've got and no worries about airflow problems, either by not enough spots for fans or just impeded airflow in general inside the case.
I do like the fact these are stackable too but in my case I only needed one case as shown and it's been great.
As for what's in it I too agree PCs and such in general are getting more powerful and smaller too but it seems the smaller ones are more oriented towards efficiency vs the larger ones like my setup are for sheer processing power, no worries about efficiency when it comes down to it.

GPU's used to be really small, like just another add-in USB or modem card or something else in size but that has changed over time.
They have grown larger and so have the power requirements for them just to run and that tells me where alot of the advances are coming from and going.

Since gaming is such a big thing it's no suprise the card makers are not worried about their size or power consumption they have, as long as they sell and last long enough to make it past the warranty period it all good for them.

[Mark Kaine]

21 hours ago, Jaesop said:

You absolutely have to go out of your way to find one at this point.

that doesn't have an ethernet port you mean surely? (which is exactly what i said, you have to seek it out, if you dont want standard features)

 

random 2021 msi "gaming laptop":

 

https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GP66-Leopard-10UX/Specification

 

"GB LAN"  of course it has because most serious gamers despise wifi since its obviously terrible for anything that requires fast inputs/reactions (especially for other players ironically)

 

 

2 hours ago, Loozher said:

Since were getting closer to having mainstream quantam computers for the public, hopefully we can forget about inefficiency

People hope for mainstream quantam computers to be avaliabe around 2030, but who knows

 

yeah, who knows, but actually quantum computing isnt thought to replace traditional desktop computing,  at least not anytime soon... its not suitable,  and making it suitable will require a lot of effort, which traditional mainstream part makers aren't going to put, as long they can ride out current transistor tech (which they realistically can for decades)

 

check this vid... the qbits prof doesn't think its going to be mainstream anytime soon either.

 

 

[TetraSky]

On 12/21/2021 at 6:54 PM, Loozher said:

So are the days of the Big Beefy RGB Leave No Room On Your Desk Sized PC's Gone?

I sure hope sure.

Unfortunately, they still exist today and people get caught into trash trap when buying their first PC.
"oh flashing lights, how pretty! I really feel like a PC gamer now!"
Fast forward months later and they are either left off or hidden.

 

These days, I prefer small, quiet computers, nothing fancy about the case.

My V21 is big, but it's a cube. I'm literally using it as a shelf, blocking out the windowed panel that I put on top.

I could put my Brother MFC-7860DW printer on top of it and it wouldn't feel out of place either. It's big, yet practical, unlike regular towers that are too narrow on top to be used for anything more than small things.

[TheMcSame]

On 12/22/2021 at 6:31 PM, Giganthrax said:

I think it's the opposite. With larger monitors, multiple monitor setups, huge GPUs, huge cpu cooling towers, and 2-3 140mm fan AIOs becoming increasingly more affordable and available, large rigs definitely arent going anywhere.

Idk... I get where you're coming from, but I wouldn't say it's the opposite. Instead big and flashy is moving from the tower to the rest of the setup. As you said, bigger monitors, more monitors, RGB peripherals. But there seems to have been a bit of a move to smaller form factor cases (I could be talking complete BS, I've not exactly been keeping in the loop).

 

So I wouldn't say it's dying, just that the flashiness is moving.

[IPD]

A big case also leads to dwell.  When it comes to cooling, you want hot air to be scavenged and replaced with cool air--and you want this cycle to happen as efficiently as possible.  A big case with a lot of fans at different angles and an assortment of parts in the path of the airflow isn't going to be as inherently efficient as, say, a rectangular box with an intake fan on one end and an exhaust fan on the other end.  If you are designing specifically for just the parts that are needing active cooling, you can build a smaller container that has more efficient cooling.

 

It's not much different than the whole myth of "Backpressure" on your cars' exhaust.  Idiot tuners came up with the idea that backpressure is a good thing, because your car's power suffers if you put too big a diameter exhaust on your engine.  Well that's not the issue.  What's happening is that the diameter of tubing is capable of a much higher CFM than your engine is putting out, and thus the exhaust charge lingers (dwell) rather than being scavenged efficiently. 

[FRD]

Big computers aren't going nowhere. Many people like big setups, while others like small and prefer to save space.

In general the gamer aesthetic is in my opinion still the usual "bigger is better". It's not always the case, but gamers like something big and flashy.

I myself like a big case with a lot of fans and crazy RGB, which I have right now.

Beefy GPUs are a showoff nowadays, same goes for big monitors like the Samsung Odyssey G9 49".

Back on topic of PCs, space saving got a lot more popular lately in my opinion though. The small case market is actually huge. Small computers for the general public however are not that common yet. Yes, there are those mini PCs and compute sticks, but many people will still have normal computers over those computers or All-In-Ones for example. Unless it's Apple, which I don't consider right now among the whole computer market.

[Jaesop]

On 12/24/2021 at 8:21 AM, Mark Kaine said:

random 2021 msi "gaming laptop":

I mean, large chunky laptops will have them because they have the space and there is demand for it. Laptops for non-gaming use won't, though, and they are by far the majority of laptops.