Where will the small form factor market be in 5 years?

[minervx]

There hasn't been much if any improvement at all in this space in the past 5 years.  SFX power supplies are still $100+ for anything decent.  There's a lack of truly compact cases (with decent airflow) under $100. 

 

The fundamentals issues still exist:

• GPU's/CPU's in the desktop market demanding more power.  Enthusiasts who spend $1000+ on a machine want the best performance possible.
• People don't want to pay more for less.
• Lack of coordination between manufacturers.  Companies like Apple, MS and Sony can get powerful efficient yet small machines because they buy in bulk, sell in bulk and they pick parts that work well together.  But a base of niche consumers buying different products from different companies won't get that bulk savings.

I'd expect modest improvement, maybe somewhat faster in improvement than the last 5 years, but I'd still temper my expectations.  

[Eigenvektor]

DIY SFF is essentially a niche market, so low volume and high prices.

[minervx]

Yes, though with gaming consoles, laptops and tablets, it's a broad market.  Small form factor tends to work better when it's not DIY.  A company can decide the exact shape, dimension and location of each part, in context of other parts, saving space.

 

One possible solution would be for the same company to sell a bundle of a Case + SFX power supply + case fans.  And since it's a higher ticket sale, the savings could be passed onto the consumer.  Maybe they pay $150 for the bundle instead of $200 for the parts separately. 

[Eigenvektor]

12 minutes ago, minervx said:

Yes, though with gaming consoles, laptops and tablets, it's a broad market.

But you can't buy the hardware you find in consoles, laptops or tablets on the open market. While those are high volume parts, they are generally only created for a specific integrator. So these parts being high volume has no influence on the DIY market whatsoever.

 

~edit: You are right that companies could try to sell bundles which then could become cheaper if they are high volume. But if that specific bundle doesn't appeal to people building their own system, then the price won't come down.

[Blue4130]

7 hours ago, minervx said:

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• Lack of coordination between manufacturers.  Companies like Apple, MS and Sony can get powerful efficient yet small machines because they buy in bulk, sell in bulk and they pick parts that work well together.  But a base of niche consumers buying different products from different companies won't get that bulk savings.

 

These large companies can make fast, small, efficient machines because they are *highly* integrated, something that the average diy builder would be unable to do. Not many home diy people are going to be able to solder ram or cpu's or storage to boards, let alone design something as tightly integrated as a mac mini.

[Monkey Dust]

The biggest problem right now is unnecessarily GPU coolers.  A lot of the 40 series cards are power efficient, as is the 7800X3D. But apparently everything needs a 4090 sized cooler

 

 

[minervx]

Quote

These large companies can make fast, small, efficient machines because they are *highly* integrated, something that the average diy builder would be unable to do. 

This is true.  But there is still a lot of wasted space in most builds.

 

Most people are only using 1 PCI-E slot - not 2 or 3.  Most people aren't using 3+ hard drives.  And if an SFX power supply can do the same job as an ATX power supply, ATX should be redundant for most builds.

 

It's an unfortunate paradox in lower-end PC's.  Someone building a $600-700 PC, probably doesn't need a giant graphics card, giant cooler, and a giant case.  Their parts would theoretically work fine in a compact build, except they need to go with a large build because it's cheaper.

 

If everyone did band together and go for a compact build it would sell, but because they don't, it's too expensive.   A real prisoner's dillemma.