Why upgrade when you can downgrade?
Mikey 14 comments
For the first time ever, I am without a dedicated PC. I'll give my friends a moment to recover from that bombshell.
I got my first PC 12 maybe 13 years ago, at the time a modest Pentium 133 with 128mb RAM, 10gb hard drive, a 1MB dedicated S3 Trio software graphics card and a 4mb series 1 Voodoo 3D accelerator. That 'insane' $AU4,500 set-up made many of my friends rather jealous, some even swearing I could never possibly use all that power in my lifetime. It still brings a smile to my face. To put that into context for our less tech savvy audience, many modern smartphones have up to 10 times that power and capacity these days.
Since then I've always been an early adopter of computer technology, and once I learned to build my own PC it wasn't uncommon for me to be upgrading a component every 3 - 6 months. The last PC I built was around 6 months ago (obsolete by desktop PC standards), a monolith of power especially built for running the latest bleeding edge games on the highest settings.
Yesterday I passed on my 'monolith' to a friend who probably won't put it through the intense gaming scenarios that I did, but he's just happy to finally have a machine that doesn't take 2 minutes to launch a browser, and that makes me happy for him. For desktop duties it's certainly overkill, and this is where I recently started to think more about the big black box I become so used to 'just having'.
I think for many of us the traditional PC has been part of our lives for so long now that when it gets to a stage where the old PC doesn't work like it used to, the natural instinct is to just upgrade to the best new desktop PC you can afford. It's almost auto-pilot. Old PC no good, upgrade to new PC.
The term 'upgrade' isn't just about power, it's also about the monitor size, a better keyboard, and a host of other physical attributes, so laptops and alike get overlooked. But what about downgrading instead? To many a laptop is considered a downgrade, just because everything physical about it smaller than a desktop PC, even though it might pack more power inside. Most people won't even think about this, but if you get a laptop and plug in a monitor and keyboard you'll have a very usable and fast system with the added bonus of portability (and a few other advantaged listed further down).
So back to my reasons now. Gaming doesn't consume as much of my life as it used too, which leaves me playing a few hours on weekends only if I'm lucky, and I'll do that on the Xbox360 now anyway.
Communication duties such as Facebook, Email, Twitter and instant messaging can all be done on any smartphone, tablet, notebook or even netbook (I've done all of that on my Android powered phone since I got it months ago). General office tasks can also be accomplished, but I wouldn't recommend trying to compose a document on a smartphone. On a tablet though it's a definite reality.
So last week I seriously considered if I really needed to keep that big black box any more, and I couldn't think of a reason.
But I need something for my work (programming and designing) - so what's the solution? I already have a laptop which I rarely use, and all I need to do is plug in my monitor, keyboard and mouse and I'm all set. Though if I didn't already have a laptop I would have bought one instead of upgrading my desktop PC again.
Now I've hooked everything up to my laptop I've realised there are several advantages:
- You don't need to keep trying to sync files between 2 systems all the time
- Portability
- You only have to buy software for one machine
- You reduce your power consumption and carbon footprint
- You get the dual screen advantage
- The money you make from selling your PC can go towards something cool - or save it - your choice
- Reduce cable clutter because laptops have built-in peripherals that are separate on PC's (web cam, card reader, HDMI output for example)
- Use that empty space on or under your desk for something else
My laptop, a Sony Vaio with very usable specs, is actually spec'ed lower than the desktop PC I no longer have (it has a slower CPU, smaller hard drive and less powerful graphics). But given I have no more requirement for high end gaming performance on a PC, and because of the advantages I listed above, I consider this solution to be an upgrade - because the benefits far outweigh spending another 1K on an upgrade or 2 or 3K on something I won't be using to it's full potential.
I realise not everyone has a laptop already, and that those who play games might not have a dedicated console like an Xbox or Playstation, but I also know many people who do (and have always), and they've always upgraded to newer PC's over the years out of habit. Are you among them?
If you haven't got a laptop, the money you get from selling your PC box (depending on the specs and how much you get for it) could pay for a reasonably powered laptop or at least go towards buying one.
So step back for a moment and ask yourself "Do I really need to keep this big ugly box any more?". It really depends on your requirements. For some there night not even be any more reason to have a PC at all if they have a smartphone or tablet that does everything they need.
Smartphones and tablets are making PC's less relevant these days, and I reckon in as little as 5 years when the market is saturated with more powerful tablets and better smartphones, and with a little more awareness, we should see the traditional home PC will struggle to be among the first choice for people who need a computer or want to upgrade. And as little as 10 years to become an obsolete choice period.
I for one, am officially over the dedicated big beige box concept. You could be too.
Completely true. Dedicated home machines are becoming more and more obsolete with the advent of more powerful mobile platforms. Not only do you have the convenience of everything being in one box, but now you also end up with a cleaner work area.
...in response to this comment by Joshua Kehn. Hi Joshua - welcome to the Lime.
Another advantage I didn't think of was the silence. After a few months you start to notice the sounds of the fans inside a PC box, and they get louder with the passage of time usually from dust. But my laptop doesn't make a sound except for the occasional soft click of the hard drive - but it's barely audible and you have to try hard to hear it.
Jake Farr-Wharton
Monday 18th October 2010 | 07:40 AMMikey, I was actually contemplating writing an article last week on my duplicity - i.e. I'm now both a PC and a Mac.
I use my PC primarily for word processing and occasional light gaming and my Macbook Pro is my podcast and music and video production machine.
My beautiful little mac is the perfect setup and I've set it up similarly to yours, with a HD screen, keyboard, mouse (and all sound goes through the apogee desk) and it is so freaking perfect.
I can't do away with my PC because I often take work home and can't sync it with my mac, but I must say, as cringe-worthy as it is, I prefer the mac.
...in response to this comment by Jake Farr-Wharton. Jake...Keep this on the Q.T., but I like Mac's too. If these alternative Pads don't come out soon, I'll be buying an I-pad. I was at the computer store today, and was able to see that indeed the flat little Mac's will run the apps I need for work. I need something easy and portable to do work from home or wherever I am. And if these new Pads just run the Android operating system, I have serious doubts about them running the app I need most.
I knew you'ed understand...
f~
Rodney
Monday 18th October 2010 | 10:07 AMBrave move, Mike. I couldn't do without my PC. I've had this discussion with a friend of mine who moved to a laptop only setup about 2 years ago and just recently re-entered the home PC world.
His reason was the same as mine - it's *far* cheaper to set up a powerful PC than a powerful laptop. If I could have a laptop that matched my PC's power and had dual head graphics for the same price, I would. But the only options are Alienware and Origin PC customisable laptops and the cost of such a beast exceeds $10 - for something I can manage for $2K in a desktop (admittedly, this involves some existing components on the desktop front).
Unlike you, I game exclusively on the PC and my work requires significant amounts of RAM and processing power. This means until laptops become more customisable and available at a lower cost, I will stay using my PC for the foreseeable future.
I'll be interested to hear how your story works out over time, though.
Jake Farr-Wharton
Monday 18th October 2010 | 10:09 AM...in response to this comment by Friendo. Friendo, I have an iPad also. I use it most days on the train. To be honest, I regret the purchase. While you can absolutely perform word processing etc, and it integrates well with google docs, you can not use 'track changes' between iPad and MacBook or PC, which really kills its functionality for me.
That said, books can be downloaded for a quarter of the cost and read in much the same way on the train. I should make my money back on it when I start at university next year, but right now, I don't love it.
...in response to this comment by Jake Farr-Wharton. Jake, don't know how much "Track changing" I'll be doing. I just need an easy way to carry work around with me wherever I go 24/7. I don't need much computing power or diversity, but I do need it to run one web based app for me, and the android OS just won't do it.
"carry work around with me" What a thing to say, but when a 20 minute lapse in response to an internet inquiry can mean thousands (literally), well...My employer expects me to be on it.
f~
...in response to this comment by Rodney. "Unlike you, I game exclusively on the PC and my work requires significant amounts of RAM and processing power. This means until laptops become more customisable and available at a lower cost, I will stay using my PC for the foreseeable future."
And that's a perfectly good reason to stick with a dedicated box. Right now the most processing I need is to run Photoshop and an Apache server, which the lappy handles with ease. I am thinking about ditching MS Office as well and giving Google Docs another go. I used it exclusively a few years ago but it wasn't very mature back then. Looking at it now I can see it's come a long way.
This is also the way of the future as you well know - hosted application services. The more the better I Say.
Rodney
Monday 18th October 2010 | 11:49 AM...in response to this comment by Mikey. But the future is not here, yet. MS Office 2010 is miles ahead of Google Docs. 1000's of miles. 2010 is in fact a very nice product that natively integrates into "the cloud". I especially love the way you can live publish your PPT presentations from Office 2010 to the web (with realtime slide changes, for your audience) with no software or servers required by the end user, other than MS PowerPoint (http://www.labnol.org/internet/live-presentations-with-powerpoint/10519/).
Google Docs is an interesting online text editor. An Office Killer it is not.
...in response to this comment by Rodney. Is it free? Because if it is I'm interested.
Rodney
Monday 18th October 2010 | 12:07 PM...in response to this comment by Mikey. Not natively. :-p
None the less, horses for courses. If you can get by with the free options out there, more power to you. Office 2010 having cool features is meaningless if you don't need them.
Henk V
Tuesday 19th October 2010 | 11:50 AMthink I go one worse...not a pc has left this unit for 10 years unless it was to come back or be cannibalised... we even cannibalise junked pc's
Laptops are handy things, especially in the days of internet TV.. 1 s/video line and you have your big screen- laptop experience that usually goes on holidays (500GB of movie old television drama)
at present, 3 laptops running all sorts of fun (the mac is definitely a teenage girls machine)
1 laptop awaiting conversion to holiday only entertainment centre (nursing homing your old tax deductions). 2 pc's running big time and 2 pcs + endless bits of add ons to make a PVR from hell (and I dont even know what PVR stands for, but they do what I have been suffering for the past six years)
Laptops rock if you want to drag them around and run I/O... cant do that with a pc
Henk V
Wednesday 20th October 2010 | 07:20 AMThere is a motto in this household.. Hard drives cost a song. In 4 years time they'll be ten times bigger for a shorter song..
As much as we bitch about failed HDD (elsewhere), you should have it all backed up on an idle drive. Its probably why I bitched about my backup drive.. Most of the stuff I have collected is on my sons hard drive systems already backed up. I'll use this one just for holidays when the carp comes out (its raining...its too hot..its too dark... there's chicken salt on my chips, there's a snake in the tent...)
Me? old TV shows and movies. Everybody loves Quatermass and the original "shape of things to come".
Friendo
Monday 18th October 2010 | 01:03 AMNice setup Mike! Your article is so true. Though I am not much of a gamer, I used to think I needed to have the maximum setup to do what I wanted.
Today, the most I need to do is have about 23 tabs open on whichever browser (I''m trying to get used to Chrome) and a streaming movie going on the other monitor. These days I have a New $300. Compaq duo core, 3gb RAM/640gbHD with a fairly low end Nvidia video card that drives my two flat panel T.V.'s that I use for monitors. Primary is a 32" Panasonic, secondary is 46" JVC. I get absolutely no stuttering or bogging down as I stream a movie, and browse multiple sites simultaneously. My friends think I'm right out of Swordfish, but it's just SOP for me. Not only that, I don't have to have my glasses on, even when sitting on the couch. Although my neck does get sore sometimes from having to watch the cursor move acres across the screens.
My total investment for computing power of the highest order I have ever needed is around $460.USD including a very expensive set of DVI and HDMI cords needed to drive the two televisions.
It used to be that when I went to the Best Buy or computer store, I would need thousands of dollars of things to enhance my computing ability. Now days it seems that there is nothing that interests me...Except for the new Pad things.
f~