The Decline of the desktop PC . . . .

[Butters]

I think PC gaming might be having a resurgence when people realise that massive battles etc are not capable on current console hardware.

64 man all out war on BF3 or a maximum of 20 or so on Xbox - I know which I prefer!

I don't think I see the day where I don't have an overly powerful rig at home, I tried scaling down to a mac mini for a bit but soon found myself getting back into gaming.

[CSCD]

Interestingly, I am seeing a different trend in the market. I just recently upgraded and replaced my desktop PC. I am seeing people purchase desktop PCs with more power and options and go lighter on the power of their portable devices. In other words, you have a small portable device for being out and about and a desktop for the power work at home.

[localzuk]

I don't understand the desire for everything to be portable. I don't work in a way where I move around all the time. When at home, I don't move around and sit at random tables when using my computer. I sit at my desk, with a proper chair, and dual monitors.

Portable devices are great if you need them, but the majority of people don't IMO. A lot of people are just happier buying a 'device' that does 'x y and z', rather than a computer that does those things, plus more, and can be expanded in the future.

I'll be sticking to a desktop for my main machine both here and at work, with a laptop for when I need to work on the move, and maybe a tablet for browsing the web slouched on my bed or something.

[gshaw]

Certainly can't be bothered to build PC's anymore, but then I've never been a PC gamer so I can see the attraction if you are (not as attractive as just firing up the PS3 though )

The plus point of PC gaming is that the annoying kids can't afford the kind of kit needed to run new games so you don't get the high pitched screams "YEAH I PWNED UUUUU I GOT SOOO MANY KILLS LOOSERR" on multiplayer... pretty much the main reason I gave with after MW2 on the 360. Nice to know if there's a war our youth would be concentrating on the kills and letting the cities and weapons fall around them

I don't think I see the day where I don't have an overly powerful rig at home, I tried scaling down to a mac mini for a bit but soon found myself getting back into gaming.

At the time I thought you'd wouldn't last long without one and was proved right hehe

[MK-2]

The plus point of PC gaming is that the annoying kids can't afford the kind of kit needed to run new games so you don't get the high pitched screams "YEAH I PWNED UUUUU I GOT SOOO MANY KILLS LOOSERR" on multiplayer... pretty much the main reason I gave with after MW2 on the 360. Nice to know if there's a war our youth would be concentrating on the kills and letting the cities and weapons fall around them

thats what always got me on any online games the moment they introduced voice talk. you went from tactics to "OMG YOU CHEAT0RED ME, I HATES YOU" being shouted down your speakers.
i mean even playing dead island on PC i had one guy connect and just sit there saying "wheres the f***ing zombies at" continually. as you say, nice to know in a zombie apocalypse the youth of today would be running about calling them just to blame them for camping.

voicetalk really has put me off online play.

[dhicks]

I don't understand the desire for everything to be portable.

Size, mostly - technology is cheaper than elbow room. Give it a few years and I can't see why anyone would buy a large, full-height desktop-case PC for all-round use - I could see people buying maybe a laptop and a separate Shuttle-style machine for gaming, though.

[JonWPS]

I just don't like using laptops/tablets really. Will probably always have a desktop as my main system.

[MK-2]

Size, mostly - technology is cheaper than elbow room. Give it a few years and I can't see why anyone would buy a large, full-height desktop-case PC for all-round use - I could see people buying maybe a laptop and a separate Shuttle-style machine for gaming, though.

most graphics cards that pack a punch won't really go into a shuttle type pc i dont think. and again most of the shuttles have 2 slots for ram, no space for a separate cpu cooler other than the stock one, so if it gets hot in there it will get really hot.
a midi tower at the very least will have better cooling and room for uprades. if you bought a shuttle pc and a year down the line wanted more ram and a diff gfx card (or to SLI two) it'd be hard to fit in.

i'm not saying its the case for ALL shuttle type pc's but most are fixed size and room for fixed size components

[gshaw]

Having just squeezed a high-spec cooler into a gaming case (Xigmatek Aegir into Antec 900) there's no way you'll fit high end graphics \ CPU into a Shuttle PC anytime soon!

Onlive in theory could make things interesting but it realistically requires 100Mb+ Internet connections with no bandwidth limits... fat chance of that over here with our ripoff ISPs...

[pcstru]

Size, mostly - technology is cheaper than elbow room. Give it a few years and I can't see why anyone would buy a large, full-height desktop-case PC for all-round use - I could see people buying maybe a laptop and a separate Shuttle-style machine for gaming, though.

Games are one of the main things that have and (IMO) will continue to eat up all the power you can throw at them. Moore's law might well continue to double the power available every 18 months, but that doesn't give you double the resolution of (say) the height grid on a flight sim environment. Many PC apps will struggle to use all the power available on a modern PC (SIMS Discover apart ;-) ), but some types of games - will just keep swallowing up everything you can throw at them.

I've actually gone from a midi sized case to a HAF-X full tower. The extra space will be needed when the second Gtx 570 goes in.

[nephilim]

I personally have both a PC and Laptop...the PC now serves more as a server than anything else (pulling what I want it too from the net) and streams media etc to my xbox or tv as I see fit.

I use the laptop for comfortability. I like being able to go in bed, on my sofa, in my kitchen etc and still surf / watch youtube or iplayer and such like and do what I need to do online. I see the argument for having both, and I do

[brookesandrew]

[QUOTE=gshaw;745389]Having just squeezed a high-spec cooler into a gaming case (Xigmatek Aegir into Antec 900) there's no way you'll fit high end graphics \ CPU into a Shuttle PC anytime soon!

I read this and thought back 10 years when I worked with SGI O2's and the graphics capabilities of those small boxes, then thought SGI must have something tiny now that we will see in PC's soon... but nope, it appears SGI are out of the graphics workstation market and into servers only, so i'm guessing you're right.

[FN-GM]

I think next time i replace my desktop and laptop i will try and get a decent spec laptop with a docking station connected 2 dual monitors. Best of both worlds then.