Desktops are dead ?

[iMcLovin]

I owned about 19 laptops, started of with a Dell and quickly migrated to Toshiba Tecra's. Had Toshiba Portege's and then went to IBM Thinkpads. The Terca's and the Thinkpads gave zero problems, the Protege's had the hinges cracking, the last Lenovo T61p is still running after 4 years 24/7. Some Thinkpads A31 that I bought close to 10 years ago and sold off 6-7 years ago, are still running.

I am not impressed by the built quality of Apple - the miniaturisation comes at a cost. There are enough reports of those who wanted to replace the HDD in the mini themselves and finished up damaging the connectors of the fan, led etc.

Nice fancy housing, reminding me of the hey days of Japanese electronics and photo equipment: nice on the outside but under the hood....

This is completely BS IMO. I'm a hardware geek, I buy more hardware than I need. The only machines I have in my house that still runs decent after 4 years are my apple laptops. And the current rMBP is of a quality that puts everyone else in shadows -from inside->out.

 

[geneking7320]

I Tip My Hat To You

And I travel a lot, my eyes have deteriorated and need a larger screen than a laptop can offer. So I use a Mac mini server 2010 (windows 7 SSD / Lion OS X 500 Gb HDD backing up the SSD) and carry a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse and use the hotel's TV. If I stay longer than a few weeks I get a couple 24" Dell e-IPS screens and donate them to the local school when I leave. (have difficulty with glossy screens too). I do not need the CPU power but need the screen real estate - much easier to follow 20-24 currency charts on a large screen / multiple screens.

Used to have laptops (had about 19 of them on last count) but no going back. No damage to computer in overhead locker on the airplane because of some inconsiderate fellow traveller pushing his / her overweight soft sided travelbag in there. (even in business/first class)

For Tom, Dick and Harry down the street a laptop is fine, not for the work that I am doing.

I salute you for donating the screens to the local school.

 

[Wardenski]

Desktops are not dead.

They are just not as popular as they once were.

Whenever there is need for a stationary machine (e.g schools universities, workstations), there will always be desktops.

 

[MacFan23]

Desktops are not dead.

They are just not as popular as they once were.

Whenever there is need for a stationary machine (e.g schools universities, workstations), there will always be desktops.

I'm not sure how broadly this applies but, when I was in school they were moving in the direction of laptops instead of desktops because it removed the need of classes having to move to a computer lab whenever they had a need for computers.

 

[fastlanephil]

Desktops are not dead.

They are just not as popular as they once were.

Whenever there is need for a stationary machine (e.g schools universities, workstations), there will always be desktops.

And when there isn't the desktop will cease to exist.

Maybe they will have a mock burial procession in silicon valley like when they buried the hippies in SF.

We just got older, cut our hair and got steady jobs.

 

[Mike Valmike]

That is complete horse hockey, you must be in your own little universe. Mac's have become far less reliable as time has progressed.

Wow, three virulenty angry posts contesting my assertion that Macs are far more reliable than PCs. Methinks thou dost protest too much. You three clearly haven't worked on PCs in any significant respect. You have to understand that with an average PC bought by an average non-tech-savvy household, the thing goes to seed in no time, due to a combination of user incompetence and shoddy construction. They are built to be disposable and they are. Most Macs are, to put it simply, made of sterner stuff. You guys are spoiled, so used to the quality of Macs you wouldn't even recognize the sh_tboxes I see on desks in some peoples' homes. PCs get BAD. They are so bad you don't even KNOW. I cringe at the sight (and smell) of some of them.

You and your constant Mac Pro failures -- this is occurring because you're trying to do something with it that it was not designed to do. I don't know what it is and I don't care; it's none of my business. But that's why you are getting those failures. Initial parts failure happens in consumer electronics, but the same component failing repeatedly, absent a misdiagnosis the first time that should have led to the replacement of some underlying culprit, is generally a telltale sign of shenanigans. You're doing something that is blowing out those GPUs. Either the real problem is the motherboard/PSU/etc or you're doing something bad that blows out the GPUs and you need to stop doing it. Either-or. There is a concrete cause for your predicament. They're not failing due to dark magic or lack of karma. If it was truly shoddy production, your problems would be far more widespread, but they aren't.

Have Macs gotten worse since the end of the PowerPC era? Possibly -- I wouldn't know. I switched when the Intel era began. Since then I've owned, for personal or business use, nine Macs. I have had zero outright hardware failures and few enough minor physical issues that none of them come to mind right now. It's anecdote, not data, but I'm batting 1.000 over here, and I doubt I'm the uniquest little snowflake in the world to be blessed with the sole specimens of invincible Apple computing while everyone else suffers with patchwork Macs held together with duct tape and twine.

 

[jvmxtra]

People who thinks desktop is dead obviously never work w/ 27 inch imac

 

[BasilFawlty]

hi

what's preventing you all to go with the macbook route ?

Nothing. I have both and love both - for different reasons.

 

[theluggage]

The more i think about it, the more i'm starting to think that Apple has held back the iMac release so as to not overshadow the rMBP. They don't want to bump it off the front page of the website just yet.

Well, they can't do everything at once.

Bear in mind that the announcement was at a developer conference - it was probably fairly urgent to announce the rMBP then so they could get developers to start supporting the retina display.

It's also quite possible that the next iMac is just going to be a bump to Ivy Bridge and USB3 and will just come as a press release or as a sideline to the Mountain Lion release with no great fanfare. Retina is only a big deal with laptops and iPads where you have a limited-sized screen and are working at 'reading distance'.

 

[Tankmaze]

I want to sit at a desk, with a large screen.

Laptops are not as powerful as rear desktops.

Desktops are not dead, Apple is just slow.

Also they will release one when its ready, They don't have to release one every 12 months.

I agree, been using mac since the days of powerbook and using an external display. And i've just bought an imac 27 3.1 last month.

I've used laptop + ext display because I meet with clients to pitch, showcase work, etc. but 90% of time I always need to work with the external display, and using the internal mbp display to work is too small. So it is a moot point, when you say desktop is dead... It really depends on your field of work, I mostly design graphics and code apps so screen real estate is very important.

based in my experience, i can never work in a cafe or public place. I need screen real estate and a quiet place to work. So when I use a laptop that is not on my work desk, i mostly used it to emailing, read news, etc.... not a real work....

So to meet with client, i will be using my mbp that i've synchronize with the imac using rsync.

 

[szolr]

I like my iMac for its nice big 24 inch screen. But I like my Macbook Pro because it's newer (so more powerful) and is portable. I can see myself getting by with just a laptop. But I guess people who use pro apps for their work will really love the extra screen real estate of a desktop.

 

[iMikeT]

Dead? Far from it in my opinion. A user like me goes for desktops for a reason that I can sum up in one word, horsepower.

Notebooks are fast enough to handle desktop level tasks on-the-go but still have its limitations. Because of the need for them to be portable, they can't take desktop chips. It doesn't have enough screen real-estate, a good external display will cost $800+. User upgrades are limited.

I think it's useless to compare desktops and notebooks when it comes to performing the same tasks. Rather, I think it's much more appropriate to state the purpose each form factor intends to serve. Desktops for horsepower. Notebooks for portability. iOS devices for consumption.

Last year, me and a friend of mine bought our Macs around the same time. I bought a 27" iMac and he bought a 17" MacBook Pro. Both of us are in related fields and needed a machine with horsepower. I spent about $2,450 (education pricing) on a BTO 27" iMac with the CPU and GPU maxed out and AppleCare and another $100 (aftermarket) to upgrade max out the RAM. He spent about the same (education pricing) on a stock 17" MacBook Pro with AppleCare. I asked why he went with the MacBook Pro instead of the iMac since he needed the horsepower and he said he needed the portability as well (dude does a lot of his work in the living room sitting on his couch in front of the tv instead of a desk/worktable ).

Who got the better deal? Me, of course. Who's hardware will outlast the other? Mine, of course.

Long live desktops with a lot of horsepower!

 

[iSayuSay]

Wow, three virulenty angry posts contesting my assertion that Macs are far more reliable than PCs. Methinks thou dost protest too much. You three clearly haven't worked on PCs in any significant respect. You have to understand that with an average PC bought by an average non-tech-savvy household, the thing goes to seed in no time, due to a combination of user incompetence and shoddy construction. They are built to be disposable and they are. Most Macs are, to put it simply, made of sterner stuff. You guys are spoiled, so used to the quality of Macs you wouldn't even recognize the sh_tboxes I see on desks in some peoples' homes. PCs get BAD. They are so bad you don't even KNOW. I cringe at the sight (and smell) of some of them.
....

From durability standpoint, Apple laptops hardly a top notch. It's not a lot tougher or more reliable than Asus, or Toshiba.

Here is some statistics:
http://smidgenpc.com/2010/05/07/laptop-reliability-ratings-which-laptop-is-really-most-reliable/
So much for boasting a great build quality, huh?

I'm not spoiled or blind and getting used to quality of Mac. Like I said I had several PC peripherals which were no less durable than Mac computer.
Some didn't need any repairs for years.

In the contrary, each Mac computers I ever owned (4 so far) had at least one repair during ownership.
As usual, Apple warranty service is great. But I'd rather have a durable machine with zero problems than smiling and amicable Genius.

 

[thekev]

Here is some statistics:
http://smidgenpc.com/2010/05/07/laptop-reliability-ratings-which-laptop-is-really-most-reliable/
So much for boasting a great build quality, huh?

I'm not spoiled or blind and getting used to quality of Mac. Like I said I had several PC peripherals which were no less durable than Mac computer.
Some didn't need any repairs for years.

In the contrary, each Mac computers I ever owned (4 so far) had at least one repair during ownership.
As usual, Apple warranty service is great. But I'd rather have a durable machine with zero problems than smiling and amicable Genius.

The only "nearly" problem free computers I've owned from Apple have been towers, and I'm not physically rough on my machines. The article references repair rates by brand. One thing I've noticed is that they don't necessarily compare remotely similar price ranges, so some brands could be dragged down by their sub $500 offerings if they are averaged out. Some of those brands might carry lower failure rates than Apple on their better offerings. I was a little surprised to see the repair rates on Lenovo hardware there.

 

[MJL]

Wow, three virulenty angry posts contesting my assertion that Macs are far more reliable than PCs. Methinks thou dost protest too much. You three clearly haven't worked on PCs in any significant respect. .

Me thinks you have to rinse your mouth with soap coz you do not know what the person on the other side has done.

I used to be a hardware and software architect and last project was 120 M USD...... I also did the audit of a futures exchange's hardware and software architecture..... Amongst big servers and other purchases I also was responsible for the purchase of 1500+ laptops and PC's per year..... I also worked in a firm that amalgamated two compnaies and had a total of 5000 staff in the location I was working and you should have heard the howls about the Dell laptops (one company had Dell, the other IBM Thinkpad T series).

So shut up accusing others that they do not know where they are talking about.

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This is completely BS IMO. I'm a hardware geek, I buy more hardware than I need. The only machines I have in my house that still runs decent after 4 years are my apple laptops. And the current rMBP is of a quality that puts everyone else in shadows -from inside->out.

Just a self proclaimed nerd at home is not the same as having to justify expenses. See my other reply. Now shut up with your accusations.

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That is complete horse hockey, you must be in your own little universe. Mac's have become far less reliable as time has progressed. When I started using Mac's you could get 10 years out of one no problems. The G4's ran like a dream -.... etc .....

Unfortunately many live in their own fantasy world, they have never heard of, or even read, the book "The four agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz.

I've already decided that I'll go for the ASrock Vision HT the moment this 2010 Mac mini server's warranty runs out.

 

[iMcLovin]

I used to be a hardware and software architect and last project was 120 M USD

woooow, yeah I guess we should all shut up for the "self proclaimed" expert here then.

Just a self proclaimed nerd at home is not the same as having to justify expenses. See my other reply. Now shut up with your accusations.

well, who said I only use computers at home and who don't have to justify expenses ? ...and, maybe you're not the only one at this forum with experience...

Don't forget you're on an Apple forum, so you shut up!....Go brag on a ThinkPad forum instead, you'll probably get some followers.

 

[JoeG4]

Nothing spectacular here, I'd probably be happy with a thunderbolt display + my macbook air, but the mba's gaming performance is pretty bad if you're playing anything heavy (hell, even portal); I can't imagine how bad it'd be on a 2560x1600 screen.

To have everything I wanted on a desktop in my laptop .. well, I did that once - I purchased a 16" 1920x1080 laptop with a huge hard drive, fast quad core processor (before the MBPs had them), and a decent GPU. It weighed 7lbs, had a 2lb power brick that I had to use all the time, and got really hot if I pushed it - even the rMBP will get RIDICULOUSLY hot if you push it.

What's the fun in that? I'd rather have a nice comfortable desktop where I can throw all the disks/gpus/ram into it I please and not worry about potentially killing it if I play crysis for 6 hours (not that I have, haha). I don't have to worry about the battery screwing up if I leave my machine plugged in for weeks on end (WOOT!), and it's a bloody desktop - towers are still friggin awesome.

Did I mention you can play really immersive games on a desktop, with the sound off, without hearing a WHEHWHERhHREIIERIERERIERERIERIIERIERIERIERIEIRIERER coming from the hinge? XD

I really like my macbook air and I'd love to swap it for a 15" rMBP even, but dang those things will not be replacing a good desktop for me anytime soon. The very point that when you get home you have to dig it out of your bag, open it, plug in all the doohickeys, and stuff.. yea nothx.

Besides, there's things I keep on my desktop I see no reason to lug around with me. Things like test webservers, and tons of videos, games, and a huuuge library of family movies/pictures. Maybe tons of virtual machines, too.

I dunno, I prefer enjoying my laptop for what it is and enjoying my desktop for what it is - mind you my desktop is an old g5. 8 years old, with 3.5gb ram and a 500gb HD I'd be a mad man but it could take a couple SSDs, a RAID of HDs, and 16GB of ram too.. can you do that with an 8 year old laptop?