Technical > PC Hardware Discussion/Reviews > Do high end custom PC's have a future?

Do high end custom PC's have a future?

reply to pandora
I wonder sometimes what would be a percentage of those geeks like people reading this post, wanting 400 dollars video cards in their computers, compared to all PC users. Dedicated graphics will always be present, because no integrated video will satisfy someone who wants solid 3d gaming (and otherwise) performance. I think there will always be market for high power GPU’s.

reply to pandora
The existence of the plethora of PC building companies (Falcon NW, Xotic, Cyberpower, iBuyPower, etc.) indicates the market is there.
--
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

reply to Ghastlyone

reply to Krisnatharok

reply to pandora
If you read reviews on most online stores such as Amazon, Newegg, etc. there are more reviews on the top end PC hardware then there are the low end hardware.

I'd even argue that this industry is even larger now days then in the past.

reply to pandora
This is more about what that person like. Some people like it high end, some like it mix. Just like cars. Some like the new model, some like the fast one and drive it in the traffic jam city. Every one cup of tea is different. For me... I use to be a mid guy. I try the low end stuff, just doesn't work out for me. Mid is ok... but still missing a little more power.

Also, home. Some like to have a house, some like apartment, some like a castle.

I think most corp use high end video card. From Graphics Design, to modeling a 3D object and rendering it. Some use it to crunch numbers for a big project. Some use it to make movies. etc.

reply to kvn864

yada yada yada Apple is only 9% of the PC market share, BMW is only 4% of the car market share.

Whatever. They cater to the elite few, and they like it, and they make a killing doing so. It's lucrative. I don't share EE Time's doom and gloom prognosis--sounds like the "PC gaming is dead!" bell that has been rung far too many times.
--
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

reply to pandora
I even question the need for a 1k system. I built a system for 700 and it runs everything on high/ultra WITH a second screen that has all sort of youtube/internet forums open. I wouldnt even know what I'd buy component wise for 1k+ without being super wasteful / indulgent. At that price level I could probably run a raid setup or get liquid cooling but I have no need for such a setup as my computer, with an SSD, already loads faster in multiplayer than everyone else and the computer boots in 14 seconds.

The reason only 6% of the market buys a 1k+ system is because that is in the range of being super indulgent and getting triple monitors, liquid cooling or RAID hard drives, something the normal market trys to stay away from.

Maaaan, I could break $500 with just storage. 512 GB Vector SSD + 2 TB Caviar Black. $750 right there. OK, OK. Knock the SSD down to 256 GB, much more sensible. Still $450 for your storage.

I am doing a complete rebuild minus the GPU/peripherals/monitors this spring (still have a rather new Vapor-X 7970). My wallet is going to cry afterwards.

I'll probably be around $1000-1200 without the GPU. If I add a second 7970, that's another ~$450.
--
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

reply to pandora
If things are broken down into several categories.

My current computer is (BLANK) enough to do what I want to do:
I click and its DONE!
fast enough (its not slowing me down much)
fast enough but I wish it was faster
Too slow and I really need more power. (barely livable)
There no way in !@#$% I'm waiting that long!

As time has moved on things have been slowly moving up the chain.

I remember my doing a thousand+ cell spreadsheet on a 8086 (no math co) and seeing the same array being calculated on a 486 33mhz. Or watching dad do a couple hundred point 2d cad drawing on a 386 dx with a 387 mathco and then moving to a 100,000 point 3d cad drawing that could be animated and simple FEA done ona 1gighz amd athlon with 2 gig of ram.

There will always be people who need massive amount of computer power and if you gave them a machine 100 times more powerful in every way they would still come back to you in a year and ask you to do it again.

Its actually pretty amazing, current video cards these days can do 3 teraflops and processors can do about 100 gigaflops of processing power. compare that to main frames. IIRC this is close to the processing power of supper computers back in 2000 or just before.

So to simply answer your question, yes there will always be demand for powerful desktop machines. This will continue until your house is able to complete tomorrows local forecast by itself. (grin)

reply to PinkyThePig
High/Utlra? So are you rating a gaming system based on the performance of wow? If so you're the one fooling yourself. Wow will run on a onboard gpu, and it's requirements are very tame compared to other games so any decent card will run wow with high/ultra settings.

People used to say that console gaming would kill computer gaming, and that hasn't been true either. Many popular titles come out for xbox, ps3, and pc. Some games remain pc only for the sheer complexity of their controls.

1k is a good average gaming build where you spend most of your money on the processor, and video card, which is how it should be.
--
I distrust those people who know so well what god wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires- Susan B. Anthony
Yesterday we obeyed kings, and bent out necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to the truth- Kahlil G.

reply to El Quintron

reply to PinkyThePig
A second video card, or a dedicated physx card if you use amd, aftermarket/better aftermarket cpu coolers, aftermarket gpu coolers, liquid cooling, an ssd for a boot drive, two ssds in raid 0 for boot drives, 4(at least 2 TB) wd red/hatachi deskstar/wd re4 drives in a raid 10 for back up, high intel extreme i7(dat 6 core and 12 threads that can still overclock like a boss), really high end motherboards with 2 cpu slots, 2 i7(possibly xeon if you want to go that way) for said dual cpu motherboard, 64GB+ ram, multiple 1440p/1600p monitors, multiple 120hz/ips monitors, multiple 3D monitors, ect.

Yes I realize that stuff is way more than $1000(and one heck of a bad sentence structure), but there exist people who want that extra stuff, and people who need it even.

Who does dedicated PhysX cards anymore?

reply to Krisnatharok