Hardware question

[coverturtle]

David,
With the advent of USB 3.0, Firewire not so much.

Mobile devices are mostly relegated to take the place of the 
old-fashioned terminals of the past
while mainframe computers have become a network of servers and virtual 
servers called clouds.

Still there is a need for performance and local storage which the 
traditional architecture cannot
provide.  This is provided for gamers as you have indicated but also for 
the financial industry
in which individuals manipulate their stock portfolios and for certain 
competitive small businesses.
Other markets include individuals who value privacy, and illicit 
activity which desires to keep
data secure and off the grid.  The market is small but the demand is fierce.

This has also created and will continue to create for some time, a large 
surplus of used desktops
and workstations which may be had cheaply.   10-year old PowerMac G5 
towers and and Dell Precision
workstations and early MacPro Towers can be had for almost 10% of 
original cost and are quite
capable desktops for many tasks not demanding the latest technology.

Note that DDR2 DRAM has become more expensive than DDR3 even though very 
few DDR2 machines are still
being manufactured or sold.

Jon
-------------------------------(I'll fix that indenting soon. sorry)

Desktops seem to be fading fast.

Mostly you find all-in-one computers these days, plus laptops/notebooks 
and tablets.

Seems the only people interested in discrete computers are gamers who 
want to be able to constantly upgrade individual components.

That’s not to say there isn’t a ton of hardware around. Just that the 
market is shrinking fast.

These days, everything is connected by SATA, USB, Firewire, HDMI, and 
WiFi, rather than backplanes and ribbon cables.

-David



On Oct 19, 2014, at 1:35 PM, Stephen M <smelheim85 at gmail.com 
<mailto:smelheim85 at gmail.com>> wrote:

> I'm trying to diversify myself so I can add things on my resume.  I 
> have never been into hardware but trying to understand it.  I was 
> planning on getting a computer or two from goodwell, break it apart 
> and reassemble it. And I am looking for volunteering like at a library 
> to help non-techie ppl.
>
> Does anyone else have suggestions on hardware to know. I'm not looking 
> for something specific but a general understanding of computer hardware.
>
> Thanks to all in advance.
>
> -- 
> Stephen Melheim
> 602-400-7707
> SMelheim85 at gmail.com <mailto:SMelheim85 at gmail.com>
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