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 > 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@gmail.com > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss