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.
Thats not to say there isnt 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.
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.
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