Why Moore's Law, not mobility, is killing the PC

Why Moore's Law, not mobility, is killing the PC

Brad Chacos @BradChacos
Mar 5, 2013 3:00 AM

While rumors of the PC's demise are greatly exaggerated—an industry that moved more than 350 million units in 2012 is not "dead"—computers undoubtedly aren't selling as quickly as they once did. Analysts forecast PC sales to far exceed tablet sales for the foreseeable future, but the growth rate for PC sales has utterly and completely flatlined.

The big question, of course, is why?

A couple of theories inform conventional wisdom. Most pundits blame stagnant PC sales on the likewise stagnant economy, or point toward the ascension of smartphones and tablets. Others argue (fairly persuasively) that the flattening of growth is attributable to the idiosyncrasies of PC sales in developing countries, where computers are a rarely replaced luxury item. A second wave, analysts say, has yet to come after an initial surge in sales in those nations.

Like most economic sectors, the PC market is influenced by myriad factors, and some truth lies in all three of those explanations. After watching my mother-in-law happily troll Facebook and sling emails on her nearly ten-year-old Pentium 4 computer, however, an even more insidious possibility slipped into my head.


pentiummmmmm-5205358-100027772-medium.jpg


Did CPU performance reach a "good enough" level for mainstream users some years back? Are older computers still potent enough to complete an average Joe's everyday tasks, reducing the incentive to upgrade?

"It used to be you had to replace your PC every few years or you were way behind. If you didn't, you couldn't even run the latest software," says Linley Gwennap, the principal analyst at the Linley Group, a research firm that focuses on semiconductors and processors. "Now you can hold onto your PC five, six, seven years with no problem. Yeah, it might be a little slow, but not enough to really show up [in everyday use]."

Old processors are still OK for everyday use

This may come as a shock to performance-pushing PC enthusiasts but the average Joe almost never encodes videos, nor will you catch him fragging fools in Crysis 3. Instead, Average Joe spends most of his time on mundane, often Web-centric tasks: Buying stuff online, sending emails, engaging friends and family on social media, maybe watching the occasional YouTube video—on default resolutions, natch, not high-definition—or playing a few hands of Solitaire.

In other words, hardly the kind of activity that begs for an overclocked, water-cooled, hyper-threaded Core i7 processor. Or even a modern-day Ivy Bridge Core i3 processor, if we're being honest.

see full report
 
It's not news. Fair enough if the guy wants to post about. He has to post about something.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Basically. As technology progresses, so does the size of it. Look at mobile phones these days, 20-30 years ago, they were literal bricks or required a backpack to be operated. Now, for some odd people, they have replaced most of the need for a PC.

Or laptops for example, that is what currently a PC is defined as. If you talk about a computer (your average person mind you, not people here) you're talking about a laptop. That's just what happens.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    Crosshair V Formula-Z
    Memory
    16 gig DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS R9 270
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
    PSU
    OCZ 500 watt
    Case
    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
    Cooling
    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Touch Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
These days you socialize with a smart or IPhone on the social networks as well as check the main with your hand held. The newer condensed in size technologies as well as much lower rates overall allow for this. A monthly bill with airtime charges might run a few hundred or so with not too far out of state calls made in the mid 90s but now only costs about $30-$50 for unlimited text as welll as voice calls nationwide!

The cell phone back in 95 for example would be the size of a police scanner with a rubber antennae and be carried around on a belt holder attached to a leather case. Now you typically carry a smart phone in your shirt or coat pocket only being 1/4 the size with a larger lcd display no less. The first well circulated laptops running 9x for example fetched a price of $4,000 at times while a new basic model is now seen for $700 or less with the latest version.

Portability and convenience are the more or less "throw aways" type devices that offer web access while the desktop suffers from the lack of giant leaps in performance over what had been the case over the years where that small cpu speed difference, a little more memory, or simply having a larger faster drive made all the difference. One example to be made would be between the noticable difference found when running a 2ghz single core cpu and then upgrading to a 2.2ghz and watch things in awe years back. Now going from a 3.2ghz quad to a 3.4ghz isn't even noticed!

The newer models of each now seen however gave the OS falling behind the hardware advances since the OS doesn't fully utiliize the new capacities where before each newer hardware had to keep up with the OS. There was still some limitations with new hardwares however in the older versions as there is with OSing a 2tb or larger drive and only trying to see a single primary used. 7 and 8 are still imposed to use a smaller 1.5tb primary.

The actual space required however going back to XP even hasn;t grown that much in that comparison while drive capacities are still reaching well beyond the present 4tb largest very soon. Despite the advancements there once again. 7 and 8 are both modular to an extent OSs over what had been previously seen prior to the MinWin kernel and still do not require higher system specs then Vista while running faster and smoother on the same hardwares.

It's been a back and forth between hardware and OS dilemna where one excels and then slumps behind again what is seen in the other except for the one time that kept people spending to get better namely performance out of each newer hardware like cpu being the classic example as well as ram capacities now exceeding what most would ever use.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    1st W10 Professional x64/W7 Ultimate x64 - 2nd Remote system: W10 Insider Builds/W7 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Builds
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz -2nd case AMD Atholon II 3.2ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
    Memory
    Kingston Hyper-X DDR3 1600mhz 16gb - 2nd case Kingston Hyper-X "Fury" DDR3 1600mhz 8gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Radeon HD 5750 1gb - 2nd AMD Radeon 6450
    Sound Card
    Creative Xtreme Gamer - 2nd case Realtek Onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 19" dual monitor setup - 2nd case HP 20" lcd
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 same on both builds
    Hard Drives
    1st build
    WD Caviar Black Edition Sata II 1tb two OS drives
    WD RE "Heavy Duty Sata II 2tb two Storage/Backup
    2nd build
    WD Blue Sata II 500gb
    WD Black Edition Sata III 1tb
    WD Green Power Sata II 1tb in external usb enclosure
    PSU
    Corsair TX750H 750w -Corsair 500w
    Case
    Antec 900-2 -NXZT Vulcan Mini tower/carrying handle
    Cooling
    120mm front pair, 120 rear 200cm top - 120mm Front intake 200mm side cover
    Keyboard
    Azio Blue led back lit both builds.
    Mouse
    MSI DS200 11 button programmable Gaming optical mouse - Odessa 3 button dual scroll trackball
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
    Other Info
    two MSI 22x ide dvd burners, 25 usb flash drives used for Linux Live, live data recovery 128gb, and Windows 7, 10 usb installation keys
Hi there.

True of course -- look at Micro SD cards now -- 32 GB is common 64 and 128 GB versions won't be long in appearing.

Even a 32 GB card is enough to store plenty of music on your phone (Bye Bye Ipod) and video so you can use a phone for watching video too. -- You can easily output a phone to a top quality monitor by using a USB/MHL ==>HDMI adapter. The resolution from the phone is also often BETTER than the standard 1080p HD output as well.

I regularly use my phone (Galaxy s III) like this for streaming video from the net to the TV -- the fast broadband available makes this really feasible now. Formerly I would have used a computer or even a tablet. As for playing offline films it's so much easier to play via the TV using the phone and the adapter and connect to TV rather than set up a laptop etc.

I really use a laptop much less frequently now. -- For simple email, things like posting messages on this forum etc you can do this also very simply using a traditional keyboard and a phone -- connect the phone to the HDMI in on your monitor and use a blue tooth keyboard -- works fine !!!.

Even now some smart TV's can access the net directly and have external storage ports for playing off line or local content so you don't even need to use the phone --much less a PC.

PC's apart from special niche cases like extreme gamers are in TERMINAL DECLINE -- to deny this is like King Canute attempting to halt the incoming tide -- a bit of history for you : King Canute and the waves

Ms IMO has anticipated this -- even if some of the existing desktop users are peeved with W8 where else are are they going to go -- even in the workplace a traditional desktop doesn't have much longer in a lot of cases to survive. Even in graphics / advertising etc a lot of the work could probably be done much more conveniently with GOOD DRAWING devices including A4 / A3 size touch monitors arranged HORIZONTALLY on the desk - or in "Drawing Board mode" rather than by using a traditional desktop.

In a hugely diminishing PC market Ms can ignore the shout of corporates -- they are upgrading to W7 from XP anyway - and have already paid the fee -- they weren't going to do TWO upgrades in a short time in any case so Ms can ignore "the pain".

In some cases a desktop is still useful but as I said in a diminishing number of cases -- so Ms can quite easily go ahead and design an OS where the desktop will play a smaller and smaller role.

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
If you have a dual core, 2.0 GHz x64 CPU, with 4 gigs of RAM, and a GPU with WDDM 1.0 driver support, you're pretty much going to be set for the rest of this decade. You most likely will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 then to Blue then to 9 then to 9.5 or whatever and then to 10 probably with few issues.

It's not the hardware that killing the desktop PC so much, it's just the quality of software. Windows doesn't demand more system resource like vista did, it went down with 7 and more in 8. It probably will in the future as well. So what's the economical reason to buy a new PC of any kind (maybe a tablet PC) if you can run the Windows OS just fine?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    Crosshair V Formula-Z
    Memory
    16 gig DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS R9 270
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
    PSU
    OCZ 500 watt
    Case
    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
    Cooling
    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Touch Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
I would think a good 6-8gb of memory to cover the 64bit needs and a good 2.8ghz or faster cpu would provide the right edge since more and mroe new models have cleared the 3ghz mark for both Intel and AMD alike for dual, quad, and now AMD bringing in besides the Hex core the Octocore(8 cores) cpu line-up. Anyone need 8 cores? I don't need a Hex core(6 cores) since the quads have been working out fine on a case built to be more of a work horse while still keeping hardwares cool but not constantly cranking things up any.

And that's another thing to note is how much easier it is now with the right set up to turn things up on both cpu and video cards when wanting that extra edge. The high end cards over the last few years or so will still be good years later provided the support is still there of course. In most cases the economu dictates the need for faster turnovers for companies to profit more however like ATI was doing fast before bought out by AMD. An entire model series was dropped one or two updates following the initial release of the same model series showing how fast the original ATI was dropping support for the fast buck before going out for good!

Likewise you can also compare hand helds to an even faster turnover disposable technology on the market that is outdated much sooner! The new IPad draws the herds in a heartbeat as you have heard often enough! But the hand held is not the same or ever will be as that home pc you sit in front for many things.

How would you game on a Win 8 phone with twin lcds? You can't! Are you going to run a high res 1st person shooter on a tablet? Not likely especially if you have any auto racing game set up for dual displays you won't! For that you still need VPU as well as processing power only seen on a gaming rig desktop while some custom gaming laptops will try to compete in that area.

Yet despite all that you can still hardwares that are a few years old still that are "ancient history" in general in the computing field as any new pc automatically loses some 80% of it's retail value in under 2yrs. times as the rule of thought has been all along. The hardwares if still in good shape will still run things however while not being the latest thrills in the reviews. The phones and other hand helds on the other hand simply die off much faster from the hugh swifter turnovers in mobile technologies as well as carrier special deals, etc.

"Calling Dick Tracy! Where are you?" was the thought of some of the latest news in development of not only how much your hand held or phone can do that you carry around with you but what the next watch you wear will be able to do. Watch tv and browse the web on your wrist?! is about the size of it where smaller technologies get involved. But will you want to sit for hours watching a movie on your wrist or watch it full screen on a large px monitor or flat screen with the pc patched to it? since new tvs for some time have been capable of being used as monitors as well as recevers?

Home entertainment is another aspect that will manage to keep the pc alive to some extent from what you are also able to do on your desktop. But even there hardware barriers are still trying to be broken such as what Seagate has been working for seeing hugh drive capacities revealed over the next several months regarding new coating for platters in mechanical drives to reach anywhere from 20tb upwards of 60tb. The cpus will still run at similar speeds however you can attain presently even with a little oc work. The OS side remains as of "still works on existing hardwares" as those become more cloud orientated being modular in form.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    1st W10 Professional x64/W7 Ultimate x64 - 2nd Remote system: W10 Insider Builds/W7 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Builds
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz -2nd case AMD Atholon II 3.2ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
    Memory
    Kingston Hyper-X DDR3 1600mhz 16gb - 2nd case Kingston Hyper-X "Fury" DDR3 1600mhz 8gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Radeon HD 5750 1gb - 2nd AMD Radeon 6450
    Sound Card
    Creative Xtreme Gamer - 2nd case Realtek Onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 19" dual monitor setup - 2nd case HP 20" lcd
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 same on both builds
    Hard Drives
    1st build
    WD Caviar Black Edition Sata II 1tb two OS drives
    WD RE "Heavy Duty Sata II 2tb two Storage/Backup
    2nd build
    WD Blue Sata II 500gb
    WD Black Edition Sata III 1tb
    WD Green Power Sata II 1tb in external usb enclosure
    PSU
    Corsair TX750H 750w -Corsair 500w
    Case
    Antec 900-2 -NXZT Vulcan Mini tower/carrying handle
    Cooling
    120mm front pair, 120 rear 200cm top - 120mm Front intake 200mm side cover
    Keyboard
    Azio Blue led back lit both builds.
    Mouse
    MSI DS200 11 button programmable Gaming optical mouse - Odessa 3 button dual scroll trackball
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
    Other Info
    two MSI 22x ide dvd burners, 25 usb flash drives used for Linux Live, live data recovery 128gb, and Windows 7, 10 usb installation keys
The capacities being seen for SD Cards is nothing new. That has been an ongoing process since they are used now for far more then your typical camera or camcorder but have been in use with cell phones and other hand held devices like IPads, smart phones, etc. now for a few years already. They can act like a hard drive on smart books even for dual booting OSs even!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    1st W10 Professional x64/W7 Ultimate x64 - 2nd Remote system: W10 Insider Builds/W7 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Builds
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz -2nd case AMD Atholon II 3.2ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
    Memory
    Kingston Hyper-X DDR3 1600mhz 16gb - 2nd case Kingston Hyper-X "Fury" DDR3 1600mhz 8gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Radeon HD 5750 1gb - 2nd AMD Radeon 6450
    Sound Card
    Creative Xtreme Gamer - 2nd case Realtek Onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 19" dual monitor setup - 2nd case HP 20" lcd
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 same on both builds
    Hard Drives
    1st build
    WD Caviar Black Edition Sata II 1tb two OS drives
    WD RE "Heavy Duty Sata II 2tb two Storage/Backup
    2nd build
    WD Blue Sata II 500gb
    WD Black Edition Sata III 1tb
    WD Green Power Sata II 1tb in external usb enclosure
    PSU
    Corsair TX750H 750w -Corsair 500w
    Case
    Antec 900-2 -NXZT Vulcan Mini tower/carrying handle
    Cooling
    120mm front pair, 120 rear 200cm top - 120mm Front intake 200mm side cover
    Keyboard
    Azio Blue led back lit both builds.
    Mouse
    MSI DS200 11 button programmable Gaming optical mouse - Odessa 3 button dual scroll trackball
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
    Other Info
    two MSI 22x ide dvd burners, 25 usb flash drives used for Linux Live, live data recovery 128gb, and Windows 7, 10 usb installation keys
What about the capacity of USB 3.0 drives. There are even 1 terabyte USB 3.0 drives you can get now though the prices are still sky high for ones that big.

Me, I'll be fragging Crysis 3 at max settings on my ancient hand built POS overclocked Q9650 @ 4.05Ghz,Nvidia board, GTX 680, 1000watt modular PS, and still, no need to upgrade at all. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro WMC
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built
    CPU
    Q9650 @ 4.05 GHz
    Motherboard
    Gforce 780i SLI FTW
    Memory
    8GB Gskill DDR2 1200Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    GTX-480
    Sound Card
    Asus D2 Xonar
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HannsG
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    Gskill 120GB SSD
    PSU
    Thermal Take 1000watts
    Case
    Thermal Take Xtreme
    Cooling
    9 fans air cooled
    Keyboard
    G15 logitech
    Mouse
    G9 logitech
    Internet Speed
    50mbps
USB 3.0 hard drives, 3.0 enclosures holding Sata III drives would typically see a 1tb or larger model drive upto 4tb. Flash drives however are still in a different ball park there as far as capacities while still fetching even much higher prices for the 3.0 models smaller in size then seen for the same priced 2.0 larger ones.

A 64gb 2.0 flash drive will run about $150 while a new 3.0 16gb willl fetch $100! to illustrate that a bit. IF a 2.0 512gb gets $700 retail just imagine what a 3.0 would be priced at! Money, money, money for the latest when first seen! You pay their recooperative costs of development when being the first to buy the new item until it has been out for some time. When the next company comes out with the same or similar then a price war begins and the product becomes more affordable over time.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    1st W10 Professional x64/W7 Ultimate x64 - 2nd Remote system: W10 Insider Builds/W7 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Builds
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz -2nd case AMD Atholon II 3.2ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
    Memory
    Kingston Hyper-X DDR3 1600mhz 16gb - 2nd case Kingston Hyper-X "Fury" DDR3 1600mhz 8gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Radeon HD 5750 1gb - 2nd AMD Radeon 6450
    Sound Card
    Creative Xtreme Gamer - 2nd case Realtek Onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 19" dual monitor setup - 2nd case HP 20" lcd
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 same on both builds
    Hard Drives
    1st build
    WD Caviar Black Edition Sata II 1tb two OS drives
    WD RE "Heavy Duty Sata II 2tb two Storage/Backup
    2nd build
    WD Blue Sata II 500gb
    WD Black Edition Sata III 1tb
    WD Green Power Sata II 1tb in external usb enclosure
    PSU
    Corsair TX750H 750w -Corsair 500w
    Case
    Antec 900-2 -NXZT Vulcan Mini tower/carrying handle
    Cooling
    120mm front pair, 120 rear 200cm top - 120mm Front intake 200mm side cover
    Keyboard
    Azio Blue led back lit both builds.
    Mouse
    MSI DS200 11 button programmable Gaming optical mouse - Odessa 3 button dual scroll trackball
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
    Other Info
    two MSI 22x ide dvd burners, 25 usb flash drives used for Linux Live, live data recovery 128gb, and Windows 7, 10 usb installation keys
Large flash drives are not a good price/performance deall. I bought a fast 32GB USB3 flash drive for appr. $65. Then I got a 60GB SSD for $59.95. Add to that the enclosure for $15 and you have a much better deal.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
I would say you were fortunate enough depending on brand and seller taking that into consideration to find anything larger then 16gb in a 3.0 flash drive for that low a price when popular vendors like newegg are getting $99.99 for the 16gb models. At buy.com while shopping around I grabbed a few 32gb 2.0 models for about $50 which only a year or two back was a "best found" type price for any 2.0 flash drives by a name brand that is.

Cheap knockoff generic labels as well as some other brands like PNY and HP stink with flash drives however! They never should have gotten into them to begin with! It won't matter if they are 2.0 or 3.0 when the quality is poor to start with. The drives are typically much harder to work with. In fact when not plugging directly into a rear port you will find a limited number of good brands for hubs when they lack an ac adapter and run off the port directly. A 6 port hub without an ac adapter is asking for a problem on 3.0 as well as 2.0 since the current is simply pulled down too fast!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    1st W10 Professional x64/W7 Ultimate x64 - 2nd Remote system: W10 Insider Builds/W7 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Builds
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz -2nd case AMD Atholon II 3.2ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
    Memory
    Kingston Hyper-X DDR3 1600mhz 16gb - 2nd case Kingston Hyper-X "Fury" DDR3 1600mhz 8gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Radeon HD 5750 1gb - 2nd AMD Radeon 6450
    Sound Card
    Creative Xtreme Gamer - 2nd case Realtek Onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 19" dual monitor setup - 2nd case HP 20" lcd
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 same on both builds
    Hard Drives
    1st build
    WD Caviar Black Edition Sata II 1tb two OS drives
    WD RE "Heavy Duty Sata II 2tb two Storage/Backup
    2nd build
    WD Blue Sata II 500gb
    WD Black Edition Sata III 1tb
    WD Green Power Sata II 1tb in external usb enclosure
    PSU
    Corsair TX750H 750w -Corsair 500w
    Case
    Antec 900-2 -NXZT Vulcan Mini tower/carrying handle
    Cooling
    120mm front pair, 120 rear 200cm top - 120mm Front intake 200mm side cover
    Keyboard
    Azio Blue led back lit both builds.
    Mouse
    MSI DS200 11 button programmable Gaming optical mouse - Odessa 3 button dual scroll trackball
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
    Other Info
    two MSI 22x ide dvd burners, 25 usb flash drives used for Linux Live, live data recovery 128gb, and Windows 7, 10 usb installation keys
The 32GB flash drive was a Lexar Triton and the SSD was a Mushkin 60GB (which I love because it is very fast).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
Mushkin puts out some good stuff except the problem seen with their dimms sitting twice as high in the dimm as other brands however making things miserable when going to add more ram in when a large hsf is already in use. :( To first see 8gb a second hsf was then bought until the Mushkn was later swapped out totally with Kingston HyperX memory to see 16gb!

With larger flash drives the business type would be looking at the 128gb, 256gb, or even 512gb since they take their work on the road and usually have the $$$ resources usually provided to pay out for the convenience since they be only caring a small laptop or tablet along with them while on the road. For the home geek on the other hand wanting to see a dual boot of OSs with Windows untouched on the main drive the good sized but smaller 16-32-64gb sizes leave plenty of room for the open source flavors when wanting to try one out.

Here I ended up settling for the 32gb models as well as some 8s and 16gigers at $50 for the 32gb over spending $100 more for the 64gb or hundreds more for the 256gb and 512gb drives seen listed for $700! I can buy a laptop with larger drive even for less like the 7 HP model for just over $400 I bought as a gift for someone back in 2011. But you can't that around in your pocket.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    1st W10 Professional x64/W7 Ultimate x64 - 2nd Remote system: W10 Insider Builds/W7 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Builds
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 975 Deneb 3.6ghz -2nd case AMD Atholon II 3.2ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
    Memory
    Kingston Hyper-X DDR3 1600mhz 16gb - 2nd case Kingston Hyper-X "Fury" DDR3 1600mhz 8gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Radeon HD 5750 1gb - 2nd AMD Radeon 6450
    Sound Card
    Creative Xtreme Gamer - 2nd case Realtek Onboard audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 19" dual monitor setup - 2nd case HP 20" lcd
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900 same on both builds
    Hard Drives
    1st build
    WD Caviar Black Edition Sata II 1tb two OS drives
    WD RE "Heavy Duty Sata II 2tb two Storage/Backup
    2nd build
    WD Blue Sata II 500gb
    WD Black Edition Sata III 1tb
    WD Green Power Sata II 1tb in external usb enclosure
    PSU
    Corsair TX750H 750w -Corsair 500w
    Case
    Antec 900-2 -NXZT Vulcan Mini tower/carrying handle
    Cooling
    120mm front pair, 120 rear 200cm top - 120mm Front intake 200mm side cover
    Keyboard
    Azio Blue led back lit both builds.
    Mouse
    MSI DS200 11 button programmable Gaming optical mouse - Odessa 3 button dual scroll trackball
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
    Other Info
    two MSI 22x ide dvd burners, 25 usb flash drives used for Linux Live, live data recovery 128gb, and Windows 7, 10 usb installation keys
For a stick, the Triton is pretty fast - on USB3 it is faster than the Mushkin SSD. But it does not lend itself to all applications.

When I moved my VMware virtual partitions outboard, the Triton did not perform well. It was like molasses. The Mushkin SSD does a beautiful job. Performance from the USB3 port feels the same as from the C partition (which is on a M4).

2013-03-08_2206.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
Hi there
what about Micro Sd cards. Most decent laptops have a built in SD card reader -- use the SD==>micro sd adapter -- often when you buy a Lexar micro sd card the adapter comes with it.

When travelling with a PC I'd rather have the SD card inserted into the PC where it won't get lost. --USB flash drives are often easy to lose plus the aggravation of knowing which one to insert. I think a Micro SD card can now have up to 64 GB -- 32 GB ones are common -- I use one in a phone, plus a camera -- I still don't like mobile phone cameras.

However these devices are more suited for DATA. You can't beat an internal SSD for OS and applications.

The other problem is that for things like heavy erase writes a flash device has a much lower life cycle than an SSD - especially the latest hardware. USB3 external disks are fine for VM partitions BTW -- and even a decent USB 2 disk will perform passably once the VM is powered on and completely booted up.

Incidentally a VM on a micro Sd card seems to work better than a USB 2 disk - the USB 3 disk is best or best of all if your computer can do it - an external SSD connected to an SATA 3 port. Probably beats even an INTERNAL spinner hands down.

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
There should be larger capacity microSD cards in the works soon, as well as MUCH faster ones as well. There was this one I read about that had like USB 3.0 type speeds, or around half of the normal speeds of a USB 3 flash drive.

Or maybe smaller and cheaper and reliable SSDs should be in the works... :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    Crosshair V Formula-Z
    Memory
    16 gig DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS R9 270
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
    PSU
    OCZ 500 watt
    Case
    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
    Cooling
    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Touch Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
Or maybe smaller and cheaper and reliable SSDs should be in the works...
SSDs are very reliable. I never had a problem with any of my 7 SSDs - and the 2 oldest are from 2008.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
Or maybe smaller and cheaper and reliable SSDs should be in the works...
SSDs are very reliable. I never had a problem with any of my 7 SSDs - and the 2 oldest are from 2008.

Intel made some that in laptops that put the ssd to sleep would in time turn the drive into a 2MB drive. I had one of these at one time.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win7/8 Mint
    System Manufacturer/Model
    lenovo W530
    CPU
    intell i7
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    16gb
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    512 gb ssd
    Other Info
    Around 13 million employes
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