Computers were once the stuff of science fiction. Old, grainy black and white films showed them as portents of technology, with large and complex consoles and all sorts of bright dials and knobs. The first computers were indeed large, having areas as big as a football field and costing millions of dollars to create. They were true marvels of the world, with computing power as impressive as that of today’s musical greeting cards.
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It’s amazing we use hundreds of times the computing power that took man to the moon for simple every day entertainment, but the fact is that computers get increasingly cheap as time passes. Today, the average gaming consoles or high-end Dell Desktop computers have the same 3D rendering power as the multi-million dollar military super computers of 1997.
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This is all due to Moore’s Law. Proposed in 1970 by Caltech professor Carver Mead, it states that computers get faster, more powerful, and cheaper by a factor of two every year. In other words, every 18 months or so, computers get twice as powerful and the costs for that technology get equally cheaper.
That is why every year we see deals on cheap computers sporting reviews about how much better, faster, and efficient they are. It is also the reason why the computer industry has been so profitable: systems become quickly outdated, and a few years down the road, the hundreds of dollars you spent on 1 GB of RAM will be worth only a fraction of the price.
As a consumer, it is always important to shop for great deals on the best system you can find. It will cost you extra to get the best computer around, but it will be much longer before you lag behind the rest, with a computer too outdated to run the latest programs and games.
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When staying up to date, desktop computers are also preferable. While laptops are convenient, portable, and easy to take with you to school or on vacation, desktop computers are more modular. The tower of a desktop can be opened, and pieces can be upgraded and replaced by any technologically inclined consumer.
True, laptops can have a couple of their parts replaced as well, but you cannot upgrade or change the graphics card on a laptop as you could on a desktop PC. This gives desktop owners a great deal of adaptability. This is certainly cheaper than buying a whole new system, and keeps you from getting outdated for another year or longer. The world keeps getting increasingly portable and wireless, but for its modularity, price, and dependability, there will always be room for the trusty desktop PC.