Whats happening to computer prices?
 

Looking through the Sunday paper.

Systemax desktop 512mg, 80 gig, DVD-RW, 17"LCD monitor under $500.

Compaq laptop 512mg, 60GB, DVDCD-RW, $525

Similar prices in other flyers.

Is something coming in the near future that is making the current crop of computers close to obsolete even before the box is opened?

Yeah, I know that in electronics most things are obsolete by the time they reach the public, but is some big change just over the hill?

I remember reading something in the biz section of the paper here that Intel is expected to make some big new chip announcement. But heck, that seems to happen every few months, right?

Just a natural progression of evolving technology and competitive pricing curve. About every 18 months the chip speed doubles while prices drop incrementally.

There was a guy in the 60's that predicted this almost exactly, but I cannot remember his name.

LCD monitors are still very expensive, especially the 19" and larger ones. I've seen alot more hard drive failures lately now that they are cheap.

Supply is up and demand is down. Most people have all the computer they need for their work. I think it's the gaming industry that's pushing the new and more powerful computing products. For my work, I truly haven't needed a new computer in almost eight years.

Exactly, I am still happily using the PC I put together back in 98 and I can get away with it because I am no longer a hardcore gamer.

Some people are suckers for buying PCs that are much more powerful than what they need and changing them out long before they are even close to being obsolete.

His name is Gordon Moore and it is called Moore's Law and it says in short: "Moore observed an exponential growth in the number of transistors per integrated circuit and predicted that this trend would continue. Through Intel's relentless technology advances, Moore's Law, the doubling of transistors every couple of years, has been maintained, and still holds true today. Intel expects that it will continue at least through the end of this decade. The mission of Intel's technology development team is to continue to break down barriers to Moore's Law."

Moores law will eventually prove invalid at some point, but it was quite accurate for the infancy stage of VLSI chips.

It is still current today and into the future.

http://www.intel.com/research/silico...sLawgraph3.gif

I just bought all new stuff for my office from Dell. 2 'decent' computers, 3 'hi-perf'. computers, a $2000 server, 5 17" flat panel monitors, some extra software and a color lazer printer -- all for under $7500!! We thought we were already getting the deal of the year, then the day I called the order in they said they were taking another $100 per system off the price that day only!! :eek:

cegerer- You might want to open those Dells up and make sure you got what you paid for... Dell sued over bait-and-switch charges

One of the most unsettling things Dell is rumored to be doing is cutting the "burn-in" down to nothing. I tend to believe this because last fall we led a migration that included all new servers (Dell Poweredge 1750's) and 8 out of 10 failed during extensive testing prior to putting them into production.

I've seen many "dead out of the box" Dells lately which makes me question their testing and QA process. I still recommend Dells, but the quality seems to be slipping. We purchased three Dell Precision 670 workstations, which cost $6500 each and two of the three were "bad" and had to be replaced. My new Dell laptop developed a keyboard issue and had to be replaced and 3 out of the last 5 new Dells we bought at work failed very soon (<15 days out of the box).

Its not just dell. The margins are so thin on the hardware side of the business nowadays that everyone is cutting every corner they can.

Yep, I agree, but I've only had experience lately with Dells... can't speak to the other brands out there, but I'm sure they're all doing the same "cutting corners" thing...

We have over 2000 dells on campus, not many problems and those that we have they are replaced next day.

You no longer need fastest everything to have a decent computing experience , so buying stuff that is a generation or two old (1.5 to 2.0ghz chips, 64mb vid card instead of the 256mb monster, 40-80gb drive space instead of 200+gb, 128(!) to 256mb ram instead of 512mb-1gb) is perfectly ok for 95% of the people out there.

THe problem I have is with my wife who is hard into digital photography (8 megapix with all the bells and whistles). We need to upgradefrom our 7 yo Compaq laptop. She is holding out for a lot of power I do not think she needs. I would think that 80 gig, 512mb, CD/DVD RW burner and 128 mb video would be more than enough. She wants 160gig and 1 gig memory. Isn't that a bit of overkill?

No, you should let her get the big memory and drive space. You'll just want more later, and if you are editing 8mp images it takes a huge amount of ram - its the extra processor power you don't need. Intel is banking on everyone playing the numbers game and consumers are wising up.

The following is predicated on the assumption that your wife is as much into photography as you are into your Porsche:

A 8 megapix photo in raw format could push 20 MB file size. As cheap as hard drives are today, go for a bigger drive. And make sure it is serial ATA. Moving that kind of data around, she will need it. And, IMHO, you are very light on RAM. 1 GB at a minimum. The video card will actually be the most imprtant and potentially most expensive part of the system for her. A basic 128 MB card won't cut it. There are cards made for picture manipulation.

Serious photography is probably the one place where you really can't have too much computer.

Very true--it's why various Photoshop tasks are one of the "real world" benchmarks used in computer reviews.