The first "normal" IBM-compatible computer?

[Mike Chambers]

No it is not. At least not in the home market. If you bought a high end system to play the latest games and run the latest SW you will be out paced in 2 max 3 years. Take a look at CPU and GPUs today vs. three years ago. Now I am not saying the system is unusable but it will be several generations old. Where as in the 486 days in 4 years time you were only two minor generations behind (i.e. just the speed bumps) not new architecture and/or features.

No, you really only need to upgrade the GPU if you want top of the line gaming experiences. CPUs are so fast these days that games just don't push them. A good 5 year old CPU will run a new game with no problems at all. Power to spare. The graphics hardware is what's important. Although even an old Geforce 9800 GT will still run games smoothly now as long as you don't need super high resolutions.

 

[vwestlife]

My newest computer is a 2007 MacBook. I'm not a gamer so I don't need cutting-edge 3D graphics, but it is at least good enough to edit and play back 1920x1080 HD video.

And besides, we're getting to the point where many consumers use an iPad or other tablet as their main computing device -- so we've come full-circle, where traditional desktop computers are prevalent in business, education, and other institutional environments, but aren't really necessary in the home, just like it was in the '80s.

 

[Mike Chambers]

My newest computer is a 2007 MacBook. I'm not a gamer so I don't need cutting-edge 3D graphics, but it is at least good enough to edit and play back 1920x1080 HD video.

And besides, we're getting to the point where many consumers use an iPad or other tablet as their main computing device -- so we've come full-circle, where traditional desktop computers are prevalent in business, education, and other institutional environments, but aren't really necessary in the home, just like it was in the '80s.

I personally don't see many people who use a tablet at all, or at least not as a main computer... but maybe it's just where I live. What I see happening usually is a trend towards laptops and ultrabooks replacing the desktop. People I know say tablets are too expensive and impractical. I also used to see a lot of netbooks, but I guess everybody realized that they're too slow to do anything useful. I still find some uses for my EeePC though. It's a good little lightweight web browser machine, but doing anything serious on it is impossible or at least a huge PITA.

 

[krebizfan]

I personally don't see many people who use a tablet at all, or at least not as a main computer... but maybe it's just where I live. What I see happening usually is a trend towards laptops and ultrabooks replacing the desktop. People I know say tablets are too expensive and impractical. I also used to see a lot of netbooks, but I guess everybody realized that they're too slow to do anything useful. I still find some uses for my EeePC though. It's a good little lightweight web browser machine, but doing anything serious on it is impossible or at least a huge PITA.

I go to meetings were most of the attendees have tablets with only prospective presenters having laptops. How much of that is a preference for tablet design versus not wanting to have a system that runs Visual Studio and being pushed to code around the clock I can't tell.

 

[creepingnet]

I think usage of tablets is regional, Seattle is a melting pot. I have friends with a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, a surface pro, and a smartphone, then I have some that just use Laptops for everything. I have a few Mac fans in the family with MacBook Pros that are 5 years old, and we've got computers in the family still in active use that are over 8-10 years old.

My newest desktop machine is a Pentium D 3.40GHz machine I built in 2008. The only thing I've had to do was bump the memory up to 4GB, put in a Terabyte HDD for my music/video production hobby, and upgrade to Windows 7 x64. My wife has a 10 year old Dell running XP and we use that thing every day for Netflix and Xfinity and Youtube. Heck, my old 486 still sees plenty of action online via IRC and light web browsing, E-mail, and other chat, + ROM Hacking and the occasional pixel-art thing I like to do. The mainstream has hit a wall of sorts where even 10 year ago tech is "good enough" to get the job done and something 3 years old still feels impressive. The only people I hear whine about power and speed are either computer illiterate, want to brag about their $3000.00 gaming P.C., or both.

As for tablets, they have a place, they fit the gap between the Laptop and the Cellular phone. Then you have odd stuff like the Surface Pro/Pro 2, HP 810 Revolve, and Dell XPS 12 that can fit the laptop/desktop/tablet boat all at once depending on how much you spend in accessories.