Computer technology slowing down

[Brandon]

It seems that in the past 3 years, there hasn't been any real groundbreaking technology that has come out on the market to make consumers upgrade their PCs.

With even the most basic Core 2 Duo-Celeron / Athlon-Turion paired with 2GB of RAM will allow for the most demanding tasks that an every day user will come across.

What got me thinking of this is my neighbor. I helped him set up his wifi network about 2 years back, and he had a Pentium IV 2GHz with 1GB of ram and XP he bought in 2003. I talked with him last weekend and he asked if it was worth buying a new PC. After initially thinking yes (duh!), I realized that there really wasnt.

He surfs the web, sends email, uploads pictures and prints them from his digital camera, does his taxes... thats about it. Vista might look pretty, but will a new machine really do anything different or much faster then what he does now?

My grandfather is still using my old Athlon XP 2000+ with 512MB of memory just fine for the same thing.

The difference between say a PIII to a PIV was huge in performance for everyday things, but unless you multitask a ton dual core isn't needed for emails and web surfing

It just seems that although gaming and rendering require a lot of power, the every day average joe really doesn't have a reason to get a new PC... other to have a newer, shiner box sitting next to them.

[Tech Star]

UAC. I think thats annoying groundbreaking. Also Chess included with Windows is groundbreaking. :p

[MR_Candyman]

Memristors will be a HUGE thing in every tech aspect within the next few years, trust me.

[EnzoFX]

For those users, nope, not necessary. Though you could argue that they could save money by buying low-end hardware today that's a lot more energy efficient and cooler running.

But there has been a lot of innovation, C2D's are still a huge jump, and they're still not EVERYWHERE. Sure, among pc enthusiasts they may be, but common pc user, nope. They're probably chugging along their single-core processor.

You also have cheap quad cores today. Graphics cards that make handling HD easy, that's another example. There is definitely a demand there, because as soon as the person wants to use his computer for an HD DVR, then those things become completely relevant. Same goes for gaming, editing, etc.

So basically, as soon as you step out of "just e-mail" use, which more and more people are doing all the time, and more will only continue to do so, a new computer is usually the best bet.

[noPCtoday]

I saw a lot of promising technology being developed but yet to hit the market in the past few years. E.g. the hologram thingy, water hard drive, optical cpu, 3rd gen solar panel etc. I don't think the technology has slowed down, but more like a break before the storm. just my cent.

edit:

oh and you can't forget OLED! ha! my favorite technology. being a designer, I really hate LCDs :p.

[PL_ Veteran]

You can build a computer perfect for said users for just under ?100. Sadly PC companies would rather turn a higher profit so still try to sell you **** nobody cares about.

[Lt-DavidW]

  PureLegend said:

You can build a computer perfect for said users for just under ?100. Sadly PC companies would rather turn a higher profit so still try to sell you **** nobody cares about.

Heh... when I was working on the XP helpdesk I spoke to a granny who had bought a computer "to do emails", and she'd been sold a computer with an 8800GTX.

[kylejn]

I disagree; I think that computer technology is moving as fast as it always has been. Nehalem will fundamentally change the way processors have been designed for years. Holographic storage is revolutionizing the way we store data. Memristors have the potential to completely change the way we look at electronics and technology. And organic computers, that use sequences of DNA to solve mathematical problems? Those are just cool.

Plus, just think about multi-core processors: 5 years ago, I would have never imagined that I'd be running one of these in my personal computer at home.