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Survey Results

When buying a new computer, how important are each of the following?

Survey period: 25 Jul 2022 to 1 Aug 2022

Obviously a dozen other things come into the equation, too, but let's keep the list manageable.
OptionVotes12345 
Raw horse power7564%4%18%35%39%
Enough RAM for what I need and more.7565%2%5%21%67%
Disk storage. I need room7564%6%26%29%34%
The GPUs are critical7569%18%37%20%15%
AI processing power. TPUs, Neural engines, DLAs. I needs them.75642%22%21%7%8%
It needs to run the OS of my choice7569%4%14%18%56%



 
QuestionWhat does the scale represent? Pin
Vikram A Punathambekar30-Jul-22 6:54
Vikram A Punathambekar30-Jul-22 6:54 
AnswerRe: What does the scale represent? Pin
trønderen31-Jul-22 3:51
trønderen31-Jul-22 3:51 
GeneralRe: What does the scale represent? Pin
Vikram A Punathambekar1-Aug-22 6:40
Vikram A Punathambekar1-Aug-22 6:40 
GeneralRe: What does the scale represent? Pin
trønderen2-Aug-22 13:17
trønderen2-Aug-22 13:17 
AnswerRe: What does the scale represent? Pin
Chris Maunder31-Jul-22 12:30
cofounderChris Maunder31-Jul-22 12:30 
GeneralRe: What does the scale represent? Pin
Vikram A Punathambekar1-Aug-22 6:38
Vikram A Punathambekar1-Aug-22 6:38 
GeneralRe: What does the scale represent? Pin
Chris Maunder8-Aug-22 8:22
cofounderChris Maunder8-Aug-22 8:22 
GeneralKeyboard Layout for taptops Pin
wmjordan27-Jul-22 16:56
professionalwmjordan27-Jul-22 16:56 
GeneralRe: Keyboard Layout for taptops Pin
Andrea Simonassi28-Jul-22 22:49
Andrea Simonassi28-Jul-22 22:49 
GeneralRe: Keyboard Layout for taptops Pin
wmjordan28-Jul-22 23:24
professionalwmjordan28-Jul-22 23:24 
GeneralOnly the OS really matters anymore Pin
Bruce Greene27-Jul-22 3:48
Bruce Greene27-Jul-22 3:48 
GeneralMissing options... Pin
NPowDev27-Jul-22 1:35
NPowDev27-Jul-22 1:35 
GeneralRe: Missing options... Pin
trønderen27-Jul-22 4:57
trønderen27-Jul-22 4:57 
GeneralRe: Missing options... Pin
NPowDev27-Jul-22 7:07
NPowDev27-Jul-22 7:07 
Question6 options... Pin
Ravi Bhavnani26-Jul-22 10:14
professionalRavi Bhavnani26-Jul-22 10:14 
GeneralI don’t buy, I build Pin
matblue2526-Jul-22 2:20
professionalmatblue2526-Jul-22 2:20 
GeneralRe: I don’t buy, I build Pin
trønderen26-Jul-22 5:49
trønderen26-Jul-22 5:49 
GeneralRe: I don’t buy, I build Pin
matblue2526-Jul-22 10:51
professionalmatblue2526-Jul-22 10:51 
GeneralRe: I don’t buy, I build Pin
Saša Ćetković26-Jul-22 23:36
professionalSaša Ćetković26-Jul-22 23:36 
GeneralRe: I don’t buy, I build Pin
trønderen27-Jul-22 4:34
trønderen27-Jul-22 4:34 
You are selecting, not creating. Like when I buy a new car: I select a motor size, an entertainment system, color and seat finish, and studded or un-studded winter tires. That doesn't make me a car constructor. Or builder. Plugging a card into a motherboard slot, along with the plugs from the power supply, doesn't make me a computer constructor/builder.

Sure enough: When I buy the car, the motor, stereo and seats are in place; they are not delivered as separate components. Buy the winter tires are. The ski rack for the roof as well. The baby seat. When I mount these, am I then a car builder? After a few year, the lead battery needs to be replaced - it was delivered as an integral part of the car. When I lift out the old one, and put the new one in its place, am I then rebuilding (or possibly even reconstructing, if the new battery is of a more modern kind) the car?

Another analogy: In the 1960s and 70s, top range SLR cameras (in the class of Nikon F) offered a multitude of viewfinders, focus screens, backs, and of course: lenses. The photographer put together what he needed for the job - all those components were field replaceable. Did it make the photographer a 'camera builder' to replace one focus screen with another one? When I switch lenses on my system camera, does that make me a camera builder? (The camera neither has a replaceable viewfinder, focus screen or back.) Where does the line run between mounting a lens and building a camera? Between plugging in a disk in the SATA socket or in the USB socket, and building a computer?

The was a period when every new computer I bought had a different bus solution, at least partially: Display cards (today: GPUs) switched buses evert year or two, and I think the card box in my basement has a complete selection of cards for every one of them. Also, there was a bewilderment of I/O-sockets: I had separate interface cards for hand scanners and flatbed scanners, tape stations, network and lots of other equipment. Of course they must match the system bus; for my next PC they might be useless. They must provide the right socket, of which there were dozens. And they had to provide the right signal on that socket; otherwise you had to mess around with adapters (which was a very common situation).

But that is many years ago. PCIe is 18 years old. I have never had any compatibility problems over those 18 years: Plug the card in, and it works.

USB2 is 22 years old. You can say a lot of negative things about USB2 (I frequently do myself), but it has replaced that mess of different plugs and cables and device-specific interface boards. The first few years (although mostly in the USB1 days) we were joking about 'Plug and Pray', but for the last fifteen years, it has been flawless Plug and Play.

Obviously, you will not buy a Canon lens for a Nikon camera. There is no such thing as an M.2 to SATA adapter (that I know of). You must have some basic knowledge of standards to select the proper components. But nowadays, interface standards are so well defined that components not working together (even though both parts follow the same standard) is extremely rare, in my experience. Actually, I cannot think of a single case the last ten years.

You may say that they 'sort of' work together, but not in an optimal way. Yes, that may be true. E.g. if you pick your external USB2 disk out of its box, the disk itself may be a SATA600 one that will work much faster if you install it with a SATA600 cable inside your tower cabinet. It would be similarly sub-optimal to buy old, slow memory chips if your mainboard can handle much faster ones. But you don't have to be a certified engineer to read the mainboard instruction booklet to select proper memory chips.

To put together a computer from a PS, a GPU, a few memory cards and possibly a disk (unless the MB comes with an M.2) by inserting them into sockets of a MB can be done without knowing the difference between a vacuum tube and a transistor. It requires no electronics competence whatsoever. Even selecting one GPU over the other, or an MB with one CPU socket over one with another socket, requires no knowledge of neither circuit design nor component technology. In my eyes, if you don't know the first thing about how the electronics work, enough for you to use that understanding in choosing one alternative over the other (both viable), then you are putting together pieces IKEA style - even if you were the one making the choice of finish and number of shelves in your cabinet.

For all I know, you may actually be highly competent with a Ph.D. in some specialized area of circuit design, knowing very well what your are doing. But anyone without such background could have done the job equally well, based on reading specs sheets and reviews published on Tom's Hardware and similar sites.
GeneralRe: I don’t buy, I build Pin
C-P-User-327-Jul-22 12:26
C-P-User-327-Jul-22 12:26 
GeneralRe: I don’t buy, I build Pin
matblue2527-Jul-22 15:25
professionalmatblue2527-Jul-22 15:25 
GeneralRe: I don’t buy, I build Pin
Mike Hankey31-Jul-22 5:37
mveMike Hankey31-Jul-22 5:37 
GeneralWhat is a computer? Pin
dan!sh 26-Jul-22 0:44
professional dan!sh 26-Jul-22 0:44 
GeneralRe: What is a computer? Pin
MikeCO1026-Jul-22 2:48
MikeCO1026-Jul-22 2:48 

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