It's been fairly quiet in the computer industry lately - a reflection of the general economic situation these days. There will probably be the usual pre-holiday flurry of announcements towards the end of the year, but I don't think there will be any major change in the market soon.
A trend I see forming is a distinction between home PCs and hobby (or game) PCs. In the past, you could order a PC from a top tier vendor (such as HP Compaq, Dell, Gateway, etc.) or a PC from one of the third tier "parts" vendors, and get basically the same components packaged in the same way. The advantage of buying from the top tier was better service; the lower tier was price or price vs. performance.
Before I go further, perhaps I should reiterate my definition of these vendor levels. A top tier vendor designs their products and product lines and usually arranges them into specific model offerings. The second tier does the same, but is not as big or well known. The third tier is basically composed of vendors who will list available parts and allow you to customize your PC with any parts you want. Top and second tier vendors often sell in retail establishments, such as Best Buy or Circuit City. The third tier usually works only via the web or 800 numbers.
Companies have now begun to differentiate their product lines. The top tier seems to be orienting their product lines towards traditional home and business workstation users, while the third tier now seems to be focusing on the hobbyist or gamer market.
The most obvious differences are in the computer case itself, and in the video cards used. A gamer/hobbyist PC is no longer just a beige box. A rainbow of case colors has appeared on the marketplace and that is just the start. Gamer PCs now have windows that allow you to see into what is inside the box, and you can even get neon light arrays that light up the innards.
There are aftermarket products to beef up the appearance of your PC, just as you can customize a car. Besides fancy cases with acrylic panels, you can get fancy fan grill covers, window kits, and window etchings. It reminds me of my old sports car days and the JCWhitney catalog.
Another change in the cases themselves is that the gamer/hobbyist cases seem to be geared to people who will tweak the performance of their PC to make it run faster. This is called "overclocking". Overclocking produces much more heat (as if today's computers didn't produce enough heat anyhow) and that means that more cooling power is needed. The result is that these cases are loaded with fans. I have seen one system with two fans on the chips of the mainboard itself, a fan on the video card, a fan in the power supply, and three (count 'em) fans in the case itself. Some of these sound like an old B-29 taking off!
Video cards are also an indicator. The video chips and cards available today have far more speed and features (texture rendering, etc.) than are needed by the average person to browse the web and read email. But the gamer/hobbyist PCs will often include these $200 or more cards. Being from third tier vendors they are offered at good prices, but are overkill for today's home or business market.
My advice on buying a PC used to be that if you wanted handholding and support, buy tier one - if you wanted the best price, buy tier three. The PCs were essentially the same, the price and service was the difference. Now, you may want to evaluate further.
Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).