The evolution and extinction of PC enthusiast as we have known and have understood for all these years is ever changing. I agree with Snakes comments that yes the days of the true enthusiast are nearing the end but I also see it as evolving into a new breed of enthusiast. As with technology everything evolves. What we did as a PC enthusiast years ago compared to today has evolved into the new generation of enthusiast. We look and think differently than before and those that refuse to open their minds to new ideas and ways of doing things are destined to diminish like the radio tubes. I am only saying we must allow the enthusiast of today to grow into what they must and be willing to accept them for what they are. We have all shared in time itself. What a great way to hand over the enthusiast banner but to the new generation of thinkers with distinction and pride of what we have accomplished and will continue to accomplish with these new thinkers. Thank everyone for hanging in tough and leading the way to the future. We all appreciated the past the present and our future. So let’s get back to work and press on, there is much to think and talk about, together.

I simply enjoy building fast PCs and I do need the power for stuff other than games. So as long as I can afford to build them, I'm going to keep doing it.

I blame M$ for gradually closing Windows to user development of programs. Back in 1983-86 I could get a FORTRAN or C compiler for $50 and write and compile my own programs. Or, you could write batch scripts and do some nifty things. It wasn't Unix but at least you could write your own programs and interactions with the system. Every time I figured out how to do something it was like a jolt of caffeine to the central nervous system. Each version of Windows has made it harder to run role your own software and its even more bitter when you consider the >10 times high cost of modern compilers. Our salaries however have not increased by >10X. Between 1994 and 1998 I became pretty good with basic macros in Excel spreadsheets. I wrote lab data crunching applications in Excel Basic. Then MS upgrades Excel for more money and makes all the old macro language worthless. With every upgrade users are separated farther from their PC's and forced to become consumers. The Gates and Jobs of the world have worked to crush the Woz out of us all because it makes them more money.

So that means our minds is not going to be technically challenged anymore?? I hope PC enthusiast does not fade because i don't want life to become the average joe no offense to them and all but i think theres room for both. I been working with pc's for 8 years and i am not tired of it. I like the new hardware trend that is going on now and prices are dropping faster than it once did in the past. So yep your right times has changed. and i see it as a good thing too =P

The short answer: Yes.

I have been into computers for 32 years. At that point, computers were known only to the hard-core "tech" and "enthusiast" crowd - that is, those who actively sought to participate and learn the technology.

Computers have, finally, become what they were meant to be at their creation - tools.. The computer hardware itself has taken a back seat to the results that the computer delivers to the user - be that information, entertainment, sciences, etc.

So, yes, the "enthusiast" as you know it is fading away...to be replaced by the average computer user, where the computer itself is not as important as what the hardware is doing for you.

And...believe it or not, I see that as a good thing.

Lots of interesting perspectives here. Allow me to give mine.

I've probably been a "PC enthusiast" longer than 99% of you. I built my first PC circa 1978, when "building a PC" had a very different meaning than it does now. You bought "kits" which consisted of a bare printed circuit card, a bag of parts, and a Xeroxed schematic diagram. Building a PC required the use of a soldering iron, and making it do something useful sometimes involved writing your own device drivers.

Times have changed; yes, PCs have become much more of a commodity. Yet, enthusiasts are still around. I don't think PC enthusiasts will ever go away; they will just become an ever-smaller percentage of the total population. Look at the automobile. 100 years ago, cars were novelties. To keep one running, you had to tinker and improvise, just as I did with my first PC 30 years ago. Today, auto enthusiasts still exist; but they represent a small percentage of all auto owners.

Something else to consider. Even though people who "roll their own" represent a much smaller percentage of total PC users, in terms of absolute numbers I'll bet there are just as many as ever, if not more. Easy availability of parts and technical knowledge/assistance over the Internet makes it easier for people to dive in.

There's a good chance that software and content will be the new frontier.

Linux makes a wide range of software development tools available for free; and while it is still not quite "ready for prime time" on Joe Sixpack's desktop, it's a geek's wet dream. In some ways, Linux is a throwback to the DIY attitude of the early PC days. Stable, accelerated OpenGL support for Linux is finally becoming a reality across all of the major GPUs; there are some huge opportunities for tinkering there. Maybe we'll even see a hugely popular game come out of the Open Source community in the next couple of years.

Even in the realm of commercial games, we're seeing a lot of user-generated content. User-written levels for UT and such. The communities that spring up around games which facilitate user-generated content are just a microcosm of how things could work in the future, in the broader "entertainment software" universe.

Heh... looks like I've rambled on quite a bit. PUI FTW... :D

Nah, to me building a computer is much cheaper than buying one, a maxed out pc built from quality parts from new egg costs much less than a "Premium" pc from dell or hp.

I think PC enthusiasts will still be around because of gaming. For example hp is getting into the PC enthusiast gaming market. HP released blackbird PC which looks pretty cool. I for one been gaming on the pc and i used to be a console gamer. Sure i played the ps3 and xbox360 graphics are nice but after awhile the experiences is not the same as the PC. And till this day i love it. besides "PC market has always been a niche" but that won't stop me from spending money on parts.

Its great that we are going towards the future and new products coming out which i like. But however what i am not liking is everything becoming all in one because it is "ease of use" theres really no fun in that for me at least.

as much as consoles are ease of use and plug and play goes. I won't trade in my PC for a console. What i am seeing in this forums is everyone's different point of view. Maybe PC gaming is not for everyone but for most.

I still enjoy PC gaming i don't even own a console because i don't want one. I am happy with the games that i have on the pc. And i have collection of games that i bought so far and the freedom to mod XD

Would be a sad day if the PC market went away because pc gaming will go down with it =(

A short answer = no, but they are changing among with the times.

The days of rapid hardware leaps are gone. The focus is now on software and interface. Computer enthusiasts are at the front.

Linux is becoming more refined and open sourced applications give enthusiast more power over their systems than ether before.

as geeks, we'll always tinker... but does anyone still build their own TVs anymore?

hmm, I am progressively become less and less interested in the "PC enthusiast" community - mostly because of a changing focus in life.

Everything has become so much about gaming and I don't see why I should be interested in HW reviews that give me 20 Game benchmarks and then leave out things that affect me in my personal context: power consumption (with TR being an exception here), Eclipse startup and compilation speed, Photoshop filters, MySQL performance, Avid Xpress export/filters, etc.

Even with the right benchmarks, display resolution, contrast and brightness have so much more influence on my PC experience than Mhz nowadays that I'm getting bored with yet another CPU review. Good office tables and chairs, now that'd a topic!

But there is indeed an ethusiast community developing around Laptops that is not so much centered on gaming...

DRM, overpricing, bloatware, spyware, forum trolls/shills/fanboys, and consoles have killed the pc.
Vista is crap. I am seriously considering linux now more than ever.
Compiz Fusion looks cooler than vista too.
Ubuntu 7.10 here I come.

enthusiasts have led the way in bringing the pc mainstream

pc's and their derivatives are now found in many nooks and crannies
atm's, info desks, mobile phones, pda's, in-car systems, etc
the most obvious is the giant network that brings the world to your fingers
instant communication, online shopping, information a click away
enthusiasts have also helped push the boundaries of demand
real-time 3d, digital content, multi-tasking, distributed projects, etc

but the time of the enthusiast is coming to an end
pc's were a new frontier with boundaries to explore and push
mass adoption has resulted in segmentation of the community
we have over-clockers, gamers, mod'ers/ricers, analyzers, etc
for every new frontier a market is created and commercialized
we're at odds with each-other and picking sides in battles

the mass range of choice has killed many things
it was exciting getting that one model in the limited range and getting so much "more" out of it
now we have cheapo-end, low-end, low-mid range, mid-range, high-mid range, mid-high-end, and insane-end
all of which are designed to fit to a specific type of market and use
and gimped enough so the enthusiast will spend hours trying then give up

the frontiers are also being realized and exploited and freedoms have been lost
we now have 'enthusiast' products for which we have to pay a premium for
most of which aren't even what an enthusiast would actually want to buy
unlocked multiplier? that'll be an extra $400 for that privilege please
software tweaking? we'll sue! didn't you read the end-user license agreement
plain decent case? closest thing we have is the bling master 3000
hardware acting up? yes just download the v63.43.omg.x beta 97 driver

there has been little innovation to really make us say 'wow'
instead we're fed increments and installments with bugs and patch-fests
"product x 7% faster in benchmarks". too bad it still 'feels' the same
"75% more eye-candy", "more features you never use", "now with added bloat"
most innovation appeals to mainstream so the enthusiast loses interest

the community itself is dumbing down and shrinking
the people that used to sell computers didn't know crap all about it
when something broke the enthusiast would dive in and explore
enthusiasts were the bastions of knowledge and know-how
now the knowledge is online and the enthusiast is selling the computer in-store
when something breaks the people go back and demand their money back
with a broader range of people coming in the overall knowledge has thinned out

above all this is physics. unfortunately the research has simply not kept up
i can remember being able to cool a pentium chip with a 40mm hsf i couldn't even hear
now we've got 120mm monstrosities taking up an entire quadrant in the case
such cooling used to be relegated to pushing the limits of operation
these days it's bling-tasitic to have your motherboard straining from the weight with a rainbow of led colours

the time of the enthusiast is ending
the industry itself is in a rut
we need a revolution!

/rant

heh, just watched the new mac os x leopard viddy at
http://www.apple.com/macosx/guidedtour/
and I just lost enthusiasm for windows. Microsoft is a total disappointment when it comes to new windows releases. if you dare watch it, it will blow you away. wish i could use it with my hardware though.

I think all this component integration is a step backwards, not forwards in terms of system performance. When a motherboard has too many integrated components the performance can become seriously degraded. Even a mid-range video card can easily out perform on-board graphics. A good sound card can drastically improve system performance too. If your serious about your LAN you really consider buying a good LAN card. The motherboard should just be the place where all the other major components plug-in.

If anything the past few months have been amazing for the PC enthusiast. Quad core is affordable. HD's are hitting 1TB (750's are at a nice price point). Memory is cheap. To top it all off the current wave of new games is awesome!

Crysis marks the beginning of the next wave of hardware upgrades. Current generation graphics hardware is having a hard time delivering playable framerates for anyone with a 1920x1200+ setup. Alan Wake (amongst others) will use available CPU cores to render physics. PC enthusiasts all over the world will be enthusiastically upgrading their systems just like they have done countless times before. Nothing has changed!

The current trend of laptops replacing desktops does not have much of an impact on the PC enthusiast as a laptop does not offer what the enthusiast wants - upgradeability. I would wager that many PC enthusiasts have a laptop in addition to their main rig (my main rig is a Quad core tower but I am typing this post on my MBP). If you are an enthusiast with tons of cash there are high end gaming laptops available.

My Xbox 360 is fun (Forza 2/Halo 3) but there is no way it is replacing my PC.

I have yet to be prevented from playing any video via my HTPC over HDMI (HDCP be damned!). Nothing is forcing me to my DVR.

Cheese?

Yes we are in the final throws of death.

Do not plummet in despair my fellow tech nerds. While this era is ending a new one is just around the corner. For example Robotics.

Considering this year has seen more triple A PC gaming titles then any year since the century began, I'd call it shortsightedly premature to announce the death of PC gaming and the enthusiasts that DIY it. One after another top title has been hitting hard this year, and they just keep getting better. And 08 looks even more rich in triple A titles. Many of these are PC exclusive.

DirectX 10 is just taking off and beginning to catch on, multicore games are more prevalent then ever, both of the big CPU makers are tailoring new architectures for the next few years aimed specifically at PC gaming, I'd have to say NOPE to the death toll sayers of PC gaming. As others have already said, this has been a silly subject now for years, people predicting the imminent death of PC gaming. I remember hearing that line of cock-and-bull back when I had brand new Geforce 3 sitting in my Athlon 1.4Ghz machine which was brutal for it's time. I also remember thinking the whole idea of PC gaming being dead was as ridiculous then as I find the idea now. Now I'm sitting on a rig with a GPU that's 5 generations faster, a CPU that's multiple times more powerful, 4 times as much memory that just happens to be 3+ times faster as well, and it's only mid range for this gaming generation. And no end of top notch gaming hardware coming out is in sight.

The true strength of the PC, as far as gaming, lies with its value to developers, as a proving ground for new technology, and with it's inherent flexibility. This is a role that consoles can never replace unless they become far, far more modular and upgradeable, which I don't see happening. As far as I'm concerned, PC gaming will remain THE place for gaming innovation for the foreseeable future.

Very well said. And consoles will not become more modular because it's counterintuitive for the platform; a fixed-platform controls development and production costs for both hardware and software. It also inherently limits the performance of that platform simply because it's a snapshot in time of technology.

The oft-quoted PC vs. Console sales numbers generally leave out the fact that console gaming sales only outnumber PC sales in the aggregate, not on individual platforms and moreover, legacy console systems suffer abandonment that takes much longer on the PC side of the equation. We don't even really need to cover how much the advancement and adoption of game mods (DoD, RO, et al) have increased the PC gaming user base.

If it can be tweaked, if it can be modded and especially if a greater price/performance ratio can be extracted from it, there will be an enthusiast market.

I'm not the enthusiast I used to be.

I no longer get gleefully excited each new Graphics card release.

Benchmarks bore me, unless I see one that shows a 50% improvement on it's predecessor (rare, that).

Time has become more valuable to me. I don't even invest in games unless I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it. I don't have patience for sub-par games, Operating systems, software.

The last PC I built was a TR recommended system from newegg. After I bought it, I benchmarked it (using 7zip, which scales very well against all ranges of PC's) against Core 2 Duo HP systems from work. They came very close to performing just like my custom system, and they were cheaper and no hassle. That had me scratching my head. The HP systems were 1/5 the size of my own huge tower that took me 2-3 hours of building, (yeah I take my time, triple check) not to mention the OS install later. Why bother anymore? I mean sure you want good graphics, put in your card, but the idea of building my own has waned...

I built, last year, a high-end computer. Core 2 Duo, 4 GB of RAM, WD Raptor, etc. It was expensive, but it is very fast.

I don't use it. Instead, I use my 3-year-old Compaq laptop, which is falling apart and very slow compared to the desktop. I don't play PC games, you see, and the CPU intensive work that I do (graphics and video) I dont do very often.

So, I just bought a loaded Thinkpad T61. I'm going to sell the desktop and old laptop, and I probably won't build or have a desktop again. I still consider myself a PC enthusiast, but I now value portability over speed. It's just not fun to sit at a desk when I could be relaxing on a couch.

Well if it is, I suggest you start looking for another job Scott.

For my latest Linux box, I built an Asus bare bones. If ever there was a sign of the impending apocalypse ... that was it.

The death of the enthusiast will look more like a dwindling of numbers. Platforms will mature, become progressively cheaper and be very complete. Consoles could become the preferred platform for all video gaming, and handhelds will be able to handle all the A/V stuff many people now use laptops / desktops for. PC enthusiasts will be relegated to corporate computing environments, and that will cure them of their enthusiasm.

Enthusiasts will find a way to tinker with their toys, and the greater commodity of those toys will only make the market more forthcoming to these enthusiasts.

I think the real killer of the "hardware enthusiast" (shall I just go ahead and interpret this as computer builder?) will be cheap off-the-shelf solutions that don't suck.

Sure, Dell aren't ever going to offer huge bang for buck, but Overclockers UK are already offering a fantastic range of pre-overclocked PCs for the gaming/high-end performance market at pretty decent prices (pretty decent for the UK, anyway). In my mind, it's difficult to justify the extra effort of a self-build when you can get a professionally built and supported PC by people who actually know what they're doing.

I'm not saying they'll take up the entire "enthusiast"/self-build market, but if more small companies start pushing products like this at reasonable prices (with free hardware support and decent warranties), it's going to be hard to ignore.

As for the further integration of components - I'm not entirely convinced that we'll see any worthwhile results for anything other than laptops for a good while yet. Discrete graphics cards aren't going to go away all the time there's a market for them, and the only way that'll change is when CPUs or motherboards can offer a realistic alternative.

Sound cards may be further integrated with only minor performance losses, but the audiophile crowd won't stand for reduced fidelity or the other problems associated with integrated sound.

Ill just repeat what some have said.

Enthusiasts are undoubtedly not extinct, its the prices that are just way to prohibitive for the common enthusiast.
Not to mention the poor drivers and other nuisances of the enthusiast products that should never have in the first place(considering the products price),

Has anyone worked on dell's newest flavor of the month? It's complete crap.
There will always be a place for quality.

It's tough to say. On the one hand, my passion for gaming and upgrading is only a shadow of what it was back in the 1990s. On the other hand, when the time does come to build a new computer (or upgrade several components in an old one), I still enjoy going through the process of picking out each individual part that goes into the system. My current tower is 11 months old now, but it was still fun to me going to a local computer store and choosing all of the parts and going over it with them. To me, it's a much better option than picking a brand-name off-the-shelf system where they choose all the parts, load it with a bunch of crapware, and make it difficult for you to upgrade later.

I hope as time goes on that hobbyists will continue on with choosing their own parts and go with their own custom-built systems, but I guess it depends on how viable PC gaming is going forward into the future. Any brand-name computer is able to do all of the "basics" and is enough for most users, so it depends on how much desire there is to go beyond that.

When it comes to laptops, I do buy brand names (currently running a Compaq), but I don't care because I don't need anything powerful. It's mostly just being used for Internet and e-mail, etc.. No heavy lifting of any sort.

I'd say that the term "PC enthusiast" is overly specific. I don't know anyone I would apply that label to who isn't a general technology enthusiast, anyway, and that's where I see this going.

"Convergence" may be an overly-used and rightfully-ridiculed marketing term, but it's also a reality. Products like the iPhone, the Nokia Linux-based mobiles, smartphones, etc. that normally operate independently but require a PC for maintenance and content prove that there is still a role for a home PC, but it is shrinking.

Ironically, I think the model for the future, as far as PCs, will follow the "antiquated" paradigm of the mainframe: every house will have a central, upgradeable PC that controls various day-to-day operations of the house like climate control, lighting, fills service roles like scheduling and Internet gateway, etc., and acts as a server on which content is stored and doled out to various satellite devices like PDAs, game consoles, media centers, etc.

I think there will continue to be an enthusiast market for media centers for a long, long time because, let's face it, home theater guys and audiophiles like to put together their own options and like to be on the bleeding edge. They're geeks. I don't see that changing any time soon, and I don't see things like the Apple TV or DVRs making big headway in this regard because the scope of these devices is simply too narrow. A solution like CableCard WILL eventually have to be accepted by the big carriers, whether they like it or not.

Gaming is complicated. Despite the popular misconception, PC gaming is keeping up with the sales of the major consoles, even if it doesn't beat all of them put together, which is how it's usually framed. But I don't know how long that will last.

Besides, game consoles, at a base level, ARE PCs. The only thing separating an XBOX 360 or a PS3 from, say, a gaming laptop or small form factor gaming PC is the software that's running on it. The actual functionality of the hardware is almost indistinguishable, and they're just about as upgradeable and "tinkerable" as the average laptop is these days.

The true strength of the PC, as far as gaming, lies with its value to developers, as a proving ground for new technology, and with it's inherent flexibility. This is a role that consoles can never replace unless they become far, far more modular and upgradeable, which I don't see happening. As far as I'm concerned, PC gaming will remain THE place for gaming innovation for the foreseeable future.

As far as the integration of hardware like putting video controllers on the same die as CPUs and such: I don't see that as a threat to the existence of PC enthusiasts so much as I see it as making being one that much easier and accessible. This trend is no more a threat to the PC enthusiast community than the (almost) complete disappearance of DIP switches from motherboards was. I see integrating graphics on the chip as simply a more economical replacement for integrating graphics on the motherboard, as is currently done for casual/business-level graphics controllers, not as a replacement for enthusiast/gamer-level graphics.

I just don't see discrete graphics going away in the near future. I mean sure, it may eventually happen, but we have a loooong way to go until the pace of technological development in real-time graphics rendering flattens out to the point that such a thing would ubiquitous.

Anyway, that's how I see it. Our kids will grow up being technology enthusiasts, just as we did.