patrick.net

ThatGuy says

Why aren't the computers getting faster / cheaper anymore?

They're getting cheaper, but there's really nothing to improve any more.

My computer that cost me $700 to put together, is 9 years old. I've replaced the HDD and the power supply. I use it still for work. It's an core i7 with 8 cores. I expect to use it for at least 5 more years.

There are minor improvements in the CPU, but really what do you want out of a computer today?

I think we need to wait for Graphene processors or something. Quantum won't ever be something we use for daily driving. Pretty much hit the wall with silicon.

richwicks says

really what do you want out of a computer today?

I expect a lot out of my computer, programming, 3D CAD, Gaming, etc. The shit they are selling isn't cutting it

just_dregalicious says

Pretty much hit the wall with silicon.

That might be it. Just an expectation that some magic shit would show up

I keep thinking that too, then forgetting and being disappointed. We're advancing tech in other ways though like batteries! haha

I never pay more than $100-150 for a new box. I'm loathe to give up my windows 7 box but my 64 bit windows 10 box sitting close by is updating and getting more and more like my 7 box all the time. It isnt' much faster, but it's faster than this 32 bit windows 7 box. I just buy Dell business models off ebay, corporations upgrade allot, and so it all gets dumped on the bay.

But agree they are not getting much faster, I don't need speed demon, some of my friends get the latest greatest. I guess in a few years I'll finally buy into the flash hard drives that are not spinning disks, huge bottleneck. Lately the bottlneck has been the internet itself, like man when 8:30 AM hits those stock trading sites really slow down, using chrome web browser helps.

everything says

I guess in a few years I'll finally buy into the flash hard drives that are not spinning disks

OMG, get yourself an SSD, man. That's the one area that has improved massively in the last 10 years. If you have a desktop machine and need vast capacity you can buy a 250 GB SSD for $35 for your system and applications and just use the old spinning disk for your video and photo collection. Additionally, SSDs are vastly more reliable.

If you are using a laptop splurge $110 for a terabyte and benefit from the speed, low power consumption, and reliability. SSDs are nearly impervious to being banged around.

richwicks says

My computer that cost me $700 to put together, is 9 years old. I've replaced the HDD and the power supply. I use it still for work. It's an core i7 with 8 cores. I expect to use it for at least 5 more years.

If it's 9 years old, it's technically 4 cores with hyperthreading, but your point is well made: it's plenty fast for the tasks you put it to. I'm in exactly your same boat. I have an 8 year old i5 box I built myself. I've added a few SSDs and finally got a dedicated video card when I bought my 4k TV.

everything says

I never pay more than $100-150 for a new [(to me)] box [on eBay].

It's amazing how cheap you can get used computers if you have some computer savvy. It's like you are buying a MS Windows software license and the old owner throws the hardware in for free!

Perhaps it may just look the same but actually has newer generation of CPU and RAM etc.

steverbeaver says

Perhaps it may just look the same but actually has newer generation of CPU and RAM etc.

I think the original poster is noting that the rate of improvement has slowed compared to, say, 30 years ago.

I'd further point out that, for the majority of people, the benefits of more CPU speed, more graphics speed, or more storage isn't all that useful. That new computer may indeed be 2x faster in the video acceleration department, but few would even notice if they aren't playing 1st-person shooter type games or processing videos.

So it's kind of a double whammy.... rate of improvement has slowed down AND for most tasks of most people the computers are so fast already that they wouldn't even benefit from the additional speed even if the speed boost were massive.