View from the Labs
PC Pro isn’t going to the dogs, but our editor does find a curious parallel between canines and desktop PCs
Iam a simple man, so it’s a constant source of pleasure to me that dogs are all so different. Don’t worry, I haven’t taken leave of my senses and decided I write for Crufts magazine. It’s simply that I’ve been struck this month by the variety of approaches manufacturers can take when building a personal computer. And that made me think about dogs.
The thing about dogs is that they come in all shapes, sizes and colours, yet your brain can look at one and label it, without hesitation, as “dog”. And it’s the same with PCs. Compare and contrast the Acer ConceptD 100 with the Dell XPS Desktop 8950, which share all the same core traits yet are visually so different. Look at them both, though, and your brain knows you’re gazing at a PC.
I love this variety. It’s one of the main reasons I continue to stick in the Windows camp as opposed to Apple, because I don’t like to have my choices foisted upon me. I’ll buy a steel-grey-liveried laptop or PC if I darn well wish to, but I want a genuine choice – not a tickbox list of processor, RAM and storage.
But I’m not quite so shallow as to be entirely guided by visuals. One of the ongoing joys of the Windows PC, one written into its DNA back in 1981 when IBM released the Personal Computer 5150, is its modularity and therefore upgradability. And, yes, repairability too: things go wrong, and the fact I can repair my PC myself remains a source of pleasure.
This built-in flexibility allows desktop manufacturers to approach problems differently, too. Right now, we face component shortages and rocketing prices – for graphics cards in particular – so it makes sense to buy with an eye on the future when prices inevitably return to normal, more sane levels.
As I write this, the PCSpecialist Fusion Master sits on my desk. I daresay some would be offended by its expanse of motherboard, with only the essentials of CPU, RAM and storage plugged in. That leaves the graphics card slot empty, and to me that’s simply potential. At some point in the future, anyone buying this PC will be able to upgrade to an RTX 3000 series card (or similar) and enjoy hugely upgraded graphics. Or pop in their own graphics card. Or leave it lying empty forever.
The point is that the Fusion Master, like so many PCs on test this month, is a canvas on which anyone can draw: adding a graphics card, more storage, PCIe expansion cards, memory. You simply can’t do that with most Macs or laptops.
Closed systems have their place, and we heap praise on the Mac Studio elsewhere ( see p60) for good reason. But imagine a world where all dogs and all desktop PCs looked the same. How dull that would be?
“Right now, we face component shortages and rocketing prices, so it makes sense to buy with an eye on the future”