Solve : Has Computer Hardware Suffered From the Gamer Community??

1.	Solve : Has Computer Hardware Suffered From the Gamer Community??
Answer» Has computer hardware suffered as a result of the gamer community? Shopping for parts is becoming increasingly difficult as more and more PRODUCTS are designed to be visually pleasing, contain meaningless buzz words and even more ridiculous components. I am writing this after coming away from looking at a motherboard that boasted a LAN controller (with no technical specification) that and I quote: "Prevent(s) disconnection due to high ping" & "Allows you to actually run your PC 24 hours a day". Actually finding components with real merit is now so much more difficult to the old days, in which you could pick up good kit at computer fairs. Now you have to browse around online trying to find manufacturers which haven't succumbed to the temptation to make ludicrous promises for people that don't know any better. I propose a witch hunt! (j/k)It is more than just gaming. And hardware. There is a lot more under the hood. Early efforts by hobbyists often focused on games as an example of something that could not be drone without electronics. Some of the firsts home made computers would have an interactive game the demonstrated the value of a game that would offer some competition to a single user. Any early computer hobbyist wanted to make machine that would interact with a human in an amusing way. The big companies came in and offered dedicated games machines, but the amateurs wanted something that would not be dominated by commercial interests. Here is a list of some games that are not tied to monmey-makungs companies. List of open-source video games http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_games By making a game PC with hand picked hardware you could save a lot of money and play great Public Domain games. Double fun! You make it, you play it! But like the OP said, that time has gone. There are no more computer fairs. Not around here anyway. Yeah, you can buy real expensive stuff, bu its snot much fun anymore. Back in March they had a big game thing San Fransisco. Here is one blurb of that event. http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/06/state-of-vr-sony-project-morpheus-2015/ Quote I did not get motion sickness when I demoed Sony's new and improved Project Morpheus VR headset at GDC this week in San Francisco. Huh? Is the objective motion sickness?? IMO, too much super realistic graphics takes away some of the fun of using your own imagination. So instead of being entertained, yor ate terrified. Uh oh you may have set me off! Gamer stuff rather annoys me. Quote from: Accessless on June 09, 2015, 05:33:55 PM Has computer hardware suffered as a result of the gamer community? I think so. Though it may merely be a new market segment, having to sort through the gamer-oriented trash is annoying. For example- even RAM is not free of this. You have those ridiculous looking RAM modules that have brightly coloured goofy appendages sticking out of the top: Now, thankfully- again, this is just a market. You can find "Normal" RAM; Corsair- the same company- has XMS2/XMS3 for example is pretty good (IMO) and isn't super-flashy, and, coincidentally, is far cheaper. That page you linked is pretty hilarious though. "Military Class 4 components" (They don't mention how badly you'd have to screw up to not meet those requirements). The blurb about their "Network gaming" is pretty hilarious. And the "feature" they seem to illustrate as being related to some special network chip is actually part of their software. Thankfully at the bottom is a proper spec sheet- the LAN is apparently gigabit- so there is that much going for it. The big issue I had when I built the computer I'm using right now is that while playing games better than my old system was sort of expected, it was not a requirement and it wasn't why I was upgrading- the main reason was basically that it was starting to lower my productivity for my work. And when searching for components you have to dodge all sorts of gamer-oriented trash. There are graphics cards with RGB LED's illuminating Logos. The fact that you can change the colour of the LED is somehow marketed as a feature. Because that is certainly the killer feature I'm after, being ABLE to arbitrarily change the colour of a LED light on a graphics card. Network cards are also marketed in this way too. And that is because only the "gamer" archtype is both interested in computers while simultaneously a lot of the time being completely ignorant of how it works. the LAN capabilities of pretty much any motherboard makes separate network cards redundant unless you specifically need more than one (eg for a server system). But then you have things like gaming network cards, where they put some giant heatsink thing on it and pretend there is some super-fancy network chip utilizing super awesome gaming technology to eliminate your pings... and you know that the heatsink is probably not even attached to anything and is just a thin cover over a basic network card to justify a higher price point. Sound Cards suffer from some of the same issues. First their card lines have absolutely stupid names. Take the Creative X-Fi "Fatal1ty" or however it is spelled. Apparently it's named after some "Pro-gamer" handle, and he used the card. Well, good for him, I guess. It's not as if we see enough ignorant douchebags telling us what to buy, after all. We need a few more. Now the advantages of Sound cards are not completely non-existent, but the "Gaming" benefits are. Sound cards are good for music production and similar tasks, but they aren't going to improve gaming- at least not anymore, since most hardware accelerated sound tech has been replaced by the Windows Sound Mixer. I haven't seen hard drives marketed as "gaming" devices thankfully, not that I'd be surprised to see something like a "WD Dremora" that is marketed as a super gamer HDD that is really just a WD Blue dressed in a skin/covering to make it styled like the Dremora from the Elder Scrolls. Laptops of course don't get to escape this treatment. I dealt with that first-hand. I needed a new laptop to make Visual Studio and my work actually doable without my desktop system. None of the "value" laptops on offer had the specs I needed, though they had the appearance I would prefer. Once you get to the specs needed for what I wanted I was looking at gamer laptops that are styled to look like something out of Star Trek. And they are always emblazoned with some huge distinctive logo. "Republic of Gamers" being one I see a lot. That is a country I don't think I even want to imagine. I ended up finding a laptop that had what I needed that didn't look completely ridiculous, a Thinkpad T550, so it is possible to find, but the manufacturers that actually cater to higher-end usage and aren't after "MAX EF PEE ESS" are few and far between. I forgot to mention that my example "gaming" mobo only supports pci-e 2.0This is a very interesting point - It somewhat goes both ways - In someways the gamer community has CAUSED hardware to suffer but in other ways it has benefited it. Sure, "gaming" hardware is full of marketing nonsense that has started to spill over into regular hardware, but is this really a serious issue? Sure it's annoying but there is nothing to stop you actually reading the raw specs (e.g. what network chip a given motherboard uses) to work out how it will perform and then ignore all the marketing nonsense. Most of the "gamer" features on these components can simply be ignored. As far as appearance goes, I am not a massive fan of the "gamer" style with big flashing lights and strange gaming related dacals, same goes for massive heatsinks on RAM (although as BC said, there is plenty of decent RAM without heatsinks). But again, is this really a huge issue? If you don't care about how your PC looks, why does it matter that a board has a crazy decal and if you do care (like me to a certain EXTENT) then there are still plenty of non-gaming MOTHERBOARDS out there. Take mine for example, a Gigabite GA-Z77X-UD5H - there is very little gaming nonsense plastered all over it. You also have to think of the benefits to PC hardware caused by PC gaming. If we look at something like mechanical keyboards for example - Previously they were reserved for high end users and were very expensive, back in 2011 I paid £120 for my first new mechanical keyboard which was right before they became the "next big thing" for gaming. Back then the choice and availability was limited, I had to order it from a specialist keyboard retailer. Now that the gamer community is all over them, the prices have dropped considerably and the range has grown hugely with companies such as Corsair and Coolermaster releasing their own mechanical keyboards. They are also now stocked in more mainstream retailers which makes them much easier to find. Another thing - Would GPU technology have progressed to where it is today without PC gaming - Probably not. If there wasn't a big market for extremely high performance GPUs then I doubt they would be advancing as rapidly as they are today and prices would be surely considerably higher. You also need to think, if it wasn't for PC gaming, would PC components still be widely available, affordable or have such a wide selection. If you think about it, outside of gaming, desktop PCs (especially custom built ones) are a very niche market, the average user does not need a desktop PC, especially a custom built one. Most people I know who don't have a specific need for a desktop PC just tend to buy a laptop. If it wasn't for gaming I imagine the selection of PC components would be extremely limited and expensive due to low demand. Quote from: Accessless on June 09, 2015, 10:23:51 PM I forgot to mention that my example "gaming" mobo only supports pci-e 2.0 That is a totally separate discussion - AMD do not yet natively support PCI-E 3.0.Quote from: Accessless on June 09, 2015, 10:23:51 PM I forgot to mention that my example "gaming" mobo only supports pci-e 2.0 Quote from: camerongray on June 10, 2015, 03:33:23 AM That is a totally separate discussion - AMD do not yet natively support PCI-E 3.0. Now I'm confused. I thought that PCI-E 3 cards were not backwards compatible with PCI-E 2 sockets. Why does my graphics card work?Quote from: Accessless on June 10, 2015, 07:16:40 AM Now I'm confused. I thought that PCI-E 3 cards were not backwards compatible with PCI-E 2 sockets. Why does my graphics card work? PCI-Express 3.0 is backwards compatible with 2.0.For what its worth. Acer claims they are still courting gamers. Acer Whiffs At Computex, Gaming Line Still Shells And Promises (From Tom's Hardware, June 9. Quote After Acer's New York City event this spring, where we saw an avalanche of new Acer products, we got teasers about the company's newly rethought line of gaming devices. Though we were a bit disappointed that all that was available at the event were mockups of its "Predator" gaming desktop, tablet, notebooks, and curved monitor, we anticipated seeing the new gear in full regalia, with complete specs and pricing info and availability, at Computex. Believe it when you see it.

Answer»

Has computer hardware suffered as a result of the gamer community?

Shopping for parts is becoming increasingly difficult as more and more PRODUCTS are designed to be visually pleasing, contain meaningless buzz words and even more ridiculous components.

I am writing this after coming away from looking at a motherboard that boasted a LAN controller (with no technical specification) that and I quote: "Prevent(s) disconnection due to high ping" & "Allows you to actually run your PC 24 hours a day".

Actually finding components with real merit is now so much more difficult to the old days, in which you could pick up good kit at computer fairs. Now you have to browse around online trying to find manufacturers which haven't succumbed to the temptation to make ludicrous promises for people that don't know any better.

I propose a witch hunt! (j/k)It is more than just gaming. And hardware. There is a lot more under the hood.
Early efforts by hobbyists often focused on games as an example of something that could not be drone without electronics.

Some of the firsts home made computers would have an interactive game the demonstrated the value of a game that would offer some competition to a single user. Any early computer hobbyist wanted to make machine that would interact with a human in an amusing way.

The big companies came in and offered dedicated games machines, but the amateurs wanted something that would not be dominated by commercial interests. Here is a list of some games that are not tied to monmey-makungs companies.
List of open-source video games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_games

By making a game PC with hand picked hardware you could save a lot of money and play great Public Domain games. Double fun! You make it, you play it!
But like the OP said, that time has gone. There are no more computer fairs. Not around here anyway. Yeah, you can buy real expensive stuff, bu its snot much fun anymore.

Back in March they had a big game thing San Fransisco.
Here is one blurb of that event.
http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/06/state-of-vr-sony-project-morpheus-2015/
Quote

I did not get motion sickness when I demoed Sony's new and improved Project Morpheus VR headset at GDC this week in San Francisco.

Huh? Is the objective motion sickness??
IMO, too much super realistic graphics takes away some of the fun of using your own imagination. So instead of being entertained, yor ate terrified.

Uh oh you may have set me off! Gamer stuff rather annoys me.

Quote from: Accessless on June 09, 2015, 05:33:55 PM

Has computer hardware suffered as a result of the gamer community?

I think so. Though it may merely be a new market segment, having to sort through the gamer-oriented trash is annoying.

For example- even RAM is not free of this. You have those ridiculous looking RAM modules that have brightly coloured goofy appendages sticking out of the top:

Now, thankfully- again, this is just a market. You can find "Normal" RAM; Corsair- the same company- has XMS2/XMS3 for example is pretty good (IMO) and isn't super-flashy, and, coincidentally, is far cheaper.

That page you linked is pretty hilarious though. "Military Class 4 components" (They don't mention how badly you'd have to screw up to not meet those requirements). The blurb about their "Network gaming" is pretty hilarious. And the "feature" they seem to illustrate as being related to some special network chip is actually part of their software. Thankfully at the bottom is a proper spec sheet- the LAN is apparently gigabit- so there is that much going for it. The big issue I had when I built the computer I'm using right now is that while playing games better than my old system was sort of expected, it was not a requirement and it wasn't why I was upgrading- the main reason was basically that it was starting to lower my productivity for my work. And when searching for components you have to dodge all sorts of gamer-oriented trash. There are graphics cards with RGB LED's illuminating Logos. The fact that you can change the colour of the LED is somehow marketed as a feature. Because that is certainly the killer feature I'm after, being ABLE to arbitrarily change the colour of a LED light on a graphics card.

Network cards are also marketed in this way too. And that is because only the "gamer" archtype is both interested in computers while simultaneously a lot of the time being completely ignorant of how it works. the LAN capabilities of pretty much any motherboard makes separate network cards redundant unless you specifically need more than one (eg for a server system). But then you have things like gaming network cards, where they put some giant heatsink thing on it and pretend there is some super-fancy network chip utilizing super awesome gaming technology to eliminate your pings... and you know that the heatsink is probably not even attached to anything and is just a thin cover over a basic network card to justify a higher price point.

Sound Cards suffer from some of the same issues. First their card lines have absolutely stupid names. Take the Creative X-Fi "Fatal1ty" or however it is spelled. Apparently it's named after some "Pro-gamer" handle, and he used the card. Well, good for him, I guess. It's not as if we see enough ignorant douchebags telling us what to buy, after all. We need a few more. Now the advantages of Sound cards are not completely non-existent, but the "Gaming" benefits are. Sound cards are good for music production and similar tasks, but they aren't going to improve gaming- at least not anymore, since most hardware accelerated sound tech has been replaced by the Windows Sound Mixer.

I haven't seen hard drives marketed as "gaming" devices thankfully, not that I'd be surprised to see something like a "WD Dremora" that is marketed as a super gamer HDD that is really just a WD Blue dressed in a skin/covering to make it styled like the Dremora from the Elder Scrolls.

Laptops of course don't get to escape this treatment. I dealt with that first-hand. I needed a new laptop to make Visual Studio and my work actually doable without my desktop system. None of the "value" laptops on offer had the specs I needed, though they had the appearance I would prefer. Once you get to the specs needed for what I wanted I was looking at gamer laptops that are styled to look like something out of Star Trek. And they are always emblazoned with some huge distinctive logo. "Republic of Gamers" being one I see a lot. That is a country I don't think I even want to imagine.

I ended up finding a laptop that had what I needed that didn't look completely ridiculous, a Thinkpad T550, so it is possible to find, but the manufacturers that actually cater to higher-end usage and aren't after "MAX EF PEE ESS" are few and far between.
I forgot to mention that my example "gaming" mobo only supports pci-e 2.0This is a very interesting point - It somewhat goes both ways - In someways the gamer community has CAUSED hardware to suffer but in other ways it has benefited it.

Sure, "gaming" hardware is full of marketing nonsense that has started to spill over into regular hardware, but is this really a serious issue? Sure it's annoying but there is nothing to stop you actually reading the raw specs (e.g. what network chip a given motherboard uses) to work out how it will perform and then ignore all the marketing nonsense. Most of the "gamer" features on these components can simply be ignored.

As far as appearance goes, I am not a massive fan of the "gamer" style with big flashing lights and strange gaming related dacals, same goes for massive heatsinks on RAM (although as BC said, there is plenty of decent RAM without heatsinks). But again, is this really a huge issue? If you don't care about how your PC looks, why does it matter that a board has a crazy decal and if you do care (like me to a certain EXTENT) then there are still plenty of non-gaming MOTHERBOARDS out there. Take mine for example, a Gigabite GA-Z77X-UD5H - there is very little gaming nonsense plastered all over it.

You also have to think of the benefits to PC hardware caused by PC gaming. If we look at something like mechanical keyboards for example - Previously they were reserved for high end users and were very expensive, back in 2011 I paid £120 for my first new mechanical keyboard which was right before they became the "next big thing" for gaming. Back then the choice and availability was limited, I had to order it from a specialist keyboard retailer. Now that the gamer community is all over them, the prices have dropped considerably and the range has grown hugely with companies such as Corsair and Coolermaster releasing their own mechanical keyboards. They are also now stocked in more mainstream retailers which makes them much easier to find.

Another thing - Would GPU technology have progressed to where it is today without PC gaming - Probably not. If there wasn't a big market for extremely high performance GPUs then I doubt they would be advancing as rapidly as they are today and prices would be surely considerably higher.

You also need to think, if it wasn't for PC gaming, would PC components still be widely available, affordable or have such a wide selection. If you think about it, outside of gaming, desktop PCs (especially custom built ones) are a very niche market, the average user does not need a desktop PC, especially a custom built one. Most people I know who don't have a specific need for a desktop PC just tend to buy a laptop. If it wasn't for gaming I imagine the selection of PC components would be extremely limited and expensive due to low demand.

Quote from: Accessless on June 09, 2015, 10:23:51 PM

I forgot to mention that my example "gaming" mobo only supports pci-e 2.0

That is a totally separate discussion - AMD do not yet natively support PCI-E 3.0.Quote from: Accessless on June 09, 2015, 10:23:51 PM

I forgot to mention that my example "gaming" mobo only supports pci-e 2.0

Quote from: camerongray on June 10, 2015, 03:33:23 AM

That is a totally separate discussion - AMD do not yet natively support PCI-E 3.0.

Now I'm confused. I thought that PCI-E 3 cards were not backwards compatible with PCI-E 2 sockets. Why does my graphics card work?Quote from: Accessless on June 10, 2015, 07:16:40 AM

Now I'm confused. I thought that PCI-E 3 cards were not backwards compatible with PCI-E 2 sockets. Why does my graphics card work?

PCI-Express 3.0 is backwards compatible with 2.0.For what its worth. Acer claims they are still courting gamers.
Acer Whiffs At Computex, Gaming Line Still Shells And Promises
(From Tom's Hardware, June 9.
Quote

After Acer's New York City event this spring, where we saw an avalanche of new Acer products, we got teasers about the company's newly rethought line of gaming devices. Though we were a bit disappointed that all that was available at the event were mockups of its "Predator" gaming desktop, tablet, notebooks, and curved monitor, we anticipated seeing the new gear in full regalia, with complete specs and pricing info and availability, at Computex.

Believe it when you see it.

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