Technical > PC Hardware Discussion/Reviews > Thunderbolt and the future of the PC as we know it?

reply to trparky

Re: Thunderbolt and the future of the PC as we know it?

reply to signmeuptoo

reply to trparky
I live in a TINY apartment but confess I have two tower systems. I can't afford the cash outlay all at once to buy a laptop, and I don't disagree with anything in your last post, that's a little bit lateral of where I was going I think, but yes...

Trust me, small, I live in the OLD, graying, ancient, New England. Two side by side queen beds wouldn't fit in my bedroom and the living room is about the size of many home's wife's closet. The kitchen is galley sized, and the CR is so small the toilet is installed in a corner. But it is mine (well, as much as a rental can be someone's) and before this I had roommates for over 5 years.

Back on topic, I'd like a laptop, but if I had one, it would never replace my desktop, I don't have a wife to complain about my computer monstrosity or anything. Yeah, I have a sig other, but she's on the other side of the planet until bubba here starts making the real bucks again...
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Join Teams Helix and Discovery. Rest in Peace, Leonard David Smith, my best friend, you are missed badly! Rest in peace, Pop, glad our last years were good. Please pray for Colin, he has ependymoma, a brain cancer, donate to a children's Hospital.

HTPCs are supposed to be small, tiny even, so as to fit into the home theater display cases that many people have. And besides, most people want an HTPC that doesn't look like a PC to begin with, they want one to look like it belongs alongside that TV that they have. There's a reason why most home theater components have a standard size, theme, and look to them.

Thunderbolt could allow for HTPCs to be upgraded and added to if needed. True, to display 1080p video even integrated on-board video is enough but what about TV tuners? Multiple TV tuners? Granted, USB 3.0 could be used for that purpose but the point is that the need for newer, higher-speed external data buses is here today.
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Tom
Boycott AT&T uVerse! | Tom's Android Blog | Galaxy Nexus LiquidSmooth by TeamLiquid

reply to signmeuptoo

reply to signmeuptoo
I find myself only using the desktop for gaming now that I have a decent laptop. The layout of my apartment also changed this, before when I had a room in multi-bedroom apartment or lived in a bachelor unit my desk dominated my living area and so everything was done on the desktop.

Now I have a more 'proper' living room, a smaller desk is relegated to the corner, and I spend most of my time playing/working on the laptop on the couch while something plays through the HTPC on the TV. I also play more console games now that I have a TV.

I only go sit at the computer to play PC games. Still there's no doubt that a desktop gaming PC provides the best controls for many game types and far prettier graphics right now. Next-gen consoles will catch up in gfx but PCs always leap-frog them in pretty short order especially for those who have a modest annual budget for upgrades.

Indeed if you buy a decent platform and CPU it can last for 3-4 year and upgrade the GPU 1-3 times. You can also bring the last GPU upgrade to the new platform. I brought my 4870 to my i7-860 machine, upgraded to a 6970, and will probably upgrade one more time next year before bringing that GPU to the next system the year after.

PCI Express with cross-compatibility between generations made this whole process much better. The transitions from PCI to AGP to PCIe were upgrade path killers. Even some AGP generations weren't compatible (different voltages) while any compatibility problems with PCIe can usually be fixed with a firmware upgrade if the mobo manufacturer is on the ball. Asus was good about ugprading firmware on my last mobo, socket 939 pcie1, to be compatible with pcie 2.0 cards (with the caveat that you needed to have your old pcie1 card to boot and upgrade!).

reply to trparky
Here is the real question will it be supported on AMD motherboards?

I'm strictly an Intel guy so it doesn't really matter to me.

reply to jchambers28

reply to trparky
Kinda excited about a new I/O port. Hopefully, this will transition into a complete redesign of our long-tooth (i286+287co anyone?) PCB designs. The methods of delivery have changed, but the overall design is still the same (data speed is on a limited path relies on another limited path). We're still talking MHz (or barely GHz) on bus speed, while the processor at 2+GHz, is still waiting on whatever data is traveling the bus.

To me, the bus should be just a tick behind fastest typical transistor switch time of (current 845GHz), with the processor still king of speed at THz. Hmm, don't mind me... dream-weaver state right now... drinking a bit of liquid nitrogen to cool all of this.
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That's "MISTER" Kafir to you.

reply to El Quintron

quote:

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Asus' Thunderbolt add-in card, ASRock's Thunderbolt motherboard don't pass certification

Intel is currently the sole manufacturer and certifier of Thunderbolt controllers and as such, if you don’t meet or exceed Intel’s specification, then you won’t get certified and in turn, your product can’t carry the Thunderbolt logo. In this case it appears to be more of a political issue than an actual concern about Asus and ASRock not meeting Intel’s standard, as Intel is clearly using Thunderbolt as a means of pushing its integrated graphics solution.

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reply to trparky
With these ports being near universal, I only hope for the day where the back of a PC just has, say, 15 of these ports, and EVERYTHING plugs into it (keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, ethernet). There is no reason this cannot happen with this technology.

reply to Octavean

reply to Gordo74

It depends upon bandwidth too though. The USB and other connections have separate bandwidth limitations. In aggraget, will consolidating all connectivity reduce bandwidth?

Also, maybe someone will come out with a multi tap external SMPS (wall wart meant to power several devices at once).
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Join Teams Helix and Discovery. Rest in Peace, Leonard David Smith, my best friend, you are missed badly! Rest in peace, Pop, glad our last years were good. Please pray for Colin, he has ependymoma, a brain cancer, donate to a children's Hospital.