The Desktop PC Is Close to Its End
There was a time in which the only form that computers were in was an office or tour case. All computers were large, voluminous and connected to the wall. Then, as the components shrink and become less eager for power, computers have become portable, and later Really mobile.
Today, laptops have far exaggerated the office systems, the first growing each year, and the second in a constant drop. It is not difficult to imagine that the office, because we know it, it will soon fade towards a niche system, even the mini PC being a more sensible choice where office computers offered a better deal.
The golden age of the tower
Our very first computer, an IBM 80286 compatible system, came to a nice beige horizontal desk case with the CRT monitor perched on top. It was around 1990, and we would reuse this case throughout the 90s, ending its race with a 166 mmx pentium in a way in shoe in this aging chassis. In the meantime, everywhere else, people were moving towards turn boxes, what people think when we are talking about PC “office”, but of course, the towers are supposed to stand on the ground, not on the real desk.
In any case, for decades, the Tour factor was the Go-To for Office Computers. They have a small imprint, you can essentially put them anywhere, and there is a lot of space for readers, cards and any other component you might wish.
Thanks to the rise of SSDs and the integration of components (such as sound cards in motherboards), most modern Tour PCs are in fact mainly a waste. This is why you see more small formal factor computers such as mini-tists and various interesting mini-itx conceptions.
Whatever the exact office chassis with which you go, office computers offer the most flexibility, the highest potential performance, the best performance / price ratio and the possibility of upgrading your PC gradually rather than replacing everything each time, although in practice, upgrading a component at the same time may not be as common as you think.
Laptops have resumed daily IT
The fact is that computer technology did not stop becoming more powerful and ultimately any The computer has become powerful enough to meet the daily needs of the vast majority of people. For most people, there is no practical difference between a Windows laptop of $ 500 and a high -end office PC of $ 5,000 when it comes to watching YouTube and writing reports in Google Docs.
What matters much more is the convenience, simplicity and mobility of a laptop. Most people prefer to have a macbook air or a similar computer than a desktop PC, and even when you work on an desktop, it is easy to simply connect external devices. Often with a single USB-C or Thunderbolt cable.
The figures are not found – in the third quarter of 2008, laptops exceeded office sales for the first time, and he has been progressing since. In the first quarter of 2024 (according to the IDC), around 64% of computer shipments were laptops, tablets or 2 in 1 mobile computers.
Thus, in their personal life, most people probably do not opt for an office system, because the traditional forces of this form factor do not mean much for them. At the same time, traditional bastions for desktop computers, such as large companies that flood their desktop PC desk, could see that the supply of a laptop is more logical, or that they could just as well use mini PCs, which are often not more than laptop guts in a small box without screen.
The real situations in which a traditional office system are necessary are down, and therefore people make different choices that better correspond to their needs.
Consoles and cloud have changed games
A major bastion of the office tower is the PC game. This is one of the few situations where you can really use each performance ounce that modern PC components can produce. Office systems also use players at each level of budget, so they are not only the $ 5,000 platforms that we are talking about here.
However, the RTX 4060 laptop GPU is the second most common GPU of the Steam hardware survey in July 2025. Laptops with this GPU tend to be quite affordable and offer performance very similar to current generation consoles such as PlayStation 5 and the Xbox X series.
Games are generally designed for these platforms, and it seems that we have reached a decreasing point of performance with graphics for most players. The cloud game is also increasing, which can give people access to high -end PC equipment on demand. These are all different factors that are lowering downward pressure on the demand for office PC, even for players.
Phones, tablets and other devices ate the rest
These are not only laptops compared to office PCs. Many people just don’t need a PC of any kind in their daily life. Tablets and phones offer a lot of power and features so that someone can operate in the modern world. You can even connect a monitor, a mouse and a keyboard to these devices for a more “serious” work if you really need them.
It is not uncommon for members of generation Z (and probably soon Gen Alpha) enter the college or the world of work with practically zero PC literacy, because they simply did not need to own or use a PC to this point.
Forget the year of the Linux office, the last year of the office itself can be on the horizon.
What survives the death of the tower?
Is it the death knell for office computers? Not quite, but they certainly retire on a niche field. Amateurs, modders, creators and professionals with specific material requests always grant the extensibility and personalization of towers. The game offices, for example, enjoy a loyal market, especially among high -performance researchers.
Although even with serious workstation equipment, the trend can now be to put these high -end work stations in servers racks and ask engineers and developers to access them remotely using laptops. The need for ultra-high performance in a local machine is simply not as high in a world with high speed at high speed.
I do not think that the computer of the office tower disappears tomorrow, but we are already to the point where they are simply not the best choice for the vast majority of people. Over time, the list of reasons to own and exploit an office tower will become more and more short, until it is just hardcore among us while keeping the desk dream alive.
- Operating system
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MacOS Sequoia
- Processor
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M4 Pro 12-Core
- Gpu
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M4 GPU with 16 cores
- RAM
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24 GB
