I love the attention to detail in this post. I've thought about picking up one of those Vortex86 based ITX boards like the ITX-Llama [1] since you get the joy of running on real hardware but don't have to worry about tracking down a soundblaster card, network cards, etc. Assuming that they ever come back in stock that is.
Past threads
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44021824 May, 2025 (86 comments)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44023088 May, 2025 (0 comment)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44026363 May, 2025 (1 comment)
Honest question: Will building a high-end PC still be a thing in 10 years? I've built all of mine in the last 20 years. Just finished my first AMD build. But I don't think it'll be possible or allowed after a few more CPU iterations. Sure, you'll be able to do builds with the CPU tech available up to when it stops, but I seriously doubt that the cutting-edge chip tech ten years hence will be available to hobbyists. Tell me why I'm wrong.
I think this hinges on what one considers "cutting edge CPU tech". Is it "newer and better CPU tech than before" or "the highest end CPU tech of the particular day".
If the latter ("the highest end CPU tech of the particular day"), I think it's going to keep getting harder and harder, with more top end options like the M4 Max being "prebuilt only", but I don't think it'll go to 0 options in as short as 10 years from now.
If the former ("newer and better CPU tech than before") I think it'll last even longer than the above, if not indefinitely, just because technology will likely continue to grow consistently enough that even serving a small niche better than before will always eventually be a reasonable target market despite what is considered mainstream.
no, you tell us why you think the next ten years are going to be different than the last thirty
One possible reason: to achieve the performance improvements, we are seeing more integrated and soldered-together stuff, limiting later upgrades. The Framework Desktop from the modular, user-upgradeable laptop company, has soldered-on memory because they had to "choose two" between memory bus performance, system stability, and user-replaceable memory modules.
If the product succeeds and the market starts saying that this is acceptable for desktops, I could see more and more systems going that way to get either maximum performance (in workstations) or space/power optimisation (e.g. N100-based systems). Then other manufacturers not optimising for either of these things might start shipping soldered-together systems just to get the BoM costs down.
That’s a laptop. It’s soldered for space constraints.
There are high speed memory module form factors. It just adds thickness, cost, expense, and they’re not widely available yet.
Most use cases need the high speed RAM attached to the GPU, though. Desktop CPUs are still on 2-channel memory and it’s fine. Server configs go to 12-channel or more, but desktop hasn’t even begun to crack the higher bandwidth because it’s not all that useful compared to spending the money on a GPU that will blow the CPU away anyway.
If the processor comes with builtin GPU, NPU and RAM will you be really building the system
Sure. Building a PC already is barely building anything. You buy a handful of components and click them into each other.
Yes, as that's already the case with phones. There is more to a phone than the SOC.
Who builds phones?
This is nice, but without a CRT monitor (he's using an IPS) it's not quite the real thing regarding the actual on-screen experience.
oh man, what a trip down memory lane. i started building PCs in college with 386/486s and last year rebuilt my silly custom loop watercooled workstation. :)
and yes: the supplied pc docs back then >>>>>>>> supplied pc docs today
Were they 80486 or i486 8) SX or DX?
My first "PC" was a Sinclair ZX80. I got my soldering iron out.
Much later on (1986ish) my Dad bought a Commodore 64, unfortunately he plugged the power lead into the video socket, when me and my brother arrived home for Chrimbo. Dad got it repaired and it served us very well for several years.
I still have that C64 and it was repaired again a few years ago (re-capped). It now has a USB interface etc. I also have an original Quickshot II joystick and it still works fine.
My first "real" PC was a 80286 based thing. A maths co pro (80287) was a Chrimbo prezzie too and costed something like £110. It had a whole 1MB RAM and the co processor enabled me to run a dodgy copy of AutoCAD. Yes, AutoCAD used to run in 1MB of RAM! The next version needed something mad like 32MB minimum.
Most of what I know about maintaining and assembling computers I learned from the pictures on my Aptiva manual when I was a kid.z
my childhood dreams include gravis ultrasound
I lived that dream, and it was good.
Typing this on a very old Model M keyboard :)
Ah, this is the perfect machine to replicate John Carmack’s work. It’s not a NEXT but is pretty strong to do development on.
The rise of retro computing and gaming is wonderful thing.
MiSTer has been a huge boon for me in terms of saving space and having access to old computers. I have it in an old pizza box case and connected to my old IBM CRT monitor.
I have a modern mouse and mechanical keyboard, but I tried to make everything as beige as possible...
wow, this whole blog is a treasure!
I just finished building a water cooled Threadripper 9980X machine today (you can go see it on reddit in r/watercooling or r/threadripper.
My first ever build was a 386 though.
What fond memories.