The Death of the Uber Gaming PC

CoffeeShark · #1 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 12:26 PM

Voodoo's Rahul Sood (now HP's "Global Gaming Lead") has decided that the Uber Gaming PC is dead - you know, the dual video card, massive PSU, monster overclocked rig that you've always dreamed of, and a few of your friends actually have?

Rahul Sood Weblog: The Gaming PC As We Know It Is Doomed

Now, this may seem odd, coming from a guy who made his fortune selling flashy rigs for $5,000. And coming from a guy who used to sell the Hexx (pic below), and who STILL sells the Omen, complete with built-in LCD and liquid cooling.

Well, he's with HP now, and that seems to have diminished his vision of the gaming PC.

Is he, like he says, just being sensible and adapting to the current economy? Does console success mean gamers won't buy overclocked PCs?

He also mentions that game developers are going away from the cutting-edge Crysis-style games, and moving into games that anyone can play on a decent PC. That's great, but it's hardly new. Other than Crysis and Far Cry, most games have always been designed to run on a medium-specced (gaming) PCs.

Gaming has always helped pushed PC development - more cores, more GPUs, better cooling, better thermals by the chip manufacturers, all designed to provide the "gee whiz" factor. No, everyone doesn't immediately upgrade, but they do eventually, and they do it to play the more intensive games.

Voodoo and Rahul may have decided to abandon the $5000 PC, and the boutique gaming PC industry, in favor of the HP-styled gaming PCs that run a bit lighter and cooler with lower specs. That's a mass-market approach that works for HP - they're very good at what they do.

But I don't believe that it's the death of the Uber Rig - there are too many crazy gamers that will still push the limits, bad economy or not. "Will it run on my PC" is still the mantra every time a new game comes out, and we still check prices at Newegg on a weekly basis for lower video card prices. We still want that rig, even if we never buy one, and if Voodoo isn't selling them, someone else will.

VincentVega · #2 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 12:29 PM

PCs will never go away, because I can't go home and work on a playstation. Because of that, there will always be video cards and games to play on them. the guy you quote above sounds like a tool

DennyCrane · #3 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 12:49 PM

Dude's delivering the company line. There will be PCs of course... and they only want you to play on HP rigs.. the way HP sells them.

jdeegz · #4 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 01:01 PM

i don't think they're DED, but the NEED for them to play the most recent games is becoming less. I feel like the software isn't developing as fast as the new hardware so a computer you build today will e outdated in hardware, but itll be able to play your software for a few more years than it used to. thoughts?

CoffeeShark · #5 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 01:08 PM

Other than Crysis and a few other games, I don't think anyone has NEEDED to upgrade except in 6-12 month increments. It may have seemed like it, but I don't think we've ever had the necessity of upgrades any more so than we do now.

UI · #6 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DennyCrane

Dude's delivering the company line. There will be PCs of course... and they only want you to play on HP rigs.. the way HP sells them.

that's the first thing I thought as well. A little cash under the table will make anyone sell out.

Pale.Rider · #7 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 01:34 PM

I think the massive gaming PC is dead from a manufacturer's point of view.

Most people who are buying monster PCs these days build them at home from parts they bought off Newegg. Not many people are ordering complete, $5000 PCs from big manufacturers.

CoffeeShark · #8 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 01:36 PM

Well, I never understood anyone that bought an expensive gaming rig, because I always built, but I'm not sure what has really changed since then - you can still build a great gamer for $1000, while a boutique PC costs $3000.

Pale.Rider · #9 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 01:44 PM

Me either but I suppose some people just don't want to take the time (or waste the time in their view) building it.

I think his comments are also an attempt to discourage new startups from entering the custom PC market. He (and HP) aren't going to stop building gaming PCs and the fewer people he has to deal with competing the better.

Craig · #10 (**permalink**) 12-23-2008, 02:14 PM

there's a lot of rumors flying around about Voodoo/HP... one was that HP was about to shut down or spin off Voodoo because it was a lost market. Rahul came back strong saying that was never the case, but who knows... currently, Voodoo sells two items (one laptop and one desktop) but one of them is by invite only (the tower).

Surely there is more opportunity for Newegg than there is for Voodoo (or any other high end builder) at this point. Games continue to sell, so there's need for hardware, but we're seeing more of an emphasis on gameplay than on eye candy.