Dear computer industry…
What went wrong? Where did we fall apart? It seems like just last decade when we valued increases in speed and power conservatively. Once my 250 Watt Power Supply Unit (PSU) hung limply in my case, powering a single optical media drive, a single hard drive, and my motherboard- the mass of spare cords folded and tucked neatly in a spare 5.25″ bay. Now I must dedicate two unfettered power cables specifically per graphics card- a number of which I may possess up to 5 of at this time. My mainboard requires an auxiliary plug-in to power my quad core CPU, and half of my USB devices have external power sources trailing away from the wall with AC adapters, not to mention the cordless ones I have that suck the lifeblood out of alkaline batteries faster than spots are taken on my power strips-both of them.
It was a simpler time in computational history, advances were made responsibly, hardware was optimized and for every increase questions arose like “Will this take up too much power?” and “Is this too big?” We have oppositely mirrored the automotive industry: instead of building cars smaller and more efficient after building clunkers and land yachts- we’ve gone from efficiency and compactness to being as large and gaudy as we can.
Enter the age of the footlong PCI Express expansion cards and octopus-like 1200+ Watt PSUs hemorrhaging power to devices more than happy to chew through it without swallowing. Where is all this power going? Is it absolutely necessary? How much will this increase in power cost me in the 6 months I have my PC before it’s a dinosaur? Can the environment handle this increased usage in power for recreational uses?
And for ever power-hungry device in your PC that crops up, so to do active cooling solutions in the form of fans or water coolers. Don’t even get me started on the numbers for overclocking.
And yet we as consumers continue to purchase these beasts, forsaking performance components in reasonable packaging with reasonable power requirements. We can’t get enough, and all for what? To impress your friends? To brag on forums? To have a 5′ server case to lug around between LAN parties?
It’s just bad engineering, the industry is so hell-bent at all times to produce the fastest card the most quickly, that there just isn’t the time to sit down and make it efficient or of a reasonable size. Chips and coolers are slapped on PCB along with as many power connectors as they deem necessary to make it seem “extreme” and off it goes to the consumer, bloated, uneducated and simple.
When was the last time you saw a computer component that says “Energy Star”? I can’t remember. I specifically bought my current mainboard because it has a power saving engine that shuts off or scales back parts of the motherboard that aren’t being used in order to save power, eventually putting the computer in a deep sleep mode. Yet reviews questioned it from the get-go: “What sort of gamer cares about saving power?” This one.
Indeed, the only thing that makes sense are these new “netbooks”: Very small laptops that pack a lot of punch into their tiny frames. Some embodiment of the way computing used to be that is, luckily, growing in popularity. Computers are supposed to get smaller as they get more powerful, right? Right? That’s how it worked up until a couple of years ago…
In closing, industry, allow me to leave you with something simple: slow down. Take the time to do it right. You need not bankrupt consumers while simultaneously breaking their backs as they cart your hulking components to their cars; meanwhile destroying the environment with your wanton electrical abandon. It’s cool. Seriously, just stop, because I’d like to be your friend again. There are enough people like me that appreciate a responsibly engineered product that can live without all the stress of constantly having to buy a bigger PSU when one should last you a long while.
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