The Inquirer, a fairly reliable source, says that PCs to change radically in 2004. While USB, SATA drives, Ethernet and probably SCSI won't change, just about everything else you plug into a motherboard will, plus the motherboard itself and even the power supply. Oh yes, the case may need to change too.
Sure there are real technical reasons for all these changes, but is it just a coincidence that PC and component sales are flagging a bit as people find their old hardware is Good Enough? Plus, that all of the old (i.e. current) kit — except those USB devices — will be completely incompatible with the new standards, new pin configurations, and new slots?
Worse, I was sorta thinking that it would be time to replace the 400Mhz win98se desktop machine I do most of my work on some time this year. But I'm getting a little tired of the bleeding edge on hardware, and I'm not that likely to want to get version 1.0 of a new motherboard configuration. But buy the last of the old, and it's stable, but also orphaned before its time…
