A desktop computer is a personal computer designed for regular use at a single location on or near a desk due to its size and power requirements. The most common configuration has a case that houses the power supply, motherboard, disk storage ; a keyboard and mouse for input; and a computer monitor, speakers, and, often, a printer for output. The case may be oriented horizontally or vertically and placed either underneath, beside, or on top of a desk.
A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term workstation has been used loosely to refer to everything from a mainframe computer terminal to a PC connected to a network, but the most common form refers to the class of hardware offered by several current and defunct companies such as Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, Apollo Computer, DEC, HP, NeXT, and IBM which powered the 3D computer graphics revolution of the late 1990s.
Dell is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services and is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.
A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobile phones, personal computers, workstations, and game consoles.
Shuttle Inc. (TAIEX:2405) is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of motherboards, barebone computers, complete PC systems and monitors. Throughout the last 10 years, Shuttle has been one of the world's top 10 motherboard manufacturers, and gained fame in 2001 with the introduction of the Shuttle SV24, one of the world's first commercially successful small form factor computers. Shuttle XPC small form factor computers tend to be popular among PC enthusiasts and hobbyists, although in 2004 Shuttle started a campaign to become a brand name recognized by mainstream PC consumers.
Small form factor is a term used for desktop computers, and their enclosures and motherboards, to indicate that they are designed in accordance with one of several standardized computer form factors intended to minimize the volume and footprint of a desktop computer compared to the standard ATX form factor.
A gaming computer, also known as a gaming PC, is a specialized personal computer designed for playing video games at very high standards. Gaming PCs typically differ from mainstream personal computers by using high-performance video cards, a high core-count central processing units with raw performance and higher-performance RAM. Gaming PCs are also used for other demanding tasks such as video editing. Many gamers and computer enthusiasts choose to overclock their CPUs and GPUs in order to gain extra performance. The added power draw needed to overclock either processing units often requires additional cooling, usually by air cooling or water cooling.
Enthusiast computing refers to a sub-culture of personal computer users who focus on extremely high-end computers. Manufacturers of performance-oriented parts typically include an enthusiast model in their offerings. Enthusiast computers commonly feature extravagant cases and high-end components, and are sometimes liquid cooled.
Velocity Micro is a privately held boutique computer manufacturer located in Richmond, Virginia (USA), specializing in custom high-performance gaming computers, professional workstations, and high-performance computer solutions. Its extended product line includes gaming PCs, notebooks, CAD workstations, digital media creation workstations, home and home office PCs, home entertainment media centers, Tesla-based supercomputers, and business solutions. All products are custom assembled by hand and supported at the company's headquarters.
Vigor Gaming was a privately held manufacturer of enthusiast level personal computers based in City of Industry, California. The company was founded in 2004 by several former employees and the former owner of competing company. Vigor Gaming Computers were designed specifically for gaming enthusiasts, and are broken down into various models with varying capabilities. Vigor offered several different models of desktop computers and laptop computers with prices ranging from sub $1,000 all the way up to $15,000 for a fully configured gaming PC. Vigor gaming also produced enthusiast grade components, including their Monsoon II Thermoelectric cooling solution designed to aid in overclocking.
The history of the personal computer as a mass-market consumer electronic device began with the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s. A personal computer is one intended for interactive individual use, as opposed to a mainframe computer where the end user's requests are filtered through operating staff, or a time-sharing system in which one large processor is shared by many individuals. After the development of the microprocessor, individual personal computers were low enough in cost that they eventually became affordable consumer goods. Early personal computers – generally called microcomputers – were sold often in electronic kit form and in limited numbers, and were of interest mostly to hobbyists and technicians.
A nettop is a small-sized, inexpensive, low-power, legacy-free desktop computer designed for basic tasks such as web browsing, accessing web-based applications, document processing, and audio/video playback. The word nettop is a portmanteau of network and desktop. It is the desktop counterpart of the netbook. Modern mini PCs or small form factor PCs can be much more powerful, being equipped with high-end laptop components or mid-range desktop components.
ASRock Inc. is a Taiwanese manufacturer of motherboards, industrial PCs and home theater PCs (HTPC). Founded by Ted Hsu, it was founded in 2002 and is currently owned by Taiwanese electronics company Pegatron.
Noctua is an Austrian computer hardware manufacturer of CPU coolers and computer fans primarily for the enthusiast market. The company was founded in 2005 as a joint venture between the Austrian company Rascom Computerdistribution Ges.m.b.H., established in August 2000, and the Taiwanese cooling specialist Kolink International Corporation.
The Lenovo IdeaCentre Q series are a line of nettop computers meant primarily for home and personal use. The Q Series nettops are described by the manufacturer as being multimedia-oriented nettops. Comparing the size to a typical paperback book, Lenovo describes the Q Series nettops as the smallest desktops in production. The general features of the Q Series desktops are the small size, low energy requirements, ability to play HD video, and low noise levels.
The IdeaCentre is a line of consumer-oriented desktop computers designed, developed and marketed by Lenovo. The first IdeaCentre desktop, the IdeaCentre K210, was announced by Lenovo on June 30, 2008. While the IdeaCentre line consists entirely of desktops, they share a common design language with the IdeaPad line of laptops and hybrids. One such feature is Veriface facial recognition technology.
The IdeaCentre K series desktops from Lenovo are described by the manufacturer as being gaming-oriented desktops. Typical features on the desktops include mid-range to high-end processors, discrete graphics cards, multiple hard disk drives, multiple RAM DIMMS, multiple USB ports, and multiple optical disk drives. The K Series desktops also come with a physical switch on the CPU that allows users to shift between different levels of processing power. For example, the K330 offered red for high performance, blue for moderate performance, and green for less processing- and resource-intensive tasks.
The Lenovo Erazer is a line of desktop computers designed for gaming and other high-performance computing tasks.
ASUSTek Computer Inc. is a Taiwanese multinational computer and phone hardware and electronics company headquartered in Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan. Its products include desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, mobile phones, networking equipment, monitors, wi-fi routers, projectors, motherboards, graphics cards, optical storage, multimedia products, peripherals, wearables, servers, workstations, and tablet PCs. The company is also an original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
GeForce Now is the brand used by Nvidia for its cloud gaming service. The Nvidia Shield version of GeForce Now, formerly known as Nvidia Grid, launched in beta in 2013, with Nvidia officially unveiling its name on September 30, 2015. The subscription service provided users with unlimited access to a library of games hosted on Nvidia servers for the life of the subscription, being delivered to subscribers through streaming video. Certain titles were also available via a "Buy & Play" model. This version was discontinued in 2019, and transitioned to a new version of the service that enabled Shield users to play their own games.
