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Desktops aren’t dead


Johannesburg, 29 Sep 2021

The days of the desktop PC are far from over, according to the Dell Business Unit Lead at Pinnacle ICT, Alvina Lewis. In fact, desktop PCs are getting smaller and ever-more powerful, delighting their loyal market who still prefer desktops over more portable PCs.

“Overall PC sales grew strongly this past year with desktop PCs holding a steady share of the market,” confirms Lewis. According to IDC, while notebooks still own the majority of the personal computer market, nearly 100 million desktops will be shipped this year alone. “There is a solid price to performance case for desktops over laptops; they can offer better performance, customisation options, high-powered video cards and flexibility in the choice of monitor you use.”

Vendors such as Dell are continuously innovating within this space, and as a result they are seeing particularly strong growth. Gartner reports that in Q2 2021, Dell achieved its third consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth this period, with desk-based PCs seeing growth of over 40% compared to a year ago. “A great example of Dell’s desktop PC innovations point to the new Dell Vostro 3888 Compact Desktop,” says Lewis.

The new Dell Vostro 3888 Compact Desktop is smaller than ever at only 324.3mm high, 154mm wide and 293mm deep, and is 16.1% smaller than the previous generation to fit comfortably on or under a desk. Engineered with 10th Gen Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors and up to 64GB DDR4 memory, the Dell Vostro 3888 offers expansion options, including up to 2TB of HDD.

Performance can be further enhanced by adding up to 512GB PCIe M.2 SSD or dual drives to run more programs simultaneously without sacrificing speed. An optional NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 discrete graphics card will ensure top-quality visuals.

With an optical disc drive, media card reader, combo audio jack and eight USB ports located at the front and back of the system, the desktop accommodates legacy monitors with the VGA connectivity port, and new model monitors with an HDMI port. A win-win situation for any type of user.

The Dell Vostro 3888 delivers the Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM), a commercial-grade security that keeps information safe, creating and storing passwords and encryption keys to better protect against external software attacks. In addition, Microsoft BitLocker provides multifactor authentication before the normal start up process, so users can rest assured their PC won’t start or resume from sleep mode until the correct PIN is presented.

Users are generally quick to point out the benefits of portable PCs without considering all the areas where desktops outweigh these benefits. “Yes, at times a notebook may be more convenient than a desktop but when it comes to optimal performance, notebooks may still have a thing or two to learn,” ends Lewis. 

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