No, you don’t need to do an introductory year. You also don’t really need to know what’s compatible with what. Tools like pcpartpicker already do that.
Finally, you’re comparing building a pc with buying a prebuilt, which is something people have been able to do since forever. The argument then becomes, why buy a steam machine with custom parts, which will be harder to fix and impossible to upgrade instead of a mini itx prebuilt with standard parts?
You really do, and you not thinking so is telling of how skewed your view of what common knowledge really is. Where does someone start when building a computer if they don’t know what goes into a computer? How do they pick parts if they don’t know what changes will make their computer better or worse? I love PC part picker, but let’s be real, it’s for people who already know what they are looking for. PC part picker makes things so easy for you and I, but drop any tech-illiterate person into PC part picker, and they won’t actually get anywhere. Plus, I’ve had it get the dimensions of a GPU wrong before, and without verifying through a different website, I would have bought a card that didn’t fit in the case I was using. Even the gold standard sources of information make mistakes.
As for the pre-built argument, to someone like my brother who knows nothing about computers, but regularly games on his PS5, the steam machine and a prebuilt are essentially the same. He wouldn’t know how to fix the computer without sending it off to the company, which is how he’d fix the steam machine as well. He also wouldn’t see the PC as something that could be upgraded. If a game wasn’t running well, he certainly wouldn’t know what part would need upgrading in his machine to make his experience better. In that sense, the pre-built is effectly non-upgradable. He might know to adjust the in-game settings, but wouldn’t know what settings to change. On a prebuilt, this would be an issue. On a device that millions of people use, all with the exact same specs, this information is readily available. Think of the steam deck, you could look up “<game name> steam deck settings” and get the best loadout for your exact hardware. Hell, a bunch of modern games have a “Steam Deck” settings loadout built in. With a prebuilt, that’s not possible. And finally, the steam machine is considerably smaller than any mini itx prebuilt I’ve seen on the market. Hell, a mini it’s motherboard couldn’t even fit in the steam machine’s case. To a lot of people, not having a big box in their living room matters. I’ve had a hard time convincing my partner to let me have a PC in a Fractal Design Terra case in the living room, and that’s a case that is small and clean looking.
I don’t agree that it’s that hars to build a pc. Even if it was, saying that adjusting visual settings is complicates is waaay too much. You’d have to be straight up dumb not even be able to use the low/medium/high/extreme presets every game has.
Also saying that since he can’t build it, he can’t upgrade it, is false. Any “pc technician” can do that for him.
The size part is also kinda moot. A Fractal Terra is smaller than a console and it can fit an itx build with most gpus.
Stop normalizing incompetence. We use computers, people should at the bare minimum know how to use them.
No, you don’t need to do an introductory year. You also don’t really need to know what’s compatible with what. Tools like pcpartpicker already do that.
Finally, you’re comparing building a pc with buying a prebuilt, which is something people have been able to do since forever. The argument then becomes, why buy a steam machine with custom parts, which will be harder to fix and impossible to upgrade instead of a mini itx prebuilt with standard parts?
You really do, and you not thinking so is telling of how skewed your view of what common knowledge really is. Where does someone start when building a computer if they don’t know what goes into a computer? How do they pick parts if they don’t know what changes will make their computer better or worse? I love PC part picker, but let’s be real, it’s for people who already know what they are looking for. PC part picker makes things so easy for you and I, but drop any tech-illiterate person into PC part picker, and they won’t actually get anywhere. Plus, I’ve had it get the dimensions of a GPU wrong before, and without verifying through a different website, I would have bought a card that didn’t fit in the case I was using. Even the gold standard sources of information make mistakes.
As for the pre-built argument, to someone like my brother who knows nothing about computers, but regularly games on his PS5, the steam machine and a prebuilt are essentially the same. He wouldn’t know how to fix the computer without sending it off to the company, which is how he’d fix the steam machine as well. He also wouldn’t see the PC as something that could be upgraded. If a game wasn’t running well, he certainly wouldn’t know what part would need upgrading in his machine to make his experience better. In that sense, the pre-built is effectly non-upgradable. He might know to adjust the in-game settings, but wouldn’t know what settings to change. On a prebuilt, this would be an issue. On a device that millions of people use, all with the exact same specs, this information is readily available. Think of the steam deck, you could look up “<game name> steam deck settings” and get the best loadout for your exact hardware. Hell, a bunch of modern games have a “Steam Deck” settings loadout built in. With a prebuilt, that’s not possible. And finally, the steam machine is considerably smaller than any mini itx prebuilt I’ve seen on the market. Hell, a mini it’s motherboard couldn’t even fit in the steam machine’s case. To a lot of people, not having a big box in their living room matters. I’ve had a hard time convincing my partner to let me have a PC in a Fractal Design Terra case in the living room, and that’s a case that is small and clean looking.
I don’t agree that it’s that hars to build a pc. Even if it was, saying that adjusting visual settings is complicates is waaay too much. You’d have to be straight up dumb not even be able to use the low/medium/high/extreme presets every game has.
Also saying that since he can’t build it, he can’t upgrade it, is false. Any “pc technician” can do that for him.
The size part is also kinda moot. A Fractal Terra is smaller than a console and it can fit an itx build with most gpus.
Stop normalizing incompetence. We use computers, people should at the bare minimum know how to use them.