The Era Of Desktop PCs Could End Sooner Than You Think
How-To Geek, Sunday, August 31st, 2025
There was a time that the only shape computers came in was a desktop or tower case. All computers were big, bulky, and plugged into the wall. Then, as components shrank and became less power-hungry, computers became portable, and later truly mobile.
Today, laptop computers far outsell desktop systems, with the former growing every year, and the latter in a steady decline. It's not hard to imagine that the desktop as we know it will soon fade to a niche system, with even mini PCs being a more sensible choice where desktops used to offer a better deal.
The Golden Age of the Tower
Our first ever computer, an IBM-compatible 80286 system, came in a lovely beige horizontal desktop case with the CRT monitor perched on top. This was around 1990, and we would re-use that case throughout the 90s, ending its run with a Pentium 166 MMX somehow shoehorned into that aging chassis. In the meantime, everywhere else people were moving over to tower cases, which is what people think of when we talk about "desktop" PCs, though, of course, towers are meant to stand on the floor, not on the actual desktop.