>> Currently manufacturers assume that the only reason you could want to 
>> be able to replace parts "easily" is because you need to do it fast, 
>> and if you need to do it fast it must be because you have a "high 
>> availability" setup. And if that's the case, the cost of downtime 
>> dwarfs any hardware price you can come up with. These types of people 
>> will pay through the nose to avoid downtime - and so that's what gets 
>> charged.
> 
> Agreed it requires a separation of that concept

Indeed.

>> In fairness, it's much harder to design hardware this way. Current 
>> hardware is "easy enough" that most people can manage it, and there's 
>> no real large pressure for that to change.
> 
> But there should be. From the hardware side a much easier to install 
> system means cutting out the middle-men of computer dealers and selling 
> direct to the consumer. Sure you don't get the high volume sales, but 
> conversely you don't have the high volume discounts. You can sell less 
> for more.

Yeah, well, until the idea reaches the people who can make it happen. 
Oh, and somebody comes up with a *standard* system... and everybody 
actually *uses* it... These are the main barriers, I think.

>  From the consumers side it makes life easier to upgrade a machine 
> without considering an entire new box, encourages greater competition 
> between hardware providers. Plus the older parts can be recycled into 
> older machines more easily rather then an entire box beig scrapped.
> 
> The only ones who wouldn't like it are those who charge a premium for 
> assembling these products for you.

AFAIK, manufacturers want to *reduce* competition, not increase it. ;-)

>> In fairness, if you want to replace the CPU, you will probably end up 
>> having to replace virtually the entire PC anyway.
> 
> If you have a motherboard fitted with an Athlon XP 1500+ you can switch 
> if for an Athlon XP 3100+ which would be a major jump, it's only if 
> you're switching from one 'type' to another that you would need to 
> change the motherboard.

Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't pay several hundred pounds for a new 
component unless it yields a *massive* performance increase. And that 
virtually guarantees that it's going to be a completely different CPU 
socket...

> so I've a white , green, black, and white set of separate connectors 
> (IIRC) so this helps me how? Seriously can you imagine if a non-tech 
> tried to do this, imagine if they had to play match the wires for every 
> USB device they plugged in. Oops silly me all this is detailed in the 
> case manual... now what did I do with that?

If you can show me a motherboard manual that *isn't* translated from 
Tiawaniis by Google Translate, I'd consider buying that motherboard! ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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