Exaggerated rumours
Many commentators have been predicting the demise of the PC gaming market for some time now. Consoles are simpler, better value and better marketed they've said, insisting that most people don't want to have to think about GPUs, memory, etc when all they want to do is play games.
This is considered to be a contributing factor in a general decline in demand for desktop PCs, together with the fall in the price of notebooks and the introduction of netbooks, not to mention the global recession. On top of that we've seen the demise of local system builders like Evesham as the large OEMs continue to gain market share.
So imagine our surprise when we spoke to Peter George, one of the co-founders of Surrey based system builder Wired2Fire, and heard that they're still getting plenty of business for desktop PC sales averaging over a thousand pounds.
In this latest instalment of our Talking Shop interview series, George discusses how he stays in business, why you shouldn't be afraid to buy from a smaller system builder and what he recommends if you have a grand to spare.