US PC shipments declined 7.0% in Q1 2026, the sharpest drop since 2023, as component supply constraints and surging memory prices weighed on the market. Omdia forecasts shipments to fall 14.4% for the full year, with rising costs putting pressure on vendor margins for entry-level devices and pushing up average selling prices across both consumer and commercial segments.
Got couple of hand me downs from work at the end of the lease cycle - 7th gen i7 HP mini desktop and 8th gen i7 EliteBook x360, for nominal price (so they could show them as “sold” in the books). I did run Win 11 on the laptop for a while (since it is officially supported), then converted both to Linux (Debian Stable, laptop with KDE, desktop with XFCE since it is a “home server”). With Linux, they run faster and cooler than they ever did on Win10/11. I don’t think I will be looking into any upgrades or hardware refresh for at least 5 years, if not longer.
Got couple of hand me downs from work at the end of the lease cycle - 7th gen i7 HP mini desktop and 8th gen i7 EliteBook x360, for nominal price (so they could show them as “sold” in the books). I did run Win 11 on the laptop for a while (since it is officially supported), then converted both to Linux (Debian Stable, laptop with KDE, desktop with XFCE since it is a “home server”). With Linux, they run faster and cooler than they ever did on Win10/11. I don’t think I will be looking into any upgrades or hardware refresh for at least 5 years, if not longer.