Would you say enthusiast grade or business grade products are better quality?
Just a shower thought. Obviously depends on the industry, but in terms of electronics I fee enthusiast grade (think gaming motherboards, for example) are better built than professional grade. Thoughts?
People mix up duty cycle with build quality and functionality when talking about business vs. high end enthusiast gear.
Take a (random) example of an espresso machine or coffee grinder made for a coffee shop that can do 1000s of shots day in, day out, they tend to cost a small fortune. Compare that to a similarly priced home machine and the home machine cannot do that number of shots, just a hundred or so day in, day out, but will have way more functionality that an enthusiast will get value out of. Does a home espresso machine need to be able to do 1000s of shots per day over a 5 to 10 year period? Does it fuck.
Another example would be the duty cycle on a high end NAS or SAN drive that is designed for 1000x more reads and writes, never being turned off, etc. vs. a high performance enthusiast drive.
The keyboards you get with business-grade desktop computers are ridiculous crap compared to hobbyist keyboards; not only in hardware build quality, but in features too.
These days, a high-end hobbyist keyboard is probably running VIA and you can remap the keys from a user-friendly web interface. (No, you don't need a C compiler and to figure out how to flash firmware anymore. That was a few years ago.)
This is kind of an internet myth. Military grade hardware is built to last decades. They award contracts to the lowest qualified bidder who can meet the spec. That last part is important because military specifications ensure the hardware can perform under harsh conditions and heavy abuse, with low rates of failure. They also inspect every single item, where pro-sumer or even professional equipment only has a small percentage of produced equipment inspected. When I was in the Army we were still using equipment from the Korean war and it worked perfectly.
When it's applied to consumer products, tho, it usually is just fancy words, blowing smoke up your ass to trick you into thinking it's tough and durable.
That may be true for stuff delivered to the army but I would believe the myth more in my local electronics store.
Also stuff made 15 years ago seems more durable than the stuff from say 5 years ago.
This is definitely not an internet myth. I was also in the Army (US) and our gear is worthless trash that only survives because people put huge amounts of work into learning its quirks. Example, if you spit in an M16 it jams. We had rows and rows of Humvees and Bradleys that had under 10k miles on them broken down. Abrams maintenance is something like 4 hours per hour of usage or something absurd like that. I think the only decent vehicle we still have in service is the FMTV, and their whole drivetrain is civilian stuff (CAT motor, Alison transmission, Dana axles etc).
I'll meet you in the middle and say they used to make stuff that was indestructible. Old GP tents, e-tools, and cots are beasts. But the military-industrial complex has fully kicked in now and just like everything else, military stuff is built to maximize profit.
Business grade will also be chugging along while the enthusiast has replaced the thing five times over.
I really think it depends on the product. People talking about low end keyboards or whatnot aren’t far off, but I’d take a good business laptop any day. It won’t have fancy RGB lights but will keep working forever.
I'm never getting another HP Omen laptop, custom builds are the way to go. Digital Storm, System 76, AVA Direct, Falcon Northwest, and Maingear offer a variety of custom build options for laptops, desktops, and all-in-ones(AVA Direct).
Are these known to last the test of time and are rugged? From what I've seen, the build quality of those mentioned are not quite there. Of that list, which would you say has best quality, fit and finish?
think of keyboards. business grade is a 10$ POS memrane keyboard. enthusiast/hobby grade would be a 200$ keychron q6. same with pretty much everything else. business grade is cheap and easily replaceable.
enthusiast: Yesn't.
Depends on product range, price, price vs. conpetition and price/performance ratio
Business: Usually yes but they come with a "business tax" attached. Meaning they are made to make more money. So the manufacturer could in turn ask for more $$$.
Suddenly a 1000€ VR headset might cost 3000€ and could require a mo thly fee for the software.
Also have features you wouldn't need at home like kensington locks.
No question when it comes to factory production. Design it right and maintain it that system will be producing widgets long after you and your children have died of old age. I have worked on retrofits and repairs of machines from pre-ww2. Have coworkers who have worked on machines from the 19th century.
You can't compare one of those beasts to something for the home hobbyists.