Editing Desktop computer (section)

===Growth and development===
{{See also|Keyboard computer}}
[[Apple II]], [[TRS-80]] and [[Commodore PET]] were first generation personal [[home computer]]s launched in 1977, which were aimed at the consumer market – rather than businessmen or computer hobbyists. [[Byte (magazine)|''Byte'' magazine]] referred to these three as the "1977 Trinity" of personal computing.<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 1995 |title=Most Important Companies |url=http://www.byte.com/art/9509/sec7/art15.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618072507/http://www.byte.com/art/9509/sec7/art15.htm |archive-date=2008-06-18 |access-date=2008-06-10 |website=[[Byte (magazine)|Byte]]}}</ref> Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, desktop computers became the predominant type, the most popular being the [[IBM Personal Computer|IBM PC]] and its [[IBM PC compatible|clones]], followed by the [[Mac (computer)|Apple Macintosh]],<ref name="Thirty years of Mac">{{Cite web |title=Thirty years of Mac: 1984 – The Macintosh |url=https://www.apple.com/30-years/1984/ |access-date=8 May 2014 |publisher=Apple}}</ref> with the third-placed [[Commodore International|Commodore]] [[Amiga]] having some success in the mid-1980s but declining by the early 1990s.

[[File:Ibm pc 5150.jpg|right|thumb|[[IBM 5150]] Personal Computer]]
[[File:Man with computer, controlling a hydroelectric power plant.JPG|thumb|A person working on a 2004 tower PC computer with a Dell monitor]]
Early [[Personal computer|personal computers]], like the original [[IBM Personal Computer]], were enclosed in a "''desktop case''", horizontally oriented to have the display screen placed on top, thus saving space on the user's actual desk, although these cases had to be sturdy enough to support the weight of [[Cathode-ray tube|CRT displays]] that were widespread at the time. Over the course of the 1990s, desktop cases gradually became less common than the more-accessible [[Computer tower|tower cases]] that may be located on the floor under or beside a desk rather than on a desk. Not only do these tower cases have more room for expansion, they have also freed up desk space for monitors which were becoming larger every year. Desktop cases, particularly the compact form factors, remain popular for corporate computing environments and kiosks. Some computer cases can be interchangeably positioned either horizontally (desktop) or upright (mini-tower).

Influential games such as ''[[Doom (franchise)|Doom]]'' and ''[[Quake (series)|Quake]]'' during the 1990s had pushed [[Gaming computer|gamers]] and [[Gaming computer|enthusiasts]] to frequently upgrade to the latest CPUs and [[graphics card]]s ([[3dfx]], [[ATI Technologies|ATI]], and [[Nvidia]]) for their desktops (usually a tower case) in order to run these applications, though this has slowed since the late 2000s as the growing popularity of Intel integrated graphics forced game developers to scale back. [[Creative Technology]]'s [[Sound Blaster]] series were a ''[[de facto]]'' standard for sound cards in desktop PCs during the 1990s until the early 2000s, when they were reduced to a niche product, as OEM desktop PCs came with sound boards integrated directly onto the motherboard.