New
#21
PC
Consoles
It's funny to read this and think... Hmmm... Aren't the console makers trying to make their respective consoles into PC's? (hard drives, NIC's, keyboards...) Oh yeah, to successfully navigate through the online portals these consoles offer, don't you need a keyboard? I mean, yeah, voice communication has come a long way in the console arena, but does everybody have a headset? I betcha every PC gamer has a mouse and keyboard though.
Basically, if you bought your computer from Best Buy from a Sunday sales paper, you might have problems running games (the newer ones). If you built your own computer, more than likely, that PC will blow a console out of the water--if it was built for gaming.
BSOD's are because of some sort of incompatibility somewhere--but consoles suffer crashes too!
I've gamed on PC For years then i switched to Xbox360, why? as i find it more challenging on the console to aim on. don't have to upgrade even if you have the
money or not.
PC it's just easy to use a aim to Aim with but that's 2 reasons .. another reason i moved is i got tired of the hackers
I guess that opinions on great gaming machines will vary wildly. I think you can put together a decent box for gaming in the $800 area....but it will be far from great....at least by those who consider themselves gamers. I think $1,000 to $1,200 is more inline with what a gamer would invest between a CPU, a GPU, and a cooling system.
Future upgrades? Consoles are upgraded too and ususally at a higher (initial) cost. You might not need a Radeon 5990 at the $600+ price point, but when Sony, MS, and Nintendo all come out with the new round of consoles, you can bet that Sony and MS's boxes are going to be upwards of $500. That's more than a 5870 and more than the proposed price of the GTX480--matter of fact, that's more than TWO 5770's, which you could crossfire and get very good performance.
So future upgrades favor the PC, imho.
The really bad news when it comes to new consoles is the lack of backwards compatibility. It seems more and more these days that the trend is leaning away from providing backwards compatibility.
Upgrade your console these days and you risk not being able to play the games you spent a ton of money on. The only time you might have this problem on a PC is when you change operating systems.
I usually get a good 5-6 years out of my consoles. My Xbox360 will be 4 years old this summer. I never did own an Xbox...so I wasn't concerned at all with backwards compatibility. I assume as long as my 360 doesn't give out...that will provide me with the ability to play my old games for as long as I would want to. I think my PS2 still works...but I don't play any of those games anymore.
When the 360 first came out, the high end version of the console was $399. So, not a whole heck of a lot more than a decent gaming video card.