Should I ditch the gaming PC for the Xbox 360?

[GeorgeTuk]

I am comign up to the time for an upgrade...to Dual Core and a new graphics card probs an ATI R600 plus a PSU to power it all. Now thats going to be about £375 all in exluding VAT. Not cheap.

Now I see the Xbox 360 is going to be that as well but won't need constant upgrading to be able to play the games that come out, plus with games like Quake Wars: ET and GRAW 2 coming to Xbox 360 it seems like an easier less troublesome platform and just keep the PC for internet and photo editing.

I will miss the RTS games but the cheating on PC games is really proliferating all games now and thats never enjoyable.

I have a Wii and its great but I like top end games too hence the PC.

Am I the only one thinking I should ditch the PC for gaming or am I mad?

[Veles]

You're mad

I think a dual core and a R600 and a new decent PSU will come to a lot more than £375. Probably about £600 inc. depending on what you get.

I personally have both a 360 and a PC, since a lot of games I want are on the PC only, or are better on the PC.

You could always go for a cheap upgrade if you don't mind not having your graphics set to full. Your 3700 venice, while not as good as the dual core CPU, is still plenty good enough for the majority of games, and for a graphics card you could pick up a mid range 7 series card (or ATI equivalent) and get pretty good performance on most games.

You have to remember, while the console is cheap, games for the 360 can be upwards of double the price of the PC version. The peripherals are also very expensive. I've easily spent how much I paid for the 360 in games and peripherals since I bought it in september.

[greektony]

I was in the same situation a few months ago. I bought a 360 initially for GoW (I had been following that game for what seemed like years so bought the 360 and GoW when it was released in November). I then made the mistake of putting together a new rig for £600+ just before Xmas, and I can honestly say that I have not spent more than an hour playing any sort of game on it! And the graphics card in it didnt cost that much less than the 360!

Quake Wars & UT2007 are what i built my PC for and now they are confirmed as being on the way to the 360. So i would recommend ditching speccing up the PC and get an xbox. Also, there is a really good community feel to live and it is excellently implemented So many good games coming up soon..... Forza 2, GRAW 2, Mass Effect, Crackdown, BioShock, Alan Wake, Halo 3, Quake Wars, UT2007 (UT3) etc. 2007 will be a good year for gaming

Also despite what Veles says about games being more, if you know where to look bargains can be had and if you dont mind buying second hand, the bay is a good place to look

[GeorgeTuk]

I am definitley in the same mindset as you but hopefully I won't be paying all that to find out. I definitley seem drawn to the Xbox 360 especially some of the games you mentioned!

How much life is in it though? 2 more years or less?

[benstation]

I've already given up on PC... Xbox 360 is easier on the wallet and has a longer lifecycle compared to PC. i always found that i needed to upgrade a PC every year because game developers keep pushing the limit; whereas for Xbox they have to conform to a lowest common denominator standard.

[greektony]

most consoles seem to last about 5 years so the 360 still has a good 4 years of life left. Also, dont go for the core version. The Premium package is the better deal especially with the game bundles available. Hell, if you can wait till the PS3 launch there will probably be some good deals as a load of what look to be AAA titles should be out by then and might be bundled with the console.

Buy one now.................... if you buy GoW and get a live gold account there is no need for any other games for a long time It really is a good as everyone hypes it up to be

Where in Surrey do you live if you dont mind me asking? I used to live in kingston, now just off J3 of the M3

[Ferral]

I was thinking on getting a 360 myself but last week decided against and upgraded my PC.

<---- Specs on the my system bit !

Must admit what I have now cost me &#163;220 approximately (Upgrade included Graphics Card, Case, Motherboard and CPU). Pretty decent upgrade as I can now run Gothic 3 in High Detail and 1024x768 res without it even blinking ! Oblivion in HDR in the same res with most settings maxed out, it looks amazing I must admit.

Overall though PC's are getting a bit ridiculous when it comes to the new technology. Unless you can afford to upgrade to the latest and greatest every six months when a new processor / motherboard socket or graphics card comes out you can never keep up.

Last time I upgraded was when the GeForce 6 series came out. I bought The 6600GT AGP card and that is what I have just replaced as it was starting to sruggle with the newer games in higher resolutions. Hopefully I will get 2 years out of what I have now.

[GeorgeTuk]

Where in Surrey do you live if you dont mind me asking? I used to live in kingston, now just off J3 of the M3

In Addlestone which is near Woking...I go to Kingston shopping on occasion (now I have a house about 1 every 6 months!) and because of the bigger shops you get a lot better deals around.

I am pretty much sold on the Xbox 360 and just saw the Premium is only £279.00 and girlfriend said she will be happy for it to be on the 37" Toshiba LCD we got cheap 4 months ago and that shes happy upstairs watch TV as long as she has a DVD player. So its all change!

Now I am waiting for more info on the newer version of the 360 when do we think that will be out.

[Russ]

will it be out is question

[directhex]

ditch? no.

they have different kinds of games. both are worth having.

[Smokey21]

Meh only you can decide that. I would never get a console over a PC, i use my PC for more than just games, but even if i just gamed on it, i still want a PC.

Yeah it's not cheap, but most things in life, aren't.

[digit]

Now if only the 360 had a web browser and msn built in then I think my pc would effectively be canned, shame it will never happen mind! Personally I think the 360 is a bit of a bargain for what it is, really happy with mine and the quality of the games that have appeared I agree with directhex, certain games are good on either, so its worth having both

[pr0p4g4nd4]

You should be more than happy with a 360

[digit]

Am I alone in my wish for an MSN client to pop up on the 360? With a keyboard it would be ideal

[kalniel]

To be honest.. the console is the sensible choice. One spec, polished games, no compatibility nightmares or performance issues.

Keep your old PC to play the golden oldies on, but the only real killer for the PC IMHO is game development/modding. They'll figure everything else out for consoles eventually.

[directhex]

Now if only the 360 had a web browser and msn built in then I think my pc would effectively be canned, shame it will never happen mind! Personally I think the 360 is a bit of a bargain for what it is, really happy with mine and the quality of the games that have appeared I agree with directhex, certain games are good on either, so its worth having both

for all its faults, a ps3 running linux gives you firefox & connections to all the IM networks