The best thing I've found about PC is that the community (not in game, but on forums) are usually so much frendlier. When I came to build my first PC a few years back I signed up to a few PC gaming sites and with the help of about 20 users I got a list of nice parts for their lowest prices. I built my PC with a little more help from said users and a while back when it died they helped me troubleshoot it. Now here I am one of those people on the forums who helps people decide what to throw in their machines.
Come to ask help for your 360 or PS3 and you're told to just get the other, more superior console. If you come asking for help with a Wii? Well you're just laughed out of the thread. There's no unity in the console crowd. They're too busy fighting with themselves most of the time and threads like 'My Xbox red ringed! Should I...' will be flooded with PS3 owners telling them they should get a PS3. Likewise someone who complains about their PS3 will be told to go and get a 360 instead.
I'll now list the benefits of building and gaming on a PC:
- Turn the ***** into a Media Centre. I've got two 1TB hard drives. One has a 200Gb partition for the usual crap and the rest of the disk is near enough games. The other has almost every DVD in my collection and a few Blu-rays. My house is networked so the little box downstairs can stream any of our movies to our TV at any time. Bye bye DVDs.
- Learning a new skillset. I admit when I came to building my first PC I was well versed with MS Office and that was it. It took about two ir three weeks of research and with help from the internet I learned what components did what; what all the confusing little numbers mean and how to look for compatible components.
- Save cash. It'll cost about £400 - 500 (let's say about $500 - $600) to build your first PC. A big investment. But then the point is you will have a nice PC that can do more than jut game. Games themselves are about $/£10 cheaper than console games, this isn't even taking into account Steam special offers. It won't take long before you redeem the excess you put into your PC; as opposed to buying a console.
There are plenty more and you're probably sick of reading them over and over, so I tried to put a couple unique ones in. I have a PS3, PC and a Wii with a decent library for each. I'm not exclusively a PC gamer. PC = Best online interaction. PS3 = Best offline play. Wii = Best party games.
EDIT And just to dispel the myth here, PC gaming is nowhere near as expensive as people say. You won't need to upgrade for a couple year; even still you can make it an easier affair by keeping an eye of sellers and buy when the prices are low. My current PC cost £525. I kept the RAM from my old PC, bought some cheaper RAM for it and then sold my old PC to my mate who just wants to play L4D and CS.
Come to ask help for your 360 or PS3 and you're told to just get the other, more superior console. If you come asking for help with a Wii? Well you're just laughed out of the thread. There's no unity in the console crowd. They're too busy fighting with themselves most of the time and threads like 'My Xbox red ringed! Should I...' will be flooded with PS3 owners telling them they should get a PS3. Likewise someone who complains about their PS3 will be told to go and get a 360 instead.
I'll now list the benefits of building and gaming on a PC:
- Turn the ***** into a Media Centre. I've got two 1TB hard drives. One has a 200Gb partition for the usual crap and the rest of the disk is near enough games. The other has almost every DVD in my collection and a few Blu-rays. My house is networked so the little box downstairs can stream any of our movies to our TV at any time. Bye bye DVDs.
- Learning a new skillset. I admit when I came to building my first PC I was well versed with MS Office and that was it. It took about two ir three weeks of research and with help from the internet I learned what components did what; what all the confusing little numbers mean and how to look for compatible components.
- Save cash. It'll cost about £400 - 500 (let's say about $500 - $600) to build your first PC. A big investment. But then the point is you will have a nice PC that can do more than jut game. Games themselves are about $/£10 cheaper than console games, this isn't even taking into account Steam special offers. It won't take long before you redeem the excess you put into your PC; as opposed to buying a console.
There are plenty more and you're probably sick of reading them over and over, so I tried to put a couple unique ones in. I have a PS3, PC and a Wii with a decent library for each. I'm not exclusively a PC gamer. PC = Best online interaction. PS3 = Best offline play. Wii = Best party games.
EDIT And just to dispel the myth here, PC gaming is nowhere near as expensive as people say. You won't need to upgrade for a couple year; even still you can make it an easier affair by keeping an eye of sellers and buy when the prices are low. My current PC cost £525. I kept the RAM from my old PC, bought some cheaper RAM for it and then sold my old PC to my mate who just wants to play L4D and CS.
