£299 X-Box or £299 PC Upgrade

[Snowy Commando]

Considering the life-span of a new x-box before the next gen consoles after that and how long a pc upgrade will last for running the latest games with 30+ framerates. What would be your choice?

 

[Phantasm66]

No Captain, they're alive. I want that ship.

Oh, you can get some good stuff PC wise for £300 (or even £299.99....)

Without having a real good look at your system specs (i.e even better than your sig) it would be hard to say where you might most benefit from that money being spent, but I am more than willing to believe that you could get a nice new processor and motherboard for that.

Or its, a CD-RW drive, DVD Drive, Hollywood plus card, new sound card, more memory etc....

That's a serious shopping, that. I wish I had 300 notes to spend on my machine. I think I might like that nice DVD writer that I've had my eye on and has been falling in price.

I am of course biast here in the sense that I spend a lot of my money on my machines, and would never dream of buying some games console.

But doubtlessly, someone who had an X-Box will come on here and tell you all about it in drool detail.

Methinks 300 notes is too much for something that just plays games and surfs the net, even if that's all I do with my PC most of the time. I mean, a PC can do ALL SORTS OF THINGS.

This is quite an interesting example of opportunity cost, one of the most basic prinipals of micro economics. If you buy the X Box at £299, its opportunity cost is the next most desireable alternative of your chosen £299 worth of PC upgrades.

Choose well. Even for us folks with jobs, £299 is a fair amount of money. I could do on a nice little holiday for that, or even get a very crappy car.

 

[uncleel]

£299.00 = $427.75

£299.00 = $427.75
The cyclical Xmas event of the gaming console! This would imply that gaming consoles are considered toys. In the past consoles have been a throw away item w/ expensive games, typically up to $50, £34.95. Now they are attempting to convince parents the worthiness of the purchase by becoming an media entertainment appliance, playing dvd movies etc.

PC platforms seem to cycle every 18 months. The competitive vid-card market, yearly. I have never been big on consoles. I'd rather get my pc upgraded just the way I want it. But I'd rather watch DVD's on my TV.

 

[ptitterington]

There are the hidden benefits(of course tailored as I have a PS2) that you keep your pc for work and adult serious games(like ut and quake)and the kids have the older pc for school, and play on the console and we all get to watch dvd on the big tv.
I think that the Idea of watching dvd on your pc is a little odd.

Still my main battle and an ongoing post from the old forum is my inability to get ut to run properly on my machine, even with the help of all you lot and the downloads available.

Its pretty refreshing to stick a game in the PS2 and it works.


Epox 8KTA3+pro Athlon 1.4 512 Sb live 1024 Geforce 2MX Win XPhomo and some stuff

 

[Rick]

If it was me, I'd get the biggest, fastest, most expensive hard disk I could afford. That's just me though.

The X-Box isn't exactly face-value. The games can get expensive afterawhile. So remember that before you make your decision.

Also, if you don't go a lot of gaming or grahpics work, there isn't often much of a reason to upgrade.

In your case, your computer is pretty well off, but when will the next opporutnity for this kind of extra cash come about? If this kind of opportunity is going to swing by periodically... then I'd go for the X-box (It is clear that you want one, so by all means..). You can always upgrade your computer later if you have a steady income.

If you are pretty sure that this kind of money won't be making its way once again any time soon, then perhaps a PC upgrade is due. Your system is decent, but if you let it hang for dear life another year, then you should consider upgrading it before it is time to replace the whole thing.

With that kind of funding, I would get a faster processor perhaps. Maybe a better video card if you do a lot of gaming. Monitors are often neglected as well. It is very possible to get a 21" monitor for that much.

 

[young&wild]

If i were you, and i m a gaming type of person. I go for the pc upgrade for a good soundcard and a 5.1 system(Klispch Promedia)!!!

 

[Ai Hate]

if i were you, i think i'd wait and see which console would win the market (ps2, i guess). cause a powerful is nothing if there's no games to play.
i think you really can't compare console games w/ pc games. it's quite of a different genre, IMO. some may prefer PC games, while others, such as me, would prefer console style games better.
you could get some pretty powerful upgrade out of that amount of money, though.

if i were you, i'd go for a PS2 (just to play FF) hehe.

 

[uncleel]

$427.75 would buy me a decent digital camera, or maybe some new speakers for my TV entertainment center (got dvd for Xmas.)

Either of those two items would give me a longer lasting pleasure that a game box that will be obsolete next Xmas.

 

[LNCPapa]

I have an X-Box which I never play, but I still play my PS2 quite often. I'm not sure 300 quid is enough to make a really big purchase on the computer side though - maybe save up a bit more and get a GeForce 4 or something. I think you processor is plenty fast for gaming, but is it fast enough for the other things you do with your computer? If not then jump on the processor and mobo combo. If it is and you want to expand your gaming experience then I'd probably get a PS2 - because by the time you could save up another 300-400 they might actually have some games worth getting on the X-Box.

LNCPapa