The Superior PC

I think the PC is the way to go, provided you build it yourself.

You get the best bang for the buck, and lets be honest. Browsing for Pr0n while alternating between Bioshock and Mass Effect easily trumps whatever the Xbox or PS3 are capable of.

I haven't owned a console since the SNES.

I admire the dependability of consoles but have never owned one beyond the SNES either. The games are far too expensive, especially these days when a lot of games tend to disappoint. Besides, with PCs you get the fun of, "Ohh... I wonder what driver/patch/hardware conflict issues will this game bring?" That's like an extra bonus mission or something.

Also, for me, there's no substitute for FPS games than a mouse and keyboard. I've tried using a game-pad on consoles, I really have, but I end up looking like the Wizard of Oz working his pulleys and levers, while the character on screen swings wildly left and right and up and down, all the time firing, firing, firing. I lasted - well, no, I actually didn't last at all when I tried playing COD4:MW2 on my brother's PS3.

Well, desktops are incrementally upgradeable, if you're so inclined; they can output to the same bigscreen televisions; they're fine with console controllers (but who would ever want to use one, even for force feedback?); and they're plenty reliable if you minimize the number of critical components and buy for maximum MTTF.

Laptops suck badly in comparison, but then I've never been a big fan of mobile computing at that scale.

Dommo said:

I think the PC is the way to go, provided you build it yourself.

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you can save 1000's when building your own gaming pc's.

I'm not sure I'd recommend build-your-own to someone who doesn't know a lot about computers. Choosing the right parts is not a trivial task. The warranty that system builders offer is extremely valuable to the average person. But a good a la carte box is cheaper, more reliable, and faster than any Dell or Mac.

That said,

Average Person: My computer crashes all the time.
me: All right. Have you run memtest86 yet?
Average Person: [blank stare]
me: What do your CPU and GPU temperatures look like?
Average Person: [blank stare]
me: Have you dug the gunk out of your fans lately?
Average Person: [blank stare]
me: Do you own a can of compressed air?
Average Person: [blank stare]
me: Please tell me you have a warranty.

Yup. I'll be building a PC over the next few weeks (hopefully) and while I'm savvier than the average PC-using bear, I'm not savvy enough to pick out the individual components, cables etc. That I'm leaving to my brother who does it for a living and then we'll assemble it together with me doing lots of "what's that?" pointing.

My current build runs most things pretty damn well but it's at the point now where it's had a number of components torn out and replaced and it's showing its age a bit. I definitely need a new processor anyway so it seems as though it'd be better to start over and salvage the parts that are OK like the memory and the DVD/Blu-ray drive.

Could you recommend a good book or how to website for those of us who have moderate intelligence and no electronics experience?

Toms Hardware .

Lots of benchmark stuff and frequently explains things in "laymans" terms.

I got my start in PC enthusiasm via Ars, Tom's, and Anand. Don't follow the news anymore, but it's easy to brush up.

whistlelock said:

Toms Hardware .

Lots of benchmark stuff and frequently explains things in "laymans" terms.

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Seconded.
On another note, unless you are planning to regularly update parts of the machine, it's not really necessary to learn how to build a machine yourself. Just learn enough to be able to choose your hardware, and then go with a store that will assemble the configuration you pick and offer warranty. A little more expensive than building it yourself, but worth it, unless you are planning to do warranty-voiding upgrades regularly.
Or go live in the EU where you get warranty on self-built machines.

And, frankly once you understand how it all fits together it's just a matter of reading up on the latest hardware changes/specs.

Newegg.com and tigerdirect.com are great resources for purchases.

I love PCs, and have been gaming on them for a decade or so. Consoles are fun, but given the choice I'll always go for PC.

My brother much prefers consoles, and I'm fine with that. I've seen how easily he can kill a PC.

Sarpedon - if you don't know exactly what you're doing, don't even think about fucking with BIOS settings. You can get an (minor) increase in speed by tweaking bits, but if you go overboard with the soft-modding you run the danger of doing something which can't be fixed.

Take it easy when putting something together. Don't force components to fit - if it doesn't connect, you're trying to put the piece where it doesn't belong.

There are plenty of places which have step by step guides to putting computers together, and I'm sure that there are still some good videos on YouTube which shows the process of building a computer.

People only have so much time in their lives. If they choose not to spend a week or so putting together a box, well, whatever. This is why Dells and Macs and such are still so popular, despite the availability of better, cheaper hardware a la carte. Consoles are destined to merge with computers--at least, the Microsoft console line is--and we may eventually see Microsoft offering its own prebuilt systems designed both for games and for home computing.

Thanks. My current PC is a custom job, and I think I'll need an upgrade in the next coupla years to stay in the game. Sadly, I no longer have the same computer friends as I used to. Time to do it myself.

I bought a new computer recently, and was going to build it myself. I'm pretty computer savvy (Comp Sci graduate), but ultimately I decided not to because a)I'm too lazy, and b)I specced up a Dell and compared it to the cost of the components, and the Dell was actually cheaper.
And today, I get the 24" HD monitor to go with it.

I am still thinking of getting a PS3 as well. Partly for the Blu-ray, and partly for Gran Turismo.

SPMiller said:

People only have so much time in their lives. If they choose not to spend a week or so putting together a box, well, whatever.

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You don't have to spend nearly as much time to get a reasonable setup. Heck, Tomshardware for example has complete setup suggestions for several price ranges that get updated every few month. The only thing you'd have to do is check whether you can get that, or a similar, setup cheaper from a choose&mix store, or if Dell or some other brand have a competitively priced machine available. Most times, you'll still find an offer cheaper than Dell, and it'll only take a few hours, if that long.
Sure, building it yourself is even cheaper, but in terms of money saved vs. time invested it's diminishing returns, so i'd only recommend that for people who like building a machine from parts. I recently bought a new machine and assembled it myself, but i bought all the parts from the same retailer, and they'd have assembled it for 30€ on top of the price of the parts. That's not where the price difference between a "self-built" machine and one from Dell comes from.
Heck, i could've even gotten an OEM version of windows pre-installed. Also a big money saver compared to a box version.

Software is always the big money sink, IMO. The combined MSRP of my versions of Windows, Office, and Visual Studio is over 1500 USD. That's more than I paid for the box they're running on.

SPMiller said:

Software is always the big money sink, IMO. The combined MSRP of my versions of Windows, Office, and Visual Studio is over 1500 USD. That's more than I paid for the box they're running on.

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Ubuntu, Open Office and Eclipse.