PC Enthusiast-Fi (PC Gaming/Parts/Overclocking) - Page 20

Pros of Consoles:

• Cheap, can run gaming at $200
• Very intergrated
• No viruses Virus on the PC are actually easily avoidable in many cases
• New updated interfaces A PC has completely customisable interfaces
• social programs (Xbox marketplace or kinect stuff and PS home) Not as well done as gaming forums if you ask me
• Voice chat (consoles have most people voice chatting) built in Skype or that TeamSpeak thing will do on the PC easily
• everyone has the same console when playing online On PC games everyone is using a PC, I don't see this as a pro
• multi media station for media like netflix or programs A computer can do all these things fine
• Also has news, and current updates Subscription to game devs and podcasts is available on PC

Cons of consoles

• Power, they are weak 
• The require extra crap like wireless adapters Not necessarily, this is not true among most new consoles
• New versions make people buy crap 
• Xbox requires live gold subscription
• Closed system I'd argue the current main choice for a gamer's OS, Windows is rather closed too.
• Everything is at a premium(20GB's for $40) 
• Company controls every step of it.

Cons of PC

• Consoles are "weak" compared to today's PC's in terms of power. But having a system that uses a faster design or chip base (Xbox's is based off ATI X1900T) doesn't mean it is similar to a computer using that card. Games are highly optomized for consoles today. Some games actually have worse performance on PC. The market is so profitable for consoles and where most game dev's are mainly that most games are simply "ported". 
• PC Gamers almost always use type chat. Most games don't support VOIP. Some use external programs but most don't. If some decide to use external program, they have to hope, other people in the place playing are using it too. Typing is slower. See previous comment
• While cooperative team playing is more prevelant on PC. Lack of an established voice chat system is a problem See previous
• Virsues See previous
• For a console, if stuff happens weirdly, its the game dev's and console company's fault. If something is weird on a PC. It introduces a huge other field of needing to fix what is wrong with your PC. Drivers, Driect X, Open GL, Microsoft 2008 Redistro, Physx 
• Very expensive The PC is not limited to gaming only, therefore it justifies it's higher cost
• PC's are multi media too but are not as intergrated. Steam BIG Thing isn't a good alternative.(yet?)

PC pro:

• Very powerful systems are possible 
• Very expensive also not a pro?
• it is also your computer
• uber multi media options
• Play in 1080p and with all the eye candy you want. Most X360 games are rendered in 720p. PS3 is half 720p with AA, and half 1080p with no bells and whistels.
• Much cheaper games, and deals
• Do what you want with it 
• Upgradeable parts
• Manly and Glorious
• Keyboard and mouse and their options for upping Gameplay. Monitors too.
• Better surround sound/virtual sound IS a possibility. Most don't have a better audio system than what the consoles have but a possiblity of an upgrade is there
• Options

So yeah, it is all up to you. Some like some  things, some don't like others.

Tell me how that is guys.

It has been brought up numerous times that the Intel Xeon 1230 V2 would be a better alternative than the 3550 or 3570k i5. It performs as well as the i5 does in gaming but in daily operations, will perform like an i7 ivy bridge does.

PSU and the amount of power they need to feed components is slightly over rated yes. I have a UPS with LCD power manager next to me and can monitor wattage being pulled by Power Supply. Obviously the Power Supply does use capacitators to store energy and to give it more power but none the less, the power draw is still aparent. Well what I mean is, it's over rated but I am a bit skittish when you are trying to put a OC Gaming GPU from Nvidia, after market cooler, and ivy bridge desktop CPU on a highly efficent PSU. But that's just me. I'm old fashioned. I know it's over rated but none the less. I wouldhave just bought a 700W for that to be safe. Say what you will. I'm ole fashioned with PSU and their power. \

Can I take my old HDD with XP, and run that using Windows 7's virtual machine? So I can access files/games etc. I'd prefer dual boot, but I've read that the XP likely won't recognize the new hardware.

Alright, but other than that, would I still be able to use it like I was originally booting XP? It's more accessing apps and files. (On the separate HDD)