Should I sell my PS3 to get a gaming PC?

[adam46]

Hi thought this may be a good place to ask this; How much would it cost me to get a PC that could play GTR2 in the quality of the screenshots? My current one cant so how much do you reckon it would be?

 

[bevo]

One way you can look at it is, if you like very, very in depth sims of any kind (Iracing, Gtr, Rfactor, flight sims, war sims, RTS games, real RPGs) then PC games are for you. If you like the more simple arcade style games, and plug and play then stick with the PS3.

I've come to realize that PC gaming isn't for everyone. The games are much, much more time consuming, and take much longer to get a handle on then console games. Arma 2 is blowing my mind. It has to be the most in depth game I have ever played. I can't believe the details they have put into it, and how far the community has taken it. I really think that it is by far the greatest game ever made. I've only been playing it for a few days, but it just seems like they have done things that no other game would even attempt to do. The level of difficulty and patience it takes is amazing. There is no way a console could pull something like this off. No one would buy it, and most who did would hate it. In my mind it seems like Arma is a perfect example of the difference between console and PC games. PC games are made how the devs want to make them, where as console games really have to bend to the mass markets.

 

[HKS racer]

The games are much, much more time consuming, and take much longer to get a handle on then console games.

It really depends on what you are refering to. You can't compare products like Arma 2 that doesn't exist on consoles, saying "bah all pc games more time consuming". Even PC has Battlefield, Call of Duty, Dirt 1 2 3, Race Driver Grid, etc etc..

 

[CMvan46]

It really depends on what you are refering to. You can't compare products like Arma 2 that doesn't exist on consoles, saying "bah all pc games more time consuming". Even PC has Battlefield, Call of Duty, Dirt 1 2 3, Race Driver Grid, etc etc..

Majority of multiplayer games do take a long time to get running sometimes. Battlefield had numerous issues depending what drivers you had for graphics cards and punkbuster. Different anti cheat systems, custom map downloads, mods.... In general he is right pc games do take longer than a ps3 disc you just pop in and away you go.

 

[bevo]

It really depends on what you are refering to. You can't compare products like Arma 2 that doesn't exist on consoles, saying "bah all pc games more time consuming". Even PC has Battlefield, Call of Duty, Dirt 1 2 3, Race Driver Grid, etc etc..

It's all more time consuming. I have BF3 on the xbox and PC. The PC version was a pain to get running right, and the way you get into games on it is completely different then the console version. I'm not even sure if they ever fixed the quick match function on PC or not.

Very, very rarely is a PC game a plug and play game. Take BF3 and iracing for instance. If you have nvidia cards, to get the best performance out of your PC you need to hop back and forth between graphics card drivers to get each of them to run right. BF3 needs new drivers, but iracing needs older drivers.

I didn't really mean the actual games are more time consuming, which they are for the most part. The time consuming part is just being able to play the games.

 

[HKS racer]

You are unlucky. ATi is generally easier to configure.

 

[bevo]

You are unlucky. ATi is generally easier to configure.

It's not just Nvidia, it goes both ways. Ati users do the same thing for some games. For instance for me I need a 265 driver for iracing, a 285 driver for Arma 2, and one of the newer drivers for witcher 2, and BF3. Ati has it's problems also, but people usually claim that whichever card they own has the best drivers. I'm someone that understands that it must be super hard to create drivers that run well on games that came out yesterday, and still run well with games that came out 5 years ago.

I'm just trying to let anyone thinking about making the switch from console to PC know that it's not just an overnight switch, and you start playing all the newest games with the best mods the first day. There's a pretty big learning curve and it takes alot of research to get everything installed and running properly. PC games seem to have a much rougher launch then console games, and sometimes it can takes weeks to even get one running on your system. I've been pretty lucky so far, but I know others that haven't been. If you enjoy looking on forums though and researching about games and tech, then PCs can be a blast. The hunt and tinkering with things is usually the most fun for me, so I would take a PC over console any day. Sometimes though it does get very frustrating when your trying to learn about installing mods, or trying to get a game to stop crashing for no good reason.

 

[zedfonsie]

I'm only mainly going to use it for rFactor 2 and possibly iRacing, but I doubt I'll have enough as you all said.

Iracing is going to need 3 cores soon, so your going to need a quad core cpu. Which a good one cost 190$,
then a 100$ motherborad
30$ ram
100$ Os
80$PSU
80$GPU
85$ 500gb hard drive
60$ computer case
20$ optical drive


It adds up quite fast, with the amount of money you have you are not going to make a big difference in your computer.

 

[bevo]

Iracing is going to need 3 cores soon, so your going to need a quad core cpu. Which a good one cost 190$,
then a 100$ motherborad
30$ ram
100$ Os
80$PSU
80$GPU
85$ 500gb hard drive
60$ computer case
20$ optical drive


It adds up quite fast, with the amount of money you have you are not going to make a big difference in your computer.

You could get the CPU and MOBO for half that if you go AMD, you can get a PSU for almost half that, a case for about half that, and you don't need an optical drive. GPU 80$ minimum, and HDD about that.

 

[zedfonsie]

Nah, a good amd cpu would be the 965 black edition (125$), which can have 2 hidden cores unlocked turning it into the 1100T

Motherboard will cost you about 80$ for a decent one made from a well known company (gigabyte,asus ect)

But what worries me is the PSU, You want a good quality psu, such as seasonic, antec, silverstone, some corsairs aswell. If you cheap out then its going to show by either
A.blow up
B.blow up and catching on fire
(a good cheap psu would be like the antec 550 something)

GPU you should get a asus radeon hd 6770 (79$ after rebate), it is a decent gaming card and it will give you plenty fps.

Your going to need an optical drive to load your operating system '

Minimum you should spend on a gaming computer is 500$, anything lower isn't going to be any better (or worse) then something you buy at the store.

You can buy a mid tower case for 20$, but the air flow will be restricted, which will cause heat which will eat up your performance.

 

[liquid07]

Hmm, just dumped 120quid into my pc as it was well overdue an upgrade from pentium D 940 + gts 250 to e6600 + gtx 460 both had 4gig ram.

I say again 120 quid, parts from ebay, my pc can play rfactor 2 all high settings, P C.A.R.S DX11 all high settings and all above 30 fps no slow downs at all. I do still have my PS3 tho dont think id every sell it.... again lol.

So get a 1000pound pc for the epic fps that you will not notice or spend 150-200 upgrading to a pc that will play anything at 30fps, have not tried BF3 tho, have that for PS3

 

[bevo]

Hmm, just dumped 120quid into my pc as it was well overdue an upgrade from pentium D 940 + gts 250 to e6600 + gtx 460 both had 4gig ram.

I say again 120 quid, parts from ebay, my pc can play rfactor 2 all high settings, P C.A.R.S DX11 all high settings and all above 30 fps no slow downs at all. I do still have my PS3 tho dont think id every sell it.... again lol.

So get a 1000pound pc for the epic fps that you will not notice or spend 150-200 upgrading to a pc that will play anything at 30fps, have not tried BF3 tho, have that for PS3

I'm glad you can run cars and Rfactor 2 at high settings but a 460 isn't going to run most of the new games out there at high settings. Ex. BF3, witcher 2, skyrim, Arma II, as well as many others. You would have alot of trouble running Iracing at high settings with that PC, and would be lucky to get 30 FPS on medium high settings on a few of the road courses.

I have sli 570s and can't run Arma II , iracing or witcher 2 at the highest settings and get framerates that don't drop or jitter. BF3 though isn't really that hard to run, I can max it out and average in the 50s, as well as Skyrim.

 

[Alltidxx]

I don't think the money you'd get for selling your PS3 would be worth it. Better to retain the option to play PS3 then. Don't forget PC will give you hassles/problems, big or small. No compatibility problems or system requirements with PS3 and you can lie in the couch while playing. Don't underestimate the comfy couch.

 

[bevo]

I don't think the money you'd get for selling your PS3 would be worth it. Better to retain the option to play PS3 then. Don't forget PC will give you hassles/problems, big or small. No compatibility problems or system requirements with PS3 and you can lie in the couch while playing. Don't underestimate the comfy couch.

I lay on the couch when I'm playing my PC games. I also lay on the couch when I'm spending hours upon hours trying to get my latest PC game to work right

 

[Alltidxx]

I lay on the couch when I'm playing my PC games. I also lay on the couch when I'm spending hours upon hours trying to get my latest PC game to work right

And we wonder why nobody wants hire us to sell kinect/move or wii

 

[tarheel365]

I don't think the money you'd get for selling your PS3 would be worth it. Better to retain the option to play PS3 then. Don't forget PC will give you hassles/problems, big or small. No compatibility problems or system requirements with PS3 and you can lie in the couch while playing. Don't underestimate the comfy couch.

I agree the PS3 isn't going to be worth selling.

But PC games are pretty scalable, and as long as you're patient you can tweak settings to give you a better overall experience. And some games are just much better on pc than on console *skyrim*. I don't think compatibility problems are a huge deal as long as you meet the minimum specs for the game.

If you plan on playing the latest/greatest games on ultra settings, then you'll prob want to start from scratch and save up cash on a new mobo/cpu/gpu/memory and a PSU unless you have a good quality 500w or higher one. Some places will have these bundled for a decent discount as well.

You can probably get by upgrading those first. You may also be able to reload your OS if you have the install(i think).
You can upgrade the rest later.