I know there's already a poll for the console war, but I need some help in deciding which console will best suit me and my gaming needs.

Right now I'm leaning towards the X360 Premium (Core is just pointless) to jam in all its glory on my HDTV, but my roommate is keen to hold out for the Elite (mainly cos it's black and sexier ). Perhaps in a year or so I'll look at PS3 when the games aren't so crap.

My current situation is that my PC is going to cost me at least R10k for a new CPU, mobo, RAM and video card, and that's if I'm lucky. While Crysis and the other slew of DX10 games are tempting, I just can't justify that sort of cash when I can get an X360 with all the extras for less than half that, plus I can enjoy it on my big ass TV. Streaming media with it is also a huge plus.

I'm prepared to fork out for a PS3 if I know that it'll eventually be worth it, but right now I reckon it's a rip-off. Wii also looks cool, but I don't think it'll satisfy me as a more experienced gamer.

So, what do you guys think? Should I go for the X360 now? Premium, or wait for the Elite (pure robot porn, but will the 120GB drive justify the price)? Or do I need to reconsider the PS3, or my PC upgrade path?

Just got to say I played F1 on the PS3 on the weekend, and while I am not the biggest F1 fan, I really enjoyed the game, and game play. Graphics were crisp and the cordless bluetooth controller is awesome. What was also nice was how you can control the steering by turning the controller. i.e. you don't need to use the joysticks or the "arrow" buttons to turn. You simply turn the controller left or right. very cool.

I will also say that my mate who has it says he plays a lot of games on PC still, as there are not that many games on PS3 (or games he likes - I forget)

I haven't played on X-Box as yet so can't really compare them. Sorry.

Right now? xbox 360 sucks and their RED RING of DEATH isn't doing their xbox justice... the game titles are in fact PC titles (we all know xbox = pc).

PS3 is all glory in it's techincal specifications yes it will last for the next 5-15 years BUT right now? no games makes it not a worthwhile choice but in future PS3 is the choice! Compared with Xbox360, Blue ray > HD-DVD's, 100% reliable. PS3 has the Keyboard/Mouse combo and it's internet interactivity with the PS3 price drops it's along the pricing of the xb0x

the Xbox360 elite should fix up a lot of flaws that the xbox 360 has BUT HD-DVD's has issues with the contamination of one of the batchs from the manufacturer... xbox LIVE = shit as you cannot purchase anythign from microsoft as their system does NOT cater for SA CC's and addresses! Personally Microsoft has taken a drive to MAKE money off the xbox instaead of making it a fun console.

WII - like you said games are merely amturish who needs to stand around like a doos and swing a joystick?

Personally? If you have the money stick with my good old trusty PC.
BTW AMD released new pricing on their CPU.. their 6000+ rapes the Core 2 Duo and overclocks like a beast!

Well the new 3 year warranty makes the X360 quite a tempting choice

I just can't see myself forking out R10k for a PC purely for gaming purposes when a console will cost me half that.

Hmm, I heard that XBOX Live can be used locally, as long as you register as UK or a similar country?

The HD-DVD/Blu-ray thing isn't an issue either, considering I'm not really going to be concerned with that until at least next year or so.

10k? with a 8800gtx you're set for the next 2 years...

as for your reasoning seems as you are taking a xbox anyhow

PC = lots of games...

xbox = 1 or 2 selective titles as you'll be forking out R500 per title

Well by my logic the X360 seems to be the best option, should I go the console route.

As for PC, I need:

Conroe
Mobo
2GB RAM
8800/2900

I'd be damn lucky to get all of that for R10k. And I'd want a 22" widescreen too

I'm going to borrow a mate's X360 hopefully this weekend so I can give it a go.

lets see... conroe over-rate feking intel has no decent RAID 0 mobo NOR all in one like the AMD's have it... feking intel

2gigs ram? too littel for vista... try getting it from the UK... 4gigs for R1800

8800gtx for R3999 on the other site

Personally I think I wanna sell my E6600 and move to the AM2 6000+ at least this way their mobos would have what I want RAID 0 + 6 or more SATA + Firewire and USB...

as for console it's over-rated... my ps2 is sitting there collecting dust plus to pay for the feking games at R500 a pop I'd rather stick to my pc where I can have my stream of urm... collections

ps3 ftw.

I have both the xbox premium and the ps3 and while the current xbox game offering over shadows the ps3's, that is going to change with the announcement of 120+ games in the next couple of months.

also, the ps3 had a price cut recently (although we might not see it ) - but increased console sales = more games.

another ps3 bonus is the psn. xbox is like, R600 for a year of gold live service - psn is free. you also mentioned that live! is not really for south africa, this is correct. you need to set your locale to somewhere in the uk (postal code required) and then you can carry on. psn has everything ready to go with your south africa address and the shop is even priced in rands <3

you can download some snazy things (got crash bandicoot and rampart ) for free and others for a price (R40+). also, do some googling for playstation home. it's going to rock the party when they launch it and you don't want to be left out of that

the updates of the ps3 are constantly adding new features and also, look at the price of a comparable blue ray player, they are maybe double the price. the ps3 also upscales regular dvd's into hd goodness (it is very sexy).

so at the moment - go ps3, it is worth the extra $$'s

I might just get me one too. Just when I start settling my CC.

Nice to hear from the PS3 camp for a change. Damn, now I'm back at square one

I think I'm going to have to reconsider the PS3...



Okay, so assuming I stick to PC:

* How about an E6850? New stepping and insane overclocking capability.

* Where the hell you getting 4GB RAM for that price?! And what would I get, DDR 1000? Or 1333? I know bugger all about Intel atm.

* Mobo? Gigabyte, Abit, MSI?

* Hmmm and those GTXs are very tempting...

Vista is bloody snappy with 2GB of RAM. Nothing I have worked on beats E6600 + 2GB + Vista 64 in terms of responsiveness and pure OS enjoyment.

PS3 .... al we hear about it all the stuff that WILL make it good. First it was "when its released, it will be great", now we've been waiting for the games to make it worthwhile for almost a year.
Mind you, nothing on any of the other consoles are good enough for me to get one either, but at least there's more of a choice.

E6850?

Intel pentium E2140 - dual core 1.6ghz box cpu , ( no VT, vPro, ViiV ) , 65nm , Lga775 , 800mhz fsb - 2x64k L1+ shared 1mb L2 cache - with EDB , EiST, EM64T , WDE , ASC , SMA , ADMB

Intel pentium E2160 - dual core 1.8ghz box cpu , ( no VT, vPro, ViiV ) , 65nm , Lga775 , 800mhz fsb - 2x64k L1+ shared 1mb L2 cache - with EDB , EiST, EM64T , WDE , ASC , SMA , ADMB

Intel Core2 Duo E4200 - dual core 1.6ghz box cpu , no VT , 65nm , Lga775 , 800mhz fsb - 2x64k L1+ shared 2mb L2 cache - with EDB , EiST, EM64T , WDE , ASC , SMA , ADMB

Intel Core2 Duo E4300 - dual core 1.8ghz box cpu , no VT , 65nm , Lga775 , 800mhz fsb - 2x64k L1+ shared 2mb L2 cache - with EDB , EiST, EM64T , WDE , ASC , SMA , ADMB

Intel Core2 Duo E4400 - dual core 2.0ghz box cpu , no VT , 65nm , Lga775 , 800mhz fsb - 2x64k L1+ shared 2mb L2 cache - with EDB , EiST, EM64T , WDE , ASC , SMA , ADMB

Intel Core2 Duo E6320 - dual core 1.86ghz box cpu , with VT ( Virtual Technology ) , 65nm , Lga775 , 1066mhz fsb - 2x64k L1+ shared 4mb L2 cache - with EDB , EiST, EM64T , WDE , ASC , SMA , ADMB

Intel Core2 Duo E6400 - dual core 2.13ghz box cpu , with VT ( Virtual Technology ) , 65nm , Lga775 , 1066mhz fsb - 2x64k L1+ shared 2mb L2 cache - with EDB , EiST, EM64T , WDE , ASC , SMA , ADMB

Intel Core2 Duo E6420 - dual core 2.13ghz box cpu , with VT ( Virtual Technology ) , 65nm , Lga775 , 1066mhz fsb - 2x64k L1+ shared 4mb L2 cache - with EDB , EiST, EM64T , WDE , ASC , SMA , ADMB

Intel Core2 Duo E6600 , BX80557E6600 - dual core 2.4ghz box cpu , with VT ( Virtual Technology ) , 65nm , Lga775 , 1066mhz fsb - 2x64k L1+ shared 4mb L2 cache - with EDB , EiST, EM64T , WDE , ASC , SMA , ADMB

Intel Core2 Duo E6700 , BX80557E6700 - dual core 2.66ghz box cpu , with VT ( Virtual Technology ) , 65nm , Lga775 , 1066mhz fsb - 2x64k L1+ shared 4mb L2 cache - with EDB , EiST, EM64T , WDE , ASC , SMA , ADMB

Intel Core2 Extreme X6800 - dual core 2.93ghz box cpu , with VT ( Virtual Technology ) , 65nm , Lga775 , 1066mhz fsb - 2x64k L1+ shared 4mb L2 cache - with EDB , EiST, EM64T , WDE , ASC , SMA , ADMB


not here on our shores yet...

www.overclockers.co.uk WARPARTH bought 4x1gig sticks of Team Extreme for R1800 or so I would stick with DDR800 atm for price wise

mobo wise... like I said I really hate the combination of mobos for INTEL atm... feking Asus and Gigabyte both punt their stupid Heatpipe crap... I mean come on NB heatpipe to your Voltage regulator is merely going to spread heat from one place to the other and incrasing the temp in the case :thumbsdown:

DFI - nice board but does not have firewire or doesn't clock so well or doesn't have RAID 0 that is more than 16bit allocation size - personal experience

MSI - looks good but lacks firewire

the rest either doesn't have decent RAID or firewire (for me) or just shitty boards

RAM atm... only the newer chipset P35 support 1066 MHz ram... it's still and overkill and the RAM is bloody expensive worst of all is Intel punting their shit yet again moving to DDR3 when AMD just moved to DDR2...

Intel knows with AMD's memory controller onboard they need to jump ship



Carrot: have you seen the pretty titles coming in the next few months for the PS3? I was reading through the NAG magazine... and watching the trailers... PS3 has tons of Eye candy

Andy on SS is bringing in some E6850s

Hmm, so DDR800 it is then... but I'm not really interested in firewire, so which board's better? RAID 0 is a must though.

Intel is so overpriced atm

as for the mobo... MSI overseas has a good choice... the only brands I can get hold of is Asus and Gigabyte the rest would be over 2k a board

tho the Gigabyte P35 looks nice and doesn't have the heatpipes - trust me don't get heatpipes!

PS3 is my favourite, its got everything.

PS3! PS3!

I have had mine about a month now, I picked up the 60gb version for $499. Game wise I have Madden 2008 (pretty cool but nothing amazing), fL0w (a really weird game showing off the motion sensor controllers) and Warhawk

Warhawk is un-f**king-believable, its online only but wow what a blast. Its in the same mold as Battlefield, you either run around, hop in ground vehicles or in a plan called the Warhawl. graphically the game is simply incredible.

Game wise PS3 was pretty lacking up until recently, which is why I waited so long to get mine, now though...

As or exclusives...

PlayStation 3 Exclusives Confirmed

Released

* Formula One Championship Edition
* Full Auto 2: Battlelines
* Genji: Days of the Blade
* Godfather: The Don's Edition, The
* MLB '07: The Show
* Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire
* MotorStorm
* Ninja Gaiden Sigma
* Resistance: Fall of Man
* Ridge Racer 7
* Spider-Man 3: Collector's Edition
* Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
* Virtua Fighter 5 [timed for 360]


Upcoming

* ActiveDogs Project
* Afrika
* Agency, The [+PC]
* Agaresu Senki
* Airtight Project
* Angel Link
* Angel Rings
* Aquanaut's Holiday - Inner Mind Adventure, The
* Aqua Vita
* Battle Field Valkyrie
* Big Time Revenge
* Black Blade
* Coded Arms: Assault
* DC Universe
* Diseaga 3
* Driver 5
* Eight Days
* Ember
* EyeCreate
* Eyedentify
* Eye of Judgement, The
* Fifth Phantom Saga
* Final Fantasy XIII
* Final Fantasy Versus XIII
* Folklore
* Getaway 3
* Gradius
* Gran Turismo 5
* Gretzky NHL
* Haze [Timed Exclusive]
* Heavenly Sword
* Heavy Rain
* Home, PlayStation
* Hot Shots Golf 5
* inFAMOUS
* Imabiksou
* Killzone 2
* Lair
* L.A. Noire
* LittleBigPlanet
* Little House in the Plateau
* Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
* Metal Gear Solid Online
* Megazone 23: Blue Garland
* Metro 2033: The Last Refuge
* Mist of Chaos
* Monster Hunter 3
* My Summer Holiday
* NBA '08
* Ni-Oh
* Project D
* Project Psychic
* Quantic Dream Project
* Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
* Railfan
* Railfan Touwan Koutetsu
* Romance of the Three Kingdoms
* Redwood Falls
* Sega's Toshihiro Nagoshi Project
* SingStar
* Sky Blue
* SOCOM 4
* Tears to Taira: Kakan no Daichi
* Tekken 6
* Time Crisis 4 [Including Guncon 3]
* Tomb Raider 8
* Trials of Topoq [Revelation]
* Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
* Unreal Tournament III [+PC] [Timed Exclusive]
* Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
* Wardevil
* Warhawk
* Way of the Samurai 3
* White Knight Story
* Yamasa DigiWorld DX
* Zipper Interactive Project

PlayStation Network Exclusives

Released

* Blast Factor
* Calling All Cars!
* Cash Guns Chaos DLX
* flOw
* Go! Puzzle
* Go! Sudoku
* Gran Turismo HD Concept
* Gripshift
* Lemmings
* Mortal Kombat II
* Nucleus
* Piyo Tama
* Super Rub-a-Dub
* Super Stardust HD
* Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection

Upcoming

* Buu Buu Cocoreccho [Loco Roco]
* EchoChrome
* Elefunk
* Everyday Shooter
* Free Realms [+PC]
* Go! Sports Ski
* Gran Turismo 5: Prologue
* High Stakes on the Vegas Strip: Poker Edition
* High Velocity Bowling
* Nobi Nobi Boy
* Pain
* Pixel Junk Racers
* Snakeball
* SOCOM: Confrontation
* Toy Home
* Wipeout HD

Those are all great games (Except maybe Ninja Gaiden, not my style ). Play a bit of Ridge Racer online against fx every now and again (whip his ass too) and the gameplay is amazing. No lag, nothing. Also played some Resistance online and again no lag. This is helluva important for gameplay to be as smooth as if the person was sitting right next to you. Also, im on a 512k shaped line, so there's nothing fancy here.

I try and buy games as often as I can, as well as Blu Rays. Got 300 and Happy Feet delivered this morning, and can't wait to watch 300 tonight.

Surprisingly Tiger Woods is good fun when you're in a crowed

OMG. I read up to the 300 part and thought you had 300 Blu Rays. LOL.

I have heard a few good things about Tiger Woods.

I would stick to the PC, purely because i will always consider pc gaming better than console, especially cause fps and rts sucks ass on a console!

Pity that stuff is soo expensive - saving for a 8800 and the card itself i almost as expensive as the x360

Stick to pc my friend. Dont bother consoles because you can't upgrade graphix cards or cpus on it, with pc you can upgrade your system while still keeping most of your hardware.

Plus console games are murder on ur bank account, an average ps3 game goes for around R600

I'm sticking with PC as my main form of gaming but I'll be getting a PS3 anyway later this year.

Had a jam on my mate's one the other day, lank impressed.

I completely disagree with that.

You pay about R4000 for an xbox 360 for example which is yours for 4-6years. No cost to upgrade (2k'ish) every 6months to get a new graphics card. So let's think quick, about R9k would get you something decentish to play games, 5x2 = 10, 10*2k = 20k, 20k+9k = 29k over the same time that the xbox would last. Same story for the ps3.

That's just the graphics card, you would need atleast 3 new cpu's over that time to play games that equal the gfx and processor power of the ps3 for example, so lets add another 6k to that 29k. Oh, then RAM. You would need to upgrade that too, so maybe another 5k? You are already up to 40k, that's 10 xboxes.

Oh lol, you have run out of hdd space, chuck in another 2k? 42k. Shit, your mobo is too old now and you would need to buy a new one to future proof, another 2k. 44k.

So let's put that into perspective - R44000 over 4-6years and you haven't bought a game. Pretend you buy 1 game every month and a half so that's 8xR350 = R2800x5 = 14k. So now we have the total of R58000 for your pc gaming over 4-6years.

Xbox, again every month and a half you buy a game - 8xR550 = R4400 * 5 = 22k. So to get the same life span out of an xbox would cost you about R26000.

Playstation? R4500 for the basic console, and also, about 22k for games. So, R26500 for 4-6years worth of enjoyment.

Still think pc gaming is worth it?

pc I can surf the net and visit vault 9

u can do that on 360 or ps3

on a side note: is that possible with the wii?

A tata will get you to work for the next 5 years for much less than a BMW will.

Ah, but you'll be sleeping with FAR uglier women.

I can't imagine browsing the web using a controller though. Out of interest, does the PS3/X360 have a mouse available?

WARNING! OFF TOPIC AHEAD!



END OF OFF TOPIC

PS3 has a mouse and you can connect Bluetooth Keyboards to it which literally turns it into a PC for that use. Not sure but i think stuff can be connected to both using the usb port.

you can connect usb keyboards and mouses to it, as well as some canon printers and all other funky things.

http://www.yougamers.com/news/17001_ubisof...ssassins_creed/

Yet another reason why a console is a great choice price wise

3GB RAM recommended?

Fuck that. I'll buy a PS3 rather.

3GB? wtf?

When running Crysis on High, the game uses about 1GB of RAM (according to the game itself using r_displayinfo 1). I have 2GB, so its not as if there isnt any more.
I cant think that AC would use even double that and then leave another GB free for the OS....

Yeah, fuck that shit. I am looking a rather getting a console, instead of getting a new PC. Current PC is good enough as a juke box, and for surfing the net.

Console gaming is the way to go guys, graphically sure the pc might be better, but trust me a game like uncharted or COD4 looks so awesome on thePS3 tha ta slightly higher res will make no difference

Console +HD TV = gaming heaven

Might interest a few people:

click click

I so need to go get me one

I am saving as we speak.

You can get a 40gb one on an iTalk contract. I've contemplated taking out a cellphone contract just for the free shit a few times

Also considered doing that, but I'm going to bring in a cheap import instead.

Warranty and all that type of stuff?

Also, what is cheap?

I coulda bought a 60gig PS3 for R3700 in HK... but I already forked out moolah for a 8800gt and thailand trip

but it's ok I can wait until ps3 becomes chipped

moo: have you played Uncharted yet?

no but i belive that ps3 has some good games to make an exception gt5 then ps3 dosen't have a big warrenty inless you pay big

then xbox360 elete has more games to pick and longer warrenty for less money which is the good thing but you choose

I always said I'd never get a console, but then life happened and I couldn't afford to upgrade my pc anymore. For R2600 I got offered a premium xbox and I decided to go for it. This was almost a year ago and I have not once looked back. It's great to have a game run the way it's supposed to run, not having it jitter because your rig is just slightly too slow or having to settle for lower resolution because you can't afford yet another 3k for the graphics card it's got. I love my PC, but nowadays it just doesn't make financial sense to use it for gaming.

"Games for consoles are expensive", I hear you say. Well if you take into account that upgrading your PC to the latest and greatest is way more expensive than buying a conole once off. You have to upgrade your PC at least once every two years where a consoles life time can stretch to around 5. Also, no one said you have to buy the games new. Places like game exchange, BT games, Zaps AWX etc,etc,etc have great pre-played titles. I've only bought 10% of my games new (and that was because they were on special). The rest are all pre-played and none of them have any issues.

As to the whole PS3, X-Box, Pii sorry Wii argument... I dislike the PS3 for a couple of reasons, which I'm not going to go into. The X-box (with another price slash on its way) is excellent value for money and the Wii... well, is it even in the same category as the other two?

but why? spark of the old ps3 vs xbox vs wii is always great news!

personally I feel that ps3 and wii is more of a console than the xbox...

lol - it's always fun - guys at work have actually had a shouting match about it

I don't want to strart an argument, but how you could say that is above me. The wii is a toy, not a console and that's my opinion (and a couple of other peoples as well) As for the ps3, a year from now it might be great if, and only if, developers can start using its gpu correctly, because currently whenever a game lands on both consoles, the xbox almost always looks better - the shaders, the distance, the colors, etc just seem better. The xbox has a huge disadvantage in the fact that it seems to have quite a high failure rate (luckily one I haven't experienced), but then again, PS3 released an update a while ago that bricked some of their consoles. The newer generation xbox consoles seem to be more stable, so does that old 3 ring thing still hold true? I hate m$, but I feel that they've done something right in the 360, and I feel that Sony has slipped with the PS3. But each to his own I suppose.