PC Or Xbox?

[oklol911]

So I'm getting 200$ for my birthday, but I'm not sure whether to upgrade my PC or buy the New 199$ Xbox 360 coming this fall. Let me explain, my PC stats are the following...

CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz
RAM: 2 GB
Graphic Card: GeForce 9500 GT
Power Supply: 400w
Mother Board: Asus P5LD2 Deluxe

As you can see the CPU is really bad, I'm thinking of buying a new CPU that can play APB at medium graphics at least without lag.

System requirement for APB are...

The current minimum hardware reuirements for APB are:
AMD's Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (2.6ghz) or Intel Core2 Duo 2ghz or equivalent
2GB Main Memory
ATi x1900 XT 256 MB or Geforce 7800 256 MB or equivalent
256kbit/sec internet connection

The current recommended hardware reuirements for APB are:
AMD Phenom X4 9850 or Core2 Quad 2.4Ghz or equivalent
4GB Main Memory
ATi HD2900 XT 512MB or Geforce 8800 512 MB or equivalent
20GB free disk space
XP x32 / Vista x64 (Vista 32 not yet advisable) / Windows 7 X64
These requirements are subject to change without notice.

But from what I have seen in the Mother Board support list I cant run a Core2 Quad, Core2 Duo at minimum...

http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=gD1ljCkUWy1Y3yMG

So my question is should I risk to buy a 200$ Intel Core2 Duo and play the game with lag since is the minimum require OR should I use my 200$ to buy the new 199$ Slim Xbox 360 coming this fall and not worry if I can run a games?

[larry1135]

If your board could handle the Intel E8500 I would go with that I could not find that on the support list though so you may want to consider the new X-Box that is being released.

[David M]

For $200, if all you need is faster gaming speed then get the gaming console. The reason is that if you want to noticably speed up your computer you are going to need to spend more than $200.

PC's are still by far the biggest and baddest thing for gaming, but you pay for it.

[mknabster]

Yea I agree, the Xbox is a once and done deal, and the games are built just for that equipment. With a PC, the games are constantly updating, and you might have to keep updaing your equipment, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, if you have the money. I have played games on my Xbox first, and my laptop destrouys it in terms of graphics quality, for certain games at least.

[larry1135]

Your current PC system would need too many updates and I think you would be really happy with the new x-box you can find a good review on it at the anand tech site.

[swipper_dafox]

Well with only $200 I would obviously hit-up the box! No need to worry about upgrades or any of that wallet draining options, but its always a good idea to upgrade that PC at some point. XD

[DrWambu]

With $200 I would definately get the Xbox. Since when you start updating that PC, you almost need to redo everything to see a noticeable change. You will quickly run out of the $200 trying to update it.

[xExDiesel]

Xbox! Don't forget to get Live too!

[Kidd]

My instant reaction was XBOX, all the way, no question. Everyone above named the reasons, especially the price point. $200 is a great price for a next gen console, and it performs great, unlike an old PC trying to keep up. But, to play devils advocate:

1. An E6700 should run that game pretty darn well. After that, it seems like your GPU would be the bottleneck, right? This leaves another $100 to put towards something else. (or maybe save the $200 for a little while longer, and get a full upgrade that you really want)

2. What about a game? After your $200 is gone, are you buying a bundle with a couple of games that came out 2 years ago, or are you going to have a console with nothing but the XBOX Live arcade? How long will you have to wait to buy the game you want? You already own the computer game you want to play. Also, the best XBOX experience is the Live play. Do you have money for a subscription? I haven't renewed mine lately, but I think it was $50 a year, (not too bad) but do you have to pay anything like that for APB?

3. What other games do you want to play? I'm a Halo fanboy, and those games are excellent, my favorite FPS's ever. But I used to like RTS like Command and Conquer. As much as I prefer consoles, playing the RTS genre on console sucks IMO. If you're into those types of games, the console experience doesn't translate well for me, it may not for you either.

I'd make the decision based on game and genre preference. I like FPS (Halo 3), flight sim (Ace Combat 6), music (Guitar Hero 5), and RPG (Fable 2) more than RTS, and I prefer the gameplay on a console (even FPS and RPG). Many PC gamers consider PC's the only real way to play FPS, but what do you prefer?
I also like playing from a couch on a big TV, not in a chair on a 24" monitor.

If you do get a 360, enjoy the fact that they're not making red ring of death boxes anymore.

[id10x]

i want to buy a new gpu only and i have 250$ and its not enough yet so +100 for
the xbox for gaming and ure pc will live long for net browsing and chat ex,,,