Why haven't you bought a PC yet?

I'm waiting for Oculus and the first waves of games that support it. Also, need to finish med school and get a steady enough income to buy parts powerful enough to support VR at high frame rates. I worry that if I bought a PC now, I'd have to upgrade when the headset finally arrives.
 
I just followed a guide. Took the old RAM out, put the new RAM in, making sure they were fastened in. Turn it on, smell burning. Look inside, it splutters and catches fire right next to the RAM. Guy that put a new motherboard in said I could have cracked the old one by pushing too hard. And now I'm never touching the inside of a computer again.

You should change your name into MBtoaster. MB = mainboard. And toaster because it burned. Get it? Ok, going to stop now.

But I killed a RAM module too once, I think I didn't push hard enough. No flames though and I'm sure someone killed a console when changing the harddrive, it happens even if that stuff is very robust these days.
 
You sound like an evangelist. I love PC gaming (on the gaming PC that I built), but I also love gaming on my PS4. I'm not going to say one is better than the other.

The whole PC vs. Console debate is adolescent. Getting huffy that one person might prefer one over the other is even more adolescent.
 
Is this even possible? I don't think i have ever seen a motherboard that allow you to put the RAM in the wrong direction.

That still sounds impossible, that you can crack the ram where the indent is to make it fit the opposite way.

The guy replacing the motherboard was describing how he noticed a cracked motherboard. This could only happen if there was some serious force being applied.

This is tag worthy.

Waiting for the true Maxwell or the next one if Maxwell doesn't impress. I'm busy and have enough games to play anyway.

Spoiler alert, it's not going to be impressive.
 
I just followed a guide. Took the old RAM out, put the new RAM in, making sure they were fastened in. Turn it on, smell burning. Look inside, it splutters and catches fire right next to the RAM. Guy that put a new motherboard in said I could have cracked the old one by pushing too hard. And now I'm never touching the inside of a computer again.

You must have pushed real hard for it to break, to be honest. If the motherboard was properly mounted into the case, then it should have had some tolerance for bending when you put the RAM sticks in. Either way, I think that the problem here was that you mishandled something that, in the end, is a rather delicate piece of equipment, not that PC hardware is inherently likely to be broken during assembly. It sucks, I know, but think about it this way: if you plugged a PS4 to the wall, the outlet had a discharge and your PS4 started burning, would you say that console gaming as a whole is bad?
 
You sound like an evangelist. I like PC gaming, but I also like gaming on my PS4. I'm not going to say one is better than the other.

The whole PC vs. Console debate is adolescent. Getting huffy that one person might prefer one over the other is even more adolescent.
The title is not "Why haven't you bought a PC and trash your console yet?". People can have both.
 
Because my PC is located in my bedroom on a desk. It needs to be here because I do work on the PC.
My gaming area is in the living room on a big TV. The hassle of having to move the PC between rooms is just not worth it.

Steam in home streaming all you need is the gaming PC to be good and can then play it anywhere in the house by streaming it to another PC or laptop attached to your tv in the living room.
 
With the PC i know i will save money down the line with games. Got a high end pc like 5 months ago and have spent like £80 on steam games which I know if I bought them all on console would have been close to £200. Plus I got The witcher 3 for like £12 insted of the £45 if would be on my PS4.
 
I've never encountered PC master race crap online in games though, reason being they are all stuck on the forums preaching lol.
May depend on the games you play though as well I guess.

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Naw consoles have their advantages. I say this as a gamer who plays exclusively on pc too. Honestly, I'll never go back to console but I don't see this obsession with insisting on forcing your views that it's a perfect substitute for console gaming. It's not, and it never will be.
 
The whole PC vs. Console debate is adolescent.

I wouldn't say so. PCs and consoles are two different ways of accomplishing the same thing (gaming) so doing comparisons between the two is only natural. Of course said comparing can be done in an adolescent way, but it's not something inherent to the debate.
 
Why are you trying to sell me a product on a discussion forum?
I really think the big reason you get a lot of PC gamers trying to encourage people to give PC gaming a chance(or at least an honest consideration) is that there *are* a lot of misconceptions about it and because we, as people who have experienced it, want other fellow gamers to understand how great it can be for a gaming enthusiast.

This obviously rubs some people the wrong way, but its essentially no different than somebody in off-topic recommending pizza lovers reheat their pizza differently than they've been doing it before. Same concept. The main difference here is that money is involved and people are invested. And people can be defensive over their investments.

There are lots of entirely justified and good reasons named in this thread for why PC gaming isn't for them. But I think there is a large enough amount of people who clearly close themselves off to the idea and are possibly causing themselves to miss out as a result. And that would be a shame.
 
Wow I've built so many PCs at work for around 15 years and never ever saw something like setting PC on fire by changing RAM and i've seen a o lot of strange stuff from incompetent people :-D
I guess you learn something new everyday ;-)
 
I hate these topics. "Why don't you like/do/enjoy x? Here's why you are wrong." OP's intent seems noble, at least the dude was aiming to kill common fears, but sometimes it just smacks of elitism.

I've asked it before and I'll ask it again. What is elitism and what's bad about it? Are there certain facts that are "inappropriate", in a thread about said facts?

I'd much rather use OS X than god-awful Windows.

I know Apple has been successful with their marketing in distinguishing themselves from prebuilt Windows machines, but for intents and purposes, a Mac is still a personal computer. So part of the question is, why don't you use it to its full potential? There are plenty of great games for Mac OS, both PC-originals and console ports. And Linux is free, with the upcoming SteamOS smoothing things out even further.
Seems a waste to me.

OP, it's not about not wanting to sit at my desk after work to play games, it's about the physical effects that sitting that much will have on your body. How active are you?

Who forces you to sit? I stand 90% of my PC time. If anything, I'd say the couch is truly a thing of the past. A weird relic from the 50's.
 
Ok, so, here's the reason that I don't PC game. I've been in the IT field for the last decade. I love what I do for a career, but the last thing I want to do when I come home is touch another computer. Just sitting down at my computer feels like being at work. Now that we have smart phones, I actually go weeks without touching my home computer.
 
Naw consoles have their advantages. I say this as a gamer who plays exclusively on pc too. Honestly, I'll never go back to console but I don't see this obsession with insisting on forcing your views that it's a perfect substitute for console gaming. It's not, and it never will be.

Pretty much. While it's easier than ever to get into PC gaming, I fully understand why people are put off by picking and putting parts together, and the initial cost of building a PC, and the occasional hassle of drivers and getting old games/sloppy ports to run well. It's simply not for everyone, and I say that as someone that's almost 100% moved over to PC gaming.

Having said that, I agree that things like standardised controller support and Big Picture mode have gone a long way in getting rid of traditional issues with PC gaming.
 
PC has the worst exclusives

Round 3 bitch who's next?

but seriously, what on PC can make me go wide-eyed like Uncharted 4's trailer, or The Order, or DRIVECLUB? Don't you dare point out Star Citizen which is ambitious but lacks the gravitas in presentation so far to get past it's powerhouse graphics looking like 2009 insurance commercial CGI but with aliasing and worse faces and a tone about on par with The Old Republic (aka a little too lighthearted to move me so far)
 
i used to have, but buying a new GFX card and more memory every two years and changing the motherboard as the different memory/processor/PCI/PCI-E/AGP cards were not compatible just got cumbersome. A single console runs all the latest games for 8 years straight.

And i'm one of those who don't want to sit on the computer any more after 8 hours of sitting on a computer at work.

(i have a custom built laptop at home nowadays, it can run some modern games, bought it two years ago for 1000$)

I don't get this "must buy a new PC every second year" propaganda.

I bought my PC in 2008 with the additional costs of replacing hard drive and 2Gb of extra RAM (total cost of around 150€), and while my faithful companion doesn't run on ultra settings anymore, I'm fine with playing Tomb Raider on 1900x1200, medium settings.

I have no clue what "PCI/PCI-E/AGP" means, hasn't stopped me from playing with PC. Please don't try to make things harder than they are.
 
PC has an upfront investment (minus what you'd have paid for a non-gaming PC), but cheaper games quickly makes it overall cheaper than console.

I can never go back to regularly getting $60 games and considering $40 something a deal.
 
There are couple of reasons:

- Its expensive
- I don't like PC exclusives
- I like the simplicity of the console
- I don't have to upgrade my console so I can run newer games.
- Most of the games I like are not on the PC.
 
It's just easier to get a console and use that.
Now you have to download and install stuff for consoles but you just have to press A and then wait, I have tried to build a PC and it makes no sense to me.

So I guess I'm too dumb and lazy :/
 
I have $90,000 in student loans to pay and make about as money as guys who break rocks with other rocks at my current job, so I just have other financial priorities right now than buying a new gaming rig (much as I'd like to). I haven't picked up either of the new consoles either for that reason as well.

Its not that big of a deal to me, my backlog for the PS3/360 is still pretty sizable so I've got plenty to keep me occupied.
 
You sound like an evangelist. I love PC gaming (on the gaming PC that I built), but I also love gaming on my PS4. I'm not going to say one is better than the other.

The whole PC vs. Console debate is adolescent. Getting huffy that one person might prefer one over the other is even more adolescent.

It's not a debate of one vs. the other. I have both. I'm just asking people to keep in mind that PC is an option. Sorry if that's adolescent to you and that you think I'm getting huffy.

The subtext is there.

Edit: Nope, definitely isn't.
 
PC has an upfront investment (minus what you'd have paid for a non-gaming PC), but cheaper games quickly makes it overall cheaper than console.

I can never go back to regularly getting $60 games and considering $40 something a deal.

My games are $40 day one. I go the route of either Best Buy which does the 20% off for members+ $10 certificate day one (for consoles only), or I buy credit on sale for things I want digitally. Is there really much of a deal for someone like me who wants AAA's on day one?
 
Even though DR3 on PC is a mess, it's still a much better mess than the Xbone version.

Having a game continuously crash is the worst. The Xbox version could've run better, but it performed well enough in my view and never crashed on me, so that makes it better for me personally.
 
My guess is you forced them in the wrong direction, which caused the short.

I actually did this several years ago at work. Wasn't paying attention and thought the ram was in...started the computer up and it started beeping like crazy. It didn't catch fire but by the time I had it powered off it was hot as hell. Felt like a dumbass after that one.
 
1. The vast majority of titles I like are console exclusives. Outside of indies, which are usually better on Vita anyway. I don't care about MOBAs or MMORPGs or RTSes or most PC style strategy games or most FPSes.

2. Too expensive - I already have a backlog, I can think of better uses of the money.

3. The bulk of the PC's appeal comes from having a significant degree more horsepower than consoles, which means keeping current with components which get outdated fast.

4. Too many troubleshooting issues. I don't have that kind of time.

5. My main computer is a MacBook, and to be frank the selection of games on OSX is pretty naff for my tastes.

6. I grew up gaming on pads. M & KB (particularly the KB part) feels awful to me.

7. The selection is much more varied now, but the core PC gaming aesthetics have always been a turn off to me.



It's not like I don't see any appeal in PC gaming, but it's limited and offset by the time and money commitments.
 
I wouldn't say so. PCs and consoles are two different ways of accomplishing the same thing (gaming) so doing comparisons between the two is only natural. Of course said comparing can be done in an adolescent way, but it's not something inherent to the debate.

The comparison itself isn't, but looking down on people who choose one over the other is some petty immature shit. I can't stand when I see "master race" and "console warrior" on these boards.
 
My eldest bro was an entrepreneur who sold a business for 50m (split between a couple partners), pretty handy with cars including his ferrarri, hot wife, speaks/writes 3 languages. Only plays Playstation.

My younger bro is in a resource firm, hit mid 5-digit monthly salary in his twenties, buff, pretty smooth with the ladies. Mostly plays console, PC noob.

I'm semi-struggling in IT workforce beset by heavy outsourcing, socially awkward, frustrated, dying inside. I mostly game on my PC, in between F5-ing webpages for Maxwell news.

Conclusion: don't pay more than $400 for a videocard.
 
Who forces you to sit? I stand 90% of my PC time. If anything, I'd say the couch is truly a thing of the past. A weird relic from the 50's.

Admittedly, this is an issue of space with the setup in my apartment. I'm working at getting a standing desk at work, but that may take a bit.
 
It's not a problem at all for me because I'm happy with my decision.

And the ignorance is on your end for assuming you have an inkling of knowledge of how much research I put into the matter. I lived on Newegg, Tiger Direct, and Microcenter. Bookmarked Toms Hardware to keep reading about inexpensive builds, or comparing CPUs and GPUs. I did several "builds" on PC parts picker, read product reviews up the wazoo, and came away learning a lot more than when I started. I wasn't just browsing GAF, which I'm sure is what you assume. I was pretty obsessed about it, as I read more and more into it I grew indecisive if it was really what I wanted.

That's just how things went for me. At the end of the day we're talking about a delivery method for playing videogames. You prefer one method, and I'm happy with another.
Sure, and you also naturally and spontaneously developed a deep dislike for all the PC-only games you never had a chance to try.
But that's not confirmation bias at all. No!
You genuinely *know*, with full confidence, that you wouldn't enjoy any of those PC games and you are definitely not missing out anything you would care about.

Because I never said I was talking just about hardware.
I also said what I said about your past activities because it was pretty hard to not notice how you went from thread to thread, jumping on the trigger at any given chance with recurring statements like "See? I was totally considering a gaming PC eight now but stuff like this makes me realize I don't care".*
After you repeated it for the tenth time, it was pretty obvious how you never actually had any genuine intention of going with it and you actively tried to talk yourself out of it any time the smallest excuse came up.

* Note: this didn't apply just to "technical issues".
 
but seriously, what on PC can make me go wide-eyed like Uncharted 4's trailer, or The Order, or DRIVECLUB?]
Meh on both Uncharted 4 and the order. One is a mainstream, linear casual game and the other is hardly even a game (so far). Driveclub looks great but it's 30fps which is a no-no for me when it comes to racing games.

On PC i can play almost every game at 60fps+. I can play all the good 3rd party games at 60+fps and better resolutions + AA too. I can also find many games that can keep my brain active while playing. For me gaming is not just sight seeing, cutscenes and scripted events while the game design holds my hand. That's why lately, i enjoy strategy and RPGs mostly (RPGs play better on PCs).
 
Built myself a decent gaming PC in February, was my first build and was an exciting and terrifying event. Use my pc desk and chair to play on, occasionally dable with couch gaming.

After the initial few months and blowing a couple hundred on steam games I havent found myself playing it as much as I thought, but i use it loads for web browsing, watching Premier League football and i'm glad I did it.

Currently playing Wolfenstein:New Order on it
 
Is there really much of a deal for someone like me who wants AAA's on day one?

No, but there is for the guy you quoted. Might be a bit hard to believe, but some people are looking for deeper discounts.

This year the most I've payed for a game was $30, and that was full price. I usually want to spend no more than $20, but I can make an exception for publishers who are really good (like Divinity Original Sin for $30).
 
You must have pushed real hard for it to break, to be honest. If the motherboard was properly mounted into the case, then it should have had some tolerance for bending when you put the RAM sticks in. Either way, I think that the problem here was that you mishandled something that, in the end, is a rather delicate piece of equipment, not that PC hardware is inherently likely to be broken during assembly. It sucks, I know, but think about it this way: if you plugged a PS4 to the wall, the outlet had a discharge and your PS4 started burning, would you say that console gaming as a whole is bad?

Yeah I know it was due to my clumsiness and I was pretty upset I couldn't accomplish something so simple. But now becuase I have no faith in my upgrade ability and due to the expense I may just get a PS4 instead of a new PC. Even though I vastly prefer PC gaming.
 
Buying a new PC this year was the best choice I ever made. Free online, cheap games, infinite backlog, performance runs laps around the new consoles.

My only regret is not jumping ship sooner
 
Some weird replies in this topic.

"It is a pain to play any online game on PC."
- That's simply untrue. I don't even know how you possibly could have come to that conclusion. Maybe in 1999, but times have changed, folks.

The community is so bad.
- Quick fix: Stop playing MOBAs. Just kidding. No, but seriously. Stop playing MOBAs ;). Actually, the PC community is the best gaming community on the planet due to the ever-present genius of the mod community that keeps old games kicking and newer games from getting stale after a month. It's not like installing mods is difficult, either. Download a program, drop it in a folder. If you can Connect the Dots, you can install mods.

Difficult to put together!
- No. Trust me. No. If I can do it, anyone can do it. I don't mess with water cooling, but everything else I'm proficient at. Don't worry about "expensive repairs," you're not going to fry everything unless you're a complete buffoon. The fact that I was able to put a PC together from scratch on my first attempt last year is a testament to how easy it has become.

Many of my favorite games and gaming experiences took place on consoles. I still love consoles right to death. But to just crap on PC gaming because you're misinformed is folly.
 
I've never encountered PC master race crap online in games though, reason being they are all stuck on the forums preaching lol.
May depend on the games you play though as well I guess.

This is probably true. My experience is that those that play online are often completely oblivious of anything outside of the area of games they play.
 
I sit in front of a computer all day and the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of another one. With that said, Im also a very casual gamer. I play games maybe 2-4 hours a week. Sometimes I will go on a gaming binge but that is rare. While I do have several computers/tablets and a HTPC. I dont care enough about gaming to upgrade any of them to current or better than current consoles. The PS4 is just fine for my short gaming attention span.
 
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