Since my wife bought me an Xbox for my birthday in January, I haven't really touched my PC much. It was one of those things that I always wanted but never got for myself. Since then I've been spoiled with power-on-play from the comfort of my couch.
Not wanting to give up on my PC collection just yet, I figured I had to at least try. I have played PC-sourced movies over my old CRT TV before, although it was never great for gaming, especially if you actually had to read anything. Unlike the previous generation consoles, PCs were just never designed for TVs. In the meantime I have luckily upgraded to a 42" plasma panel which, like basically any other flat panel TV, comes standard with VGA and HDMI input. After lots of tinkering with resolution, refresh rate and aspect ratio over the VGA cable, I couldn't quite get full HD to show properly, and went for a DVI to HDMI cable, which was in itself a feat to find without breaking the bank.
The HDMI cable took care of everything automagically, although the text was still illegible, and the picture didn't quite fill the full panel. I consulted with Google, and to my horror discovered that full HD plasmas seldom support the full HD resolution natively, even though it supports displaying HD content and claims to be 'Full HD 1080p'. It's sort of like a 'Full HD ready' scenario.
Having accepted the fact that my TV has a native resolution of only 1024 x 768, 1360 x 768 with pixel stretching being the closest widescreen match, I weighed up my options. I didn't mind playing shooters at this resolution, and it gave me a few extra frames per second compared to my 24" (1920 x 1200) screen. The determining factor came down to strategy games, as the lower resolution meant less of the map content were shown at a time. The extra real estate meant I could play at a lower zoom level however.
The next big issue with console PCs is input. Controller enabled games are a no-brainer. For mouse and keyboard input, the couch didn't quite do the job however. I eventually removed the case side cover of an old PC-case-made-book-shelf and used it as as lap desk. Having a wireless mouse helped, although my keyboard still had its umbilical cord attached. I opted for a USB extension although a wireless keyboard that can handle the throughput needed for gaming would be ideal.
So is the console PC a viable notion? If you have a TV with native HD resolution, a set of high performance wireless keyboard and mouse that will reach the couch, as well as a dedicated gaming PC that is permanently next to, and plugged into the TV, I would say go for it. Windows 8's simplistic Metro interface should get you launching your favourite PC title quicker as well, not to mention if you go all the way with Kinect for Windows. In my case there are just too many technical restraints and cable swapping every time I want to play.
Regards,
Raxin
Not wanting to give up on my PC collection just yet, I figured I had to at least try. I have played PC-sourced movies over my old CRT TV before, although it was never great for gaming, especially if you actually had to read anything. Unlike the previous generation consoles, PCs were just never designed for TVs. In the meantime I have luckily upgraded to a 42" plasma panel which, like basically any other flat panel TV, comes standard with VGA and HDMI input. After lots of tinkering with resolution, refresh rate and aspect ratio over the VGA cable, I couldn't quite get full HD to show properly, and went for a DVI to HDMI cable, which was in itself a feat to find without breaking the bank.
The HDMI cable took care of everything automagically, although the text was still illegible, and the picture didn't quite fill the full panel. I consulted with Google, and to my horror discovered that full HD plasmas seldom support the full HD resolution natively, even though it supports displaying HD content and claims to be 'Full HD 1080p'. It's sort of like a 'Full HD ready' scenario.
Having accepted the fact that my TV has a native resolution of only 1024 x 768, 1360 x 768 with pixel stretching being the closest widescreen match, I weighed up my options. I didn't mind playing shooters at this resolution, and it gave me a few extra frames per second compared to my 24" (1920 x 1200) screen. The determining factor came down to strategy games, as the lower resolution meant less of the map content were shown at a time. The extra real estate meant I could play at a lower zoom level however.
The next big issue with console PCs is input. Controller enabled games are a no-brainer. For mouse and keyboard input, the couch didn't quite do the job however. I eventually removed the case side cover of an old PC-case-made-book-shelf and used it as as lap desk. Having a wireless mouse helped, although my keyboard still had its umbilical cord attached. I opted for a USB extension although a wireless keyboard that can handle the throughput needed for gaming would be ideal.
So is the console PC a viable notion? If you have a TV with native HD resolution, a set of high performance wireless keyboard and mouse that will reach the couch, as well as a dedicated gaming PC that is permanently next to, and plugged into the TV, I would say go for it. Windows 8's simplistic Metro interface should get you launching your favourite PC title quicker as well, not to mention if you go all the way with Kinect for Windows. In my case there are just too many technical restraints and cable swapping every time I want to play.
Regards,
Raxin
