PCs versus consoles

Posted at: Thursday 24th January 2008

With Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all pushing so-called next-generation consoles, can the PC hope to compete as a gaming machine? Alex Watson plays judge and the Custom PC team are the jury as we pit the PC against its three console rivals in a series of exhaustive tests.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife, and also a so-called 'next-generation' gaming console. Expressing an interest in games no longer makes you a social pariah but the PC is often prejudged by polite, mainstream company as an unsuitable gaming option for normal people.

It isn't just from the outside that PC gaming is under pressure: 2007 saw a huge number of pricey new graphics cards released, along with pressure from Microsoft to upgrade to Vista. It isn't surprising, then, that PC enthusiasts have started eyeing up their bank balances and wondering if a console wouldn't be a cheaper partner than a decent gaming rig. The number of games that would have been PC-only in the past, but now routinely appear on the Xbox 360 (referred to herein as the 360) and PlayStation 3 (PS3) has only strengthened the allure of the console for disaffected PC gamers.

There's also the fact that one of the PC's strongest backers, Microsoft, also has a console to push. It's no wonder PC gaming feels like the ugly duckling of the family. So we decided that it was time to compare the 360, PS3 and Wii with a modern gaming PC to find out which really is the best gaming machine going.

Rules of engagement

We spent a month playing with all three of the current consoles. Each was connected to a 32in LCD TV, the gorgeous 720p-capable Philips 32PFL9632D, using HDMI for the PS3, component for the 360 and composite for the Wii.

For sound, both the PS3 and 360 were connected via optical S/PDIF to a set of Logitech Z-5450 5.1 speakers. As the Wii lacks an S/PDIF audio output, we connected it to the TV using the supplied phono connectors, and then plugged the TV into the Z-5450s. We felt this reflected a high-end, but not over-the-top, lounge setup.

To make it a fair fight, we needed a comparable gaming PC. The obvious choice of CPU was Intel's 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600. We've mentioned this chip a lot but it has proved itself worthy of all the praise we've thrown its way. A P35 motherboard is the Q6600's natural companion, and we opted for the Asus P5K Premium WiFi-AP, along with our usual motherboard test kit: a 250GB Samsung SpinPoint P120S S-ATA hard disk and 2GB of Corsair PC2-6400 memory. For graphics, we used a BFG GeForce 512MB 8800 GT OC. We connected the gaming PC to a 22in TFT, an Asus PG221, using DVI and, as with the 360 and PS3, an optical S/PDIF output from the on-board sound to the Z-5450s. A fresh installation of Windows Vista Home Premium completed the build.