PC vs Console in 2024... time to ditch PC?

so I'm going to talk about a topic today

that I don't think I have touched since

like 2013 to be honest and that is going

to be whether or not you should just say

screw it with PC and get a

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description below okay so the

conversation of console versus PC has

been going on since probably the Atari

to be honest and then the Nintendo and

the Super Nintendo and GameCube and N64

and all that stuff and and it's just

gone on and on and on because there is a

there is definitely two schools of

thought when it comes to computers

versus consoles So today we're going to

talk about whether or not you should

just kind of say screw the idea of

building yourself a computer or buying a

pre-built and just getting yourself a

console so it's pros and cons to both

obviously um and the reason why we're

even having this conversation is I've

actually been noticing an like an uptick

in the amount of inbox questions I'm

getting about whether or not they should

just buy a console and I was actually

having a conversation recently uh with

someone who is not a PC Enthusiast in

any regard they have a laptop for work

like that's it and they don't game or

anything like that but they have a kid

and they were just like should I get a

computer you think or you think I should

just get a PlayStation 5 right this

person has not like played games at all

since they graduated college a few years

back and now they're kind of getting

some free time back to themselves after

they've done with their graduate program

and stuff and now they're just I have

some time so what should I do so it

really kind of got me thinking and get

some real food for thought here and an

unbiased one because one might assume

that because I am a DIY PC Builder that

I would just automatically be like P DMR

only you know console peasants and I

don't actually think that way because

fun fact I own a PS5 as well as multiple

computers technically I have a PS4 and

the last Xbox I had was actually the um

XBox One S I think it was but um yeah

Xbox you we'll talk for a second here

this kind of shouldn't even be

considered to be honest there's no

reason Microsoft has actually made it

pretty obvious and pretty public that

they're moving away from the whole

Hardware side of things because with

Xbox

um the Xbox app on PC when it comes to

Windows based PCS you can pretty much

get any game available on Xbox on a

computer and guess what it's going to

run better on a computer than it does on

an Xbox however but that also means

exclusives too are available on PC that

are Microsoft exclusives on Xbox so that

line has been drastically blurred there

was actually quite a while there where

you couldn't get Xbox exclusives on PC

including Halo and stuff like that like

Halo was like the Halo title no pun

intended for the Microsoft platform that

being Xbox and then with PlayStation

specifically PlayStation 4 and

PlayStation 5 like the Sony exclusives

are that line is starting to blur now to

where a lot of the the titles that you

would want a console for for exclusivity

which was really the main selling point

of wanting a console is starting to make

its way over to PC now the most recent

very big very large IP that made its way

over to PC uh was the last of us and

that was a completely remastered title

so they you know the the game itself is

like 10 years old the first one um so

that kind of shows like for PC owners if

I didn't have a I didn't have a

PlayStation when The Last of Us was out

and was huge I heard everyone talking

about it it was all over YouTube it was

all over Reddit everyone was just like

losing their mind over how good the

story was and I was just like cool I

don't know what it is cuz I don't have a

PlayStation so obviously when it ported

over to PC and was remastered I was

extremely interested in it fun fact

though it kind of really correlated with

the launch of the TV show um and so on

HBO and so it really piqued my interest

cuz I saw the show first then I played

the game but uh console ports or I

should say exclusives on like

PlayStation are starting to make their

way over to PC more regular now where

it's about a year or so but a lot more

studios are making it obvious that they

want to support their PC gaming platform

as well because it's face it it is a

huge platform so one of the positives to

consoles like we've talked about is the

fact that you're going to get like those

day one exclusives available to you uh

right off the bat now most consoles now

are moved over to digital format as well

they do have discs available to them too

that was one of the things that was a

positive to consoles in the past but not

quite as much these days was the fact

that if you had a game you had a disc

you were done with that game you could

sell that game to a friend make some

money back or online or whatever you

could sell the the disc and then that

person could play the game it wasn't DRM

to a console or to a to an account

because of the fact that discs are kind

of archaic at this point and there are

still dis versions of the consoles

available almost everything now is

digital content so initially one of the

downsides to consoles was the fact that

you couldn't necessarily expand the

storage now on on Xbox you could get an

external hard drive hooked up to it it

was a spinning drive and it was actually

quite expensive to get those external

drives plugged into your Xbox it was a

good chunk of the cost of another Xbox

or you could sell your Xbox and try to

get one with the larger storage inside

now back then like a 256 GB Xbox was

like huge like 120 was like the max for

the longest then there was like 40 GB

which were like the base models you

might have been able to hold a couple of

game saves and such on there and maybe a

couple of downloaded titles but you

still heavily relied on discs now

fortunately especially specifically the

PS5 we we even have a video about this

because I use nvme drives there is an

nvme expansion Drive in there so you can

add storage to your PlayStation and it's

extremely easy kind of a plug for our

old video I'll try and make sure I

annotate or have it in the description

it's very easy to do that with any

modern nvme drive so what was was

initially a con is now kind of a

positive for consoles because of the

fact that you do have upgradeable

internal

storage um let's talk about PC for a

second here one of the biggest cons of

PCS especially over the last few years

is its initial adoption price PCS are

going to be significantly more expensive

than a console even a quote unquote $500

PC which you could technically build

today especially using like an APU or

internal GPU with 7,000 series AMD

processors or Intel

processors they're not believe it or not

a $500 PC is not going to be as good as

a $500 console when it comes to Graphics

Fidelity and overall playability simply

because of the fact that we are talking

about such a huge Hardware iteration com

configuration possibility when it comes

to computers that you just don't know

how the title is going to run there's

too many different graphics cards that

you could potentially put in there

different types of storage different

CPUs are they old CPUs are they newer

CPUs whereas on Console the gaming

experience is universal for everybody

because of the fact that there's a

specific set of Hardware that the

developers can then you know optimize

for that's why there's always a

difference between PC titles and console

titles that are crossplatform and such

because of the fact that it takes time

to make sure that they're at least

optimized for both more often than not

they're optimized for console over

optimized for PC because they'll just

rely on the PC's Brute Force approach to

having better Hardware to to run a game

that maybe isn't quite as optimized the

downside about console is every time

there's a new generation of consoles the

brands Xbox has done this as well tends

to leave the older console titles behind

what I mean by that is there's not

necessarily forward disc compatibility

so if you are running like if you had a

PS3 getting a PS4 a lot of the times

those discs would not work in a PS4 same

thing when it comes to Xbox if you went

for like an Xbox 360 to an Xbox One

there was a list of titles where they

were compatible where you could take an

old disc disc and run it on the new

platform but it didn't always guarantee

that it was going to work so it was kind

of like you had to sort of cross

reference whether or not an old disc

would work in a new console so you can't

upgrade it either you can't upgrade the

experience you can't make it faster or

stronger not to mention as consoles are

coming out with new revisions as time go

on like now we have the PS5 slim this is

not a slim this is like the very first

OG PS5 before they even started changing

the coolers and stuff inside of them

there's no there's no Hardware changes

that you can really upgrade and make

your experience better so they target 4K

but for most titles on like console they

target 4K 30 which as you're if you're a

gamer and you know 60fps is The Sweet

Spot like you want 60 FPS or higher when

it comes to gaming the nice thing about

PC is you can build a $500 PC that can

give you 60 plus FPS in 1080P medium

settings and even PC at medium settings

is going to be much nicer to look at

than the way that the graphics are

basically out of the box configured for

consoles not to mention you can't even

really go in and adjust most of those uh

graphic settings and games in console

because again like I said they're very

locked down to the hardware that's known

to exist in that platform now I think

this conversation comes up a lot because

in the earlier days of consoles they

they weren't like mini PCS like they are

today you couldn't surf the Internet you

couldn't check email you couldn't

download apps and watch things like

Netflix and Hulu HBO YouTube but now

they realistically are like all-in-one

type PCS that you plug a TV up to it or

a monitor they already come with a

controller which is another con for PCs

that spend another 50 60 bucks to get a

controller at least they come with at

least one of them they can pretty much

do most of what a computer can do these

days now a computer can do all of that

stuff better not to mention a computer

can do all sorts of things a console

can't which is you can use it for work

spreadsheets email yes you can email on

a console but it really sucks to try and

type with a controller so unless you're

going to hook a keyboard up to it doing

the whole like one letter at a time

while writing an email would really

really suck but when it comes to console

the streaming is very basic with a PC

obviously you could do a full OBS type

setup and get a very uh high-end gaming

experience and streaming experience for

your audience on PC um you can upgrade

it like I've already said you can start

out with parts that maybe are uh just

enough to get you buy today but making

smart choices means you give yourself an

upgrade path and make sure that you have

uh options in the future to be able to

upgrade the system without having to

change your entire platform not to

mention you can make it yours

aesthetically you can choose a case that

you like um you can go with parts that

are either aesthetically pleasing or you

can go super basic No Frills type parts

to make sure you're getting all the

performance for the money that you

possibly can without paying for any of

the extra features that are just maybe

fluff if you will um but not only that

we know a a computer is going to most of

the time unless you go super bottom spec

are not going to the PC is going to last

you a lot longer than say a console I

mean consoles tend to have about 5 to 7

years worth of life that's if the

console doesn't die on its own we all

know about the old Red Ring of Death we

all know the blinking lights of death

all the things that have been known to

happen with

consoles I I think I went through three

Xbox 360s with the red ring of death

before I finally got one that didn't

cook itself to death but I think

realistically when it comes to computer

Zak it's not just about gaming on the

computer it's not just about watching

content on it or whatever I think for a

lot of computer Enthusiast it's more

than just gaming and it's about the

connection you have with building the

tower upgrading it tinkering it making

it yours truly customizing it and having

an endless amount of options and

combinations of parts and configurations

which is for me that's what I enjoy most

with computers I play my games I don't

have a huge catalog of games I kind of

one of those people that play one game

at a time so storage size on a console

wouldn't be that big of a deal for me

because I would just play one game and

then when I'm done with it delete it

install another one um but for me the

fun and enjoyability of a of a computer

and PC gaming is the PC itself like I

love to just how can I make it mine and

I think that's what a lot of people who

have built PCS especially their first PC

they kind of say it becomes addictive

I've had people email me and say I built

my first computer and that wasn't enough

so I started trying to find anyone I

knew that wanted a computer and I would

build it for them for free and it was

just fun to go along for the even my

daughter one of my re recent videos you

guys saw her in the background the

reason why she was here that day is she

had been bugging me for a couple weeks

saying I want to build a computer like

you don't need a computer you have a

very strong computer you have 11900 k

you have a 3080 and you play Roblox what

the hell do you need a new computer for

she's like I just want to build the

computer and I'm like fair enough

brought her to work brought out parts

and just let her assemble the computer

it worked it posted she was super

excited so that's the passion I want to

sort of nurture especially with my own

my own kids and friends but I think my

channel is about nurturing that for

people as well and you're not going to

get that with a console it's not to say

consoles are bad consoles do exactly

what they're meant to do you push a

button you probably are going to have to

wait for an update at some point you go

to your game you want to play and it

works it works just about every time

until something in it breaks which every

console's had some generation of known

problem that's going to happen the same

thing can happen with a computer though

you might your computer might be running

perfectly fine and then suddenly one day

you get a blue screen of death and it

repeats and it's over happening over and

over and over and then that's where the

frustrations happen with beginners and

newbies when it comes to computers is

not knowing how to troubleshoot or

diagnose that's where they're like where

do I bring it what do I do typically you

go to YouTube you start doing a search

to see if anyone has any videos about

the problems that might be able to help

you fix it that's why channels like mine

exist but I think more importantly it

should be less about PC versus console

because both are really the same thing

it's just this is a very big very