It’s me, live with it

So, I’ve been thinking these past few hours.

I’m going back to using purely Linux.

What makes me decided to do this is the fact that my last few posts was about upgrading hardware, mostly for gaming. It is not a bad thing, of course, it’s just that I’ve been playing games too much that my campus assignment was a bit neglected.

Besides, upgrading hardware for pc games will be a never ending circle. You buy a 4850 today, you will find something stronger in a short time. Hardware upgrading costs quite an amount of money, so I don’t think everyone will be able to follow it. I will keep following hardware development, of course, so this blog will keep on running.

What about my upgrade marathon plan?

I’ll continue it. But now, instead of focusing in performance, the upgrade will focus in functionality (e.g. Larger hard drive, etc.).

My Linux distribution of choice is, unexpectedly, Mandriva. I was a happy OpenSuse user for quite a while, but the latest release somehow dissapoint me, so I’m moving. Why not Ubuntu? Simple, I hate it.

Now I’m curently downloading Mandriva’s latest release, 2009. Hopefully it will be done in the morning.

Alright, I think it is the time for me to bring this debate to this very blog. Which is better, console gaming or PC gaming?

Short answer: none.

Long answer:

Grab some snacks, this will be a long post.

Let’s see now, where to start…

Nowadays, the price of next-generation consoles has declined a bit, putting them from expensive to slightly expensive. The cheapest 40GB PS3, for example, can be yours after you shelled out no less than IDR 4.800.000 (436 USD), including a free game. Similarly, a 20GB Xbox 360 will cost you IDR 4.250.000 (386 USD), including a two-in-one Game DVD (and also 10 pirated games, but don’t mind that) . There is a cheaper Xbox 360 version, but it has no harddrive, so I won’t recommend it as it probably won’t offer the same playing experience. And somehow, Nintendo Wii will cost you pretty steep, too. You need to pay IDR 3.800.000 for one (345 USD).

Now, with those prices, you can get a pretty decent PC. I tinkered with this PC configurator (Indonesian, though it should) a bit and came up with this:

Athlon64 X2 5000+ Dual Core
Kingston 1Gb PC 6400
WDC 160Gb SATA-II 8Mb
Asus M2N-MX SE Plus
Acbel Pure 420watt oem
Power Logic Futura 220/250
LG 22x (box) Sata
Digital Alliance 9600GSO
Logitech KB + Ms

for a grand total of IDR 4.307.000 (391 USD). Add another hundred bucks for a windows OS, if you need it. You can also throw in some games to put the price equal to the PS3.

Okay, with those price points settled, We can see that the price difference is rather small (at least here in Indonesia). Now let’s start categorizing. I’ll list every options with their potential consumers.

First, we have the behemoth of a console, the PS3. This console is populated with all-rounder games. For example, we have GTA4, Killzone 2 (not released yet), LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Metal Gear Solid 4, and so on. Additionally, there are some interesting PS3-exclusive games to be released (FFXIII, anyone?). So, I think it should be appropriate for those who just love MGS4 and Final Fantasy series. As for other aspects, like controller preference, are for each person to consider.

Next, the XBox 360. I actually rather reluctant to recommend it whenever my friends are asking me which console he/she should buy. That is because I heard about the Rrod problem that arised in a lot of 360s. But I think they ironed the problem already, I’m not betting on it, though. With that warning aside, I see that 360’s games somewhat resembles those of PS3’s, excluding the exclusives, so I think it depends on your game and controller preferences. If this helps, I personally prefer 360’s curvy controller, not because it was more comfortable or something, I think it is just cute .

Wii is an interesting one, its strong points are not graphical prettiness, it is more of how you play games on it. The Wii-mote becomes the main attraction of Wii. This is supported by the facts that Wii games are more into fun games than serious games. Yes, you can play Call of Duty in Wii, but it just won’t feel right. Therefore, I recommend Wii to those of you who are looking for a console to play with your family, even including your grandma.

Now, the one I’m using to type this, PC. This is not a gaming platform per se, but since it can play games, and there are a lot of games for this platform, it is worth mentioning. PC have the largest game library compared to any of the console I mentioned in this article, not to mention you can do other things on PC. Working? check. Multimedia Applications? check. Jukebox? check. If you need all-in one media center, PC is the best option, not to mention there are some games best played in PC. That PC specification above should handle any task you throw at it nicely, even including some heavy gaming.

Which to choose, then? Like I always said, it depends on what you need. If, for example, you already have a PC and want a console to play your games on, by all means get one of them, what you get depends on your preferences. I can only say this: If you’re buying console for yourself, get a PS3 or a 360. If you’re buying it for your family, get a Wii. If you want all of your entertainment in one box, get a PC.

So, a friend of mine came up with this question:

What is the graphics card that will give me comparable image quality with a PS2?*

*It is actually longer than that, but I need to simplify it.

Now, before we look at card specifications and compare, we need to see what the PS2 has under its hood.

From the very informative Wikipedia page we can see that the PS2 uses “Graphics Synthesizer” as its, uh, graphics processor.

Then we need to find out what the hell that is, since the Graphics Synthesizer isn’t available to pc and there’s no way to compare how it performs against PC video cards.

If it helps, the top-end graphics card released on the same year as PS2 is Geforce 256. But I don’t think they can be compared either.

The only way to compare them is to compare the games. After all, that’s what my friend is looking for. But the same game played on PS2 and PC will look different.

For example, EA released Need for Speed: Most Wanted for the PS2 and PC. When I played it on my PC, the graphics was amazing. Plaing the same game on my cousin’s PS2, my reaction was “huh?”. The graphics in PS2 is less exciting, not to mention frequent loading that annoys you, especially if it comes during a race.

Forget it then, I’ll just dig the system requirements for a soon-to-be-released PS2 game, Tomb Raider Underworld. It says that the minimum requirement cards are Geforce 6800GT/Radeon X1300XT, and the recommended cards are Geforce 9800GTX/Radeon 4800.

Ouch.

I played the previous Tomb Raider Anniversary smoothly with my 8600GT, so I think the card has no problem running it maxed. And I’m right.

Now, the 8600GT seems to be holding itself nicely until now, so I’d recommend it if you are tight on budget. However, shell out a little more cash if you can, and get a 9600GSO or a 4670.

So, those processors from AMD are out, and I am very excited.

I just read the reviews from Guru3d and Techreport. And I need to say that they live up to my expectations. They are not faster than their competitor, but they are competitive enough.

And what makes them more interesting is that they are a cheaper solution than Intel’s i7.

The cost of the CPU itself is not that different, but an i7 system also need an X58 Motherboard (320 USD), triple channel DDR3 memory (159 USD for 3GB), and the processor itself (340 USD for an i7 920). For a grand total of 819 dollars.

For a Phenom X2 system, you will need a 780/790GX motherboard (230 USD), DDR2 memory (130 USD for 4GB), and the processor (around 330 USD for a Phenom 2 x4 940). Totaling 690 dollars. You need DDR3 memory for AM3 boards, but they aren’t out yet.

The difference is not that big, but it is considerable. For 129 USD, you can get yourself a perfectly nice Geforce 9600GSO, plus some change.

So, this marks AMD’s return to competition, just like Radeon 3800. It doesn’t perform greatly, but it does deliver for it price. Now we’ll have to wait and see whether they can pull something like the Radeon 4800.

EDIT: Anandtech compares the price of full i7 , Phenom II, and Q9400 here. That’s American price, though.

Also, I compare Phenom II exclusively with Intel’s i7, though they are priced around Intel’s earlier Core 2 Quads. Now that intel’s rumored to drop their Core 2 Quad lineup, things will be more interesting. After price cut, Phenom II 940 will face Q9550. At that point, the recommendation will go back to Intel.

I promised to write about every upgrade that I did, so here’s the first update.

I searched for a quality PSU to replace my old one, My target ranging from 400-500W. And after comparing price and reading review, I decided to go with a Simbadda PS500 PSU.

There it is, sitting next to my old PSU’s box.

This decision might not seem to be the best for everyone. I also think that there are a lot of better PSU than this one. However, I have my reasons for picking this baby.

Firstly, most PSU comes above my price range of around IDR 450.000. This stopped me from picking any major brand (though, I really considered to save some more money to get a PC Power and Cooling PSU). The only PSUs that comes below that price are not bad, mind you, both FSP and Enlight have their share here, both of them make good quality PSUs. The only thing stopping me from buying their PSU is the warranty. I’m not sure about Enlight’s warranty, but both FSP and Simbadda (this type, anyway) have lifetime warranty, so if I have a problem in the future, I have somewhere to go. I didn’t buy FSP only because I couldn’t find it then (December 26th), and I’m not confident that my backup PSU (pictured right) will last. So I ended up getting this one for IDR 440.000.

 Installation was a snap (or as snappy as a power supply replace can be). This PSU gives enough connectors for even a stacked PC: a 20+4 pin ATX connector, a 4-pin ATX main power cable, a 8-pin EPS power cable, 2x 6-pin PCIe power connector, 2x SATA connector, 6x IDE Connector, and 2x Floppy connector. Spaghetti junction it is, especially since this PSU is not a modular one.

How it performs? Dunno, and I won’t pretend to be a professional here. I could monitor the voltages using motherboard monitor or something, but god knows whether their readings are accurate. But I can tell you this: It runs stable for a whole week, It even runs 48 hours nonstop. And it is silent, I can barely hear the fan at all. Being silent is not always good, though, this PSU is very hot, the fan barely did its work of cooling the PSU (It is stable, so I won’t complain about the heat). You need to make sure that your case has good ventilation or the rest of the components will overheat.

On a related note, my case fan (pictured, just to the left of the CPU cooler) died somehow, so I keep the side door open for now.

In summary, I think this PSU will do the job as long as your case has good airflow, or you can just leave the side door open, just like I do. And it is silent. But I think you’re getting a better deal getting something else. If you’re on tight budget, Get FSP or Enlight or Acbel or Aopen or something, If you can spare some more cash, get a PC Power and cooling. I’m not recommending this PSU.