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Clive Webster

Reviews - A gaming PC?

Posted at: 23rd January 2008

The first fruit of HP's acquisition of Voodoo PC has finally emerged - the HP Blackbird 002 marks the first step in HP 'doing' gaming. PC manufacturers 'doing' gaming seems to be the buzz at the moment, with Dell buying performance PC maker Alienware to boost its XPS development. In fact, many start-up PC makers want to get in on the action, too. This is understandable - if a company has a genuinely desirable product (think of the Wii or the iPod Touch), people are willing to pay a little extra for it, and the company will make more money.

However, how many gamers really want to spend upwards of £3,000 on a so-called 'gaming' PC? I'd think twice about paying this much for a new PC. After all, with a new graphics card, I can squeeze a little extra life out of my current PC for £100-£200. So, are 'gaming' PCs, such as the Blackbird, really for gamers?

Let's confuse matters by including our friends on the consoles. Does HP or Dell think that someone who has paid only £250 for a console, and enjoys being able to just shove in a disc and immediately start playing, will be tempted to buy a £3,000 PC to play games on? I think not.

If I were a PC manufacturer and wanted to make a gaming-specific PC that might lure people away from consoles, I'd make a small, relatively inexpensive  system. I'd skimp on most of the components, so that I could use a powerful graphics card. I'd be tempted to use a dual-boot system to keep the gaming operating system separate from the usual work and Internet rubbish that usually clogs an OS, and I'd look into streamlining the gaming OS by removing apps and services that might interfere with games. There would only be three versions of my PC for sale, so it would be easy for Xbox and PS3 lovers to choose which one to buy. Finally, I'd probably hire a team of software developers to create an application that maintains the PC without hassling the user. This sounds much more like a bespoke gaming PC to me than a £3,000 monster rig ever will.

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competition

there we go lets have a competition who can make a £500 gaming pc, which has all the ideas mentioned in the Review above. (winner will be a rich Man/Woman)

Comment by planem997 at 7:16am 1st July 2008

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