GT's Bonus Round :The Rise Of PC Gaming:

It was manufactured this February. It is an i7 processor, 8gb of RAM and a solid state drive (which absolutely flies). I tried playing Diablo 3 on it and it was pretty choppy. It does have some mobile nVidia card in it, but it is low end. I could probably play like Counter Strike on it and those kinds of games. Of course this is specifically to be a work machine. Unless you're playing games or doing high end graphics work, they skimp on the card. I put the specs together and went max on everything available. This is a Dell. They may have different model lines that have more graphics power too.
You made some valid point.

Its true, that in order to play AA games well, you need a PC/laptop specifically for gaming, with a gaming focus GPU. Yes, its true, there are people out there that still think that having a current off the shelf PC/laptop, means it can run games well.

The plus point for a gaming PC is that, if it can run games well, chances are, it will run your work applications well.

Yes, it still requires a bit of technical knowledge to be a PC gamers, & picking the right readily built PC or build your own can be quite tricky. But think about it, desprite these hurdles, PC gaming is still on the rise! I would imagine it will attract more mainstream PC manufacturers to make more gaming PCs, & I see premade gaming PC price dropping to similar, if not better than DIY PCs soon due to economy of scale.
 
You made some valid point.

Its true, that in order to play AA games well, you need a PC/laptop specifically for gaming, with a gaming focus GPU. Yes, its true, there are people out there that still think that having a current off the shelf PC/laptop, means it can run games well.

The plus point for a gaming PC is that, if it can run games well, chances are, it will run your work applications well.

Yes, it still requires a bit of technical knowledge to be a PC gamers, & picking the right readily built PC or build your own can be quite tricky. But think about it, desprite these hurdles, PC gaming is still on the rise! I would imagine it will attract more mainstream PC manufacturers to make more gaming PCs, & I see premade gaming PC price dropping to similar, if not better than DIY PCs soon due to economy of scale.

I've worked in IT for the past 20 years and even I have trouble keeping up with the various processors and video cards. I was looking to upgrade my 4 year old PC and was looking at low end processors. Intel had one with a completely different name, but it turns out that the benchmarks are basically the same as my old i3.

I have noticed that prices at places like Dell/Alienware aren't too outrageous (at least not as bad as they used to be). Building your own is always cheaper, but at least they are in the ballpark now. I'm really interested to see if the Steambox can fill that gap too. I know a lot of people doubt it, but honestly I see a market for it (depending on price and specs obviously)
 
I can't see SteamMachine taking off. I think it will sell at best like WiiU. But we shall see. I for sure ain't buying.
 
Lol TD and Intelli. Both ignorant, anti PC gamers that continue to show they know nothing about PC gaming.
 
I can't see SteamMachine taking off. I think it will sell at best like WiiU. But we shall see. I for sure ain't buying.

The first "wave" almost certainly won't be, it'll be niche at best. The 2nd and 3rd? It has every chance of taking off. As these companies learn what works and what doesn't, as PC components get cheaper and cheaper and as consoles continue to show their age the "steam machine" will start to take off.

In a few years when a gamer can buy a "steam machine" for $400 that absolutely, unequivocally crush console performance and that machine will play any game they buy that day and all the games released before that day they'll see the light.