Should I upgrade my PC ot buy a console ?

This is my dilemma.

I have 250 euros ( that's a bit more in dollars) and I don't know if I should buy a console or upgrade my PC.

My PC isn't very good and I am not gonna be able to turn it into a top of the line computer with those money. Inside it I have a Geforce 8800GT, 2 GB of RAM and a single-core Celeron CPU (yes, I know ). So I am thinking that I could buy a new Quad-core CPU and replace the old one ( my motherboard will support them, I already checked).

If I am not mistaken, this hardware should give me about the same graphics and performance that a console does ( 1280x720@30fps with comparable details in games).

So I dont know what to do. Should I buy myself a PC ot should I get a console? I have a 24" 16:9 monitor with HDMI so I won't have a problem connecting a console either.

If you can't get a high-end pc, don't bother, go for the console.

But you really should get more money for a pc...2012-2013 is an incredible time to be a pc gamer.

Wow if your PC wasn't so... old I would say use the money to upgrade but judging by your parts and specs you'd be much better off saving for a new PC. If you need to play on something now you're better off getting a console.

We're nearing the end of the current generation of consoles. Buying one now may not be a good idea if it's going to be obsolete in only a couple of years.

I doubt your motherboard is new enough to support a new quad core CPU (from the last two years)... Considering a decent board would be from $150 to $250 and a decent current quad core around the same, I think you don't have enough money. You could always look to ebay for a second had motherboard, RAM and or CPU that is a improvement over what you have and will allow you to play more modern games (within your price range).

The problem with buying a new console now is that they're only going to continue to drop in price because of the impending doom that will be the next generation.

you would be better off saving your money for a new PC.

Wait for the next generation. If you weren't set up with a great rig at the start of this year then you've kind of missed the PC gaming boom that's going on.

By and large this has been a cool generation, so picking up a PS3 or 360 later on wouldn't be a bad idea but jumping in now would be a waste.

You're in kind of a bad spot. With that computer you should probably just save up money and buy a completely new one, high-end. But that doesn't really solve your dilemma because you would need to wait a while. But buying a console now when the next ones are probably coming out next year would be a waste. With that money, I don't think you should upgrade, because it won't be a big enough jump and your computer will be obselete to quickly.

PC will be the best for games now and until the new consoles have been out a year each. My rule of thumb that has never let me down: Don't buy a console til there are ten games for it you feel you HAVE TO HAVE.

You don't have enough money to upgrade all the components that make your PC incapable of feeling like a high end gaming rig (at the moment you've got a GPU that wouldn't be out of place in a 360 or PS3 - and those things can barely break 1280x720 even with code tailored to their exact specs). The reason why people put up with the visuals from the 360 and PS3 is that they are sitting a lot further away from the screen so the terrible sub-pixel accuracy/aliasing isn't a concern so you can emulate this on your current system by just moving your chair back a few feet and using a 360 controller on your PC.

To be honest, I think you either need to invest in a PC for the future (not sure what kind of quad core your 4 year old system can take so maybe you can survive with a drop in upgrade but I'm not convinced - $100 mobo, $45 RAM, $200 CPU, $200 GPU is what a new PC will cost you, assuming you don't need to spend $60 on a new 500W+ PSU to power it) with some saving up and rationalising it by thinking about the thousands of Euros of games you buy. Or move to consoles and use a 360 or PS3 to game on. Buying at the end of the generation means you'll have a lot of games (many cheap if you can find stock) but nothing that will wow you compared to the 8800GT (the best value for money GPU from at least the last 5 years) you already have (but being built to the console hardware rather than being stuck trying to run the core logic on a single core Celeron means far better framerates) and in 18 months we start to see early upgraders using the new consoles to enjoy games that look a lot like the very top end of PC gaming today (at 1080p - not sure what res your 24" monitor is).

At the moment you want to save about twice as much as you've currently got and you can get a reasonably nice modern PC for gaming with DX11. Or you can get a console. If you only play a few games a year and you don't use your PC for anything intensive other than gaming then it's very tempting to get a console. But if you're buying a game a month at launch ($600/year) then spending $600 on a PC every 4 years seems like a reasonable expense on hardware to stay up to date (and access the wider range of cheap PC games, not to mention freeware and having a responsive PC for any other computing tasks you do).

I personally would wait and upgrade the pc later like the rest are saying. If you only drop an older quad core in it, you will kick your self. As far as a console, there is probably 1-2 years before the new ones. None of us really know lol. There are a ton of good games for the current ones though to hold you over.

Do you like Nintendo games? Because then you could get the WiiU when it comes out in the Autumn which will have the back-catalogue of Wii titles (check out some lists of them, there are some fantastic games there - even a few of the best games of this generation) as well as not having the problem that getting a PS3 or 360 has in that in just over a years time the number of games coming out for them will severely plummet (at least you know that at a minimum Nintendo would continue to support the WiiU for many years).

I feel at this point you should not be getting into the console generation. At this point pc is your best bet.

But take this with a grain of salt i can almost never recommend a pc over a console, but that is just cause they are not for me. So take that at heart.

Wouldn't really say it's a good time for buying consoles at this point. Save up for a good PC instead

Upgrade your PC.

New consoles are just around the corner.

Wait for a price drop on current consoles if you need something within the next few months. Otherwise, I'd save up some dough for a new rig entirely. Those are so much fun.

Why is buying a console now a waste? If he hasn't owned any console up until now then buying one now should be great. At this point he'd have access to a huge backlog of great console exclusive titles and on top of the that games and the systems themselves are super cheap.

Upgrade your CPU, and if you have any left over upgrade the graphics card. I am assuming you are on a Socket 775 board; so a Q6600 or Q9550 would be your best bets. I still run a Q9550 and it runs great.

In terms of USD the Q6600 would run you about $150 leaving you $100 for a new GPU.

I'd look into a GTX 460, 550TI or 560.

And lastly more RAM. I'd go no less than 4GB now a days, but CPU and GPU come first.

Buy USED if you must, it'll save you on costs.