The RROD is not the past. A friend of mine has already their fifth Xbox, another has just bought the box and is it already dead. MS is clever at marketing and knows how to hold the xbox-desaster at a minimum in the press. but it is as bad as ever!

That scalability for the PC platform works both ways. Since performance is largely hardware based, and is a constantly moving target due to the commercial aspect of PC gaming (based upon hardware upgrades), it also means that today's premium performance (and priced) components will be significantly cheaper (and less premium) 6-12 months into the future.

The result being by avoiding the pitfall of upgrading to the most current (more accurately, the best) component options, you can easily purchase a higher performance to price configuration.

But it is not inaccurate to say that a $3000 configuration will see a lower performance to price benefit even six months later. Buying a dual SLI GTX280 with the most current Core 2 Extreme processor would be the basis of your $3000 machine, very likely to be matched in less than two years by a pair of mid level cards (like the future version of the current Radeon 4850) and a mid level CPU costing less than half as much.

This is more or less why optimal configurations are best suited for productivity and work purposes where every bit of processing speed can offset overall costs of a project in terms of the length of time it takes to complete.

Of course when we're talking about optimal configurations for the purpose of gaming, it means you can play more competitively online due to faster frame rates (more likely constrained by your connection, hosting server and related lag), and higher resolution (to see more fine detail in the distance) which really doesn't mean much unless you're a professional gamer. Everyone who's ever built a $3000 rig and is a competitive pro gamer, raise your hand. Not too many. Generally, that's not the justification for such a computer.

Beyond that, PC gamers as a whole tend to be tinkerers, much like the gear heads who build engines and work on their own cars. To a lot of tinkerers, building a rig, optimizing it and adjusting the configurations is about as much fun as playing games on them.

As for waiting for components; just like computers themselves, you can ALWAYS wait another six months for better prices and higher performance whether than be for CPUs, GPUs, RAM, or just about any other component.

8800GT prices have already dropped on NewEgg. The 1GB version by Palit going for $150 after rebate. A 512MB by ASUS for $130 after rebate. BFG Tech for $150.

I like how everyone I ever hear talk on online forums has a friend who has gone through like 5 360s. It is rather interesting.

The RROD was indeed a good reason in the past... Now I'd say I don't plan to buy a 360 because all the games I'm interested in are either on my PS3 (I don't care if it's slightly more beautiful on the Xbox) either on my PC (well, i hope Fable 2 will eventuelly come to the PC)

for those who think microsoft should get dedicated servers, in a bungie podcast in february they were talking about lag in matchmaking and then the conversation got to dedicated servers saying that dedicated servers would get rid of custom games, multiple players in forge, and online co-op in halo 3, so if microsoft got dedicated servers, lots of features would be gone.

^^Yeah p2p allows for far more flexibility for developers when it comes to online features for games.

My PS3 and my PC thats why I get enough gaming as is plus it's games don't interest me at all, except for Gears 2 which will be on PC later on.

Yeah, it's always "my friend" or "my brother" had 20 RRoDs, and they were all Falcons!!!

I'm not denying that the RRoD exists.  It most certainly does and there's no excuse for it.  MS should have done more QC on their machine before releasing it to the public.  But the RRoD is also WAY exaggerated on internet forums and comments boards, mostly in the interest of the PS3 winning this imaginary "console war". 

I have 4 friends with Xbox 360s.  If you include myself, there are 5.  All of us have Falcon models because we all waited until the Falcon models came out to buy our 360s.  Not one Falcon model of the 5 people I know including myself has had an RRoD.  Now if I'm supposed to just take your anecdotal evidence as fact, then you have to take mine too.  The Falcon redesign, while not completely solving the RRoD, has greatly reduced it.  The next revision this summer will probably completely eliminate it. 

And let me bring you ALL back down to earth a little bit on the RRoD.  Tech dorks and gaming junkies like us know all about the RRoD.  The rest of the gaming population (the non-hardcore gamers whose parents buy them their systems and whose numbers make up most of the gaming population) seem to not care about the RRoD or even know anything about it for that matter.  The 360 has withstood all the problems because it's an awesome system with awesome online service and awesome games.  That's it and that's all.

By the way, I was a hardcore PC gamer before I got my 360 and I hated all things console.  No longer.  I love my 360 and haven't touched my gaming tower in 6 months.

 This is why I like having you around. Yeah, you are a rabid fanboy and tend to have overly optimitic ideas about what will happen to Sony and Sony franchises, but you are reasonable. You have your reasons for wanting it to be so high, and never resort to anything but logical debate and reasoning. I really wish every cheer-leader for a console on this site were half as nice as you were. No easy cheap shot at the 360 despite being in the perfect position to do so. This really is the best reason to not buy a console ever. I know this post seems pointless, but it is just very refreshing for me to see civil post that is counter to the original posters position.

If I could choose between a car that I KNOW will break eventually and one that is 1/4 as likely to breakdown for a little more money I am going to choose the one that will break down less. This is why Honda/Toyota are common in the US. They are reliable. Also, if I had to pay to use the radio in one car and free radio in the other I would, of course, choose the free one.

The analogy there is that some people buy games only for the online portion. I BUY the game to play online, why should I have to pay more money to access the feature I bought it for? And people who say that it makes online better, where is the evidence of that? Xbox Live rarely updates (much less ofter than PSN), dedicated servers aren't mandatory, so where is that money going?

Xbox Live is a rip-off at $50 a year. Sure its not a lot of money, but why pay when there are better options around? I would rather pay that $50 up front one time and get free online for the duration of the console than pay $50 a year for features that will come to the competition any way.