PC offers both the best performances and visuals than any other gaming machine on the market. I am not here today to elevate the consoles above PC, the first statement is an objective reality. What I’m here for today is to tell you my experience. After 27 years of gaming on console and hearing left and right how PC is so superior, I decided to give it a go. Did I become a PC gamer that can never look back at its peasantry beginnings? I’m not that guy.
Why PC
The decision came after owning both an Xbox One S and later an X. I was thinking: “Microsoft is releasing all their games day one on PC. Why should I stick then to Xbox when on PC I can find now not only that but the massive catalog of Steam. I’ll get the best of both worlds”. My plan was to have then a PS4 + PC combo for all my gaming needs.The First Mistake
I bought a pre-assembled PC. Despite all recommendations NOT to do so, in early 2019 I purchased an HP Omen of the following specs:- CPU: Intel i5 7400
- GPU: RTX 1080 3G
- RAM: 8GB
- HDD: 1TB
The Second Mistake
I bought a Laptop. I swear this section is going to be shorter. As of this writing, about a month ago I purchased something I needed for my brand new nomad life style. I still really wanted that pristine PC experience I failed to obtain with a desktop, but now it had to be on the go. So I upped my budget still knowing that for the money I won’t get the same performances a desktop could. I bought a Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. A $1499 beast packed in the slimmest laptop currently on the market.- CPU: Ryzen 9 3rd Gen
- GPU: RTX 2060 Max-Q with 6GB VRam
- RAM: 16GB DDR4
- SSD: 1TB
- Monitor: 14″ 120Hz 1080p
A massive upgrade to what the HP Omen was. This thing was FAST. It crushed Gears 4 and Sea of Thieves. I was maintaining above 100FPS on high and ultra settings and it looked BEAUTIFUL. Issues? One, it ran HOT. I’m not exaggerating when I say I could cook some eggs on the thing. That alone was already giving me anxiety to the point I didn’t want to play longer than an hour on the thing. Two, blue screens of death.
They started on a random Friday. At first I got just one, the day after three, and the day after five blue screens of death in one day. The honeymoon was over. I didn’t even stress it out, I packed the thing and brought it back for a full refund. I was not going to troubleshoot a device I payed $1499 for.