Small Form Factor Should I buy Ps4 or use HTPC for gaming

Bit of a dilemma, kids want a ps4 but at £400 I'm reluctant to spend seeing as I sold mine a few months back.

Now I have a HTPC sitting doing nothing and it got me thinking since I have 2 x 290s I could use one in the HTPC but the only thing is ill have to upgrade the CPU (AMD 5300 fm2) maybe to something with a bit more grunt?

What should I do? Buy a ps4 or upgrade the HTPC?

 

Start off using that 290 in the HTPC and see how they get on with it, you can always upgrade after a couple of weeks. The worst case scenario is you spend a heap upgrading it and they barely use the thing!

Worth getting a PS / Xbox controller for it too, and use Steam big picture mode.

 

Well - I use the 3570k rig in my sig for gaming in the lounge, which I am really pleased with. I haven't had to buy new games as I can just log in to Steam/uPlay/Origin/whatever and play with a wireless 360 controller. It's ace.

 

Won't the CPU bottleneck the 290?

here are my HTPC specs

AMD A4 5300
MSI A55M-E33 AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) motherboard
4gb RAM
Wifi card
128gb PNY SSD
Corsair CX-430w

Im thinking of upgrading the CPU to either:
AMD A8 6600k
OR
AMD A10 6800K

Both are quad core chips so should help the GPU? and maybe add a 1tb HDD for the games?

Also will the PSU be able to handle the GPU?

edit: I have 2 x Xbox 360 wireless controllers just need to get the receiver

 

290 as in, old 290XT or 290pro? AMD card?

They eat all the power ever. I used to benchmark them, I had 5 or 6 at one point. They just drink power. My rig would fall over with 290's + Q6600 and a 1kw psu.

 

im talking about Sapphire AMD R9 290 tri-X

edit: the ones in my sig

 

Well - give it a whirl as a start, I'd say. If it looks like it is bottlenecking, it's an easy upgrade

 

oh ignore me I was thinking 2900, not 290, it's been a long day

 

Buy a console, kids will no doubt want to play with friends in the end who will no doubt also be on console.

 

the good thing is that they dont play on the net with friends (at the moment) so thats a saving grace for me. Otherwise i would have to buy the xbox one

 

Why would playing online require an XBone? PS4 is outselling the XBone in the UK and internationally, so there'll be more 'friends' on the PSN than XBLive.

I quite like my PS4. Hassle free gaming.

 

I use a i5 2500k and a 560ti for my steam box at the mo and is fine and with a 360 pad

Try the pc with steam

 

I built the family a Media pc based around a 5800k at Christmas, and whenever I'm home I use that with my brother (and dad on Monkey Island!) to game no problem with an xbox controller, I mean, I'm sure it wouldn't be able to cope with the latest and greatest titles since we're using the integrated gpu but it's been great

Steam Big Picture is fairly neat.

 

The reason I said xbone is because most of the Friends have an xbone

 

I am so incredibly content with my PS4, and it has become my main, heck, only gaming-device. Everything just plain works, and teaming up with friends and sending game invites etc is just so quick and hasslefree!

 

Well after pulling an all nighter I managed to drain the loop and pull out 1 of my 290s. Installed the cooler back on and got it installed in the HTPC rig with a lot of messing about. Had to pull out everything and rebuild it again.

Now managed to install a couple of games (crysis 3 & Tomb raider). I went to a Tomb raider and it was laggy and had to set the graphics to normal settings for it to work and even then it was still having problems. To me the CPU is the problem is that will need changing.

Now back to the pc being, for me, a replacement for a console. It would be great if it was just for me as I love tinkering and wouldn't mind the odd issue BUT as it's for the kids I think it's going to be to much hassle. They will need something that will turn on and just play games without the need for graphic settings, updates, having to use the keybiard/mouse etc

 

Is it just that the kids want to play games? Or do they want to play some of the console exclusives? Makes a difference!

 

I own a ps4 and at this point in time, I'd say go with an HTPC. Can't stream media to the ps4 yet, still waiting on that firmware update which hasn't come. Also, there is still a distinct lack of games, especially ones that are more appropriate for children, if you ask me.

 

Well if I go down the HTPC route I will have to upgrade the ram and CPU, so I think it will be a console and I will just leave the HTPC for movie playback

 

Save you alot of hassle to just get a console. More so if your not always in when they would be wanting to use it. Everyone on here would fix up the HTPC but we are not really the target your aiming for.

Just save yourself alot of bother and get the ps4 or xbox one and be done with it.