Over the past few years I’ve lost some of my interest in gaming and as a result my desktop PC is several years old and rusting under my desk.  I don’t use Windows for anything anymore and I’ve heard so many bad things about Vista, so I’ve been using Mac and Linux exclusively for awhile.

I would really like to get back into more games, but I just can’t see myself throwing out $2000 for a computer that I would use exclusively for games and be unable to carry around anywhere without a lot of effort.  It just isn’t worth it anymore.  So, I’m pretty sure I’m going to get an Xbox.

It seems that a real shift is taking place with developers placing emphasis on console games over PC, making most PC games a buggy port of their console counterparts.  Most new PC games are packed with nasty copy protection rootkits that are nearly impossible to remove.  Finally, new PC games all seem to have extremely steep system requirements, meaning you have to undertake a massive and expensive upgrade in order to get acceptable performance.  All these are things I don’t want to deal with, especially when I can get a top of the line Xbox for less than the price of a halfway decent video card.

My main concern over console games is the controller.  I started on PC games and feel natural with keyboard and mouse.  At my height of gaming, I became one with the computer, leveling the crosshairs on an opponent and blasting away without the slightest thought of what keys to press and how much to move the mouse.  I’ve played on a fair number of consoles and I’ve never adjusted to the controllers.  I always feel sluggish and usually have to remember where the buttons are and what they do.  Because of the controller, many RTS and simulation games are exclusively developed for the PC, which is a drawback in and of itself.

Regardless, I think I’m going to make the switch anyway.  With enough practice, I can adjust to the controller.  It’s also going to be a huge cost savings since it’s far easier to shell out $400 every four or five years for a new console compared to several thousand for PC upgrades.  The additional money for PC upgrades would be more justifiable if I were to use the computer for work, but Windows is useless for development and the lack of portability is also detracting.

This leads into my proposed setup: get a new monitor with DVI and DisplayPort for my laptops and HDMI input for consoles.  This way I can use the monitor for computing and for games.  My current external monitor has a 4:3 aspect ratio with only one digital input and I would also prefer something widescreen.  With only one digital input, it’s a real pain when I want to switch the Mac laptop for the Linux one or on the rare occasion that I want to boot up the desktop.

It seems that 16:9 1080p monitors are rare and are pretty limited in terms of functionality.  The only one that remotely interests me is the Dell S2409W and I’ve it uses the poor quality TN panel which gets a lot of complaints. It may be okay for the Xbox, but I don’t know about using it with the computers.  So, it seems 16:9 monitors are out since all the other ones I can find are also TN panels.  Larger 30+ in TV-style monitors are also out since the cheapest of those runs about $800, which is out of my price range, especially for something that may not fare well as a computer monitor several feet from my face.

So, this means PC-oriented 16:10 aspect monitors.  I would prefer something at least 24 inches and I can’t really get anything with a resolution greater than 1920 x 1200 since my laptops have terrible video cards.  Being 16:10, it means that when I plug in the Xbox, I’ll get 100 pixel black bars on the bottom and top of the screen, but that’s something I can live with since the screen will be large enough.  Two 16:10 monitors interest me: the Dell 2408WFP and the HP LP2475W.  Of those, the HP seems the better buy since its panel is the highly coveted IPS and it also seems to be nearly $100 cheaper depending on the vendor.  Both have an HDMI input, two DVI inputs, and a DisplayPort input.

Then, I can pick up a Pro Xbox for about $300.  I can’t see the advantage of the Elite except for the 120 GB hard drive (vs. 60 on the Pro).  Games are a bit more on the expensive side compared to the PC, but it’s probably all worth it not having to worry too much about endless installs, wasted hard drive space, and hardware-specific bugs.

So, I get an XBox Pro for about $300 and a 24 inch monitor for about $600, which is quite the savings over a massive PC upgrade.  But there’s one problem: sound.  Consoles are oriented towards those with dedicated 7.1 surround receivers to make it sound like a battle is being fought in the room.  I don’t have that — I would prefer to just plug in some headphones, but the Xbox doesn’t have a headphone jack.  This leaves me with three options, none of which I really care for:

1) Get a receiver.  My dad’s got an old receiver that could handle the analog AV from the Xbox.  I would really like to avoid this because it means yet another large piece of electronic junk sitting in my room.  Furthermore, it would do nothing except provide me with a headphone jack for my games.  This seems like a waste.

2) Connect the analog AV cables from the Xbox to a pair of headphones with some adapters.  This isn’t really a good option either since there is no way to control the volume.  I’ve heard of at least one person doing this and having it work, but as he said, there’s no volume control.  You’re just stuck at whatever volume the Xbox puts out.

3) Connect the analog AV cables to the line in on my Macbook.  I can also do this with some adapters and then plug the headphones into the Macbook and use the laptop as an amplifier.  I’m not sure how well this would work either in terms of losing signal clarity and whines from the laptop making their way into my headphones.  Also, I’m not even sure if the line in on the Macbook is stereo.  I really don’t care about surround on headphones, but I would at least like to have stereo.

At this point, the third option is probably the best bet, and if that doesn’t work, try the others.  I can’t seem to find many others on the Internet with this kind of setup.  Most who use a PC monitor with their console still connect their sound to a dedicated receiver or a powered set of PC speakers.

I’ll probably wind up doing more research before I settle on something.  Or, I might just forget it if it really looks like this won’t work.