Is it worth it to even build a gaming PC considering consoles are holding the PC back

Let me explain what I mean....


I haven't been a PC Gamer since before the launch of the Sega Dreamcast. I used to play PC games before the Dreamcast hit the scene, but once the Dreamcast came out, I decided to basically give up PC gaming. I was tired of all the constant upgrades, and the Dreamcast looked just as good as current PC games (at the time of release). Then with the arrival of the PS2, Xbox and GameCube, I was basically able to avoid the temptation of going back to PC gaming.

Now, in 2010, I'm actually considering building a gaming PC, primarily because I think the home consoles aren't really giving me that "wow" feeling anymore, and with no new hardware on the horizon, my only hope for that "wow" feeling would be to return to PC gaming.

The biggest thing holding me back from building a gaming PC though, is that the gaming industry seems to be focused all around the home consoles, and PC gaming seems to be somewhat of an afterthought. It seems most of the developers are designing their games around the hardware constraints that the Xbox 360 and PS3 have to deal with, and they aren't taking much advantage of the increased power of state of the art PC's. They basically design their games with the 360 and PS3 in mind, and then try to port up to the PC. This is very similar to what happened in the PS2 - Xbox 1 era. Everybody designed their games for the underpowered PS2, and then ported them over to the Xbox. Even though the Xbox was considerably more powerful, it didn't really benefit much, because the game wasn't designed to take advantage of the extra power the Xbox had.

Is this same issue causing problems for PC Gaming? I honestly have no idea myself, cause I'm totally out of the loop when it comes to PC gaming. I have heard some PC gamers complain about this very issue. They were complaining that they spend all this money on the latest graphics cards, but they aren't getting any games to really push their cards, because the devs are making the games for consoles first, and then the PC version is somewhat of an afterthought, and all they really end up with is a bump up in resolution and texture detail. Sure, the increased resolution and texture detail is nice, but it is it worth all the drama of building a gaming PC for it? Or the cost?

One other thing I was wondering about in terms of building a gaming PC, is that I would primarily use it with two particular displays, both of which are basically 720p, so I wouldn't really be taking advantage of the boost in resolution that a PC can offer over consoles. I have a front projector with a native resolution of 1280 x 720, and I have a Plasma with a native resolution of 1360 x 768.

If I were to build a gaming PC, I would have to set the video card to those resolutions, and I guess the good side of it is that because I'd be running the game at a lower resolution, I could likely be able to turn all the extra effects on, but I had heard that the big advantage to PC gaming was that people with 1080p displays could run their games at a "true" 1080p resolution, rather than the upscaling that the 360 does. Eventually, I'll get a 1080p projector, and then a gaming PC would be a big advantage, but that could be a few more years from now.

On a side note: One of the big reasons that I'm interested in building a gaming PC is because my Samsung plasma is 3D Ready. The problem is that it will only work in 3D mode with something outputting a 1360 x 768 video signal. This rules out the Playstation 3, which is going to go Stereoscopic 3D crazy later this year when Sony releases their 3D Bravias. The only devices I can use in 3D with my Samsung plasma at the moment is the Xbox 360, and computers. I'd just use the Xbox 360 if they had more Stereoscopic 3D games, but they only have 2 right now. With a gaming PC, the way I understand it, there are special drivers that can allow almost "any" game to run in stereo 3D (with some obviously being more impressive than others). I could set my video card to output 1360 x 768, and be able to play a ton of games in Stereo 3D on my Samsung plasma, which is kinda a cool thing.

Ok, I have a couple more questions. If I do end up building a gaming PC, it will be located in my garage which has been converted into a theater room. That is where my current PC is located. I would want to use this gaming PC, on both my front projector setup, as well as my living room TV which actually has these 3D capabilities.

I'm guessing, to use it in the living room, I'd have to run a very long HDMI cable (around 75 feet), from the PC in the garage, up into the crawl space above the garage, thru the crawl space to above where the living room tv is, and then down. In addition to the HDMI cable, I would also need to run a usb cable the same way, to be able to use a controller. I've never been that into using keyboards and mice to play FPS's, so I would be willing to just use the Xbox 360 controller that's designed to work with the PC, and map my buttons to it.

Here are my questions regarding this:

1. How long of an HDMI cable can somebody run before they encounter issues with the length?

2. How long a usb cable can somebody run for use with a game controller, considering possible lag from the button presses?


Regarding the usb cable question, I have heard that there is this new adapter thing that can extend a usb cable via a Cat5e cable. Basically it's usb on one end, and usb on the other end, but in between you connect it with a Cat5e cable. I'm wondering if somebody using one of these cables would be able to not need USB repeaters or anything like that?