Console Comparison - Which console is right for you?

Looking to buy a console? You may not be sure which of the major brands of console will suite you the best. This article will attempt to enlighten you on some of the points fore and against each of the consoles.

Below is a table of each of the Consoles technical specifications. some of the values may be approximate but are close enough to give you the feel of the differences between the machines.

Feature	XBOX	Playstation2	GameCube
CPU	733MHz	300MHz	400MHz
Graphics Processor	custom 250MHz chip	147.456MHz	202.5MHz Flipper Chip
Memory	64 MB	32 MB	43 MB
Memory Bandwidth	6.4 GB/sec	3.2 GB/sec	3.2 GB/sec
Polygon Performance	125million/sec	66million/sec	6-12million/sec
Storage Medium	2-5x DVD / 8GB Hard Disk / 8MB Memory Card	4x DVD / 8MB Memory Card	Propriety 1.5GB Hard Disk / .5MB Digicard
Input/Output	Game Controller x4 / Ethernet	Game Controller x2 / USB	Game Controller x4 / High Speed Serial(x2) and Parallel(x1) Ports
Broadband Enabled	Yes	With Upgrade	Optional
DVD Movie Playback	Remote Control Accessory Purchase Required	Yes	No
HDTV Movie Support	Yes	Yes	No
HDTV Game Support	Yes	No	-
Maximum Resolution	1920x1080	1280 x 1024	-

Firstly you have to say that looking at the figures the XBOX stands out as the most powerful of the machines by quite a distance. The Playstation 2 seems to be the slowest out of the consoles while the GameCube sits slightly above it.

Before we go too much further though, don't make you judgement on these machines by just there specifications there are many other factors to come into play. We have established that in terms of Power the X-Box wins hands down. Now lets move onto the entertainment factor.

What else can the console do apart from play games. Well the PS2 comes DVD ready with no extra purchase needed. The X-Box requires a separate purchase to get it DVD enabled and the GameCube does not support DVD playback. So Only 2 options here if you wish to watch DVD's on your console as well.

Next we have the games issue, two parts to this really we have the type of games and the quantity of games. If we look at the type of games on offer you will see that the GameCube is very youngster biased. With games like Pokemon and BeyBlades it shows the type of connections that Nintendo has when it comes to this type of game. The X-Box prefers to have games that show off the consoles power. Here you will probably find good looking fast paced games for the older teenager, more fighting and racing games to take advantage of the extra grunt. The PS2 will give you a very good balance of games from puzzles to strategy and racing to combat. Not completely the best looking but the best for choice.

We then have the quantity of games. the X-Box currently falls down here with the fewest amount of available games. However it has been around for the least amount of time and more and more games are coming to this format. The GameCube has a decent amount of games but like before are very biased towards the younger generation. The PS2 because most games get put on the PS2 it has thousands to choose from. This is good not only for a choice point of view but its easy to pick up 2nd hand games on the cheap from many stores or places such as eBay.

For kids look at the GameCube. For family entertainment I would go with the PS2 and for the best action games I would go X-box. Just my humble opinion of course but I like to think its based on the facts.

The Last thing of course has to be the price. as the prices of the consoles change Its pointless trying to keep up with a lot of the stores offers and deals so you can use Kelkoo a price comparison site to get the up to the minute prices on all 3 of the consoles.