So I've recently started using steam, originally I didn't really think steam was good because downloading games is so time consuming and I didn't like that. I always had steam downloaded and installed though because I knew a few friends who were big fans of it. I recently gave it a try because of the incredible holiday sales they had, I got 11 games for $37, it would have cost me at least double that it now more to buy the actual CD.
I was a bit skeptical to download the games, because I thought it would take all week. I started them all up, and went to bed. When I woke up in the morning most of them were already done, I was averaging around 1.0 Mbps download, with a peak at 4.9Mbps (see picture included on this page). I was presently surprised with the download speed, and the price that I paid for all of the games. I was made a long time customer of Steam right then and there.
Another plus about steam is the fact that I can find so many demos all in one place. Almost any demo I can want to try I can download from a safe and secure place that I can trust not to infect my computer, that is more then I can say if I were to Google the demos and find their download on some random page on the internet. It's so easy to install a game, all you have to do is let it download and when it is finished open the game and it finish the installation process, or you can check a option box to have it automatically open when the download is complete that way you don't have to remember to finish the install yourself.
I have seen many people asking if the quality was different from using a steam game vs a disc installed game, no it isn't. If anything I think it's better because you get told when there is an update for the game instead of having to search the internet to make sure that you have your game up to date, this leads to there being less bugs for you to find, and having an overall more enjoyable gaming experience.
So to bring this article to a end, I would say go for steam if you have fast internet. It is overall worth it because, you don't have a bunch of discs and cases to keep track of, instead they are all in one handy application. Also the deals that you will find, and be able to get are amazing. The entire collection of Counter Strike cost me around $20, where else can you say that you got that deal; I've never seen it anywhere before.