Poll: PC gamers; is it ever really worth the money to buy top of the line, bleeding edge desktop hardware?

[JMeganSnow]

I've always found that it's most effective to buy the best hardware before the big price jump. For those who don't buy PC hardware on a regular basis, usually when you go shopping for (say) a graphics card, the prices will look something like this:

$129.99 . . . $139.99 . . . $159.99 . . . $199.99 . . . $599.99

If you have a budget and aren't a total feeb, you probably want the $199.99, because that's almost always the BEST of the LAST GENERATION (i.e. the one that came out three months ago). The new stuff may be all Hot and Sexy, but this often comes along with Expensive and Not Fully Tested, whereas the top of the last generation has two big points going for it: developers can actually predict whether their game will run properly on the thing, and the architecture will have enough currency to last you for a couple of years. That, and it won't cost you an arm and a leg.

This has been my buying strategy for the past 9 years and my computers usually last 5 years or more with only minor intermediate upgrades--less than $1000 spent on hardware over 5 years is pretty good, I think.

 

[out0v0rder]

Yes it is worth it, buying bleeding edge means you don't have to buy anything else for like 5 years. It all evens out.

 

[Jandau]

There is no point in buying the best components on the market unless you are loaded with more cash than you can spend (and if you were, you wouldn't be asking the question). There, that's it.

You can get a machine that'll run practically every game today on high settings for 400-500$ (monitor not included), and that's without searching for the best deals, assembling it all yourself, etc. I'm talking about a pre-built machine. All you need is some basic knowledge about what you want and need and you're set.

Or you could drop 1.5k+ $ on a machine that'll perform marginally better. I don't think it's a tough choice. Even if you had the 1.5k, you might as well get the cheaper one and spend the other 1k on upgrades down the line as they become neccessary, you'll end up with a better machine.

EDIT:

Yes it is worth it, buying bleeding edge means you don't have to buy anything else for like 5 years. It all evens out.

Actually, if you buy the "Best buy" configurations they'll likely last you 2-3 years, and the price difference that you saved will last you far longer in upgrades, so you'll be set for longer for the same price since you'll be upgrading as components drop in price.

"Bleeding edge" is just another term for Overpriced.

 

[out0v0rder]

Definately worth the money, you can sell the parts for almost the same price you bought em for on ebay 1 month later, then use money to buy the newer stuff that comes out. its a fun cycle.

 

[xenus87]

"Bleeding edge" is just another term for Overpriced.

This is ignorant.

If people are happy to spend the money on the hardware, what does it matter?

Just because the parts are expensive now, doesn't make them 'overpriced', in technology you get what you pay for, and if you want the best stuff as soon as it comes out, you should be willing to pay the premium.

Yes I have dropped over £800 on 2 GTX295, and it is a lot of money, but I consider myself a bit of an 'enthusiast'.

I don't see the point in car enthusiasts spending thousands on new engines, nitro, body kits, but hey, if that's what they enjoy as a hobby, and are willing to spend the money, its their choice.

Overpriced is buying a pre-built PC from Dell/Alienware....

 

[mikecoulter]

It's benefits are minimal. What's wrong with Dual Core Duo?

 

[Theo Samaritan]

I mean, current technology means that even mid-range video cards are still powerful enough to crank the settings pretty high on most of the available and new games. I can max the AA and details on any Source engine game with a GF9800GT, 2GB of DDR2, and a C2D E6600 at 2.4GHz (stock). All of those parts are technically obsolete, but they're cheap now and they get the job done. And in a year or two when all the bleeding edge stuff that is so expensive now becomes the new mid-range, I can just get that for cheap, too.

What do you guys think?

I have practically the same set up as you (I have an 8800GT but its one of those non-stock versions with a decent heatsink etc) but most of the extra bits I got for free here and there. My best score was a terrabyte HDD and 2 extra free gigs of RAM when i helped a friend of mine sort his networking out at his workplace.

The only game I have that struggles in any way with it is GTAIV, and thats all down to the dual core CPU (people have reported much higher speeds than what I have with it simply by having a quad core over a dual).

So no, not worth it really.

 

[Jandau]

"Bleeding edge" is just another term for Overpriced.

This is ignorant.

If people are happy to spend the money on the hardware, what does it matter?

Just because the parts are expensive now, doesn't make them 'overpriced', in technology you get what you pay for, and if you want the best stuff as soon as it comes out, you should be willing to pay the premium.

Yes I have dropped over £800 on 2 GTX295, and it is a lot of money, but I consider myself a bit of an 'enthusiast'.

I don't see the point in car enthusiasts spending thousands on new engines, nitro, body kits, but hey, if that's what they enjoy as a hobby, and are willing to spend the money, its their choice.

Overpriced is buying a pre-built PC from Dell/Alienware....

You missed the point of my post. In fact, you missed two of them.

First, as I said, if you have the money to spend, then knock yourself out and buy the best. If you are an enthusiast and can afford it go for it! More power to you. However...

The original question was "Is it worth the money?". As I said, no, it isn't. You can still spend it if it makes you happy, but if we take a look at the hardware available at any point in time, we'll see that the price skyrockets as we get to the top of the line components. The price of each subsequent frame per second is higher than the one before it.

If you want to run games, then you want a machine that can do that and you might want to spend as little money as possible while getting the performance you desire. That can be achieved for a much much lower price than buying the best out there. Hence, spending the tons of money for no particular increase in performance is IMO a waste, strictly from a gaming point of view.

If we're talking from a hardware enthusiast's point of view, I suppose no price is too high, but that's not the question here, is it?

Oh, and buying pre-builts from Dell or Alienware isn't overpriced, it's moronic...

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Well, the way I see it... dropping $100-200 every 2-3 years to upgrade something in the PC vs dropping $500-600 every 4-5 years for a new console... I would rather upgrade my PC, that has more uses than a console, instead of buying a new console every so many years...

 

[Anachronism]

For me, the beauty of PC gaming is that I don't need to spend money on new hardware. You're much more likely to be able to run older games on a PC than a console; you can either get them patched, or, if they're pre-1995, run them in DOSBox. By contrast, try running anything older than the previous generation on a console and you're going to run into problems, unless you still have the old console lying around.

In summary, I can play DOOM on my PC a hell of a lot easier than you can play Mario 64 on your Xbox 360.

 

[bodyklok]

There are only a few games on PC that I really want, but hey I got money to waste so why not but a new PC to play them!

 

[Undeadpope]

last years top of the line Computer would be great if I could even afford that.

 

[Lios]

its pointlessly expensive to upgrade as soon as the next top-of-the-line hardware comes out from the manufacturer you like, but if you've got some pretty outdated hardware, buying all the latest stuff will keep you going for at least a decade of PC gaming.

 

[Corpse XxX]

I've got a single processor 3 GHz pentium with 3 gigs of ram, and Geforce 6200 turbocache..

Its real crap, bout 3-4 years old i guess, can only run TF2 on medium settings, or else it lags to bad to play..
Also takes 5 hours to start up..

WANT a new one!

But im not crazy enough to buy top of the line every year, my weekend hobby of alcoholism is way too expensive..

 

[darkcow55]

I used to lust after top of the line hardware when I was younger, but the advance of technology has slowed from its breakneck pace to more of a mild jog... and games (aside from things made by Crytek) just aren't pushing the hardware anymore; doesn't make good business sense.


Though, if I had tons and tons of cash, I would be tempted to try out an Nvidia 3D enabled rig....

 

[spuddyt]

its actually cheaper to build midrange or even low end PC's more regularly (low end particularly, even if its a new machine each year)

 

[Akula]

My rig is a year old and I have no plans of upgrading it for the next year or two. I never buy top of the line, I know enough to build a comp with good enough specs to run any of the current games I want to play. I don't need to run Crysis at max settings to enjoy it.

 

[Spiterider]

my system is a home built. i ussually maintain hardware in the higher range but never top of the line, i stick to whats currently acceptable by most games and such. currently i'm running a 3.0ghz dual core, a 512mb geforce 9600, 2gb ddr2 ram, and so forth on a vista(which i dislike mainly due to the UAC and its ignorance to me saying continue on that program 400 times ago. i know i can disable it but then you lose all the vista security stuff so its kinda black or white there.) anyways i can play most any game on the current market. and my system only costed $400 with cosmetics and 650gb hdd space. why pay well over $1000 for technology your not entirely using when you can wait a while till its cheaper and there are games that can actually use its potential.