The whole "PCs aren't that expensive compared to consoles" argument

[Wolfram23]

Ok, so I have this PC which is about 2 years old now, and a while back the video card fried so I decided I'd try out console gaming and bought a PS3 which has given me a LOT of really really fun gaming time. However, I decided it's time to fix my PC which has led me to completely overhaul it.

During this time, there's been a lot of PC vs Console threads and remarks. A particular standout was the "PC Elitism" thread which had an enormous amount of posts. Let me make my opinion clear though, I really like PC gaming and I think it can generally be better than consoles because it's so much more versatile and often more powerful too. That said, console gaming is great because it just works along with any game you buy, it's not very expensive, any peripherals will also work, and there's plenty of console only developers making some great titles.

Still, I think there's 2 main reasons why people will chose console over PC and they are 1. Price 2. Complexity. I've spent several days now studying PC hardware for my upgrade and I've finally made some final decisions. The only thing I'm recycling from my old system for now will be the hard drive, monitor, and speakers. Maybe the case but we'll see.

There is a lot, and I mean a lot of options out there for building a PC. It's taken hours of reading reviews and asking for help on forums and checking out guides to come up with the right parts that are high quality but also not on the expensive side. I think this whole aspect of PC gaming is detrimental to it's popularity with the general masses. Not a bad thing per se, but you can hardly blame people for choosing a super easy to set up console over PC.

Now, price. Here's what I'm getting (mostly from newegg.ca as they had the best prices and selection I could find):
Power: Rosewill Xtreme Series RX750-D-B 750W - $89.99 on sale
Motherboard: MSI P55-GD65 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - $167.99
CPU: Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - $208.99
RAM: G.SKILL ECO Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - $126.49
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD5850 1GB - $298.88
Mouse and keyboard: Logitech wireless keyboard and good 8 button (programmable) laser mouse - $108.88
OS: Windows 7 Home 64 bit - $108.99

Total: $1020.22

Or in other words, more than 3x as much as my PS3 not including the taxes and shipping, and also I'm going to have to put all this together and get it up and running on my own which saves money. It seems to me the cost and complexity of PC gaming is quite prohibitive. I can understand then the pride of putting together your own gaming rig but I don't think it really qualifies one to bash on consoles. Consoles are great! Easy to use, easy to set up, cheap, games are guaranteed to work right off the bat... It's a good situation to be in.

So, PC gamers: Be proud of your PC, have fun with it, and accept that there's a great alternative to PC gaming.

 

[YuheJi]

I think a point that a lot of people make when discussing PC prices is that you most likely need a PC anyways for stuff other than gaming. For example, I had an old Pentium IV for quite a while. It was a Dell, and came with one of those shitty integrated intel graphics chips. I spent about $100 on a new video card (a Geforce 8800 GT), and it served me well (I was able to play Far Cry 2) until I finally decided to get a new PC last year.

 

[dududf]

The PC exspensive argument stems from the fact that people say that "oh wow man I like HAD to spend 3000 dollars on a computer, and it can't even run crysis on max everything!"

"Wow man that sucks, lol PC gaming is failzors."


It stems from the belief that a PC is so god damned expensive that having a gaming PC is like throwing money into a fire. From which it isn't if you're smart with your money.

 

[Naheal]

PCs tend to be a bit more expensive then consoles, but we've got the option of actually modding the hardware itself. Also, mouse+keyboard.

What it comes down to, though, is personal choice.

 

[Booze Zombie]

Buying things will cost you more money if you don't know what you're doing, in any endeavour.
Be it gaming or any other hobby.

 

[SilverKyo]

I dumped about $2,000 into my gaming rig, and only spent $300 on my Xbox 360... do the math

 

[Levitas1234]

My computer was only $500 and it can play any game, max graphics and max resolution with 25fps or more.

it also does a lot more shit too, that lot more shit too is what makes that extra 200 make my pc a lot better than the ps3 you bought.

 

[Horticulture]

A gaming PC virtually always costs more than a console, but not necessarily by a factor of 3. You could put together a PC that'll handily outperform a current-gen console for less than $500, but you also have the option of putting together something much more powerful. Also, as YuheJi mentioned, it's often cheap to upgrade an existing PC for gaming. Games also tend to be cheaper for PC, and there's less prevalence of nickel-and-diming for accessories. Is PC gaming a value proposition? No. But it doesn't have to be absurdly expensive, either.

As a side note, if I were putting together a high-end system like that, I'd get a PSU from a reputable brand like Corsair [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015]. That Rosewill looks pretty solid from the specsheet, but it's much better to be safe than sorry where PSUs are concerned.

 

[likalaruku]

I bought a cheap computer with a mid-priced graphics card & only after 6 years do I find that I cannot play new games (at least ones that require better than a Pentium 2). The PC & card togeather probably cost $800 at most.

Consoles on the otherhand have wat, a 3 year lifespan before their parent companies make new consoles & stop producing discs for the old ones? & What about their backwards compatibility?

A PC can play PC games from the early 90s.

Other reasons I hate consoles:
------------------------------
*No keybord.
*No mouse.
*Uncomfortable game pad with only so many buttons on it.
*Is connected to TV, I don't watch TV, there hasn't been anything good on in almost 10 years.

 

[Worgen]

you can cut off about a hundred bucks from the mobo, no need to get one over 70 bucks
you could also get a less costly vid card, really one thats about 160 should be fine, you cant really buy cards with the intention of them being high tech for very long but they will work fine for along time. The os definatly adds too it tho, once you get a good machine tho its really easy to keep it going, throw in a new vid card or more ram perhaps a new cpu every once in awhile and your good for years

 

[FretfulGnome]

I built my pc for under $600 and only recently after 2 years of use have I needed to upgrade. The upgrade cost me $98.00 (if you were wondering). The point is you don't need to build a monster computer for over $1,000 in order to play games on the PC. All in all I got a much better deal than purchasing a PS3 or an XBOX 360.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

I'm pretty sure if console gaming utilzed their USB ports and added Keyboard + Mouse, and developers added fully customizable controls to their games, we would see a lot of gamers making the switch from PC to console.

 

[Bat Vader]

The PC exspensive argument stems from the fact that people say that "oh wow man I like HAD to spend 3000 dollars on a computer, and it can't even run crysis on max everything!"

"Wow man that sucks, lol PC gaming is failzors."


It stems from the belief that a PC is so god damned expensive that having a gaming PC is like throwing money into a fire. From which it isn't if you're smart with your money.

Exactly, I got my PC for $325.00 and it can run Crysis. The place that was selling them was a PC gaming/Console gaming place and they were going out of business and selling everything they had.

Building a PC is a much cheaper alternative than going out and buying one.

 

[shini]

I bought a $1k PC last year (that includes the monitor), it still plays everything I want it to (I'm not into FPSs which tend to have the highest requirements) and I won't think about upgrades till next year. Even then I'll probably just get a new video card.

I don't really understand the comparison between the cost of a PC and that of a console for a simple reason: when you get a new PC/upgrade you get better performance for more than just gaming. Wolfram, when you needed a new PC did you for one moment think "Well, PCs are too expensive I'll just buy a console and get some cheap old PC."? I bet you didn't. We need PCs, but not gaming consoles, so spending money on a PC that can run whatever we want it to is more practical.

 

[Layz92]

Also if a part fails on your PC you can just swap it out in the time it takes to drive to the store, back and opening up the computer box. A console however needs to be sent to the closest place of repair in the mail and wait for it for however many days.

 

[Jandau]

I bought an $800 PC three years ago (likely cheaper now), still runs every new game without any problems.

The problem with PC hardware is that the performance and price don't follow each other in a linear fashion, rather the price goes up at a much faster rate. Even a slightly lower-performing component will often be drastically cheaper, while offering nearly the same overall results.

Furthermore, PCs are used for more than gaming. For me, console gaming is far too expensive. I already upgrade my PC every 4-5 years since I need it for work. I can't justify another $300+ investment into a console (not to mention having to spend a ton of money on a new TV set while I'm at it). Also, I can use the new computer as a work-related tax writeoff and refund some of my money, lowering the cost even more. I can't do the same with a console.

In fact, getting a new TV, plus a new Console, plust extra conrollers and whatever other addons/peripherals are needed for normal operation would likely set me back more than a brand new PC. And that's before I get into starting out a console game collection (and games ARE more expensive on the consoles).

So in conclusion, no, consoles are NOT cheaper than PCs, at least not for me. And even if they were, I can't justify the expense. Spending over $600 just to play a few exclusive games just isn't worth it.

 

[NoNameMcgee]

It depends if you want to max your games out or not. If you're not too bothered about graphics but want the other bonuses PC's bring, you can get a cheap gaming rig that plays games on Low-Medium settings. I know personally if I had to play everything on lowest settings due to financial troubles I'd still be a PC gamer (I was in this situation once before for about a year and still enjoyed being a PC gamer)

My point is, keeping up with all the latest hardware gives you nice bonuses but it is by no means a requirement for enjoying games on your PC. However much you spend on your PC can be flexible depending on what you want out of your games or how much you have to spend at any given moment, and if you buy a new PC it's usually 3 or 4 years before you will actually not be able to play the majority of games anymore. (People give that figure of "updating every 6 months" but that's just bullshit from people who think "playing the latest games" means "maxing out the latest games")... a 6800GT can play Crysis, I know because I played Crysis on one, you simply can't make the game look pretty with it.

anyway I don't get into these debates because I realise it's pointless and there's no right or wrong way to play games. I understand the advantages of both options and although I love PC gaming I know some of the troubles it brings too, and I occasionally play on consoles.

 

[DazZ.]

You don't need to spend that much to have a system that will run everything fine.

Just because you whacked up a huge price tag doesn't mean you couldn't replace parts for cheaper ones that will still outperform the consoles. You can get a decent rig for about £500, maybe less I haven't checked recently.