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

[The Lawn]

snip

All I can say is, please link what your PC components are. I find it hard to believe you built a gaming rig for $200 that's going to run well (also, 1280x800 is really low res). If you buy what you consider the "none waste" mid range quality, it becomes low end crap in a few years, while the high end stuff becomes mid-high end... essentially your bigger investment lasts longer. Seems worthwhile to me. Also good components open the door to future upgrades. It was my own fault that I bought a premade deal for my old PC but with the one I'm making now, yea it's pricey but it'll last a long time and it's easily upgraded, having crossfire/sli compatibility and extra PCI and RAM slots.

I got an Athlon II 250 3ghz dual core about $60, but I had a $40 gift card so about $20
An Asus, something... About $79 on mwave, but had a 15% off coupon, free shipping.
Case was big, and cheap, $20.
500w power supply, free after rebate.
4gigs of 800mhz rammage, free from school.
Used the HD out of my PS3 for my OS, which was also free from school.
Got a ATI 5850, used $20 from a friend. Biggest cost saver.
And a used 1280 x 800 monitor,$60 used. (I hate giant monitors)

 

[Coaxill]

and where the hell do you buy a 500GB Hard Drive for an XBox 360?)

External hard drives are compatible with xbox 360s now. Also, why would you NEED 500 gigs on an xbox drive? You don't need to install anything.

 

[xbeaker]

Hmm well certainly I'll keep that in mind. You're saying the liquid cooling is for the CPU only right? I think that will be handy for extreme overclocking, which in the future I might get into but for now I'll keep it pretty tame so some good ventillation should be enough... I hope. Anyway, good to know so thanks

yeah, something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835227005&cm_re=liquid_cooling-_-35-227-005-_-Product (that is not the one I use, but is simmilar)

 

[TheBritish]

It's not the cost of a gaming PC that would drive me away, it's the complexity. If it weren't such a technological nightmare, I'd have invested in it long ago. And everyone I know is as technologically adept as a Neanderthal, so I'm alone in this case.

Plus, I'd hate to spend $1200+ on parts only to ruin a vital part just by touching it wrong.

It's not as scary as you'd think Mostly you just follow the instructions in the manual.
... then again, I'm a Computer Science graduate and I screwed my motherboard to my case... and let it short circuit about six times before realising... BUT I'm special You won't do that
As my friend always said, don't touch the black bits and you'll be fine
As for picking components, I'm sure someone here could help You just... need to know what you want from it

 

[Thedutchjelle]

A console is cheaper , sure, but then you have to buy the TV elsewhere, the boxes elsewhere (if the inbuild speakers suck), and I'm sure those aren't cheap either.

I personally use Apple's iMacs (no hate please) though so I'm not really knowledgeable in the PC field but if we go by the OT specs (1020 dollar): a 20 inch LED-TV costs about 200 - 300euro, a 20 inch LCD-TV costs about 170-220 (checked prices at Dutch online store). No idea what a good soundset would costs, but I'm guessing you're going to need one (our TV standard sound is kinda meh)
So then that PS3 is already 600 euro!

Personally I don't like consoles, I don't like sitting in the livingroom to play a game, I prefer the privacy of my room and a normal keyboard. But to each his own. If you really like consoles then go for it I'm kinda a noob when it comes to PC hardware as well, so I can understand how it can be overwhelming for some users.

 

[Delusibeta]

It's cheaper to just buy a new computer every time a heavy duty PC game comes out rather than spend a few grand on upgrades. I bought my PC back in 07, right before The Witcher came out. I needed a new graphics card to play it so I spent $70 on a new one. I can play Crysis on high and The Witcher runs fine. The I realized that I'm going to have to upgrade my rig with The Witcher 2, AND Crysis 2 come out. Plus most likely get a new processor and basically rebuild my PC so it can run two games. I've got nothing against PC gaming but i'm not spending a grand every three years when the technology jumps. I'm also not spending a grand on making two games look pretty. And the thing is that it may be just those two upcoming games that require a $1000 reworking for people with PCs that are 3 years old.

It's not like console gaming graphics don't improve vastly over the years as well. We've gone from visuals like Uncharted and Gears over to God Of War 3 and Splinter Cell Conviction. And guess who saved $1000 over the past few years.

This guy.

And again, I'm pointing out what I see here, the highest selling and most awaited games on the PC didn't need $1000 upgrades. World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, Diablo III, and Diablo II's Battle Chest all prove that. There aren't that many games on the PC that demand an expensive reworking so in my personal opinion I don't think it's warranted for me to spend large sums of money to make a few PC games look pristine. I speak for myself though, if you have the cash then go for it.

To be honest, I fail to see the big need in rebuilding/replacing your computer every three years. And I imagine that you're underestimating your processor's capabilities here. (Plus, apparently Crysis 2 will be "more optimised" and so will require lower/similar specs as Crysis 1. Apparently.)

Honestly, I don't get the "Must play new games on graphics and resolution that will make the LHC's computers cry" people. Save money and play it on Medium/lower resolution, I say. Although this is someone who games on a computer that is Pentium 3 powered.

(And since when was 1200 by 800 "low resolution"?)

 

[Wolfram23]

I got an Athlon II 250 3ghz dual core about $60, but I had a $40 gift card so about $20
An Asus, something... About $79 on mwave, but had a 15% off coupon, free shipping.
Case was big, and cheap, $20.
500w power supply, free after rebate.
4gigs of 800mhz rammage, free from school.
Used the HD out of my PS3 for my OS, which was also free from school.
Got a ATI 5850, used $20 from a friend. Biggest cost saver.
And a used 1280 x 800 monitor,$60 used. (I hate giant monitors)

Well you certainly got a hell of a deal with all that. Not sure how you can *legally* get free hardware from school haha. Anyway, yeah that appears to be a decent gaming rig, but you certainly were lucky with the pricing. Also, why in the world would your friend sell you a 5850 for $20?? They're fairly new cards and nearly top of the line worth no less than $300 new. Your friend must be a really nice or rich guy lol.

But yeah, it's more than unreasonable to expect deals like that for the average person.

Hmm well certainly I'll keep that in mind. You're saying the liquid cooling is for the CPU only right? I think that will be handy for extreme overclocking, which in the future I might get into but for now I'll keep it pretty tame so some good ventillation should be enough... I hope. Anyway, good to know so thanks

yeah, something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835227005&cm_re=liquid_cooling-_-35-227-005-_-Product (that is not the one I use, but is simmilar)

Cool that looks super simple and not too pricey. I wonder how hard it would be to peel off the old heat sink tho...

 

[Coaxill]

Only up to 16GB maximum. That's not a whole lot. I filled up my 360's 20GB HDD in a matter of months.

My 360s hard drive is 60 gigs and those aren't available any more. The smallest one available is 120 and the average one seems to be 250.

 

[Antari]

If you choose your parts alot more carefully than that, you can spend less and get more power. Your first mistake is thinking that Intel chips are designed for gaming first. They are not. Your wasting your money, unless you live in Microsoft Excel or Access. Same pricing on the board and chip in an AMD set would give you a good 10% boost in performance for games. You also do not need a quad core, it'll be another 5 years before any game can hyperthread properly, even then I'd only say a triple core is nessisary, why waste the electricity or stress your power source. Right now they have to settle for window's clone of it which will only use 2 cores, even if you have 8. The video card is the major power point for a gaming rig. Nvidia is more expensive, but better. Ati is cheap, but the driver's are horrific.

I regularly build very capable gaming rigs for my friends, brand new for roughly $850. Including a new screen, keyboard, and mouse. Its not all Razor'd up but it will play anything on the market very well.

For the rig alone it can go as low as $650, even less if they have a case and power source I can use for the new parts. And this is with me buying stuff off the shelves, no special orders.

What did the PS3 cost when it first came out? .... My Blu-Ray player cost me a whomping $39.99, its in my computer. And Sony can't remove its other OS option.

However in the case of certain titles being console only and being quite good, I have to agree with you there.

 

[The Lawn]

Not sure how you can *legally* get free hardware from school haha.

Go ask your schools tech guys when the schools gonna get new computers, most times they give away the old ones to people who sign up in a first come first serve like matter.

Thats how I got it.
It helps being friends with the tech guys though.

 

[John Amutenya]

Howcome no1 factors in the price of a TV for a console? You cant use you're console without a TV.
A 40" 1080p tv is about $800. For that price I could get myself 3 24" monitors and run them in eyefinity http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/04/13/ati-radeon-hd-5870-eyefinity-6-review/10

That makes an xbox360 about $1100 and the games cost $20 more, you have to pay for multiplayer. and the graphics are worse, even on console ports.

 

[shemoanscazrex3]

That's the only reason I still game on a console. Well actually that and the whole mouse and keyboard thing is hard for me to control. Plus I rather get uniformity across the board then damn my graphics aren't quite as good as that one guy's. I have to upgrade and then I may have to upgrade the mobo blah blah blah. Now don't get me wrong some aspects of PC gaming does attract me like modding for instance. Seems a way better way to expand a game then countless pricey DLC that gives you features that should have came with the game, IE Burnout Paradise Party Pack. I'm still pissed about that

 

[Auric]

Think of it this way. Assume every household has/needs a decent PC, not every household has/needs a decent console.

So assuming every household has a decent PC, it only costs what, ~$100-200 dollars to upgrade it into something that can play most, if not all games at respectable settings. Its fairly cheap when you think about it.

 

[John Amutenya]

If you choose your parts alot more carefully than that, you can spend less and get more power. Your first mistake is thinking that Intel chips are designed for gaming first. They are not. Your wasting your money, unless you live in Microsoft Excel or Access. Same pricing on the board and chip in an AMD set would give you a good 10% boost in performance for games. You also do not need a quad core, it'll be another 5 years before any game can hyperthread properly, even then I'd only say a triple core is nessisary, why waste the electricity or stress your power source. Right now they have to settle for window's clone of it which will only use 2 cores, even if you have 8. The video card is the major power point for a gaming rig. Nvidia is more expensive, but better. Ati is cheap, but the driver's are horrific.

I regularly build very capable gaming rigs for my friends, brand new for roughly $850. Including a new screen, keyboard, and mouse. Its not all Razor'd up but it will play anything on the market very well.

For the rig alone it can go as low as $650, even less if they have a case and power source I can use for the new parts. And this is with me buying stuff off the shelves, no special orders.

What did the PS3 cost when it first came out? .... My Blu-Ray player cost me a whomping $39.99, its in my computer. And Sony can't remove its other OS option.

However in the case of certain titles being console only and being quite good, I have to agree with you there.

Nvidia is more expensive but better? are you on crack? Nvidia are the ones that released drivers that kill video cards. Fastest card is an ati card, the 5970. So check your facts before you make accusations.

 

[Wolfram23]

If you choose your parts alot more carefully than that, you can spend less and get more power. Your first mistake is thinking that Intel chips are designed for gaming first. They are not. Your wasting your money, unless you live in Microsoft Excel or Access. Same pricing on the board and chip in an AMD set would give you a good 10% boost in performance for games. You also do not need a quad core, it'll be another 5 years before any game can hyperthread properly, even then I'd only say a triple core is nessisary, why waste the electricity or stress your power source. Right now they have to settle for window's clone of it which will only use 2 cores, even if you have 8. The video card is the major power point for a gaming rig. Nvidia is more expensive, but better. Ati is cheap, but the driver's are horrific.

I regularly build very capable gaming rigs for my friends, brand new for roughly $850. Including a new screen, keyboard, and mouse. Its not all Razor'd up but it will play anything on the market very well.

For the rig alone it can go as low as $650, even less if they have a case and power source I can use for the new parts. And this is with me buying stuff off the shelves, no special orders.

What did the PS3 cost when it first came out? .... My Blu-Ray player cost me a whomping $39.99, its in my computer. And Sony can't remove its other OS option.

However in the case of certain titles being console only and being quite good, I have to agree with you there.

Well I'm no fanboy one way or the other. However I read a lot of comparisons and in fact Intel was the leader. They compare AMD Phenom II X3 735 with an i3 530, using the 5850 GPU and the Intel chip was marginally faster in every game except Dirt 2. Both were Overclocked. I realise then I could downgrade my CPU, but the i3 is only $50 less, and so I figure for that fifty bucks I'll have a little extra capability to crossfire a second 5850 in, say, 2 years when an upgrade might be handy.

EDIT: the link to the study: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i3-gaming,2588.html

 

[xbeaker]

Think of it this way. Assume every household has/needs a decent PC, not every household has/needs a decent console.

So assuming every household has a decent PC, it only costs what, ~$100-200 dollars to upgrade it into something that can play most, if not all games at respectable settings. Its fairly cheap when you think about it.

Using the idea that you are already going to own a PC of some sort is fine.
But if we are talking about just getting a home PC, you can put that together for about $200. So subtracting $200 of money you would hav spent anyway from the $800 for a decent game PC we have a differential of $600 Still more expensive then a console.

As for why we aren't factoring TVs tot he cost of a console, we aren't factoring monitor's either. When you get a new console you don't buy a new TV for it, just as you don't buy a new monitor for a PC. And since most monitors have HDMI (or DVI) inputs, and most TVs have VGA and DVI inputs they are effectively interchangeable, so there is no differance in costs. Thus they can safely be ignored

I was thinking of it on the way home. As stated above, I have 2 360s, a PS3 and a Wii. All purchased at full retail. and I still spent less on them then the game rig I put together last year! hahahaha