PC gaming THE COST

[Amaror]

Welcome though, enjoy your stay, and remember, Steam is one manipulative ************.

Thanks!
Really? Steam seems like a good guy to me :s his sales are nice and everyone I've talked to sings its praises.

Remind yourself of that, when you have 20 games in your shopping cart on the next sale and still 10 games you haven't played that you bought on the sale before

 

[hino77]

I build mine a couple of years ago, and it cost me the equivalent of 503 USD,with a monitor and all the additional stuff, so it was not a monstrous price, though it is getting too old now,i need a card with dx 11 compatibility, and some overall upgrades, but right now i can playe most games reasonably well, with 60 fps and all that. So it`s not that bad. Today you should have little problem with building a better one, though i have to say that my knowladge is not that great in the field.

 

[Siyano_v1legacy]

the component of my computer costed me about 700CND$ almost 5 years ago, I changed the gfx card (defective) for a newer one 6 month ago with some new rams, I haven't had any trouble playing Tomb Raider or Bioshock!
(Quad 2.4 Ghz with 4 GbRam, Radeon Hd 6700 Series)

personal big gift, 32 inch LED screen

 

[RicoADF]

yes you heard right, I use a TV via HDMI connection

Doesn't that introduce some significant input lag? IIRC, the best speed you can get with a display is if you're connecting via dual-link DVI or even RGB.

No I've never seen any input lag, and considering both PS and xbox 360 use HDMI also I'd doubt it's a connection vunerable to the issue (atleast I've never noticed any).

 

[Inconspicuous Trenchcoat]

I initially paid about $670 for mine in January of 2010. Since then, upgrades have raised the total to about $1,157. Yeah, so I've put $1,157USD into my PC over 3 years and 3 months. This doesn't include the monitor, as I already had one. And I received Windows 7 as a Christmas gift--conveniently, the month before I ordered the PC.

It still runs everything I want to play well, except The Witcher 2 (it's perfectly playable, but I wish it ran a bit smoother). I know it also struggles more than I'm comfortable with in modern MMOs, which just gives me another reason not to play them, which is probably for the best.

I'm planning to splurge on my next build though (no idea when that's gonna be; probably will build in time for The Witcher 3 for maximum prettifulness). #YOLO . But, yeah, I have the money to burn for the first time in my life, so I figured that I'd like a top of the line gaming PC at least one time in my life. So, might as well do it soon while it's financially feasible. Cause, who knows, I might be dirt poor in X years.

Some considerations for the OP (that EBay page you bought from was difficult to read)
-From what I've read, that processor is weaker than an i3 processor. It's basically an A10 chip without the integrated graphics. It might suffer in CPU intensive games (Planetside 2, modern MMOs).
-Your power supply is 450W (I think), and it's probably a cheap one. So if you ever upgrade past a 5770/6870/7770/560/450/650/ graphics card, you'll need a better one. I have an off-brand 550W PSU that hasn't exploded yet, so gambling is an option as well.
-A 6670 is a pretty weak GPU at 1080p. Just FYI. I know you don't care, but there you go.

 

[Valkrex]

Welcome to PC gaming sir!

As for you question, I believe I spent about $1000 USD on the parts for my rig about 2 years ago. Putting this bad-boy together was fun.

Antec 900 Case
ASUS Sabertooth X58 MOBO
Corsair HX750 750 watt PSU
16 gb RAM
Intel i7 950 quad-core 3.1ghz (I really wish I knew how to overclock as an upgrade for this would require a new motherboard)
GTX460 Video Card - This I replaced last summer with a GTX680, SUCH a great card.


Enjoy the new machine and happy gaming

 

[Soundwave]

Generally I pay less for PC games than I have for consoles. My laptop cost me about 1300 initially, have bought two cooling whatchamacallits that it sits upon for about 30 each, a wireless keyboard and mouse for 80 and had to look around a bit getting a bag large enough for it (it's 18.3" asus). I think the bag cost me about 100. Altogether cost about 1540-1600 dollars.

Compared to consoles (of just this generation), I've spent about 2000. (3 xbox 360s, 2 wiis, and 3 ps3s at various times in their cycle, due to the systems breaking down prematurely)

This isn't a perfect comparison, as the PC that this laptop replaced cost about 1000 (600 initially, 400 in upgrades over its lifespan), but I did purchase that PC before the xbox 360 was released.

Taking software into account, I've probably spent 1.5-2 times as much on consoles as my pc

It might also be worth taking the cost of the television you use with your console into account.
Mine was about 2000 after rebates w/ the stand, cables, and my surge protector/battery backup. I could count the cost of that set up towards my consoles, except that I also like to run an HDMI cable to my laptop and play it on the big screen.

 

[Lunar Shadow]

I think I have spent roughly 3 or 4 grand USD on my desktop, thought that is largely cause of component failures from being almost a decade old. My initial investment was around 700 USD, but I have literally replaced every single part save for the hard drive due to hardware failure. The last big failure was my old ass motherboard (it had an IDE slot) gave out and I had to replace the processor and RAM cause they were old enough to be obsolete socket type and DDR2, and I had to get an AMD3+ socket DDR3 RAM mobo. Not to mention the occasional power supply failure (that invaraibally took out RAM) That said, over a Decade that isn't too bad, and usually a repair only costs about 100 USD tops unless something catastrophic dies like the mobo or graphics card.

 

[DrOswald]

I have been thinking about the state of console gaming recently, and I'm not liking what I see and hear. I've never like paying for xbox live it always seemed like a massive waste, there are other things I could slag the xbox off for but suffice to say its not perfect. And sadly the future of consoles seems equally as bleak, as its depressing present.

The PC gaming scene has always held a certain allure for me. I have never been one of those people who get a raging boner for hd graphics and the performance of a machine, those things seem utterly shallow and pointless to me. Its the extensive library of games, the MODS, and the comparative cheapness of games. Also the amazing Steam sales (I saw the Witcher2 for £6 the other day, on Xbox the minimum would be around £15).

So I finally relented and bought a PC which I am waiting for at the moment, I also need to buy a monitor, wifi card, mouse, keyboard, speakers, and a headset. Now onto the threads actual point... IT COST and is still going to cost A LOT OF MONEY. I got the pc for £325, the wifi card will be around £15 and the monitor will cost £97, and the other things I have budgeted to get individually for under £5 each.

Its gonna cost around £500 all together... (apologies to any Americans reading this but its costing me around $760) and if its as good as you PC gamer guys say I won't regret it at all. If anyone is interested in the PC here is a link to it http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200886653771?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2648

So how much did you guys pay for your rigs? that is what you call them yes?
Also please don't make any PC gaming master race comments, they churn my stomach and make PC gamers seem terrible.

My computer was around $800 total.

That is a lot of money to pay for a gaming machine, even one vastly superior to any console on the market (and a gaming pc, when used properly, is vastly superior to any console.) But look at it this way: you were going to get a computer anyway. That computer was going to cost a minimum of $500. Your gaming PC actually costs $300, not $800. And in the end, pc gaming is far cheaper than console gaming. You pay a greater upfront cost for the machine, but if you are a serious gamer you will save a huge amount of money in the long run on steam sales alone.

 

[Ascarus]

for anyone considering buying a PC here are a few tips:

1. BUILD IT YOURSELF
2. go here: www.pcpartpicker.com
3. do your research
4. profit

done.

 

[verdant monkai]

Your gaming PC actually costs $300, not $800. And in the end, pc gaming is far cheaper than console gaming. You pay a greater upfront cost for the machine, but if you are a serious gamer you will save a huge amount of money in the long run on steam sales alone.

Actually Mr.American my computer cost me £325. I don't know or care how much that is in dollars as I live in Wales, not the U.S of A, I just put the numbers into google translate.

I consider myself a serious gamer and will be taking advantage of steam sales, but I will continue to spend most of my gaming time on a console, because it is less stressful to use. If you mean superior by way of graphics I do not consider that superiority. Being able to make out more pockmarks on a characters face does not make me enjoy the game more. I will be using the console for exclusives and stuff that I feel would work better on a computer like the Witcher 2 because it was originally a PC game, and Skyrim which I will be modding extensively.

 

[Araksardet]

I spent 5 years gaming on a store-bought POS Toshiba Satellite that cost me about 800$, yet I still managed to play Skyrim and Mass Effect and what have you without issues. Funnily enough, only Trine really made it chug.

Now I've got a Lenovo Y580, on sale for around 900$ just before Windows 8 hit. With luck, it'll last me another 4 years, though maybe less if console releases truly make PC games so much more resource intensive. Still, there are sooooo many indie, mid-range and Kickstarter games coming out that I won't have time to play and that won't hog my system; I'm not worried.

 

[goodman528]

I built a gaming computer 6 years ago for 1100 GBP, and it can still run most of the latest games today:
2.6GHz quad core
2GB RAM with 32bit operating system
8800GTX GPU
22" 1600x1050 2ms monitor

I bought a gaming laptop last year for 580 GBP, and it can run anything I've put on it so far, call of duty, medal of honor, wargame:EE, diablo 3, etc:
second gen i-3 processor 2.4GHz quad core
4GB RAM with 32 bit os
nVidia GT560M GPU
17" 1900x1200 2ms monitor

My advice would be:
Spend a lot of money on the non-electrical parts and don't bother getting good GPU or CPU or RAM, because in 6 years time, the case and heatsink and cooling and stuffs will be worth more money than you bought it for, but the electricals will be worthless and obsolete.

 

[thunderbug]

My PC is around £1400, 3770k, 7970, 16Gb ram, 2SSd raid 0, 1050 xfx modular PSU, 4TB storage, Asus Sabretooth Z77 board, Raven RV01 Case.

But tbh i didnt need all this to enjoy Pc gaming, i build my cousin a PC for £400 and it dosnt struggle with anything.

Pc gaming isnt as expensive as people make out plus u still have all the functionality of a PC whereas the consoles u dont.

 

[DrOswald]

Your gaming PC actually costs $300, not $800. And in the end, pc gaming is far cheaper than console gaming. You pay a greater upfront cost for the machine, but if you are a serious gamer you will save a huge amount of money in the long run on steam sales alone.

Actually Mr.American my computer cost me £325. I don't know or care how much that is in dollars as I live in Wales, not the U.S of A, I just put the numbers into google translate.

Ok, I am not sure why you are so hostile about me using dollar amounts. The point I was making is so simple that you don't need to understand the relative value of currency. This is 5 year old level reasoning. 8 is a number larger than 3. You think your cost is 8, but it is actually 3. This is because you were going to spend 5 no matter what, so 8 - 5 = 3.

The point is that the actual cost of PC gaming is much lower than most people realize.

I consider myself a serious gamer and will be taking advantage of steam sales, but I will continue to spend most of my gaming time on a console, because it is less stressful to use. If you mean superior by way of graphics I do not consider that superiority. Being able to make out more pockmarks on a characters face does not make me enjoy the game more. I will be using the console for exclusives and stuff that I feel would work better on a computer like the Witcher 2 because it was originally a PC game, and Skyrim which I will be modding extensively.

You will notice that I never said that PC's are better because they have better graphics. PCs are just objectively better gaming machines than consoles when used properly. I will now list some of the reasons why:

The most extensive and varied library of games on any possible gaming machine
Far cheaper games
A vast selection of free, professional quality games
A much more varied selection of genres available
Far more cheap and interesting indie games are available
Much more reliable backwards compatibility
The choice between keyboard/mouse, controller, or any other style of input (so long as you own the input hardware)
Faster load times
Modding
The ability to quickly and easily switch between gaming and other tasks or to another game

I could go on but I think you get the idea. PC's are better at every single thing to do with gaming except convenience. The only thing that consoles have on PC's is that they require less technical knowledge to use and are therefore sometimes easier to use.

I was not making a "PC gaming master race comment". I like consoles. I own a PS3, and X360 and a Wii. I plan on owning at least the Wii U and one of the other big two. I love console gaming, but my own experience has shown me that PC's are simply better gaming machines.

 

[Aesir23]

I don't really have a "rig" to speak of unless you wish to apply that term to a five year old computer that's scarcely been upgraded in that time.

I actually only recently switched to PC gaming as well after noticing the downward spiral that console gaming seemed to be heading towards. I spent my tax return on a brand new Corsair 650W power supply and a Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 1GB card just so I could actually run games that have been released in the past three years without my computer imploding upon itself.

Although even with those upgrades I still have my eye on the high powered gaming PC my friend designed for me (which somehow managed to drop in price from $2300 to $1900 in four months). Mostly because it's still a trial to run certain games (primarily Skyrim which is inherently buggy to begin with) due to the fact that my CPU is still quite old, I only have 3 GB of RAM and I only have a 32 bit OS which as far as I'm aware will make buying additional RAM pretty much useless since it's limited to how much RAM it can use.

Needless to say, I can hardly wait to graduate college and actually be employed.

 

[itsmeyouidiot]

Cost is the main reason why I think PC gaming is overrated.

Don't get me wrong, it has its obvious benefits, but the cheapest gaming computer you'll see will be roughly $500, whereas the Wii U currently costs $350 and the Xbox 360 and PS3 cost $250.

Most AAA titles are also just as expensive for the PC as they are for consoles. Bioshock Infinite on Steam is $60, just as it is as physical copy on a console.

Until we start seeing gaming computers cost $350 or less, I don't think they'll replace consoles anytime soon.

 

[MrTub]

Cost is the main reason why I think PC gaming is overrated.

Don't get me wrong, it has its obvious benefits, but the cheapest gaming computer you'll see will be roughly $500, whereas the Wii U currently costs $350 and the Xbox 360 and PS3 cost $250.

Most AAA titles are also just as expensive for the PC as they are for consoles. Bioshock Infinite on Steam is $60, just as it is as physical copy on a console.

Until we start seeing gaming computers cost $350 or less, I don't think they'll replace consoles anytime soon.

At least in Sweden all pc games are at least 100kr cheaper (15$) then console games if you buy them in retail. For an example Bioshock Infinite costs 379kr (57$) on pc and on xbox it costs 549kr (84$). Steam is generally quite expensive since we are forced to buy in euro, thats why I tend to buy from greenmangaming and such sites when I pay in dollar.

(Btw bioshock infinite costs 50Euro on steam atm)

 

[Angelowl]

Bought my current computer three months ago. Paid roughly 800 euros on a holiday sale. For a gaming laptop with pretty much everything I needed for the next decade crammed in.

Intel Core I7 2.4GHz Quadcore
8GB Ram
Invidia Geforce GTX 660M 2GB
750GB HDD

So I can run Crysis, Total War, Civ 5, Skyrim and pretty much everything else at max. Will do just fine 6 years from now. But let's stop measuring internet boobs and instead be constructive.

A few points.

1. Pretty good backwards compability = HUGE library and disgustingly cheap masterpieces.
2. Mods = new life in those old games. S.T.A.L.K.E.R on Cryengine3 anyone?
2.5 Fan Patches. Suddenly I can actually play C&C The First Decade.
3. Steam. Bought Mass Effect, got KOTOR almost for free.
4. Emulators. The WII does this too, but "hi, no-longer-in-production-consoles and never-released-in-europe-games".
5. Elitism

Once you have the computer and know where to look your gaming library will increase tremendously. Now I'm off to tell my highly competetive MMO- & MOBA-playing best friend he's causal because he is too mainstream.