PC prices and misconceptions.

[Ossian]

Seriously!? People on this forum and everywhere in general (Over generalized statement ftw!) are really off on their estimations on how much a PC really costs.
People think you have to upgrade a PC every couple of years, that is true, but only one part, the video card.
Graphics cards only cost around $130 for a great card, no one buys top of the line, it is a waste of money since that card will be on sale in a couple of months.
A good card will run you only about $90-100, this card will run all games on med to high settings, no joke.

I got so angry when I heard someone say a 'gaming' PC will run you $800, ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?
Without looking for deals or sales, I went to new egg, the results are as follows.

Click for results [http://img574.imageshack.us/f/pcprice.jpg/]

Now for those lazy, I "bought"
250gb hdd
Generic motherboard
4GB ram.
Radeon HD5770 1gb Video card.
2.8ghz triple core
and a power supply.
This ran me only
$452.94 (no shipping)
(Disclaimer: Some of these parts might not match each other, as far as compatibility CPU might not fit the mobo, and ram etc, but the prices are right for general parts)

This is better then my PC "gaming" rig which is:
2.3ghz dual core
2gb ram.
Nvidia 8800gt 512mb
500gb hdd

I can run most games before 2008 on highest settings, all new Call of duty games etc can still run on highest with minor FPS dips. New games run on medium, I'll need to upgrade my PC in maybe 2 years, and it will cost me roughly $130

/rant

Okay, seriously, console gamers, learn your facts or go home, a PC hasn't cost $2000 since I was 5 years old. If your thinking of buying a PC, make sure it costs south of $500, unless you are rich or trying to impress that mystical geek girlfriend, its not worth it.

 

[Jandau]

To be fair, buying a bleeding edge PC will cost you an arm and a leg. However, there's no point since there aren't really any games that really take advantage of it since game graphics don't dare outpace consoles. Basically, as you said, you can get a gaming PC for less than 500$. Heck, you can get it prebuilt as long as you don't go for any big brand names like Dell or Alienware.

 

[Ossian]

My friend bought a radeon HD 5880 or some obscene thing and it has graphic options that won't be needed for another 5 years.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Well if you want to play most new games on highest settings then you probably will need to spend around 1,000 but as said that is unnecesaary. People also forget to take into consideration games are cheaper on PCs than consoles.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

bought my PC 2 years ago, haven't upgraded a damn thing, and it still runs beautifully, despite being a Vista machine. granted, the first few months i owned it i wanted to defenestrate it, due to the aforementioned Vista, but the past year or so it's been fine. apparently some of Microsoft's annoying patches have actually improved something for once...

 

[AugustFall]

No case and don't forget Monitor+100 and OS +50 to 100

Most people don't want to build their own PC

A lot of us suck at this sort of thing and I don't want to drop 500 bucks on something we can't get to work.

It will cost about 750-800 to get a decent pre-built PC.

 

[Gxas]

Okay, seriously, console gamers, learn your facts or go home, a PC hasn't cost $2000 since I was 5 years old. If your thinking of buying a PC, make sure it costs south of $500, unless you are rich or trying to impress that mystical geek girlfriend, its not worth it.

However, for a student in college, especially one who is building a computer from scratch and has no parts whatsoever, it seems in the range of $2000. You may be able to build me something right now for less than $500 to make me eat my words, but I refuse to, because I will end up having to upgrade this computer soon in the future. Again and again. If I want to build a computer, I'm gonna make it top of the line so I don't have to worry about upgrading it for a while. I only have so much money to throw around, so if I save up for a huge splurge, its easier on my mind.

 

[PurpleSky]

Had a Radeon x800 graphics card, used it for years until it died, and then I upgraded with a good price. PC's are awesome value for money.

 

[PurpleSky]

No case and don't forget Monitor+100 and OS +50 to 100

Most people don't want to build their own PC

A lot of us suck at this sort of thing and I don't want to drop 500 bucks on something we can't get to work.

It will cost about 750-800 to get a decent pre-built PC.

I suck at this as well man but forums, forums everywhere! There are literally dozens of sites just for you to ask questions in.

 

[Siyano_v1legacy]

My computer costed me about 700$ in the end of the year of 2007 and today I still can play new games with close to highest possible settings (Fallout 3 New Vegas, NFS Hot Pursuit)
Intel Quad 2.4, 2gb ram ddr2, Nvidia 8800 GT, 750 gb HD 7200 rpm, Asus Formula Maximum motherboard

I just hate when people said it cost so much to get a computer, a brand new xbox 360/ps3/wii when its got out was about 400-500$.

 

[Ossian]

Okay, seriously, console gamers, learn your facts or go home, a PC hasn't cost $2000 since I was 5 years old. If your thinking of buying a PC, make sure it costs south of $500, unless you are rich or trying to impress that mystical geek girlfriend, its not worth it.

However, for a student in college, especially one who is building a computer from scratch and has no parts whatsoever, it seems in the range of $2000. You may be able to build me something right now for less than $500 to make me eat my words, but I refuse to, because I will end up having to upgrade this computer soon in the future. Again and again. If I want to build a computer, I'm gonna make it top of the line so I don't have to worry about upgrading it for a while. I only have so much money to throw around, so if I save up for a huge splurge, its easier on my mind.

Wrong, I just built a computer for $452 that will last you at least 3-5 years, when you upgrade you'd pay in the ballpark of $200

My friend just got a PC less then $2000 that will last him probably 10 years, I think he paid around $1200

Stop pulling some magical number out of your butt, I've never seen someone pay $2000 for a PC. If you are you bought it from a scam artist (They go for the name Dell and HP)

 

[AugustFall]

No case and don't forget Monitor+100 and OS +50 to 100

Most people don't want to build their own PC

A lot of us suck at this sort of thing and I don't want to drop 500 bucks on something we can't get to work.

It will cost about 750-800 to get a decent pre-built PC.

I suck at this as well man but forums, forums everywhere! There are literally dozens of sites just for you to ask questions in.

I know dude, I've looked at them. It looks easy but once again, I suck at technical stuff and if something goes wrong then I won't have the first clue where to look.

I probably will give it a go but I was speaking for those less outgoing (then my incredibly un-outgoing self).

 

[Gxas]

My friend just got a PC less then $2000 that will last him probably 10 years, I think he paid around $1200

Well there you go then. Thats what I want. Thats still much more than $500. All I'm saying is that some people look at longetivity as well. $1200 is a lot for a kid in college to save up for a computer. Loans, as well as tuition really put a hamper on these kind of things. You have to take account of everything when looking at these kind of things. Right now, $500 seems like $3000 to me because I am nearly broke, with no prospect of a job until summer comes around. The value of a dollar is different to everyone.

 

[number2301]

I'm gonna have to ask around on here when it comes to building a gaming PC (once I've saved up some money), because, well because of things like this - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/11/03/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-november-2010/4

I'm really not up on modern PCs, so can you explain to me why people say you can put together a high spec gaming machine for £400 but this place says £1000 + monitor and OS? Where does the price difference come from? If I saved up for the machine in the link would that max games out for the next 8 years?

 

[mindlesspuppet]

No case and don't forget Monitor+100 and OS +50 to 100

Most people don't want to build their own PC

A lot of us suck at this sort of thing and I don't want to drop 500 bucks on something we can't get to work.

It will cost about 750-800 to get a decent pre-built PC.

That's because most people are dumb and/or lazy. It's not difficult by any means.

As for getting a decent prebuilt for 750-800, probably not. Decent for internet and word maybe, not for games. The thing with prebuilts (sans premium brands like Alienware) is that they cut a ton of corners where ever they can.

They usually have generic motherboards, with little to no expandability. But perhaps more troubling are the cooling systems and power supplies, these are the single most important components in the longevity of hardware, not a place to cut corners.

I'm gonna have to ask around on here when it comes to building a gaming PC (once I've saved up some money), because, well because of things like this - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/11/03/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-november-2010/4

I'm really not up on modern PCs, so can you explain to me why people say you can put together a high spec gaming machine for £400 but this place says £1000 + monitor and OS? Where does the price difference come from? If I saved up for the machine in the link would that max games out for the next 8 years?

That's really not a good PC. For a little bit more they could have used an i7 and added a ton of performance. They went with a cheap mobo. Overpaid for the ram by a bit. Antec PSUs are awful, they could have gotten CoolerMaster or OCZ for ~60 (they have crazy sales/rebates all the time). They got a Raven 2 case, which is... well.. silly... They could have gotten a comparable or better CoolerMaster or NZXT case for almost half the price (which is why it's weird they skimped on the motherboard). The Solid State Harddrive is pretty unnecessary too. And finally they would have been better off going with a GTX 460 instead of the ridiculously overpriced 470, which doesn't really even preform better...

 

[Jandau]

No case and don't forget Monitor+100 and OS +50 to 100

Doesn't that mean you should factor in a solid-sized HDTV into the price of consoles as well?

 

[Siyano_v1legacy]

If you go out today and go buy a brand new computer from scratch dont pay 1500$ it uselessly too strong for nothing and has no applicable way to use it potential right away, for around half that price you get a pretty decent rig that can last long like 5 (approx) year wich is about slightly more than a console.
Like I said mine is 3 year old and I havent seen a game yet that require me to reduce my setting whatsoever thus making my rig last again more than another 3-4 year before really being unusuable for gaming

 

[omicron1]

I'm all with this. I built my first computer back in ~2001 (Just before Win XP came out) using a couple of parts (Bulky CRT monitor, for instance) from a 1999 Gateway and approx. $300 worth of stuff from Fry's Electronics. From then until ~2009 (when I acquired a laptop of similar specs to my then-computer for $900) I upgraded the computer for about $100 every 1.5 to 2 years (basically, whenever performance dropped below acceptable ranges).

I upgraded the following:
* Graphics card, from an elderly ATI card to a brand-spankin'-new GeForce 6600 GT for ~$80
* Graphics card again, to an 8600 GT for ~$80
* CPU/Motherboard, from an AMD Thunderbird chip to a much faster one (~$120), and again to a dual-core Athlon 7750 Black edition. (~$130)
* Hard disk: I started with a 160gb drive and a 10gb drive (Which I put my O/S on, unwisely), then added a 750GB drive in 2008 for ~$100.

In the end, sadly, airplane travel did the poor thing in - snapped the front cover right off the case, and popped the CPU cooler loose. I'm using my laptop until I have a job and can build a new computer - it's fast enough, and the games aren't really getting more demanding. And so, the story continues!


All told, I probably spent about the same on my desktop over the years as on my laptop. It kept up with the games (It runs Crysis on mixed medium/high settings) and I am well satisfied therewith.

Compare with buying a top-of-the-line PC approx. every 3 years from 2001 to 2009 (for ~$1500 to $2000 each time) and we begin to see the differences...

 

[number2301]

No case and don't forget Monitor+100 and OS +50 to 100

Doesn't that mean you should factor in a solid-sized HDTV into the price of consoles as well?

Not really, people use their consoles on the TV they already have. Although you can, no-one uses their gaming PC through their living room tv.

 

[zehydra]

Gaming PC's get really expensive if you're getting a gaming Laptop though. My laptop was around $2000. Kind of regret it though, since it overheats. Should've gone with a desktop... it would've been much cheaper too.