Features - QOTW: Can you build a gaming PC for less than an Xbox One?

[synaesthesia]

We all know how you pronounce CiT. I'm intrigued though, is that seriously a motherboard for 25 quid?

[Darision]

wow, this rig should be better than the xbox one too since you can do alot more than just play games on it and access some media features! its a shame consoles arnt as versatile as computers

[hiddenwindowsol]

Able to share the name of this generous supplier? or by "my supplier" do you mean local company?
I have a friend who runs a PC shop and afaik he always go to the same place for parts, but was complaining the other day that he's got to spend over a certain amount before he starts getting any sort of discount, which surprised me because they seem to order a lot!

My suppliers are three fold. Two are direct distributors,Intel and AMD both have a small business division I work closely with, as well as my other other major parts supplier being a wholesale operation(and no I won't give the name sorry).

[crossy]

Not that interested with this QOTW, as it seems to be custom built to raise the hackles of all the fanboys out there, i.e.:
1. AMD v's Intel - lots of low performing cores v's fewer high performing ones;
2. NVidia v's AMD graphics - note I don't count Intel - that's something you use only if you can't fit a card from the Red or Green teams.
3. SteamOS v's Windows - better-tailored v's game support. (In an ideal world we wouldn't use Windows for gaming)
4. Console v's PC - black-box ease of use v's flexibility.

One thing I will say is that while there's been some intriguing suggestions as to configurations (once you ignore all the fanboy flak to- and fro-), I really think that to be "correct" you've got to assume a clean slate for your XBone replacement. So that means saying "well, I've got a spare SSD so that'll cost me £0" is a "fail" in my book, heck even using a "spare" keyboard and/or mouse shouldn't be allowed. Otherwise the XBone proponents should be allowed to factor in a discount for trading in an XBox360!

You probably CAN build a gaming PC for less than the cost of an XBone, but what would fascinate me is if someone @Hexus could build the best suggestion and see how it performs v's that XBone. After all, it's no good saying that you have built a gaming PC if the gaming performance is worse than that of an original XBox.

Final thought though is that despite the manifest unsatisfactory nature of Windows gaming, that's what I've been doing most of in the past twelve months. Despite the old '360 giving an "easier" and "quicker" gaming fix - the graphical abilities and software value-for-money of the PC has won out. And no, I'm still not intending to get an XBone or PS4 - the '360 is good enough.

[shaithis]

Seems a silly QOTW as the real question under-pinning this is:

Is anyone really going to build a PC for 350 quid instead of buying an XBox One?

I doubt it.

[marshalex]

Seems a silly QOTW as the real question under-pinning this is:

Is anyone really going to build a PC for 350 quid instead of buying an XBox One?

I doubt it.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there with the whole debate. In all fairness you should need to account for XBL Gold subscription for multiplayer gaming with this budget (adds around £30), which may tip things in a more favorable direction if you remove the windows license, not to mention the time it takes to build a PC from scratch, install the OS etc.

If Microsofts reported Bing sponsored free version of Windows 8.1 arrives then the SteamOS vs Windows arguments will be completely nullified, depending on what other restrictions are put in place which might hamper gaming

[directhex]

A reasonable & related question is whether there will be significantly higher than XBone-spec Steam Machines, for the £350 mark. Could Dell do it? (hint: if they wanted to, yes)

[gareth_25]

Here's one i made earlier:

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£77.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Pro3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£49.47 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: GeIL Enhance CORSA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£36.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£33.54 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R7 260X 1GB Video Card (£86.85 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Merc Beta (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£29.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£29.57 @ Amazon UK)
Other: Steam OS (£0.00)
Total: £344.40

[Ant59]

It seems I win



GTX 760 build, for less than an Xbone

(btw Hexus, your "no links under 5 posts" filter doesn't account for https links )

[marshalex]

It seems I win



GTX 760 build, for less than an Xbone

(btw Hexus, your "no links under 5 posts" filter doesn't account for https links )

Thats a lot more than you can get an xbone for....

[robkewley]

Steam OS

[Lucifer.:LLS:.]

An OEM version of Windows? I hope you aren't advocating that end users purchase and use this themselves? Thankfully the retail version isn't that much extra.

[crossy]

If Microsofts reported Bing sponsored free version of Windows 8.1 arrives then the SteamOS vs Windows arguments will be completely nullified, depending on what other restrictions are put in place which might hamper gaming

Colour me dubious on the Bing-sponsored (translation: ad-sponsored) version of Windows 8.1 ... I'll believe it when, (and IF), I see that on the shelves.

The (mythical?) "free" version of Windows 8.1 would remove the zero-cost advantage of SteamOS, but then again you've still got things like licensing terms etc to consider. It's a common mistake to assume that the folks pushing SteamOS are merely looking at the wallet hit, but there's other aspects too - e.g. using an OS that's been stripped of "unnecessary" parts to make it more suitable for gaming.

[davesom555]

An OEM version of Windows? I hope you aren't advocating that end users purchase and use this themselves? Thankfully the retail version isn't that much extra.

I thought the deal was you could buy this version of Windows if you were purchasing hardware at the same time.

[scaryjim]

Is anyone really going to build a PC for 350 quid instead of buying an XBox One?

I doubt it.

I would. I have no interest in console gaming, but a general purpose PC on which I can game interests me. That's why my £410 last year went on an A10 laptop - good for my general use case but powerful enough to play plenty of games at low to moderate settings (especially on the nasty 15" 1366x768 panel it's got ).

Of course, that kind of isn't the question either - the question is whether you'd spend £350 on a PC just for gaming rather than buy an XBox one. At which point you wouldn't - you'd either buy the XBox One or put your money back in your pocket. But if someone walked up to me today, and gave me £350 that I had to spend on either an XBOne or a PC, I'd build a PC.

An OEM version of Windows? I hope you aren't advocating that end users purchase and use this themselves? Thankfully the retail version isn't that much extra.

Why not? Perfectly legal. The OEM license is just more restrictive than the Retail one.

[shaithis]

I would. I have no interest in console gaming, but a general purpose PC on which I can game interests me.

Exactly my point.....