Minimum cost gaming PC sticky?

[garin94]

A lot of people don't think future wise when buying components and tbh it's quite straight forward to build a PC now at a low budget.

As long as you have a good motherboard, everything else can just fit into place (such as adding RAM, or even adding another GFX Card with SLI/CF)

[Terbinator]

Upgrading is another hindrance IMO when compared to a console in the sense that, i buy in Xbox 360 in 2005 thats all i need to do (HDD arguments/RRoD aside).

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The whole point of starting a sticky is to show that you do not need to spend a lot of money on a gaming PC.

A basic office PC will cost around £300 to £400 for the base unit alone. For around £400 to £500 you can build a PC than can run games at decent settings.

MOST PEOPLE DO NOT REALISE THIS!

My mate built a PC for his friend recently(cost around £500 to £550) and they were surprised and how much power they got for the price. Most people are still equating prebuilt gaming PCs to consoles.

[Terbinator]

Equating in what way?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Equating in what way?

The cost and upgradeability.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I think if you can trawl the second hand market there are many savings to be made. Especially if you can live withour maxing some settings.

If you have a case PSU and preipherals you aer saving alot of money each time you upgrade.

You're usually either upgrading your CPU/MOBO/RAM or GPU or storage.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Cheapest reasonable build I can think of ATM from Ebuyer:

Athlon II X3 450 ~ £58

4GB DDR3 ~ £43

MSI 870A-G54 ~ £65

Inno3D GTX 460 768MB ~ £115

Casecom 6788 ~ £29

OCZ Stealth Xstream II 600W ~ £52

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB ~ £32

LiteOn IHAS124-19 ~ £12

Windows 7 retail ~ £90

The total comes to around £496.

[Terbinator]

But it still can't play Blu-Rays.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

But it still can't play Blu-Rays.

Neither can an XBox360 or a Wii. In fact I know more people with an XBox360 and/or a Wii than a PS3.

The PC can stream HD content from iPlayer or from websites if required.

Remember the separate cost of a PC base unit and a PS3 will be more.

[Terbinator]

Neither can an XBox360 or a Wii. In fact I know more people with an XBox360 and/or a Wii than a PS3.

The PC can stream HD content from iPlayer or from websites if required.

A PS3 can though, which of course you know but its still something it holds over your build.

[razer121]

On another note we also have to remember consoles are more social, you can't invite a mate round a play him on a pc.

You know i swear i can only name a select few games on my ps3 that are 2 player...also i can name a few on my pc that 2 people can play, invalid comment right there.

I think you can be more social on pc, skype for instance with 8 people in all playing 1 game, with the ps3 i've noticed most games are more online now, single player and so on seem to be...well just look at COD6/7

Anyhow i manage to use older gen parts and build a "gaming" pc for under £300 i think if you point out the parts you need to play a ps3/dirtbox and then name the parts you need for a basic pc that can play games....im pretty sure the pc would win in cost, plus the game cost damn...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

A PS3 can though, which of course you know but its still something it holds over your build.

But the two other competitors to the PS3 don't have this either so it is a moot point and both have out-sold it massively. In fact out of all the console gamers I know the few that own a PS3 rarely play any Blu-Rays on it anyway because they are expensive and DVD upscaling is fine for most people. Very few people who have spent loads on DVD boxsets are going to re-buy them on Blu-Ray.

In fact most of the PCs you can buy pre-built for around £450 to £550 don't even have Blu-Ray.

For the same amount you can build a PC which will run games fine and this is not even taking into account any special pricing too.

The games are so much cheaper for the PC than a PS3 too.

Also,I think you are derailing this thread a bit.

[Terbinator]

You know i swear i can only name a select few games on my ps3 that are 2 player...also i can name a few on my pc that 2 people can play, invalid comment right there.

I think you can be more social on pc, skype for instance with 8 people in all playing 1 game, with the ps3 i've noticed most games are more online now, single player and so on seem to be...well just look at COD6/7

Anyhow i manage to use older gen parts and build a "gaming" pc for under £300 i think if you point out the parts you need to play a ps3/dirtbox and then name the parts you need for a basic pc that can play games....im pretty sure the pc would win in cost, plus the game cost damn...

So not inviting friends round then, like he pointed out.
CoD:BO supports splitscreen over PSN/Xlive also, this is before you get to the endless amount of driving, fighting and sports games as well as the social aspect of playing online on a console anyway.

CAT, I'm not derailing at least it isn't my aim. But if you want to offer a PC as a viable option to consoles you have to at least match the base spec. Dropping £450 on a PS3 4 years ago for example it would of been a decent outlay cash wise considering how closely matched games look between PC's and consoles in addition to the Blu-Ray capabilities.

On the games front yes, theyre usually about £10 cheaper, but the games that are PC centric and 'AAA' still tend to be full whack on PC anyway (CoD/SC2).

[ehhhhhhh]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/liteo...m-inc-software

here you go, @ £37 it's kind of a bargain...and I did not even search for better deals, there might be some cheaper options

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

CAT, I'm not derailing at least it isn't my aim. But if you want to offer a PC as a viable option to consoles you have to at least match the base spec. Dropping £450 on a PS3 4 years ago for example it would of been a decent outlay cash wise considering how closely matched games look between PC's and consoles in addition to the Blu-Ray capabilities.

On the games front yes, theyre usually about £10 cheaper, but the games that are PC centric and 'AAA' still tend to be full whack on PC anyway (CoD/SC2).

The XBOX360 and PS3 lack a Blu-Ray drive and have out-sold the PS3. My experience with many console gamers is that the Blu-Ray drive was NOT that important. People bought a disc or two to see what the fuss was about and then realised DVDs upscaled were good enough. The cost of changing over all your DVDs to Blu-Ray is not worth it to many people and the disc based formats will be replaced by on-line streaming. Going from VHS to DVD was a huge jump but going from upscaled DVD to Blu-Ray is not that big for most people.

To be fair lets look at the up-front costs.

You can get a very basic desktop base unit for £300:

http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/inspiron-570-deals/

A PS3 costs around £230:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A7ZP34GQZYDQWB

Total cost is around £530.

Cheapest SATA Blu-Ray drive which can write DVDs on Ebuyer is £49:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/240172

If the DVD rewriter is subsituted with the Blu-Ray drive the total cost of the build comes to around £533.

Now lets factor in the games.

The PS3 games tend to be £10 to £15 more expensive than their PC equivalents . So if you buy 4 games a year this means you are saving at least £40 to £60.

Over 4 years this means around £160 to £240.

Lets assume it is a £240 saving.

This means after two years you could easily get a £120 graphics card. DDR3 will be still around in 2012 so you could get another £60 processor and another £60 motherboard.

If it is a £160 saving you could get a £80 graphics card and then get a secondhand CPU for the same price(a Phenom II X6 for example).

Of course if you sell your old computer bits then the upgrade budget will be more.

I have not also included Steam where you can get PC games very cheaply during sales.

Of course the PC buid I listed has SATA 3.0 an USB3.0 too. The Dell PC lacks this and is a slower computer too.

Many console gamers tend to own more than one console too. Many upgrade to larger TVs because of their consoles and get surround sound systems for this purpose too.

I have been gaming on a budget for years and it surprises how many people think PC gaming is expensive.

[Terbinator]

But 40 millions units, or thereabouts of the PS3 is a significant number.

Another point i raised in the last thread which was in a similar fashion to this is that I would want to buy games, even if they do cost more than a PC equivalent also 'helped' by a general choice of more 'AAA' games being released on console. Of course, there is also the second hand market on consoles as well which is virtually doesn't exist on PC, reducing game cost.