Gaming
[Exposed] PC gaming is too expensive, is it true?
PC gaming is too expensive.
You hear that a lot these days and I don’t blame these people.
When you go online and search for gaming PCs, they can cost thousands.
But do you need to spend that much to get a true PC gaming experience?
Can you get a full PC gaming experience with a cheap PC?
These are all questions we’ll be going over today.
First of all, what makes PC gaming expensive?
I think people often believe there’s a high barrier to entry.
If you want to play less demanding titles such as League of Legends and CS Go.
You can get away with a $300 – $400 gaming PC.
Table of Contents
It all depends on what you want to play
If you’re looking to play the latest blockbuster titles at 4K on max settings, it’ll cost you a couple thousand.
But the majority of titles aren’t even optimized for 4K gaming and there’s really no need.
You won’t be missing out playing at a standard 1080p. You won’t be missing out in the slightest.
There’s still an endless amount of eye candy at a 1080p resolution.
So let’s say you’re a beginner and want an entry level PC but still want the full experience.
You’re going to be spending at least $600.
You won’t be maxing out every game at 60fps but there’s really no need.
If you do want to max out every game and even play at 1440p, you’ll still be spending less than a thousand bucks.
Building VS prebuilt
When starting out PC gaming, I built my first PC. And to be completely honest… it was extremely frustrating.
I felt like punching someone in the face. But still, I’m glad I did it.
If something went wrong, I wasn’t afraid of going into my PC and trying to fix it.
Something will inevitably go wrong, so it’s knowing how to build a computer from the ground up.
When you want to upgrade your PC, it’s not that difficult since you’ve learned how to build it.
A prebuilt PC also isn’t a bad option. In fact, I would recommend it.
Sure, building your own PC is a little cheaper but not by much.
You’re getting a professional building your computer, saving you the headache.
Because when you build it, I highly doubt it will boot up for the first time.
So you’ll be left trying to figure it out and stressing out.
By having a professional build it for you, you would have taken away so much stress. You can plug it in and play.
What about when there are issues?
With a prebuilt PC, you’ll typically get a 1 year guarantee. So you can send it to them and get the issue fixed.
After that 1 year, they often provide lifetime customer support to help you with the issue.
You could also Google and YouTube the issue you’re having like everyone else and fix it.
What about when I want to upgrade?
It’s very easy to upgrade your PC.
Let’s say a few years have gone by and you want to upgrade your graphics card.
You can easily unscrew the installed one and slot the new one in. It’s kinda like Lego.
Building a computer these days isn’t as tough as you think.
You can easily just watch a YouTube tutorial on the part you’d like to upgrade.
Sure, previous experience would help but it’s not necessary.
That’s why I’d recommend a prebuilt PC if you’re starting out because it’s:
- Less headache
- Plugin and play
- Not expensive
Comes with a guarantee - and customer support
Cheap in the long term
The reason why people believe PC gaming is too expensive is because of the initial cost.
When you first get into it, a solid PC will cost you around $600. That’s just a little more than the average console
Console launch prices:
PlayStation 1 – $299
PlayStation 2 – $299
PlayStation 3 – $599
PlayStation 4 – $399
PlayStation 4 Pro – $399
Xbox Original – $299
Xbox 360 Original – $299.99
Xbox One – $499
As you can see, the most popular consoles can go up to $600. And you can get a great gaming PC around that price.
And when you get your gaming PC, you don’t have to upgrade it all at once but in pieces. Saving you money.
There’s no need to wait for a next gen system.
Games
This is where many people could argue that in the long term, PCs are cheaper than consoles.
PC gamers download their games, in fact, many gaming PCs don’t even have an optical drive.
This takes away costs from having the physical games. Developers can even sell the game on their own platform.
Keeping 100% of the money and as a result, lowering prices.
When the latest game is about the release, it’s not difficult to find a version that’s $10 cheaper than the console version.
If you want to play games from a couple of years ago, they are much cheaper.
And if you want to play older games, they go for pennies or just a few dollars.
If you like to play lots of different games, the cost adds up very quickly.
And you can easily slash that in half when gaming on PC.
PC exclusive genres
Consoles have some really epic exclusives such as God of War and The Last of Us.
In fact, the only reason why I got a PS4 and PS5 was just for the exclusives.
However, the PC doesn’t just have exclusive games but exclusive genres.
Here’s the deal…
You can’t play MOBA games like League of Legends and Dota on consoles.
You do have a game such as Smite on console but it’s not the same type of MOBA.
Also, epic strategy games like Civilization and the Total War franchise are exclusive to PC.
You just don’t get these types of games on the console. They simply don’t exist.
You can get every type of game for PC but it’s not the same for a console.
So the worth of entire genres that you get on PC are priceless. For some people, this feature alone is worth it.
Mods
Mods are user generated content.
Picture this… you’re playing a game that you absolutely adore and after 2 years later, you still love coming back to that game.
But there’s one problem, you often wish there were updates to fix some features and even add some features.
However, the developers have completely abandoned the game.
This is probably my favorite thing about PC gaming. Even when developers have stopped working on a game, the community hasn’t.
There’s user generated content (mods) being released for that game. Further expanding the life of a game.
Games like Skyrim just aren’t the same on console.
I couldn’t imagine playing Skyrim without mods. I played The Witcher 3 a couple of years after its release.
Do you know what I did before I even played it? That’s right, I added some mods.
Mods that fixed many of its issues. You see, The Witcher 3 got massively nerfed in the graphics department.
And a few simple mods helped fix that issue. I also didn’t like that you could only carry so much in your inventory.
There was a mod that allowed you to carry as much as you wanted in your inventory.
I didn’t like how you went up to an enemy and manually looted them.
So I installed a mod that allowed you to automatically loot them when you walked over the body.
Little things like this made such a huge difference.
You just can’t do these types of things on the console.
Backward Compatibility
With a console, you’ll have to play that old game by blowing the dust off that old console.
Or hope that there’s a remastered version and purchase it.
With the PC, you only purchase a game one and you’ve already got the best version of the game.
Not to mention, you could even mod it to add more content.
Further saving you money.
Understand the truth
Understand when the consoles say they can play at 4K, it’s not actually true.
They don’t play at native 4K but an upscaled version of it.
The PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 never played at 1080p but just an upscaled version.
A mere fraction of the 1080p graphics. The PlayStation 4 Pro has trouble maintaining 1080p, never mind native 4K.
Even the most powerful PCs struggle to play at 4K, nevermind the consoles.
So understand that when consoles say they play at 4K, it’s not true. They can barely keep up with 1080p.
Which gaming PC should I get that won’t leave me broke?
GTX 1660 Ti 6GB
The graphics card is the heart of a gaming PC. It will play the main role in allowing you to get better performance.
It can run lots of intense games without an issue…
Crysis 3 on max settings at 1080p runs at an average of 95fps. In 1440p it runs at 65fps.
The Witcher 3 on ultra settings with hair works turned off at 1080p gets an average of 88fps. At 1440p, it runs at 60fps.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on ultra settings at 1080p gets an average of 71fps. On 1440p, it gets an average of 53fps.
As you can see, this graphics card can easily max out games whilst keeping at a buttery-smooth frame rate.
Allowing for plenty of performance space to add lots of intense mods.
If you want to upgrade to 1440p gaming, you can do that as well.
Since this GPU can easily max out games and leave lots of head-room. It’ll last you for years to come.
Intel Core i7-9700F
This has an Intel i7-9700F which runs at 4.7GHz and has 8 cores.
This simply means it has plenty of processing power to handle games and other intensive tasks.
Such as video editing and rendering.
16GB DDR4
Games these days can use up to 16GB of RAM and that’s exactly how much this computer has.
16GB will allow your games to run smoothly whilst doing other tasks like browsing the web.
All without causing your game to lag. Talk about a multi tasking machine.
240GB SSD, 1TB HDD
This has Windows 10 already installed on a 240GB SSD. With room to spare so you can install other stuff on there.
An SSD is much faster than the standard hard drive (HDD). So using your computer will be an absolute joy.
Everything will load super quickly and everything will be a lot smoother.
There’s also a 1TB hard drive to store lots of games.
Airflow
There are 5 fans in this rig.
Pulling in cool air, blowing it over your components to cool them down, and finally pulling that now hot air out of the case.
This computer was built by professionals so the cables are nice and tidy.
Allowing air to pass more easily through the system.
Looks
This computer looks stunning. It has a slick, modern look to it being completely black.
And then having those multi colored LED fans that really stand out because of the blacked-out design.
There’s also a window on the side for you to view and admire this epic rig.
It’ll definitely be a talking point in your setup.
Free gaming mouse and keyboard
These guys have even thrown in a free gaming mouse and keyboard.
So when you get this, you can just hook it up to your monitor and start gaming right away.
1 Year Parts & Labor + Free Lifetime US Tech Support
There’s a 1 year guarantee.
So if anything goes wrong, you can just send it back and get it fixed.
Also, you get lifetime free customer tech support.
So when you inevitably run into an issue, these guys will talk you through it step by step.
Are you ready for an epic gaming PC that won’t kill your wallet?
Conclusion
Is PC gaming too expensive?
I think we’ve concluded that it’s not. It all depends on the types of games you want to play.
And as time goes on, your PC will probably work out cheaper because of the dirt-cheap games.