How Much Does Being A PC Gamer Cost Us?
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 7:38PM Travis Wahlstedt ;)
Last week Mike posted a feature talking about how expensive it is to be a gamer and how it feels to be a gamer when you’re low on funds. Well I have decided to one up him with a feature about how much more expensive being a PC gamer is than a console gamer. I will compare a mid-high range PC rig to an Xbox 360 and a PS3. I will be building a PC that can look as good as a 360 and PS3, nothing super amazing but enough to hold its own.
PCs are customizable: that is one of the biggest selling points for PC gaming. You can decide how good your games look and how well they run. It is all about how much money you want to throw into your PC. Consoles, on the other hand, are limited to the hardware they are built with. Consoles are built to last the entire console generation; the problem with that is new technology is released every year that you can put into your PC rig. By the end of the 5 year console cycle (conservatively ) the console is extremely outdated by PC standards. But enough stating facts that everyone knows, time to throw some numbers at you.
An Xbox 360 Elite with 120 GB hard drive costs $299.99; this comes with one controller, a headset, SD composite cables, and an Ethernet cable. Not a bad deal.
To get online with your 360 you will need to pay the yearly fee of $49.99. The PS3 online is free, but then again you get what you pay for with Xbox Live.
A PS3 250 GB costs $349.99; you get a control and built in Wi-Fi. Not a bad deal considering you get over twice the space of an Elite for $50. Let’s not forget that you need a HD TV to show off all your pretty graphic to your friends.
The price of a mid range HD TV that is 50 inches and has 1080p is around $600 - $900. For the sake of this feature we are going to say $600.
Let’s not forget that console games cost $59.99 while PC games only cost $49.99.
So the total cost of an Xbox 360 gaming room is $1009.97. A PS3 gaming room will cost you $1009.98.
Now onto the PC rig. As I mentioned earlier I am not trying to create a breathtaking PC that can run Crysis at max settings, I just want something that can hold its own against a 360 or PS3. This is assuming that you are building your PC yourself and not buying a fully built one from a retailer. I will only be going into things like RAM, CPUs, graphics cards, and cooling fans. I am skipping over all the little things that you could add to your PC.
A 22 inch 1080p LCD monitor costs $191.92. Most PC gamers I know have two monitors connected to their PC and only one is usually HD, but one is really all you need.
If you are playing PC games nowadays you really need a CPU that is around 3.2GHz or 3.4GHz (For comparison sake, the PS3's Cell and the 360's Xenon processors both run at 3.2GHz). Personally I have managed to get my 2.8GHz to run at 3.2GHz level but I will need to buy a new one in the next year or two because soon games will begin to outpace me. But with a 3.4GHz you will be set to play most games on high settings for the next few years. A 3.2GHz CPU with 4 MB is $194.99. Again, comparison wise, this is for a dual-core processor, while the PS3's Cell has seven cores and the 360's Xenon has three).
4 GB of RAM will future-proof you for the next few years so it is easily worth the $104.81 it will cost you. (As long as you are running XP or Windows 7, DON’T use Vista, it is a memory hog!)
An Nvidia (My preferred brand because it has less trouble loading textures than the ATI cards) Geforce 8800 with 512MB and with dual ports for dual screens and HD capability with run you about $149.99 (this one is used, as it was all I could find on Amazon so just know that this is cheaper than it would be new). With this bad boy you will be able to run any game your heart desires on high.
With all of this expensive equipment it is bound to really heat your computer, which is why it is a good idea to protect your investment with a cooling fan. They are an inexpensive way to keep your computer from melting from the inside out because of all the heat you’re generating. A fan will only cost you $15.00 which is a great deal considering how helpful it is for your computer.
Once you build your computer you could just use a standard mouse and keyboard, but you just spent so much cash on a bad ass gaming rig; you might as well go all the way and get yourself a gaming mouse and keyboard.
A decent gaming mouse will run you $44.41 and a keyboard with programmable keys and back lights is $68.52.
Finally if you’re going to be doing any online gaming then you will need a gaming headset. A decent gaming headset is $45.55.
Now with your entire gaming PC built and all your accessories bought it is time to tally it all up. Remember that a 360 is $1009.97 and a PS3 is $1009.98. The total cost of your gaming PC with one game is $865.18! That’s right, a PC that is as good looking as either console will cost you close to $150 less. Keep in mind that is assuming that you already have a PC with motherboard and all the other tiny important parts that make a PC run.
Now I need to mention the used gaming market before finishing this article off. Yes the PC doesn’t have a large used game market like the consoles do. It is much harder to buy and sell used games because GameStop and BestBuy don’t take used PC games, also PC gaming has turned almost exclusively download only. Sure you still see box copies of games but it is assumed that most PC gamers simply download their games from direct two drive services. PC gamers might not have a used game market but we have a lot of sales! Steam offers dozens of games from 10%-75% off every week! Sure it is not as robust as the used game market, but it is something.
Both ways of gaming have merit, no matter which you choose you are sure to have a rewarding gaming experience! I even surprised myself by doing this article, I was sure that PC gaming would be much more expensive than either console. Turns out I am wrong, but that is no real surprise. If you feel like fact checking me or assembling your own PC I have linked every Amazon post I used to compile my PC cost. All the 360 and PS3 prices was from Gamestop.com. If you think any of my PC hardware isn’t comparable to a console or my math is off let me know in the comments. I would also love to hear what PC rigs you guys have!
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Reader Comments (11)
Interesting article ...
The motherboard is rather essential to the PC gaming experience as without it all your awesome parts will not be able to communicate. And you'd need a case to put it all in, and a power supply to run it all. I think all those are essential and should be included in the price.
My PS3 is running on a SynchMaster 2333, which is also less than your quoted $600 HDTV.
My PC is way old ... still running a Geforce 6600 GT, 512mb RAM, 2600+ AMD Athlon. Hopelessly outdated, spec wise.
That's an interesting comparison, but nearly two-thirds of the cost of the console setup is the TV. That wildly pushes up the cost of a console, which is misleading. A high-definition TV is beneficial for watching TV and movies as well as playing games; it's something you're likely to have even if you don't have a game console.
For example, most of my extended family have HDTVs, and none of them play games. (Nor are they simply rich enough to buy stuff for the sake of it; a HDTV is a significant investment to them, but they get a lot out of it.)
A high-definition computer screen, by comparison, is really only more useful than a standard-definition monitor if you play games, unless you happen to be a digital artist or something. If you really take advantage of the 1080p resolution on a 22" monitor while browsing web pages or using Office software, all you'll get out of it is eyestrain.
It's reasonable not to include the full cost of all the computer parts for this comparison, since most non-gamers do have a basic computer. But to make it fair, you also shouldn't include the cost of the TV, since plenty of non-gamers have HDTVs for the benefit they provide outside of gaming. That brings the cost of the gaming console down to $409, which compares a lot more favourably to the $865 PC.
Although I don't agree with your conclusion, I enjoyed the article, and I thought you were fair-minded about it even though the comparison was flawed. For the record, I play games on both PC and Xbox 360, and while I find the experience of playing from a sofa with a gamepad more enjoyable, I'm addicted to the Steam download deals!
A working version of Windows XP is $70.
I kinda agree that people already have a TV at home, but what you do on your TV could be done on your computer. I think in the end, until you can interact properly with your PC from the sofa, consoles will stay the comfiest platform. Could be interesting to compare the price of the sofa VS the price of the desktop chair :-p
I love the talk we got going on here!
I was working on the assumption that the PC gamer would already have a basic computer so they would already have a motherboard and a case, and in theory all of the parts I mentioned should fit in a basic pc case.
I will admit that I know nothing about HD TVs and i just asked my friend what a mid ranged HD TV would cost, he just ball parked it I believe.
I included the HD TV because i think it is essential to great gaming experience. Since i included a HD TV i also had to include a HD monitor (though admittedly looking back, maybe comparing the same size screens would have made more sense.)
Oh and Gentimouton, I think a desktop chair as comfortable as a sofa would probably be much more expensive than a sofa haha.
When you are putting all these new parts into a PC, chances are that your old power supply is not going to keep up.
Motherboard wise, you will need a new one if you are buying a Core i5, as the socket (LGA 1156) is totally different and replaces the older LGA 775 sockets. So ... new CPU = new Mother Board.
I'll give you the case though :P, and I agree that the discussion is good!
Charlie Boy, this goes against all I stand for but I am partial to the PC verses a console!
I have no technological arguement for this but MAYBE people wouldn't get as fat planting their butt's in a desktop chair rather than a sofa. Do you know how hard/risky it is to eat or drink around a computer?! Yes. That is my spiel.
GO SIMS EXPANTION PACK! :)
Ha thanks for agreeing with me Sydney. I think your argument is broken though, I am the fattest writer here at NMGB and I am the biggest PC gamer. So that means PC make you fatter than consoles.
Ach nein, du idiot! :)
Ich spielen gern PC!
Du hat eine gross bauch nicht!
You make good points but they do not fit everyone, and after buying a case, MOBO, and CPU your cost for the PC is much higher, and I don't care about HD, so in my situation the price is very flip flopped...
/correction CPU = PSU