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Gaming PC Makers Take Aim at Lucrative Niche
Cymage writes "Yahoo (Reuters) reports that gaming PCs are now a high profit area, and that the bigger players (Dell, HP) are trying to get into the market: 'In an age when a new PC can cost just a few hundred dollars, an adolescent need for speed is creating a profitable niche for souped-up gaming computers at the ultra-costly end of the market.' How many people really spend $5,000 on a gaming machine? Mine cost less than $2,000, and I can play UT2k4 and others on it just fine."
"With price tags from US$2,000 to $5,000, the market is luring heavyweights..."
:)
I can't see myself paying that much for a gaming machine. I can buy a PS2/XBOX/GAMECUBE for less than 200 dollars. I could even buy all three and a decent amount of games for each system for less than 2,000. I know, they can only play games but isn't that the point of a gaming pc? I wouldn't want to put my gaming pc on the internet, because then I would have to worry about viruses, which means I have to install a firewall, virus scanner etc which would just slow down my game play. A gaming system works like it should. I don't have to make sure I have the newest video card, all games will work. It plays games with no blue screens, drivers to intall, or patches. Not to mention its easy to stick in my car and play where ever I can find a tv.
I just want my phantom console.
Great, but why did it take them so long to figure out that people don't need new 3GHz Dells just to run word processors and internet explorer (at least until MS Longhorn comes out...)?
Left 4 Dead Gaming Group - http://www.l4dgg.com
It's simple. The people that buy pre-tweaked gaming PCs are people that want to play games but don't want to build the machines themselves. Those people DO exist, you know.
real gamers build their machines :-D and yes there is no reason for forking 5000 on one, hell I think some voodoo pcs are cheaper than that, though its best to build your own. pick your parts that you know work well.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
About a year ago, I built my own system that was quite comperable for one of the high end Alienware computers of the time, and my cost was about 2000$ less than what Alienware was charging at the time, I don't see why one would pay 5000 for a system they can get for significantly less if they find someone who can put togeather parts for them.
I encrypt all my files with Double XOR Encryption!
Mine costs 500 and it plays UT2004 just fine as well. What it comes down to: there are always people out there that will pay for fancy hardware when something much more simple will due. Remember, there are lots of people who buy fancy sports cars and SUVs who drive to the store and soccer games.
Like in any industry, there will be the ultra-highend enthusiast niche. Alienware, VoodooPC, Falcon NW, and others have been catering to these kind of users for years. Any commentary about pricing is pointless: these people pay big bucks to get bragging rights to the fastest, most tricked out, and beautiful (damn, that alienware case is gorgeous) machines money can buy.
It's the same in many industries, especially the automotive industry. Any commentary about how "it's different with cars, they aren't obselete in 3 years" is pointless: the automotive industry's pace of improvement and innovation is much, much slower than the PC industry's.
And just like with cars, we have nerds who buy honda civics and rice them up with neon lights, big, loud heatsink fans, awesome paintjobs, spoilers, etc etc. (case modders if you're dense).
------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
It's pretty crazy that people spend huge amounts of money like that for a gaming PC. I just built a really damn nice one with an Athlon 64 3200+, GeForce FX5900, 8x dual-format DVD-burner, 1GB of RAM, and 160GB and 120GB hard drives for less than $1000. Even with a brand new ATI X800 XT instead of the 5900, it would be less than $1500 and be able to handle any game out now, next year, the year after, etc.
If they can't put it together themselves, they could hire the local nerd or small computer shop to do it for them. Even if it costs them $250 for the guy to put it together, they still come out WAAAAAAAY ahead.
I really think that people who buy $5000 gaming desktops have too much money and not enough sense.
Console drawback #1: Closed bootloader. Without a modchip or a buffer-overflow exploit, the consoles cannot run games from studios that aren't yet big enough to attract a Major Licensed Publisher's attention. Imagine a CD player that can't play CDs from outside the RIAA. Modchips violate the DMCA and foreign counterparts, and non-hackers would find it even harder to set up a buffer-overflow exploit (as seen in Phantasy Star Online for GameCube and MechAssault for Xbox) than to set up a dedicated gaming PC.
Console drawback #2: No widespread support for keyboard and mouse. Many players prefer to use a keyboard and mouse for some game genres such as shooters and battlefield simulations, but console games tend not to try to read them, even if you have a keyboard and mouse hooked up through the PS2 or Xbox console's USB port.
...Macs, and then you will have a good idea who would pay that kind premium.
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You will need your Troll +3 to see past the Mac zealots on this one.
Truth is that Unreal 2004 doesn't require a monster gaming box to run decently. It runs just fine on my son's p3 850 with geforce4 4400.
A better question is how Far Cry runs, as thats about the only current game out that brings machines to their "knees".
Sometimes my arms bend back.
PCs are better than video game consoles for certain types of games, mainly strategy and RPG games.
Until video game consoles come up with good replacements for the keyboard and mouse, that fact will remain.
In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
Admittedly, comparing computers to cars is usually pretty weak. However...
There is a good comparison here. A (new) US$15000 will drive on any road the same as just about any other car.
There are people who just want a car.
There are people who will, as another poster commented, buy Honda Civics and modify them to the point where you can no longer recognize them.
There are also plenty of people who will buy very expensive sports cars that have already been modified. Not every driver who wants to go fast is a mechanic.
Not every teenager who wants a fast gaming machine is a geek either.
What's that smell? Ah, that's my karma burning...
HP, on the otherhand, I wouldn't even think about. $diety bless them for continuing with the Compaq Proliant server line, and they make a good printer, but I have never been impressed with an HP desktop machine (or Compaq for that matter). In my mind they can't be viable choice for a super-high performance rig if they can't get a corporate-email-word-processing workstation right.
You results may vary.
I think the same philosophy goes to having a comfortable bed, chair, etc. Money's made to be spent, and what better place to spend it than on something I use most every day?
Including their $48 "heavy duty" power cable, and their $21 10-foot ethernet cable.
As cool as some of the features on that box look, those two details make me think rip-off.
Any builders out there able to tell us an estimated cost of building this one themselves?
I just a bought a new graphics card and ended up choosing a low end card that seems to work great.
Part of my decision to not buy something better was basic psychology.. It's like how the average human brain can't percieve the difference between a 90watt and a 100watt light bulb.
Sure the high end card can pump out a shit load more FPS - BUT.. can my brain detect that difference? While the difference might be apparent between a really low-end vs. a really high-end, what about between two cards toward the high-end? Is it really worth the extra $100 for the best card on the market if a cheaper card differs by less than 10% FPS and consequently you don't notice that difference?
I've always stayed toward the lower end because I don't think the performance gains in a high end machine are worth the extra $$$ especially at the current rate of obsolescence. I upgrade when the cost of doing so falls to less than a $100.
I'm not a psychologist though and my understanding is really limited to the classroom discussion of lightbulbs. I would be really interested if a more knowledge person replied and explained if I'm on the right track or pulling thoughts out of my ass.
Lets say Dell actually started funding video game development. IT would be a friggin disaster.
They would force they programmers to ensure that new games don't run on old hardware, so DELL could bundle crap, and cram $4000 dollar PCs down peoples throats who are intested in playing the awesome new game.
Pretty much what MS did with Halo.
"As low as $144 per month!"
Ok, if you have to apply for credit to buy a PC you don't need to buy that PC. Computers are one of those things that if you can't afford to pay for it all at once then you shouldn't be buying it. This isn't a car or a house.
...the elitists of the world would want some way to stratify PC ownership. Same reason that there are Kias, and there are Porsches. The small-penis crowd needs to validate itself through what it owns.
.sig, I don't share this info around anywhere generally (or here specifically in case you'd think I'm metaphorically waving my member around). Why do I have it? Because I play some games (WW2OL is a good example) that really do play better with high-end machines and the horsepower = better graphics, higher screen resolutions, fewer stutters, etc. Simply put: more fun. And the fact that it's a high end machine doesn't mean I want to flaunt it, it means that I can afford it within my budget of discretionary $$, at least equivalent to the fun I get out of it.
Maybe you could squeeze a little more blatant envy in there, but I doubt it. Unless you're willing to contend that driving a Kia is the same experience as driving a Porsche, that's a pretty meaningless statement.
Look, the difference between a Kia and a Porsche is about $50,000 (give or take).
If $50,000 is a smaller % of my income than the "fun factor" I'd get out of driving it, then I'd buy a Porsche. Yes, for *some* people that fun-factor has to do with gratuitous exhibition of wealth, I suppose. But I know quite a few guys that have Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, etc. that DON'T drive them around daily but only for fun on closed circuits or on rallies. How is this explained in your penis-exhibition theory?
Likewise, I have a good system - not cutting edge but top of the line when I built it 18 months ago. I don't put my system specs in my
Sorry, but I'm just so sick of this class envy crap. I know it's a political year and we're all getting class-war propaganda dumped on us by one party 24/7, but still....
-Styopa
$3000 - $5000? That's just insane. It doesn't take more than $600 to enjoy games on your latest P4.
Everone can afford atleast a P4 2.4Mhz with decent memory and space for $500 these days. Add another additional $400-$600 and you can get yourself a nice video card and a good sound system to with it. So there you go. In less than $1300, you have yourself a gaming and a desktop system.
Ok, a few things..... First, you said decent case and power supply. Yes, you can get a case and power supply for $35 - $50 using sites like www.mwave.com. However, if you give a crap about your system and plan on putting in a kick ass video card later, don't ever use the power supplies that come with these cases. They will underpower your whole rig, and then you'll be sorry when you have to replace the motherboard due to bad power. Read this article, and you'll understand a lot more about power supplies and why free ones with cases are bad:
Power
Second, I agree with you that memory is not as important as some people pay for it, but still, 2-2-2 memory is faster than the standard stuff you get, and does indeed improve performance if the rest of your rig is able to keep up already.
A big, simple reason innovation in cars (or airplanes, or coffee makers) is slower than that in computers: computers are still a young industry. Bill Gates likes to use this sort of comparison by way of arguing that MS hasn't stifled innovation: "If airplanes had changed as much between 1980 and today as computers, they'd fly us cross-country for 50 cents in ten minutes," that kind of thing. But all those other industries changed at a vastly higher rate when they were young too. Flying machines changed an awful lot from Santos-Dumont's balloons to World War I to the German jets at the end of WWII, in every imaginable way, right?
But back to your point: Cars won't be obsolete in 3 or 5 years, and that difference really isn't "pointless." If I trick up my Civic, it'll be out-of-style in three years, but it'll get me there on the gas they sell at SA. With a gaming computer, I can spend through the nose and be below box specs for some of the games that come out next year. Partly that's just the young industry again. But you know, you can still find places to land your biplane.
Between the gaming wonks trying to one-up each other and the game studios whose idea of innovation is better texture effects in FPS titles, the lack of imagination is pretty amazing. You'd think this would be such a creative thing, games, but instead we get the equivalent of U.S. blockbuster movies over and over again. You'd think the wonks would at least show some individuality in their tastes... Car geeks and EAA airplane kit builders are a lot more interesting, for my two cents.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I didn't try to get through the flash-soaked link, but my sig has my latest (April) journal entry for my dream desktop PC. It's a Dual Opteron, 1 GB ram, 9800 Pro, RAID-ed, 3-flat panel monitor setup for under $6K.
Now, it's about time to update it again, since the next generation of video cards are out, and 2GB RAM might actually make a noticeable difference. These things will add a few hundered dollors to the price, but you still have to keep in mind that this also includes $2K worth of monitors.
So basically, I can't build a *reasonably* uber-PC that costs more than $4000 w/o monitor. I suppose I could add some extra like neon lighting and LCD readouts, etc, but even those would only add a few bucks to the total price. Maybe these guys offer one *heck* of a warranty to back up their product.
For the past 20 years, I have been an avid computer gamer and have had countless hours of fun playing games from Manic Miner and Jetpac, through Speedball 2 and Alien Breed, to Doom(s), Civilization(s), Half-Life & Unreal (Tournament(s)).
Today, I still play all of those games, some through the marvels of emulators. All of them, and more, are as immersive now as they were then.
However, I think we would be in agreement that playing Manic Miner at a higher frame rate or resolution would not enhance, in any way, the excellent playability of the original game.
Carrying this forward through my list of games, whilst many of them enjoy 3D rendering technology and first-person perspective, they all have one thing in common - they are all just games.
What I mean by this statement is that I do not need to be immersed in lifelike graphics in order to enjoy gaming - that's because I am possessed of an intellect that tells me that when I am staring at a PC monitor blasting aliens/jumping ledges, I am in a fantasy state of conciousness. At this level of conciousness, I immerse myself (thank you very much) into a game - sure, graphics will assist in my self-propelled immersion but the main catalyst for rocketing me into that world of make believe will be... and allow me to blow the dust off of this word as it has not one that is often used... gameplay.
Now, call me revolutionary but I don't actually give a tinker's nostril about a game that is whizzing past me at 50000 frames per second at 20480 x 10240 resolution if I have to keep simultaneously poking my brain through my earhole to stop it going comatose through lack of stimulation.
Therefore, if you don't mind, I think I'd rather stay just here, building my bland white-coloured PCs with 100 pound/euro/dollar graphic cards for 1/4 of the cost of one of your "HumungoFastPenileViper GX" gaming PCs, secure in the knowledge that I retain enough currency to enjoy financing some social contact and interaction in the real world also.
Good day to you.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
In other words, for $800 you bought a bargain basement motherboard that might be untrustworthy (leaky capacitors?), half the CPU performance, 1 GB of unreliable no-name RAM (does it even pass memtest86?), overclocked it (is this thing stable at *all*?), and a PSU that probably drops voltage when doing anything 3D. If you aren't paying $80 or more for a PSU alone you aren't spending enough.
A high powered rig *will* make you perform better in a resource intensive game such as Dark Age of Camelot, where the computer must render hundreds of characters and effects simultaniously at a high framerate to keep you in the battle. I play on a 3GHz P4 with a gig of ram and a Radeon 9800 pro, and I still have some trouble in certain situations with a large number of players. And yes, my system is *very* clean.
I keep forgetting my place. Jesus is for losers. Why do I still play to the crowd?
Some of those machines hardly ever get used to the limits of their capabilities, and for those people it's all about *bling-bling*. I have been asked on several occasions by friends and co-workers to build them a machine that would rival my own in performance and at their request I would install windowing kits and neon lights so they can have nothing more than a pretty screen saver as a conversation piece on their living room desktop. Within a year these same machines are typically returned back into my hands clogged with spam and riddled with spyware. The owners complain of the machine getting too old and slow and then they begin the process all over again, upgrade, show off, rebuild.
I'm not complaining, these people help me keep enough money in my pocket to make my gaming habits virtually free.
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Free your mind - Flush your toilet
Just out of curiousity, what has your PC morphed into? What are the current specs?
Don't worry, I am not asking you in order to set you up to say "ooh, look mine is better because of this, this, and this and I only spent X" or anything like that. I am just curious, for reference. I have a slightly different style of upgrading and wanted to compare end results with actual dollars spent.
You are either genuine in your beliefs and a bit naive or you are master at the subtle troll message and are in fact mocking the clueless among DIY builders (of the type who might make a career of selling at Future Shop/Best Buy).
...Radeon 9800 non-pro for $150...
I bought my Athlon XP 2200+ and ECS motherboard for $70 from fry's
An Athlon XP 2200+ is certainly an adequate performer and an ECS motherboard will do the job, but the old adage "you get what you pay for" still applies. Buying most ECS boards is like buyng generic at the grocery store--it offers a value price but most often is a pale or slightly-off imitation of a top-tier brand and there will be greater variances in quality. Although the risk is still small, you stand a slightly greater chance of relibility problems (dried out capacitors, cooling problems, etc) and will never win a performance contest with higher quality PCs even with an identical processor.
1 gig of ram for $200 after rebates
A good price yes, but the quality argument could be made again. I myself have had little problem with cheap memory--it works well in an office system or a developmetn database machine. However, if performance and reliability were important I'd spring for faster RAM or ECC RAM from a source with a reputation for quality.
Sounds like a fine choice, but...
Overclocked the cpu to 3200+ speed and flashed the 9800 to a pro.
Sound to me to be "just dumb". I've always thought that in most cases overclocking and modding is of dubious economy, although there are certain times when the argument can be made for its value. The whole point of the art of overclocking is to find good quality components with reputations for having a high tolerance for punishment and push them to their maximums.
Judging from the prices I'd say you probably didn't splurge on cooling, and budget components work fine when used as prescribed but they are cheap because there is less room to manoeuvre--if it is supposed to run at speed 'x' then 'x * 1.1' will be unstable. The same goes with the graphics card. The reason it wasn't sold as a pro with pro firmware is because the hardware either failed tests at that level or wasn't tested at tlat level at all. At any rate, it might be fun to do but you obviously care not a whit about stability and have alot of time to deal with intermittent, annoying glitches.
a decent case + power supply $50,
In this case "decent" and "$50" do not compute. I'm sure it would work fine for a budget PC with onboard graphics and sound and no extra toys (I use such case/power supply deals myself) but if you want high-performance this is a bad choice. If you have extra fans (for overclocking you'd have to at least think of it), add-on cards for high-performance graphics and sound, toys like glowing front panels etc etc. then the power supply is going to fall flat. Plus if you are using quality parts you wouln't house them in a cheap tin box--it'd be like putting a hemi in a K-car.
That's under $800 for a top-of-the-line system, when I got it.
That not a real bad price for a PC, but it's far from top-of-the-line. That and I'd have serious doubts about it's dependability for serious applications with the overclocking and firmware mods you made. Even for gaming, if you were a competitive sort you'd get frustrated when it overheats and locks up or get blown to smithereens because of distorted graphics.
I'd say ditch the hardware/firmware mods and the delusions of high-performance you have and just enjoy your machine for what it is: a pedestrian, mid/value range beige box.
Rule 3 - "Make the truth seem unpatriotic, partisan, or political so that it will not be used against you in an argument."
Sounds about right - I mean the rich are getting the bulk of W's tax cuts while everybody (poor and rich) gets to pay for the debt the tax cuts create. Ironic when W said that the bulk of the tax relief his tax plan gives would go to the middle class and poor. I guess that "class war" is an inappropriate term for stealing from the poor to give to the rich...or maybe not.
I should be glad, though...at least I still have a job, and benefits, unlike lots of people. Isn't the Bush economic rally great?