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PC Gaming Is Still Way Too Hard (vice.com)
Motherboard has an article in which it argues that PC gaming is still way too hard. The author of the article claims that for one to build a gaming PC, they need an "unreasonable" amount of disposable income, and also have an unreasonable amount of time to "research, shop around, and assemble parts" for their computer. The author adds that a person looking into making one such gear also needs to always have to keep investing time and money in as long as they want to stay at the cutting edge or recommended specifications range for new PC games. The author has shared the experience he had building his own gaming PC. An excerpt from it: The process of physically building a PC is filled with little frustrations, and mistakes can be costly and time consuming. I have big, dumb, sausage fingers, so mounting the motherboard into the case, and screwing in nine (!) tiny screws to keep it in place in a cramped space, in weird angles, where dropping the screwdriver can easily break something expensive -- it's just not what I'd call "consumer-friendly." This is why people buy from Apple. It designs everything from the trackpad to the box the computer comes in, which unfolds neatly to reveal everything you need. Apple reduces friction to the point where even my mom could upgrade the RAM on her iMac, and it can do this because it controls everything that goes in that box.That's accurate. But it also means -- at least as of today -- that the current Apple computer -- MacBook Air, MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini you purchase packs in at least three-year-old components.
Didn't take long to find this little jewel to solve all your problem : https://pcpartpicker.com/
Elok
Are they overpriced? Sure. But they're prebuilt if you're too lazy, and the price per performance is still way beyond, say, an Apple laptop.
I mean, sure, occasionally a game like Doom 3 comes out that is beyond it's time in hardware specs, but my computer at home has 3 year old parts, and I have no problem playing new releases. Sure, sometimes I can't play them on the absolute highest settings, but I've never really felt that the game was less fun because of that. Also, the only real limiting factor to that issue is my video card, and a $200 could easily fix that if I felt the need - much cheaper than a new console.
This "article" screams intern assignment. The premise is predetermined and everything that goes against it is ignored. There are so many part pickers and guides available through a single search it's frustrating and stupefying that someone would even try writing this.
Likewise, building a PC now is nothing close to what it used to take. How would have this person felt trying to configure their IRQ interrupts? Not well, I'm guessing.
All told, it is sad that /. even allowed this to be submitted. This is an article in search of something to be upset about.
Yes, of course it's unreasonably expensive if you get a $450 video card and a 1TB SSD. What were they expecting to discover? That water is wet?
1. PC gaming is the same price as console gaming for the hardware and cheaper for the games. A PC in your home is a zero sum game. You will own one. The cost of a PC gaming machine is the cost of a PC gaming system minus the cost of a conventional PC. A console will run you perhaps 300~400 USD. Add 300 to 400 to the cost of a PC and you have a reasonable gaming PC.
2. As to difficulty, the difficulty of PC gaming is only difficult if you don't know how to use a computer. The difficulty of PC gaming minus again the assumed competence with a PC which you should have anyway is about zero.
3. If you're talking about how hard the actual game is... adjust settings or get good, noob.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
It's been a while since I built a gaming rig, but most of my time researching was on finding the best price to performance parts I could get. Or was willing to spend at the time. I don't have dainty fingers either. But I've worked on a lot of engines and such in my day, as well as played several musical instruments . So I suppose I my finger dexterity is above average. Still, if you're planning on a gaming rig, you don't chose a cramped case. I also found that I usually could run most, if not all games at maximum settings for at least two years. Generally a video card upgrade at the 2 to 3 year mark will extend the useful life for another year or two.
I'm not sure how a Mac is going to be relevant. Do current games get released for Mac these days? Also, I've read that they are starting to solder the RAM into them in lower end products. How in the hell is that something that a "mother" could upgrade? Or is she an electrical engineer or something?
Oh wait you can
http://www.alienware.com/
Not for you ? Oh if only there were someplace that would let you pick your components and they would build the PC for you
https://www.google.com/search?...
Tooo hard to figure out what you need ? If only there were a guide of some kind
http://www.tomshardware.com/
http://www.hardocp.com/
I'm disabled. While it may be true that I have an unreasonable amount of time to waste, my disposable income is incredibly tight. Despite this, I have a gaming rig, built a few years ago, that still runs most new games with excellent stability and decent performance at 1080p. All told, it cost about $700, which means something better than this one should be significantly cheaper right now. Me and my friend threw the parts list together in the matter of a few hours, because my previous rig had just shit the bed and I needed something in a hurry.
If you can't build a passable gaming PC, you're incompetent, lazy, or both.
Didn't take long to find this little jewel to solve all your problem : https://pcpartpicker.com/
How the fuck am I supposed to click that? I have big, dumb, sausage fingers!
PC gaming is a racist, sexist bastion of white male privilege and clearly consoles are the socially just platform of choice because they have a more diverse market.
You expect the same people who can't perform a basic Google search to know how to have knowledge of a screwdriver? Good grief, I need both a Standard and Phillips screwdriver. Needle nosed pliers, and even a flashlight. Don't even get me started on to sniff, or not sniff the aluminum paste...
That is way too much work for the average person. Why not build my own refrigerator you insensitive clod!?!
was intended as snark, just in case it's not obvious enough..
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Just mash your keypad to order the dailing wand.
The author of the article claims that for one to build a gaming PC, they need an "unreasonable" amount of disposable income, and also have an unreasonable amount of time to "research, shop around, and assemble parts" for their computer.
Or they could just buy a pre-made gaming PC. You might be able to save a few dollars by putting one together yourself, but if you're worried about all the time and effort spent, and having "sausage fingers" that can't seat a motherboard, buying an already-assembled system is an option.
It's not necessarily that expensive, even-- the Alienware Alpha, for example, starts at $500. It's not the most powerful system ever, but it'll play an awful lot of PC games.
The author adds that a person looking into making one such gear also needs to always have to keep investing time and money in as long as they want to stay at the cutting edge or recommended specifications range for new PC games.
Well yes, if you want to stay on the cutting edge, you need to spend money to stay there. Not necessarily time, since there are companies who will build you a pretty cutting-edge system for a price. But money, yes, you have to spend money to stay on the cutting edge. However, you don't need to stay on the cutting edge. You can buy a $1000 system and play games on it for several years. Even a $1000 gaming rig will play most mainstream games at medium or high graphics settings, at playable frame rates. It might not play the most demanding games on "ultra high" at 100fps, but honestly, you can do it. My pattern for the past couple decades has been to buy a $1000 system every 5 years, updating the video card to whatever I can get for $200 halfway through the lifecycle. I haven't really had trouble playing games.
I RTFA because I couldn't believe what the summary said. It's true, it's all true.
I don't know what parts of it angered me the most but the below comes close.
"Beginning to end, the whole process of building the computer took me almost five hours, and I had to make two emergency calls to PC Gamer's Fenlon during the process: once when I couldn't figure out why the case fans weren't spinning, and again when the computer didn't recognize an ethernet cable. I was literally bleeding from a cut on my hand by the end of it, which my YouTube guides said was common. I bled for this fucking thing. ...
But getting there was a nightmare. It is by far the most difficult product I've ever bought and put together. "
All I can say is that this "journalist" sounds like an entitled, whiny, moron who needs to STFU.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Getting 60+ fps on ultra settings in PC gaming doesn't even take that. An fast I5, Radeon R9 390, 16 GB of ram, and an HDD can get you that. I should know that's pretty much my PC. The CPU and Ram are both about $100-150, the GPU is down to around $250 with the coming of the RX480 (which is slightly slower), and even with a good case and power supply the whole thing comes to ~600-700. Price not including monitor since most modern tvs can even be a monitor (all things old are new again).
we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
Because nobody can buy a basic gaming box for about $800.
Nope. Just never happens.
http://www.dell.com/us/p/alien...
Never!
Hell, in most cases a pre-existing PC should be perfectly acceptable. Just make sure your PSU is 400W or more and has the necessary connectors.
Then drop $200 on a video card and you're gaming!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...
It isn't hard. It's just the bar is set higher than "vegetable-level idiocy".
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I find it kinda funny when they talk about price, actually.
A decent/usable gaming box, monitor, and mouse can be had for less than $500-$750. Buy the bits, plug them in, load the OS, and you're off to the races.
Meanwhile, that $200 console is going to need a $500-$1000(or more) big-screen TV (which will sit in your man-cave or mommy's basement, whichever), and if you want some l33t controllers that give you an edge in the game, that's gonna set you back at least $100 more - per controller. Of course, bad-assed headphone/mic set is de rigueûr, and that's gonna set you back from $35 to $100 extra or more... (Oh, and if you want a pretty cover for that controller to make you look bad-assed? that's an extra $150.)
Yeah... whatevs.
(also funny... my 2013-purchased MacBook Pro CPU/GPU is still more than capable of taking a CG render pounding that would turn most 2016-era laptop chips into a curl of smoke, so no worries on the 'OMG-you're-so-obsolete front.)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
If the console price is what you need to add to the price of a PC to make a "gaming" PC (for whatever that means to you) then it is not the same price as console gaming.
You completely missed the point, didn't you? The point is that you are going to have a PC in your house anyway, unless you're one of the old people who doesn't own a computer. Since you already have a PC regardless of whether or not you use it to play games, you don't need to factor the cost of that PC into your gaming cost, because the gaming cost is only the extra money spent to turn your regular PC into a gaming PC.
They don't regularly work well with TVs for displays as they are seldom set up for using one (and TVs seldom for being connected to PCs).
What do "regularly" and "seldom" mean? I have a TV that's about 12 years old sitting in my living room, connected to a PC that's about 2 years old. It's not even a smart TV either, it was years before those came out en masse. It has a basic HDMI port, and I made sure when I was building that computer to also get a video card with HDMI out (any modern video card will support HDMI out). It works with no problems, and these 2 pieces of technology are separated by 10 years.
which if you knew anything about women you would know that is almost never a popular idea to have a loud gaming PC in the living room
Sweet, awesome generalization you've got there. My fiancee encourages me to play on the TV PC instead of my personal PC so she can watch. If you're talking about the noise of the actual system, I built it specifically to be almost silent. You cannot hear it while it's on, because it has several 120mm low-speed fans and CPU and GPU coolers that are specifically for low-noise. It has SSD drives, so there's no extra noise there. The only time you can ever hear the actual system is if you put a DVD in and hear it spin up, that's it. The PC in the living room is not a problem, it's the entire entertainment system in the living room. It's not the problem, it's the solution.
In conclusion, none of your points are valid, you're making up problems which don't actually exist or have trivial solutions for anyone with a couple brain cells to rub together.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Indulge yourself in an automotive hobby:
- Honda CRX, $1500
- Initial fixes, $1000-2000
- Improvements such as clutch, suspension, intake/fuel, $1200-2000
- Cosmetics, $200-$500
- Tires and wheels, $1000-3000
- Additional tools, $500-2000
Total, $5,400-$11,000.
Try this with a 2005 Impala SS, similar money. Jeep CJ, similar with a higher max. Classic US muscle car, double the top figure maybe. Mangle your existing daily driver, plan on being close to he bottom unless you've chosen something without many options, and you've just chosen the equivalent of a $500 gaming rig, never really that much fun. Cost of tires to learn to drive quick, priceless.
Or, maybe, woodworking:
Uplevel Table Saw, $250-750
Drill Press - $150-500
Planer - $250-1000
Band Saw - $125-500
Work Bench - $100-400
Oscillating Sander - $100-250
Router and table - $125-300
Dust Collection - $100-500
Total, $1,200-2,950. A lathe would be the next investment. Cost of lumber to learn proficiency, priceless.
Both requiring similar amounts of space dedicated to the hobby... More than gaming.
Maybe you'd prefer to take up elk or deer hunting?
- Big game rifle, $500-1800
- Scope, $150-700
- Ammo for practice, $250-450
- Ammo for hunting, $150-450
- Cold weather gear, $300-1000
- Travel expenses for a weekend hunt, $200-1500
- Assumes you already posses a vehicle. Cost of trips to learn proficiency, priceless. Actually killing an animal, superlative.
Total: $1350-4400
Bowhunting expenses would be similar.
Or maybe you would, as I do, prefer flyfishing?
- Trout rod, $75-$500
- Reel, $35-200
- Backing and floating line, $40-100
- Spare spool, Backing and sinking line, $65-150
- Basic fly collection, $45-200 (an ongoing expense)
- Waders, $45-250
- Vest or jacket, $25-200
- Tackle, boxes, accessories, $100-500
- Travel expenses for weekend trip, $200-1800
Total: $620-3700 (Can be cheap). Cost to learn proficiency, priceless. Actually catching a fish, immaterial A day fishing is a good day, catching a fish is a GREAT day.
Hunting and fishing also requires physical exertion and time from home.
You could get into metal working, but plan on adding a zero to the woodworking hobby to approach the same level. Welding requires not just space, but careful examination of your homeowner's insurance coverage...
I see decent gaming rigs built from $500-1500, and all-out rigs topping $2500. Seems like an affordable hobby, and the added benefit of having a functional PC for all those other uses. If there's a notebook game rig that doesn't burn the graphic chip and your thighs, you got yourself a hobby that can be indulged on a cross-country flight, maybe, if inflight WiFi latency doesn't make you dead. I'm jaded, of course, since everything is either a twitch game, tedious leveling and learning the story, or IGP.
Expensive? Feh.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Logical Increments is also great. They split everything out into builds that are graded on price/performance with a selection of parts under each category that have been tested to work together.
You know how you tell someone is a dick? They relate the attitude, experience and work ethic of a single individual to an entire group of people. Like saying one lazy dude is an example of an entire generation. They did it to my generation (GenX) and they did it to the Boomers too and every other generation before that. You are just in a long line of dip shits that think the world is going to hell, just like all the dipshits that thought it was when the boomers were teenagers.
Or just select your games appropriately. I have no problem with my hardware, a VT-55, running my game of choice, Nethack. Only problem is the EPROM character generator (a 1702) is now more than thirty years over its design life, and some of the pixels flicker on and off due to read disturbs.
Dude I typed in XXX gaming and got something entirely different ;)
Most people know someone that will help them build a new rig for a case of beer anyways. And this guy's article was obviously clickbait at its finest with the amount of hyperbole and sensationalism being thrown about. Not to mention spending way more money than needed for a decent gaming PC.
Who buys a 1TB SSD for a standard gaming system? Nobody. He also spent $180 on a case and $200 on a mobo when there are plenty of very nice cases in the $100 range and mobos in the $120-150 range. And with a case as large as the one he bought, I don't buy that he couldn't fit the motherboard in there easily and screw it down. Those tend to have plenty of access space, with the only somewhat troublesome screw being the one in the back corner by the PSU, but thats what a magnetized screwdriver is for then. Consumer watercooling solutions are also really simple to tie down. Far easier than a standard cooler, since it requires far less pressure.
Guy sounds like a wanker judging by his Twitter account anyways, so not surprised.