new gaming pc, or wait for xbox/ps4

deus3x · 4 Oct 2013 at 17:23

I have been away from PC gaming for about 12mths due to work commitments but I should have more time to get back into gaming over the next few weeks/month.

I play mainly FPS, battlefield series being my favorite. I wouldhave around £500 to built the base unit, i have monitor and mouse/keyboard.

I have not owned a console since the PSone :cool:

am i going to be disappointed waiting for either of the new consoles.

I know they are not released but will i be disappointed switching to console in general.

Just really unsure, dont want to spend the $ on a PC and regret it :confused:

NoNameNoNumber · 4 Oct 2013 at 17:27

Whilst a £500 PC probably wont rival the gameplay of the next gen consoles it will certainly be more versatile. Consoles have lost some of their convenience and appeal they once used to offer I think.

swiftmetal · 4 Oct 2013 at 17:30

You will struggle to make a pc that has better performance than a console with that budget at least if you are buying new anyway.

But my problem with consoles is that compared with pc's, consoles graphics are awful.

Luffy · 4 Oct 2013 at 17:35

What resolution is the monitor and do you currently have a PC at all?
Will this also be used with the console if you bought it?
The new consoles will likely be very good and give you more for your money, but the games are more expensive and there is no upgrade path.

swiftmetal · 4 Oct 2013 at 17:41

This set of consoles is said to last for around 10 years though.

silvagti · 5 Oct 2013 at 00:05

Personally I'm keeping my i7-920/GTX470 and planning on purchasing both a PS4 and XBone this Xmas. I looked at upgrading my PC but to buy the spec I'd want (Haswell i7/GTX780) would cost well over £1000 which is more or less twice the price of buying both consoles!

I'm hoping I can kick the PC gaming habit and be content with the consoles as I'd like to move to a laptop/tablet as my primary PC and just rely on the consoles for my gaming fix. Spending £1500 on a desktop PC with a 3-4 year lifespan just for playing games seems like overkill! After all other than gaming I could quite happily buy a £500 laptop which would more than cater for all my general PC needs for the next 3-5 years. Whether I get the itch to upgrade to a new desktop PC in another year or two we'll see though.....

Hopefully I wont regret my decision!

deus3x · 6 Oct 2013 at 13:12

I have a server, 2600k, asus board and 16gb ram which runs 24/7. i use this as a work computer also, i have a 7950 spare doing nothing which i could use.

I am split on my decision, ill wait until the new consoles arrive and decide then.

=XDC=FluphyBunny · 6 Oct 2013 at 13:32

silvagti said:
Personally I'm keeping my i7-920/GTX470 and planning on purchasing both a PS4 and XBone this Xmas. I looked at upgrading my PC but to buy the spec I'd want (Haswell i7/GTX780) would cost well over £1000 which is more or less twice the price of buying both consoles!

I'm hoping I can kick the PC gaming habit and be content with the consoles as I'd like to move to a laptop/tablet as my primary PC and just rely on the consoles for my gaming fix. Spending £1500 on a desktop PC with a 3-4 year lifespan just for playing games seems like overkill! After all other than gaming I could quite happily buy a £500 laptop which would more than cater for all my general PC needs for the next 3-5 years. Whether I get the itch to upgrade to a new desktop PC in another year or two we'll see though.....

Hopefully I wont regret my decision!

Can't think why you would 'need' to buy that high a spec, but ps4/xboxone/laptop = the price of a good gaming rig.

OP for FPS I couldn't play on consoles (controller), but you may be different. Or there may be exclusives that you would like a console for.

P4Clock · 6 Oct 2013 at 14:23

ppl keep saying you can make a better pc for the same cost of a ps4....

i would pay someone to build a better pc for £425(ps4 launch price), when you think a monitor, keyboard and mouse as just used over half the budget. you would end up was a fm2 system.
Dont forget the ps4 will last around 8 years for one £425 investment. but a pc will need constant upgrades to keep up with game developers, any pc made now will not be kicking ass in 8 years.

When the question is PC or xbox/ps4. the real question is do you have the cash to pc game? the cost of parts is getting silly for pc's now and its pushing ppl into consoles.

my Samsung ram cost me £50 12minths ago but now the same ram is over £100. with price's going up like that could you afford to keep up with pc gaming.

davejh666 · 6 Oct 2013 at 16:22

P4Clock said:
ppl keep saying you can make a better pc for the same cost of a ps4....

i would pay someone to build a better pc for £425(ps4 launch price), when you think a monitor, keyboard and mouse as just used over half the budget. you would end up was a fm2 system.
Dont forget the ps4 will last around 8 years for one £425 investment. but a pc will need constant upgrades to keep up with game developers, any pc made now will not be kicking ass in 8 years.

When the question is PC or xbox/ps4. the real question is do you have the cash to pc game? the cost of parts is getting silly for pc's now and its pushing ppl into consoles.

my Samsung ram cost me £50 12minths ago but now the same ram is over £100. with price's going up like that could you afford to keep up with pc gaming.

I think people underestimate the total cost of gaming on consoles compared to PC gaming.

Okay so the PS4 costs £425 to buy. However, you need a TV to play it on. Most people have a TV, but I know for a fact I would not be allowed to play a console on our family TV, neither would my kids, so you can add the cost of a new TV to the outlay of the PS4.

And the games are massively more expensive on consoles compared to PC's. I have bought 10 PC games so far this year, probably a total cost of £250. If I bought 10 PS4 games I bet I would be looking at £450?

So my PC cost about £1250 for the first year in total, with games, monitor, etc. I think a PS4 would cost about the same if you factored in the same amount of games and a new TV.

Kreeeee · 6 Oct 2013 at 16:25

P4Clock said:
ppl keep saying you can make a better pc for the same cost of a ps4....

i would pay someone to build a better pc for £425(ps4 launch price)

The PS4 is £349.99.

davejh666 said:
I think people underestimate the total cost of gaming on consoles compared to PC gaming.

Okay so the PS4 costs £425 to buy. However, you need a TV to play it on. Most people have a TV, but I know for a fact I would not be allowed to play a console on our family TV, neither would my kids, so you can add the cost of a new TV to the outlay of the PS4.

And the games are massively more expensive on consoles compared to PC's. I have bought 10 PC games so far this year, probably a total cost of £250. If I bought 10 PS4 games I bet I would be looking at £450?

So my PC cost about £1250 for the first year in total, with games, monitor, etc. I think a PS4 would cost about the same if you factored in the same amount of games and a new TV.

You can rent PS4 games, or wait to get them cheaply a while after launch, or indeed buy second hand.

Additionally you can play the PS4 on a PC monitor, so the cost or screens etc should be negated from your argument.

davejh666 · 6 Oct 2013 at 16:44

Kreeeee said:
The PS4 is £349.99.

You can rent PS4 games, or wait to get them cheaply a while after launch, or indeed buy second hand.

Additionally you can play the PS4 on a PC monitor, so the cost or screens etc should be negated from your argument.

Not my argument, the poster was including the cost in his view that PC gaming was more expensive. So you are correct, take out the cost of monitor/TV totally.

And, I was comparing like for like. You can buy 2nd hand PC games if you really want, or wait for them to be on offer in somewhere like game as 3 for £20. Whichever way you want it console games are far more expensive than PC games.

hakank68 · 6 Oct 2013 at 16:47

If you're thinking about playing games like bf4 id suggest getting a console as for £500 you won't be able to get decent fps with similar games on a pc

honosuseri · 6 Oct 2013 at 17:25

deus3x said:
I have a server, 2600k, asus board and 16gb ram which runs 24/7. i use this as a work computer also, i have a 7950 spare doing nothing which i could use.

I am split on my decision, ill wait until the new consoles arrive and decide then.

You have a gaming rig already then. The 7950 should easily have more grunt than the PS4 or Xbone. Buy the consoles if you enjoy their exclusive titles but you do pay a subscription fee for online gaming etc.

I think most homes should have a semi decent PC as they are a versatile tool. Ideally you want to be weighing up adding a gaming GPU to a home PC vs buying a console.

I want the Steambox to do well. When that OS is offered to us free it will make life easier on those looking to building their own next gen console from PC parts. The money that would have been spent on the windows OS can go into the GPU budget

P4Clock · 6 Oct 2013 at 17:29

davejh666 said:
Not my argument, the poster was including the cost in his view that PC gaming was more expensive. So you are correct, take out the cost of monitor/TV totally.

so take out the cost of a screen, i have just been informed the ps4 will be £350. that includes a controller.

build a pc that will game at 1080/720 smooth. include the cost of keyboard/mouse/controller(if you want one I do)/OS/CPU/RAM/PSU/MoBo/Case/GFX. it cant be done.

you need to spend £700(VERY basic gameing rig) to start with then you will need upgrades every year

Shac · 6 Oct 2013 at 17:47

You will not need to upgrade PC every year. If the PC out performs the consoles when you build it then it will still outperform then in 8 years time.
And from past experience how many games will be made that exceed the capabilities of the consoles?
We will be back into console capability limited gaming for the next 8 years.

P4Clock · 6 Oct 2013 at 17:56

Shac said:
You will not need to upgrade PC every year. If the PC out performs the consoles when you build it then it will still outperform then in 8 years time.

but the games are ported the work on the console with the given power. when a games is ported to pc it done to use max power. and in no time your budget pc with be struggling.

show me a budget(£500) pc NOT some £3000 things that still plays game in 8 years at 1080 with smoothplayable FPS and al take one now.

am not badmouthing consoles or pc's and just saying lets call a spade and spade. a console is a good home games system for the price. and a pc is a good system for the price. but you cant compare the two so ppl need to stop. if sony made a top line system and wanted £2000 then it would be a total flop they need to make it so all ppl can buy one not just the well off.

silvagti · 6 Oct 2013 at 20:18

That's the reason I'm buying both a PS4 & Xbone at launch as if I can buy both and get 8 years longevity out of them the £350 cost is next to nothing when you work it out on an annual basis.

I do like my PC gaming and quite often buy games off steam but they tend to be older or indie titles that aren't necessarily available on console. Plus when I bought my last PC (i7-920/GTX470) I spent well over £1000 and even just over 3 years later it's on the verge of needing replaced TBH. PC gaming is great but in my experience you're looking at spending the equivalent of £300-400 every year to keep your rig up to date.

There are some fantastic prices available on platforms like steam and it does make the £50 price tag of console games seem somewhat crazy but I'm usually pretty frugal about the number of games I buy (plus I often wait and get them 2nd hand or several months after release) so I'm not really concerned by it.

As others have said it's mainly the exclusives that tempt me and I'm fairly happy paying the launch price for the consoles when I'm confident I'll get 5+ years out of each.

gpuerrilla · 6 Oct 2013 at 20:22

Kreeeee said:
The PS4 is £349.99.

You can rent PS4 games, or wait to get them cheaply a while after launch, or indeed buy second hand.

Additionally you can play the PS4 on a PC monitor, so the cost or screens etc should be negated from your argument.

Contrary to your highlights, I have to agree with dave on the point about the lovely living room TV. I could use it, however would be down the pecking order after the youngster and the wife.

The consoles are designed to use a big screen for maximum enjoyment so he has a valid point. If your not a family man then you wouldnt understand.

Also the games are expensive so he's not too far off that point either.

If you enjoy FPS especially battlefield then £500 can get you a lot to play the game(s) at respectable levels of eye candy. Weigh up the pro's and cons to yourself, the one good thing about the consoles is they are only a month away now...

farlow2012 · 6 Oct 2013 at 20:31

ps4 all the way no pc can compare at £350 ,

only reason i choose ps4 over xbox one is better spec and the next gen ddr5 ram unlike xbox one who are sticking with ddr3