To upgrade or not - are PCs good value?

LastNightsPizza

LastNightsPizza

LastNightsPizza

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I have been a PC gamer for many years but… having bought a new PC last year and just recently upgraded the graphics card, memory and PSU, it got me thinking whether the money spent constantly on upgrading the kit was worthwhile and good value…

The old arguments about PC vs Console was that a PC was more versatile, better graphics, more in-depth games etc, but recently I think that the differences between the two are blurring, (esp with the arrival of HD TVs) and Gaming PCs are starting to look expensive in comparison.

If you had a PC which needed upgrading to play the latest games – would you spend £300-£400 upgrading or invest in one of the latest generation consoles or keep faith with the PC? Is there much difference these days or is it just a preference / hobby thing?
 
its more of a life ! lol. i knwo my PC is just a bottomless pit of money.
i dont think PCs are good value, but i enjoy keeping on top of them.

but the major advantage and main point of argument against console lovers are that i can have everythign to hand... skype, xfire, ALT+TAB out to my emails ,Music, recordign games, everythign is just in its right place... i just dont feel asif consoles have got there yet.

value for money... no
enjoyment and experience hell yea !
 
Personally i would prefer PC. Next gen consoles cost around £200-350 then about another £30-40 per game. Yes they have some amazing specs now but PC's are still a lot cheaper in the long run (taking into account game cost/'console lifespan).

The way i really see it though is that PC's can still do stuff that no console can do yet. I cant get all the latest mods for the games i have on an Xbox, i dont get all the latest patches, i cant turn the game off and check my email or browse the net on a console, i cant do my photo editing on it either.

The lines between consoles and PC's are getting a bit blurry but at the moment i would say if you do anything other then play games you still cant beat a PC. Plus most games get ported to the PC as well so you dont miss out on them if they come out as Xbox or Playstation only (and are a lot cheaper to buy on a PC).

Only problem i have with a PC is i cant chuck it in a bag and take it round a mates house.
 
What I would like to do is get a reasonably good PC for day-to-day tasks so you don't need a mega-expensive processor or graphics card. Instead of buying a dear graphics card, buy a console. Instead of buying console games rent them from a place on the Internet where you can pay a tenner a month and keep them for as long as you like. I would say typically that 80% of games you've played once you will never play again for a long, long time. That would save you a lot of money in the long run. Buying three games at £40 each is the same as renting a lot of games for 1 year.

Then of course if there is a game you really liked you could always buy it for your PC a bit further down the line so that the next time you upgrade your PC the graphics card will handle the game nicely. Of course if you don't mind playing at low resolutions (640x480) practically any game will run well.
 
Hmmm... all valid points.

For me the big descision will come next year when I will probably go for a HDTV set up. At that time I might be able to save some cash by having a console for watching HD films etc.

But then again theres nothing better than ripping into a brown cardboard box with a few well earned bits of kit. Its not just about playing games - its having the satisfaction of playing on something that you've put a bit of yourself into while building/upgrading.

Ahh well for now I'll enjoy the PC :)
 
I think they are good value, i built mine about 14 months ago and it cost around £900 inc a 19" CRT monitor. I have been able to play some great games like HL2, CSS, Far Cry, Doom 3, and loads more, ill wait for the next generation of games and then upgrade to play them. I haven't needed more than my 6800GT thus far, sure FEAR would probably have looked a little better but not that much better that it would warrant spending an extra £500 on a new GFX card. I would rather have a PC at the moment over a console as i like using my monitor a lot better than a TV and also i cant use a n00b stick to play FPS games.

Games are OK value as well because you buy a game preowned for say 35 quid and then when you have finished it you take it to Game etc and they buy it back for like £20. You don't get as much for PC games but they cost a lot less and most are playable online, as are most console games nowadays.

Mark
 
The reason behind that statement is probably that PC games are typically cheaper than console games (they are often available for ~£17.99 pre-order).

Personally, I don't agree with that reason because you would need to buy a helluva lot of games to make up the price difference. If you want a decent spec PC, it will probably cost you at least £400 more than a console. Lets say you save £10 per title, and buy 20 games a year. That means that even after two years, you still won't have saved any money, and most likely that PC will need upgrading since it wasn't top end in the first place.

R B Customs has it right - PCs are not good value in pure gaming terms, but they are 'better' for some people, there's things you can do on a PC that you can't do on a console. I'm happy to pay a premium to game on PC because consoles have too many flaws for my liking.
 
VeNT said:
thing is, PCs do so much more aswell.
Click to expand...

The whole thought behind the original thread was not would you throw out your PC in favour of a console... rather next time you need to spend some serious cash upgrading would you buy a console for gaming and keep the PC for old games/ useful pc stuff or just upgrade the PC in order to play current (and future) titles.

The other side to the PC argument is that you can use the 'old bits' to build other PCs. Both my sons have OK-ish PCs which although struggle with latest games are still useful. These were both built with old bits - my first 1700XP is still chugging along nicely. With a console, once the new version comes out the old model soon loses its appeal...
 
I've been PC gaming for years, I wouldn't say I've got the fastest PC known to man, Athlon 64 3200, gig of ram, 6800 GT. For me this runs all the games I like to play very well, I'm happy with it, if I find it gets too slow for somethign then I upgrade. yes that does cost money, but thats what I enjoy doing.

I've tried consoles, I jsu can't get on with those game controllers, I had a PS/2 for a while, but sold it pretty soon after getting it. I just found the controllers really hindered my gaming experince.

I've got an xbox, but I hardly ever use it, I bought it for a couple of games, ad once I'd completed those it pretty much hasn't been touched since. It's not worth very much if I try to sell it, so I'll just hang onto it.

I don't just use my PC for gaming, it's my Hifi, TV, DVD Player, I even mix music with it and broadcast live on an internet radio station. Name 1 one console that can do that ??
 
get a next-gen console for gaming ( make your choice on your gaming preferences ) and get a PC thats good foreverything else but gaming it will work out cheaper in the long run.
 
LastNightsPizza said:
The whole thought behind the original thread was not would you throw out your PC in favour of a console... rather next time you need to spend some serious cash upgrading would you buy a console for gaming and keep the PC for old games/ useful pc stuff or just upgrade the PC in order to play current (and future) titles.
Click to expand...

Thats pretty much what I've done.

Around October 2005, the time came for a PC upgrade. Rather then spending £300 for a graphics card (and the rest as I'm using an AGP system) I looked into getting a console. Not had one since the Playstation 1.

I looked at the upcomming PC games and only Quake Wars and Crysis appealed to me. These games were a long way off back then so even if I kept the money aside and upgraded my system when they were released, I'd still have to spend a lot of money changing my PC system.

Looked at the XBOX 360 future games titles and saw 30 games I wanted to play.

So it was either spend £500+ on upgrading my PC to play a handful of games and buy an XBOX 360 to play 30. Went with the XBOX.

I still have the PC but I've sold the case, PSU, mobo, graphics card and down sized it to a Shuttle system. Now I have a small, compact, quiet PC that I use for work, web, email etc and the 360 for games.
 
LastNightsPizza said:
The whole thought behind the original thread was not would you throw out your PC in favour of a console... rather next time you need to spend some serious cash upgrading would you buy a console for gaming and keep the PC for old games/ useful pc stuff or just upgrade the PC in order to play current (and future) titles.

The other side to the PC argument is that you can use the 'old bits' to build other PCs. Both my sons have OK-ish PCs which although struggle with latest games are still useful. These were both built with old bits - my first 1700XP is still chugging along nicely. With a console, once the new version comes out the old model soon loses its appeal...
Click to expand...

my issue with consols is I have no-where to put it
the only TV I have that I would use doesn't have space around it/close by to put a 360 and I'd get ****** off with all the cables too.
currently I have about 7 PCs here (mostly in the offices but a wireless laptop in the living room)
I don't realy like consol games, and if I've GOT to have a good PC (demonstations to clients etc) then I may as well use it for games too.
 
Buy mid to high end components (eg the standard or GT, but never the Ultra, a processor a few steps down from the top, etc) every year or so and it works out fairly well. Always ebay your old kit. You'll find that you don't have to spend a huge amount of money to stay just behind the curve.
 
A reasonable spec PC and a next gen console are fairly similar in price and have a similar life span. Pc games are around £10-15 cheap so if you buy 15 games you have saved £150 which covers the extra cost for the PC. Give it 12-24 months and the next console will be out but depending on your PC spec you might be able to just get a better video card and you have saved again.

In reality most people will spend a lot more on PC parts and they will be more expensive but just through pure choice of games PC's still win (Almost all games come to a PC sooner or later). Not to mention if your bored of your games and cant afford to buy any new ones there are always a million demos/betas and free games availble for download.

End of the day though there are good pros and cons for both PC's and Consoles and everyone will have a different opinion :) Personally i wont bother buying another console as i always end up getting 3 or 4 overpriced games then never using it again.

I did say this when i bought the original playstation though and i still have a PS2 :)
 
The only reason im going to buy a PS3 is to play Resident Evil 5 and Gran Turismo so consoles for me arn't really good value. They are good value for otherr people who buy loads of average games, like my brother does, hes used his PS2 every day since he got it a few years ago playin every game he can find.

Mark
 
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