To Build a PC or to Spend Money Better Elsewhere? (Opinions)

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TheBricktator

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Jul 24, 2013
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I'm trying to decide if I should build a really decent PC or if I should buy a console or spend money elsewhere.

Right now, I'm at an age where I do not have a continuous source of income, so I have doubts about any large purchase I make. Right now the majority of the gaming I do is either playing retro games, or speedrunning games on PC. I have pretty close to $600 saved up, and I'm trying to decide if I should save a bit further and build a PC or if I should buy a console now and have more money later. Right now most of my gaming is done on a 2013 MacBook Pro 15" with an i7 3615QM and a 650m GPU and a 250GB SSD. I want to build now, but I know anything I build in the $600 price range won't be noticeably better than what I am playing on now (as far as I'm aware of). Should I keep saving or should I just grab an XBONE now?
 
Get a PC, it will last you a while. If it is custom built, then you can upgrade it which is really good. For 600$ you can get a really good PC. Maybe like a i3, 8GB of ram, a GTX 750 Ti and stuff.
 
But the thing is, I don't want to drop a ton of money on a computer that's going to give me diminishing improvements over my MacBook. I don't feel as though an i3 paired with a 750 Ti will outperform the specs I have in my computer right now, you know?
 
It sounds like you have answered your own question. For $600 you're not going to get anything *drastically* more powerful than your MacBook Pro running the i7.

As far as XBOX One versus PC, that is purely up to your own tastes. You can definitely build something that is more powerful than the XBONE for $600, but again, *drastically* different, I would say no.

If your true passion is PC gaming, retro games (emulation?), or playing games at the highest settings with the best performance - I would save up the money for a gaming PC. Think something in the $1000 to $1300 price range - that will get you something beefy enough to justify the wait.
 
I'm a hardcore PC gamer so it pains me to say this but I think you're better bang for the buck is for an XB1 or PS4? I have an Xbox One and it's fine but everything I read about says PS4 has better hardware (fps) so why not PS4? Unless some exclusives are what you're after Forza 5, Halo? I am really looking forward to the new Forza.
With console not only will you get more polished games as of late (*cough* arkham knight I'm looking at you), but you can also sell games back after your done playing and buy used games.

So here's my pros and cons of PC vs Console (Xbox or PS4).

PC Gaming Pros:
1. Keyboard & Mouse (I prefer this over the console controllers because I feel I am WAY more accurate with my mouse).
2. Higher resolution 2560x1440
3. I feel I get better performance on my PC, SSD makes loading screens faster, I have two Titan X's so many times my fps is way faster than consoles 60 fps.
4. I love tinkering with game settings.
5. I love changing and swapping out hardware.
6. Can alt-tab and multi-task while playing games. I do this all the time to check my email, get hints or tips from a web page or youtube video.
7. Can buy new games cheaper sometimes when nVidia runs a promo, for example Metal Gear Solid Phantom Pain is part of the graphics card bundle so steam keys are on eBay for $35.


PC Gaming Cons:
1. $$$$EXPENSIVE$$$$ - I just built a Skylake machine and I'm at $912.38 without my Core i7-6700k so + $350 = $1262. And that's without any graphics cards because I already have SLI Titan X's, so add another $480 for 980 ti and you're up to $1742 for an epic gaming PC.
2. No selling used games.
3. For some titles PC Games seem like an after thought (ARKHAM KNIGHT I'm still looking at you).

So to sum up my advise based on money being a bit tight right now, GO FOR CONSOLE...
 


I say Xbox One, i have both a i7-4790 PC and an XBOXONE, on the high end PC is great but on $600, ($100 of it is for OS) you will not get that good of a PC.

Games are optimized for a console, you can use it for the next 5 years or so, you can use it as an entertainment hub.

This is an opinion of a person who has both and plays both.
 



PS 4 has a slightly better hardware, it's like you having 16GB ram vs me having 8 GB ram. It's ALL about games, to me XBONE is by far better, i preordered both Halo and Forza, i will be buying Gears of War 4, and now Xbox even offers some preview games like Steam does.
 
Mobile components are optimized for low power use and cool running, not performance. For $600, you probably can exceed your current Macbook by a small but noticeable margin, AND have the potential for substantial future upgrades.
An i3+GTX750Ti (or R7 260X if you prefer AMD) will outperform your Macbook in games just on the strength of the graphics card. Later, provided you start out with a sufficient PSU, you'll be able to add a much stronger card and/or upgrade the CPU. Unless you specifically want to overclock (absolutely not a requirement for decent performance with Intel), I'd get a H97-chipset board; if you want to overclock, you'll want Z97.
A good 450W PSU (e.g. Rosewill Capstone, XFX, Seasonic) can handle any graphics card needing up to a single 6-pin or 8-pin PCIe power cable. To be able to run a more demanding card (e.g. a GTX780Ti) you'll want 550W-650W. Once again, Seasonic (their own, XFX, EVGA GS, some Antec) and Super Flower (Rosewill Capstone, Kingwin Lazer, EVGA G2 and B2) are the ones to choose. 8GB of RAM is sufficient. Right now, you can pick up a Windows 7 license for $80, which will get upgraded free to Windows 10 (if you want it).
 
AMD FX-4350 Vishera
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P
Mushkin 8GB DDR3 1600
Combo Deal: $206

Sapphire DUAL-X Radeon R9 270: $163 w/ $20 rebate
Corsair SPEC-03 Case: $50 w/code EMCAWAR39 w/ $10 rebate
Corsair CX750 PSU: $60 w/code EMCAWAV44 w/ $20 rebate
WD Blue 1TB HDD: $53
Samsung DVD Optical: $13 w/code EMCAWAR24
Win7 64-bit OEM: $83 with code EMCAWAV72

$628 before $50 in rebates

You can find a less expensive motherboard combo (Ex: FX-6300 and Asus M5A97 LE & RAMs), a cheaper case or smaller power supply to save a few bucks ... but, why?

Join The Egg E-Blast and eyeball their combo deals ... you'll be fine.
 
I don't think AMD is the way to go any more; sad but true, and I still remember what nice budget performers the X2 260 and X3 455 were...
Corsair CX reviews very well when new, but is made (by CWT) with inferior capacitors that fail early when subjected to heat (such as in a gaming PC).
 
A big question is whether you want this new system, PC or console, to do more than gaming. A console can give you easy access to streaming media on your TV ( assuming you don't already have something that does this ). My wife and I use my PS3 for Netflix all the time. However, an XB1 won't handle your retro games at all, and getting new games for it can be a little pricey. If your cash flow is a little tight, the console itself might be cheaper, but the media for it can be a little pricier.

If you get a PC, you already have a lot of software for it. But as you said, will the new one be able to do anything your existing machine can't? The big difference is you're not limited to laptop thermal solutions so the components can run faster. That only makes a difference if you're using more demanding software. So while you mainly play retro games, a modest desktop will have the ability to play more demanding games and current titles. Your laptop would struggle with some of them. I find desktops easier to have multiple displays hooked to and other peripherals ( yes, laptops often have some ports, but the cables sometimes get in the way when you've got it right in front of you ). the more modular nature of the desktop also means that upgrades can be done piecemeal over time. Laptops generally don't upgrade more than HDD and RAM.

Another option you might consider is a small x86 tablet or 2-in-1. It doesn't have the processing power of a desktop or MacBook, but it's smaller, lighter, easier to carry, and has enough power for basic programs. Mine has a few retro games on it like Baldur's Gate, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and Command & Conquer.

Also, if you're considering building a new computer, do you have any parts available from older machines that are still viable? Cases and PSUs seem to be the most common that you can carry over.
 


Keep your cash in your pocket.

Ordinarily, a desktop i3 can exceed a mobile i5 or i7, but the Macbook Pro's 4850HQ is an unusual SKU -- it has 4 cores, reasonable base frequency, healthy boost headroom, and a large TDP to keep it there. Unlike the cut-down 2 core 15W "i7" Intel is selling these days, that particular chip actually deserves the name, and will curb-stomp the 4130T you might consider for a budget desktop build

On the other side, the 750Ti is only an incremental step up from a 650m.

Basically, to exceed your MacBook in all areas, you'd need to pony up for another SSD, a desktop i5, and something in the neighborhood of an R9-285/GTX-960 (both ~$200, performance is comparable) or R9-290/GTX-970 (~$300, and again, your preference). Unfortunately I think this winds up outside what you could throw together with $600.
 
:pfff: It really is sad what has become of the THG Forums ...

Head-to-Head
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M (NB Check)
AMD Radeon R9 270 Review (THG)

Company of Heroes 2 1920x1080 / 'Ultra'
GT 650M -- 4.8 FPS
R9 270 -- 53.2 FPS

Tomb Raider 1920x1080 / 'Ultra'
GT 650M -- 14 FPS
R9 270 -- 49.9 FPS

BioShock Infinite 1920x1080 / 'Ultra'
GT 650M -- 17 FPS
R9 270 -- 67.2 FPS

Metro: Last Light 1920x1080 / Very High 16xAF
GT 650M -- 12 FPS
R9 270 -- 44.6 FPS

...I want to build now, but I know anything I build in the $600 price range won't be noticeably better than what I am playing on now (as far as I'm aware of) ...
Click to expand...
I hope I helped answer your question.
 
The GTX750Ti is only a little weaker than the R9 270, so based on the above data, will also blow out the 650M. Your Macbook's CPU may be reasonable, but since most games are a lot more dependent on graphics power, you will get a substantial boost even from a $110-$120 card.
This doesn't count a monitor, keyboard, or mouse, but just off the top of my head:
H97: 70
i3: 110
GPU: 120
Win7: 80
Case: 40
PSU: 60
HDD: 55
DVD: 15
RAM: 50
=============
Total: $590

 


Not sure why you'd buy a Skylake i7 when Haswell-E is identical in price, offers more cores, etc.

Anyway, with Steam sales (and carrying over your existing Steam library, big or small) and the general prevalence of cheaper Steam games, including new games with a retro feel, a gaming desktop is the way to go. I just built a bedroom "Steam machine" with a spare Haswell Core i3 I had lying around, and paired it with a 750 Ti... it handles everything I've wanted to, handsomely.
 
threw this together, looks like a great pc to me.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WZXPqs
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WZXPqs/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($51.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Toshiba 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R7 370 2GB PCS+ Video Card ($143.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($31.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $593.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-07 20:38 EDT-0400
 
Patience is a virtue. In other words, wait 3 months till Black Friday. You will be rewarded well if you do. Here's my build from PC Part Picker:

i5 4460 - 167.00 - Why? Over clocking not needed, you want nothing less than 4 cores, its efficient and won't need an aftemarket cooler.
XFX double D r9 280 3gb - 150 - will play any game well at 1080p
Asus Z87-A - $80 - Basic chipset...has what you need to game.
2x4 ripjaws 1866 memory - $49 - you're gaming, not video editing.
ocz arc 100 - 240Gb - $92 - its faster than any mechanical harddrive
hitachi E7K10001tb hdd - $39 - it's 1tb!
Thermaltake versa mid tower case - $29 - don't like the looks, put a sheet and a lamp over it.
Corsair builder 500 watt bronze power supply - $45
Win 8.1 OEM - $87

total = 727.81 after rebates.
Yes it's over $600, but if you wait till Black Firday you'll find a better deal somewhere on every component. There's tons of great deals on everything. I wait every year for Black Friday to upgrade and it's worth it. Besides...you'll have 3 more months to save a few more bucks!
 


theres no mention of a monitor! i think he'll need that too..
 
If you need monitor, case, PSU, speaker and windows also for 600, the pc wont be worth it.
You can check my "Poor Mans Reality" build here - http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BYTmcf .
But this build includes monitor, PSU, case, OS, speaker and also keyboard mouse. Monitor and speakers are not great, but they get the jobs done. The main upgrade for you will be bigger screen maybe? And storage.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: AOC e2051Sn 60Hz 20.0" Monitor ($88.49 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard ($8.49 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Logitech B120 Wired Optical Mouse ($9.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Speakers: Logitech Z313 25W 2.1ch Speakers ($27.89 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $716.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-10 02:33 EDT-0400

Hope i could help you.
 
Get a console. PC is like buying car, maintenance involved, and at that price you wont enjoy new games at their max settings due to mid range PC spec. You would need to drop at least 1k for pc that could stay on top new game with their hardware requirements for next 2 years. And that just PC, add nice monitor, keyboard mouse and you already looking at another $400-700 on top of it.
 
Imho, the PC wins on being a multi-function device. Even if you get a console that can play movies, it's not going to invoice your side gigs, store your cat videos, list and budget your preps, or email your nieces. Finally, PC graphics are superior, even with modest parts.
 
Right!

Even though I generally would recommend PC gaming, at this point in time there are just too many undecided variables for me to recommend you a PC for that budget. Its because -

1) We will in a few months' time be receiving directx12 and vulcan powered games which will show how much more performance can be squeezed out of hardware available at your budget. Right now, there are a few benchmarks regarding draw calls but they are not really representative of real world gaming.

2) Anything less than 4GB on your graphics card will reduce its future proofing. This is because of consoles and their unified memory which allows for around 6-7 gigs of access to memory to be used in any way the developers feel like. If you look at this review http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-nvidia-geforce-gtx-960-review the writer mentions that 2gb is enough for today(shown by Shadow Of Mordor) but for tomorrow and ends up recommending a card that is , in my opinion, outdated because it has 3gb but not decent directx12 support.

3) Even though I haven't tried G-Sync or FreeSync, they seem to be quite the game changing technologies in terms of future proofing. This is because as the years pass by and you decide to not upgrade your rig, you will see performance and consequently the experience detoriate much more than consoles. This is what happened with my currently 7 year old rig. The rig doesn't seem to be quite up to standard as the software pushes it harder and harder and average and minimum framerates keep dropping. One tends to notice tearing or the high variability of framerates. The quality of the experience basically drops and you feel disappointed. From what I understand G-Sync/FreeSync will help mitigate this drop in quality by basically smoothing out this variability . At the moment, this monitor technology is expensive with Nvidia's G-Sync being better(in terms of the range of fps it covers) but more expensive. Moreover, your current budget doesn't allow for it unless you decide to save up. On the other hand, because consoles is where the majority of the money is at, development is focused on there and you will almost always get its games running well. If you'd like proof, check out Crysis 2 on the PS3. Its amazing what they accomplished.

4) Regarding Steam OS and Steam Machines, I dont think it has much of a future unless they bring in some hardware standardisation and subsequent software optimisation.

5) Many people cite as PC games being cheaper than consoles. WHile this is true during the first few months of their release, I have seen some fantastic sales from Sony that take the PC sales head on. If you think you are the kind of person who can wait till a price drop then this shouldn't be a problem. Otherwise you can always look at second hand console games for the ones that work.

6) Both consoles feature exclusives which are pretty darn enticing. For me, the PS4 has Bloodborne and Journey whereas the Xbox has Forza and Scalebound. In my experience over the past years, hardly any console exclusive worth my time has come out for the PC. For example, the whole of metal gear solid series has only one decent PC port which is quite a shame. The God Of War series and Vanquish are other good examples.

6) Also, Sony( I only have experience with the PS4 via a friend) gives free games every month if you are subscribed to their online service. I have found many times that these games are not the shitty ones that no one buys. For example, rocket league was being given away for free last month and IT IS DAMN FUN WITH A FRIEND!

7) The indie scene on consoles is becoming quite competitive with the PC since Sony relaxed their publishing rules with Microsoft following behind.

8) You already have a PC that you can use to do everything else apart from current gaming. If you plan to play the likes of DOTA 2 or indies it wont be a problem on your macbook. You can also always get a cheap license for windows from somewhere later on.

Taking all this into consideration, I would recommend you buy a console and a GOOD monitor/tv and speakers/headphones. I dont know which console to recommend you as the xbone's extra features like TV dont work in my country. But from my experience with the PS4, its quite the fantastic value for money. Wait till Black Friday and you might get even better deals.

I hope this helps :)
 
go to the bar, play the jukebox, get a fat stupid girl, get some dr*gs, have a weekend to not remember.
if you're in Central FL let me know where.
 
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