Opinion: The Real(istic) Cost of Being a Gamer

[Guest]

3300 on a gamging tower? I have spent 50% more than that on custom liquid cooling alone

 

[shin0bi272]

[citation][nom]dconnors[/nom]...but we aren't talking about building a machine in three months. We are talking about building one now. And I think I said in the article that I would build my own machine as well, but not everyone wants to do that, homeslice. If everyone wanted to build their own gaming rigs, Alienware, Origin, and iBuyPower wouldn't exist!
-Devin Connors, Tom's Guide[/citation]
I understand we are talking about building one right now but you should at least mention that the video card is about to be greatly surpassed and its a bad time to build a pc on page 3. That would also have been another great slam against the bloomberg story... lack of situational awareness.

Please dont call me homeslice thanks.

It is true that there are some people who want to game but dont either want to or know how to build a system so they just throw money out the door and buy a prebuilt system. As P.T. Barnum said "There's a sucker born every minute". Some people have more money than brains or like to boast how much they spent on their pc like some kind of nerd pissing contest. LOL e-peen.

 

[shin0bi272]

Holy crap I just calculated how much I spent on my pc and if I use the original prices for all the stuff I have I spent 2200 bucks on it!

i7-920 bought when it was a week old - 300
Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 r1366 - 80
asus p6t deluxe v2 mobo - 300
6gb ocz ddr3 ram - 200 bucks (I think)
ocz vertex 2 120gb SSD - 250 (on sale last march or so on newegg)
WD velociraptor 300gb - 200
Corsair 1000hx psu - 220
MSI geforce gts 250 - 100 (bought about 3 or 4 months before the 400 series came out as a place holder but never got the 4 series and when the 5 series came out I was unemployed so now Im looking at the 7 series LOL... time)
soundblaster audigy 2 zs platinum (the one with the front bay) - 160 (I think)
creative gigaworks 7.1 surround sound speakers - 180
sony dvd/cd combo drive - 35
Logitech k120 keyboard - 20 (LOL!)
ideazon reaper laser gaming mouse - 35
hanns g 27.5" 3ms monitor - 256

that's 2336! if I threw in a 580's for a video card that would be 2842... which is just about the same price as the dreadnaught pc. Its got newer stuff and liquid cooling but price wise its about the same. Of course I'd still never buy a pre-built system but I understand.

 

[blibba]

Let's be sensible.

PC: £400
Display and peripherals: £200
Games: who the hell buys full price games?
Consoles: what?

 

[mortsmi7]

I started from scratch about 3 years ago and I can give a generous estimate of about $4k spent since then.
xbox 360 and 42" tv and a few games $1100
PC system and monitor and some upgrades $2000
Games subscriptions and games: a generous $900

 

[ronml]

[citation][nom]dconnors[/nom]...but we aren't talking about building a machine in three months. We are talking about building one now. And I think I said in the article that I would build my own machine as well, but not everyone wants to do that, homeslice. If everyone wanted to build their own gaming rigs, Alienware, Origin, and iBuyPower wouldn't exist!Ivy Bridge*, and the Sandy Bridge CPUs (at least the K series models) are pretty OC-friendly.-Devin Connors, Tom's Guide[/citation]

I suspect that the upcoming Core I7 3770K with a TDP of 77 Watts will be easier to overclock than a current Core i7 2700K with a TDP of 95W. Also, the prospect of 2x8 PCI Express 3 lanes on the new Pantherpoint boards and native USB 3 seems worth waiting for, if you can.

I wish I had an extra 2500 to spend. But things like replacing a broken fridge and dishwasher and repairing the floor from water damage get in the way.

 

[slicedtoad]

I can understand that going the DIY route simply isn't in the cards for many of you, however, so this $1,300 iBUYPOWER machine is a great alternative (although the value isn't as obvious when you go the pre-built route. With a quad-core Intel Core i7 2600K CPU, Nvidia GTX 560 Ti graphics card and 16 GB of RAM, this Gamer Supreme (their name, not mine) can handle any game you throw at it in 2012 and beyond. The performance of the Gamer Supreme isn't going to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Digital Storm Dreadnought chosen by Bloomberg, but at half the price it doesn't have to. The GTX 560 Ti will perform exceptionally well when playing games at a 1920x1080 resolution.

umm no, a 560ti will not handle anything you throw at it. get rid of the i7, drop in an ssd and upgrade the gpu.

 

[dconnors]

[citation][nom]xjchcxx[/nom]Toms Hardware wrote their article to reflect the Bloomberg article so I understand this Running Total thing; however, I do not understand why Bloomberg did this. This article should have been extended further as there are many types of gamers. This article was composed in a way that suggests if you play games at all, you play games on your PC, a console with a home theatre system, and while you're on the go via phone and/or portable gaming console, which this may be true for some, but not many gamers – certainly not all gamers.[/citation]

Just to buff what you already (sort of) said: I don't believe, nor was I insinuating, that a gamer needs all of this stuff. It really was a categorical rebuttal of the Bloomberg article. They included a console, so I did as well, and so on.

[citation][nom]shin0bi272[/nom]I understand we are talking about building one right now but you should at least mention that the video card is about to be greatly surpassed and its a bad time to build a pc on page 3.[/citation]

Welp, that part of article was framed as " if you're buying a pre-built machine right now..." so I did not (and will not) go in-depth on future hardware releases. If you're a Tom's reader, then you likely already know that building your own machine is a better value than buying a pre-built one. But since there are some number of PC gamers out there who don't want to build their own machine, I felt compelled to include some sort of reasonably priced model. If you have a problem with any of what I just said - tough luck!

[citation][nom]slicedtoad[/nom]umm no, a 560ti will not handle anything you throw at it. get rid of the i7, drop in an ssd and upgrade the gpu.[/citation]

On the GTX 560 Ti: "Excellent 1920x1200 performance, Good 2560x1600 performance in most games with lowered detail"

That's taken from THG's latest "Best Graphics Cards For The Money" article, published on January 4th. IF a GTX 560 Ti isn't a good choice for running games at medium, medium/high or high settings (depending on the game) at 1080p, then take it up with Chris and Don.

-Devin Connors, Tom's Guide

 

[mikenygmail]

It's possible to game for only about $500 total to start with and only spending about $100-200 per year if you play your cards right. You'll have to use a budget monitor of course, and only buy components when they are at rock-bottom prices via various deal sites. (or buy open boxed, refurbed components and keep the "good" parts) Once any given part is due to be replaced, if you time it right you can sell it and then spend very little for an upgrade!

 

[mikenygmail]

Using this method you can even have a mid-range graphics card!

 

[tlmck]

I have a different concept on frugality. I have been PC gaming since just before the original Wolfenstein 3D came out. After years of chasing my tail on the never ending upgrade train, I finally wised up. These days I purposely stay 2-4 years behind the gaming curve.

One advantage is that I can build a new low cost rig that is about as powerful as the top end rigs were when the games were released. The other advantage is that I rarely pay over $9.99 for a game. Yes they are old games, but they are new to me.

 

[Reynod]

I have a different concept on frugality. I have been PC gaming since just before the original Wolfenstein 3D came out. After years of chasing my tail on the never ending upgrade train, I finally wised up. These days I purposely stay 2-4 years behind the gaming curve.

One advantage is that I can build a new low cost rig that is about as powerful as the top end rigs were when the games were released. The other advantage is that I rarely pay over $9.99 for a game. Yes they are old games, but they are new to me.

I agree but I do go for a mid range graphics card and a decent PSU.

Steam often have very cheap games too ... we buy a lot of them.

 

[FunSurfer]

A GTX 560 Ti will handle most PC games at least on high settings as long as current gen consoles will bottleneck the gaming industry.

 

[wiyosaya]

From the vast number of comments, it looks like Jennifer Prince is being called out on the lack of knowledge and quality of her article. Perhaps Forrest Gump would say "Stupid is as stupid does."

I think I can speak for the majority of Tom's readers in saying that we here know that her article was uninformed at best. Given that, IMHO, I do not really see the point of this commentary. In some respects, by refuting her article, I think that it only gives more power to it. After all, I am sure it is getting lots of attention by other gamer sites, too and in so doing, I am sure that it is attracting lots of people to the Bloomberg site. Perhaps this was the reason JP wrote her article - to get more hits on the Bloomberg site.

 

[dconnors]

[citation][nom]wiyosaya[/nom]From the vast number of comments, it looks like Jennifer Prince is being called out on the lack of knowledge and quality of her article. Perhaps Forrest Gump would say "Stupid is as stupid does."I think I can speak for the majority of Tom's readers in saying that we here know that her article was uninformed at best. Given that, IMHO, I do not really see the point of this commentary. In some respects, by refuting her article, I think that it only gives more power to it. After all, I am sure it is getting lots of attention by other gamer sites, too and in so doing, I am sure that it is attracting lots of people to the Bloomberg site. Perhaps this was the reason JP wrote her article - to get more hits on the Bloomberg site.[/citation]

Having been a Tom's editor (in various capacities) for nearly four years now, I can tell you that writing an article to get a one-time spike in pageviews and comments isn't a particularly sound strategy. Writing a controversial article is fine and dandy, so long as you can back it up. The Bloomberg article is hardly defensible, and I think it's safe to assume that the majority of gamers who read her piece aren't going to return to Bloomberg.

-Devin Connors, Tom's Guide

 

[eyemaster]

[citation][nom]phamhlam[/nom]The cost of gaming is crazy. The upfront cost is cheap. $1000-2000 for your gaming rig and set up. The true cost comes in the hours you waste sitting behind that chair. Gaming is crazy expensive.[/citation]

I wouldn't say that. You can think of your gaming as "wasting your time in front of a monitor" or you can think of it as "It makes me happy, this is what I like to do. If it makes me happy, it's not a waste of time".

As long as you have a good balance on life, work and play.

 

[eyemaster]

Video card? I'm playing all my games on a 5770. I had dual cards, but one gave up, and yet I can still play any game I want.

 

[drhansgruber]

Power consumption and the cost thereof of all that stuff will sum up to quite a substantial amount if considered over a year or two. Don't really fancy doing the maths though...

 

[dconnors]

[citation][nom]drhansgruber[/nom]Power consumption and the cost thereof of all that stuff will sum up to quite a substantial amount if considered over a year or two. Don't really fancy doing the maths though...[/citation]

It's a pretty large variable though, as power costs vary from state to state, country to country, etc.

 

[Guest]

It is remarkable the situation most PC manufacturers have put us gamers in. You really cannot buy a PC and expect it to last more than 2 to 3 years without having to buy a new one because our top manufacturers leave little of a upgrade path. They want us to buy new. Several year ago, facing this problem, I decided to build my own PC with the best parts I could afford. This lets me upgrade my PC whenever necessary at a great deal of savings. I recently bought a new motherboard, (ASUS P8P67 Deluxe) an I7 2600K processor and 8GB DDR3 memory with only having to spent about 600 dollars. It allows me to enjoy gaming without having to spend the big bucks over and over.