To be fair it is kind of the topic of the article.

I don't think it's particularly wise to try and build a gaming PC on a tight budget at the moment though. You'll get more bang for your buck out of a console.

The strength of PC gaming is that you can always invest even more buck if you want more power, and that's just not an option on the consoles.

A lower budget PC will be a better choice in a couple of years, as again there will be no equivalent console in that space (unless we get a new challenger).

I built my ps4 for 360$.

OT: PC gaming isn't as expensive as everyone makes it out to be and we know it. You're not just building a gaming machine you are building one of the greatest inventions created by man just think of the thing you can do on a PC that you can't do on a console.

You will not max out everything with this setup first off. And secondly the FPS on most modern games would be unplayable @ max settings. And no OS price, go figure.

I don't know if this is sarcasm or not.
If it's not, PCs can actually last longer than consoles. Furthermore, upgrading it only requires you to upgrade like, one or two components to still outperform the next generation that will arrive, meaning you can then beat the next gen for half the price using your existing build.

Whereas in 6-7 years time, you've got to buy an entirely new system compared to a single CPU, Graphics Card.

#1 You have to pay 60$ a year to access online content. Considering that there are such games like Destiny and The Division, you would probably pay the subscription
In 7 years, you will pay 420$

#2 The reason why PC gaming exists is because people want to see the full quality of the game and have it run smoothly.
Overall, console gaming could never deliver that. Their hardware would wear out really fast. Here is an example(watch in HD)
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

I think console makers should really think about their gen duration. It's probably best to switch it to 4-5 years like in the 5th/6th gen.

Well, you do know that if you buy Windows OS just once, it's your forever. You can install it on any machine, as long as only 1 machine is using it.(you will have to deinstall it from one machine to install the os to the other)
Come on, that windows 7 disk is somewhere dusting amongst the piles of your junk. Go look for it, it will save you 100$

1 great thing about building a pc is that you can reuse the parts from your previous pc. Disk Drives, Optical Drive, mouse & keyboard and the case are pretty long lasting.

Btw, you should also consider that PS4 is running Watch Dogs in 900p 30fps.
Watch Dogs developers clearly stated, that you can max out the game with 670. And Radeon's R9 270 is on par with 670.
As you see, you really get your money's worth by paying 700$.
Also consider that there are no subsciptions to pay on pc.

I just did a build on Newegg that meets the Ultra requirements of Watch Dogs and includes Windows, a basic gaming keyboard and the new EVGA TORQ X10 gaming mouse.

Antec Three Hundred Case: $60
XFX TS Series P1-650G 650W PSU: $100
Gigabyte GA-970A AM3+ Mobo: $85
AMD FX-8350 CPU: $200
EVGA GTX 650: $140
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)$84
WD Blue 1TB 7200RPM OEM: $60
Lite-On DVD Burner: $20
Windows 8.1 64bit OEM: $100
Corsair Raptor K30: $45
EVGA TORQ X10: $50

Total Cost $944. Probably could have got it $50-60 cheaper with a bit more time.

"no OS no k/m or any of the other stuff NEEDED to actually run it"

Ok, I agree about the OS...maybe add a $50-100. The cost of a keyboard mouse is minimal.

What about this "other stuff" you mention?

You should also think about: Headset, HDMI cable, monitor, speakers, and maybe a bluetooth adapter (for wireless controllers)

The PC in the link is good but if you worry about costs you might want to get a console FOR NOW ...PC hardware will inflate more than the price of the consoles, you can still get a PC in 2-3 years if your current one is doing fine.

@ZodTheRipper

The same could also be applied to consoles then....a decent HDTV, headset, better quality cables, speakers.

My PC will run WD on Ultra, 8350 and 2 7870's it is older than 2 years and around £600. My PC will still run games in 4 years,not at ultra but will still compare favourably to consoles. 7 is a really stable OS, maybe 15 years ago the OS's were unstable.

I love console gaming as much as PC gaming each has their own strengths and exclusives.

@Lon3wolf,
Glad to hear your PC is holding on, 600 euro is 1000$ so we get past the 1000$ mark, and I'm sure that you spent more then that, PC maintenance requires changing parts from time to time, or upgrading certain parts such as RAM and storage, you might have spent 600 when you bought it, but try to sum the total amount.
and Windows 7 is very stable, but the OS stability depends mainly on the parts, if they're over clocking and running on frequencies that they weren't made for it will result in the occasional blue screen or crash, games will often crash as a result of overclocking.

It will happen on any OS, OC is asking for trouble if you don't have a good cooling solution and know what you're doing, and even when you do know it will take a lot of fine tuning to make sure everything runs correctly, and even then, the degradation of the hardware is increased greatly.

Every few years I upgrade my PC personally, but I spend a good amount of money to make sure it will be money well spent.

I agree that PS4 is a better investment than a cheap PC at the moment, but a lot of the other stuff you say is misleading.

2 year old PCs that were anywhere near the price you are talking about can run Watchdogs on ultra with a good frame rate. What is in your PC of 2 years ago?

If you spend $1500 on a PC today it will be a lot more powerful than a PS4. In 2-3 years it will still be just as much more powerful, and should still run multiplatform games better.

Overclocking doesn't typically involve running parts on "unintended frequencies" either. If you look up the parts from Intel/AMD/nVidia you'll see what kinds of overclocks are officially supported...

A free OS that you can run all the games on. Linux still doesn't have anywhere near the support of Windows.

Really a free OS? It doesn't support all games and devices and such?