Can't Get Into PC Gaming

[SoMiss2000]

As I get older i'm having less interest in consoles. Currently have a PS4 and Xbox One. I may have two physical games between them. Anything digital is old and was free or I got it on sale. I built a rig last year and my interest in gaming involves my PC now. I'll keep my consoles around. I do want a Switch for Mario Odyssey and Zelda. I've found i'm not finishing a lot of console games the last few years. When i'm home, I'm always in the room where my PC Setup is. I'm now buying shooters on PC for KB/M which i've been decent on pc more than I ever was on console lol. My interests have changed and love the idea of building my next rig which will probably be next year. I wanted a new PC and decided to build one that could handle anything I threw at it. Gaming is a benefit. It's pretty too. I like to look at it lol. Next up, a gaming monitor.

[SoMiss2000]

Quote: Originally Posted by fishepa

I just built a gaming PC because I'm truly a graphics whore. That and I love gaming at 60+ fps. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep and my 1440p on my monitors look great.

[PAPERNUT]

I was PC gamer back in the 90s, but got out for consoles thru college. I decided to come back around 3 years ago to see what all the fuss was about. I grabbed an Alienware Alpha for just around $600 and created a Steam account. A year later I built a high end rig and have not looked back. Steam and the sales are amazing. I have rarely paid full price for any of the games I have purchased. Steam is wonderful and free to boot. Moving from a big screen to a quality dual monitor setup has also been a huge upgrade for the quality of the games I play.

There is no doubt an entry fee into PC, but by the time you add savings from games and no service fees, it is not as bad as people make it out to be. It is certainly not for everyone, but if you have the least bit of interest, I would try it out. Explore Steam and the other PC services out now and check out the pricing and games you may be interested in. If you find enough to your liking, find a low end PC or something that will play the games you are interested in to get a taste of it all. You can always upgrade later if needed.

[Peji911]

Quote: Originally Posted by ThrowBack

You should stick with your PS4 and low spec PC then. Only get a top end gaming PC if you care about having 60fps @ highest resolutions for 3rd party games. You should also consider selling all your unused consoles on Ebay. I had an barely used 3DS and Nvidia shield, put them up on Ebay and I nearly got back what I paid for them.

Not a bad idea. I have never sold anything on eBay. Did a quick search but a few questions remain:

1. How do I calculate shipping costs? And how do I add that to a potential sale without knowing the destination?
2. Do I get something to claim on taxes?
3. Do I pay eBay up front or only a percentage after it's sold?

[SoMiss2000]

Quote: Originally Posted by PAPERNUT

I was PC gamer back in the 90s, but got out for consoles thru college. I decided to come back around 3 years ago to see what all the fuss was about. I grabbed an Alienware Alpha for just around $600 and created a Steam account. A year later I built a high end rig and have not looked back. Steam and the sales are amazing. I have rarely paid full price for any of the games I have purchased. Steam is wonderful and free to boot. Moving from a big screen to a quality dual monitor setup has also been a huge upgrade for the quality of the games I play. There is no doubt an entry fee into PC, but by the time you add savings from games and no service fees, it is not as bad as people make it out to be. It is certainly not for everyone, but if you have the least bit of interest, I would try it out. Explore Steam and the other PC services out now and check out the pricing and games you may be interested in. If you find enough to your liking, find a low end PC or something that will play the games you are interested in to get a taste of it all. You can always upgrade later if needed.

As someone mentioned, new hardware always coming out, you don't have to buy it. My 1070 handles everything i've tried and should last a few years if I choose to keep it.

[Phobia]

The whole PC requires upgrading all the time is nonsense if you are responsible and don't just throw money at every flashing ad.

It doesn't take some insane computer to run every game currently out. I could build a PC comparable to the price of a new console which will run all the same games plus higher frames per sec. It won't be the biggest baddest in the land but it will game just fine.

For instance, I have a triple monitor setup, I game, stream on twitch, and have many windows open (discord, twitch dashboard, anhkbot, OBS, steam, etc), all on a older mid level PC. It handles everything just fine.

i5 4690k
16 gb ram
AMD 290x video card

Funny thing, some of the parts are from a 2006 build, the power supply, disk drives, and 2 hard drives all came out of my last build. I pushed that build 8 years until 2014.

I could of upgraded to a 1070 but knew that this build had a little legs left in it. So I was going to ride with it until later this year when I planned on a Rysen build.

I am not advocating you to game on a PC, its your time and money being spent so that is your decision. I'm just defending the "you need to throw constant money at PC gaming", that just isn't true. In 11 years, 2 builds, both around $600 a piece aka $1200 total, I've averaged roughly $100 a year spent on PC gaming. Add in steam, the game savings and I'd say its just about the same cost as console gaming & possibly cheaper. It's just like any other hobby, you can't run around like a mad man with your debt card or you will be broke .

[Brandwin]

I would love to have a gaming PC, but I get overwhelmed any time I look into it and I don't want to spend so much. Maybe one day...

I just moved my PS4 Pro to a gaming monitor and I don't think I will go back to gaming on a TV. So maybe a PC will be next...

[ThrowBack]

Quote: Originally Posted by Peji911

Not a bad idea. I have never sold anything on eBay. Did a quick search but a few questions remain: 1. How do I calculate shipping costs? And how do I add that to a potential sale without knowing the destination? 2. Do I get something to claim on taxes? 3. Do I pay eBay up front or only a percentage after it's sold?

1. When setting up a listing, you have the option to have shipping cost calculated for you. Just have the weight and dimensions of your package ready. You can also print the shipping label through Ebay for a discount.

2. I'm not sure about taxes and Ebay earnings. You might have to claim your earnings but I find it ridiculous that I pay sales tax on a console then pay more taxes for selling it. I just don't claim it on my taxes. I've been using Ebay for over 10 years and never had the IRS come at me.

3. You pay upfront and a percentage. Upfront cost can be really cheap (.99 cents) if you're listing is pretty basic. Then they charge 8% of the final price of your item. If you use PayPal, they also take a small cut.

I would recommend selling a few cheaper items before listing your expensive consoles so you can get some rep.