Can you build a gaming PC better than the PS4 for $400?

As you probably know by now, the PS4 is essentially a $400 PC. It has an x86 PC CPU, a standard PC GPU, and the same kind of RAM that you’d find on a PC graphics card. There are a few custom chips on the PS4′s motherboard, but for the most part it’s just a normal PC with some custom software. This led me to wonder… could you actually build a comparable PC for $400? More importantly, given how Sony has crippled the PS4′s home theatre functionality, is it possible to build a PC for $400 that is actually better for games and as a living room media box?

[zeal0us]

Nope. It would a huge waste of time building this $400 machine. Not to mention this thing would still lack features exclusively for the PS4 and the PS4 exclusives themselves.

Just enjoy your platform of choice and stop battling other platforms.

[dedicatedtogamers]

Nope. 8 GBs of the PS4's RAM would cost at least $150 off the shelf. The processor, another $150, the mobo, another 100, $50 for the hard drive, $50 for the case...$50 for wires and a cheap power supply.

And even then, you'd still be left with a very mediocre PC.

[ChrisW]

If you are talking about regular PC RAM, 16Gbs of DDR3-2133 (the fastest DDR3 available) will cost you about $150. However, that is quite different from GDDR5, which PS4 uses.

[Dehnus]

70 bucks for 16gigs of DDR3-2100mhz. But that might just be us Europeans, we shop smarter, not harder/hoarder ;).

[Reverent]

It doesn't matter anyways because you can't just buy GDDR5 RAM. So that alone is why this setup doesn't work. But that's just one reason. The comment section of this article does a great job at pretty much dismantling everything the article says. PC elitists might be a dickish bunch, but they know their ways around technology.

[neoandrew]

Reverent
"you can't just buy GDDR5 RAM"

Doesn't matter, you just buy a gpu with 2gb gddr5.

[theEx1Le]

You pay 150 for a 8 core 1.6ghz processor then your an idiot

[ATiElite]

The Glorious PC Gaming Master Race!

"Can you build a gaming PC better than the PS4 for $400?"

NOPE! but....for $530 I can build a Gaming PC that will outperform a PS4!

Does a $530 Gaming PC have PS4 Exclusives? NO

Does a PS4 have the ability to burn a DVD, Encode video, rip music from any source, Do your taxes, run a business, write a term paper, and Play PC Exclusives? NO

So it all depends on what you wanna do!

Comparing a PS4 to a PC is silly but some people just LOVE it and totally forget that a PC does more than JUST PLAY games as a way to make a Gaming Toy have more value than a Multi-tasking Tool.

I need my PC's for other things more important than Gaming.

[zeal0us]

Glorious God Gamers are 1,000,000,000,000 better than your master race.
http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photo...

All jokes aside I'm with you. I definitely need my PC for other things more important than gaming.
I got two projects I need to finish making and not to mention a term paper I need to type. A few more weeks left and I will have my AAS in CIT.

[karl]

who doesnt have a pc on its house .. its 2013..

that pc already does all that

we are talking about a gaming pc... yeah sure i will probably get rid of my old pc when building one

but my mediocre pc already does all those thing soo i can just keep playing my ps4.

[tubers]

@zeal0us

lol I actually asked about that in SW gamespot.

Apparently there is a "God Race", the race to have and rule them all.

Also, it's pretty niche but multi monitor is crack so much real estate for just about anything.

[itisallaboutps]

Dont get me wrong I also have a gaming pc. But really? Anyone has a cheap laptop that will do those things except for gaming. You bragged about them as if only a high end pc could do those simple task and I love the social experience my ps4 gives me. I can cross gamechat with friends while playing fifa and switch between games in 10 seconds. Pc can't beat the ps4 and xbox experience. The pc does however have mods which I love and cheap downloads. But for 400 bucks you can't get close to a ps4 atleast not until a few years

[Somebody]

I'm bracing for the "PC is Dead" articles to re-surface. I expect them to pop out in number next year as both next gen consoles receive more games but SteamOS might make things interesting.

[aquamala]

Comparison is silly because on one platform you have to pay $50 a year to play online, factor that in (8 years?) and PC gaming is not more expensive

[gamesR4fun]

ya its not even close to the beastly ps4 as quoted from the article.

"From the get-go, we have a problem: The APU in the PS4 is unique. It pairs an 8-core Jaguar CPU with, essentially, the Radeon HD 7850. The best AMD APU currently on the market (the Richland A10-6800K) has about one third of the processing power of the PS4′s GPU. There are no 8-core Jaguar parts on the market — only the quad-core Kabini A6-5200, which is paired with an even weaker GPU than the A10. Kaveri, when it comes to market in January 2014, will be a closer match — but the PS4 will still have around twice the graphics grunt. In short, we’re forced to use a CPU and discrete GPU. It just got a lot harder to hit our $400 target.

The other big problem is the 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, which has an utterly insane peak bandwidth of 176 gigabytes per second. There is no way to build a PC with such a configuration. In the PS4, the RAM is used by both the CPU and GPU in a HSA 2.0 configuration, providing a sizable speed boost – an option that isn’t available to the PC world until Kaveri launches. It’s important to note that even if we could slot some GDDR5 RAM into a PC motherboard, it would probably be much more expensive than conventional DDR3."

[ATiElite]

1. Sorry bro the AMD 8 core jaguar is already outdated as AMD announced Jaguars replacement.

2. The ONLY reason the PS4's Jaguar is 8 cores is to help future proof it but most importantly the PSu maxes at 250 watts so therefore it's CPU's are low watt like Laptops and running at 2ghz

3. You do not want to even compare a 8 core AMD versus a Core i7 with Hyper threading because what you will see is a FRIGGIN MASSACRE. Intel is TOO DOMINATE!

but here it is any way and this is NOT even Intels Best CPU. after viewing link you can change CPU's.

I used a 8 core AMD vs. a 4 Core i7 3770

http://www.anandtech.com/be...

PS4 still has plenty of CPU power for now and in the future as games are using more GPU power.

The GPU is handling Rendering and even physics.

[jebabcock]

This would be valid if the ps4 ran on Windows 8... Last I checked it didn't... is Windows even optimized for 8 cores? There are alot of factors that you leave out of your argument...

[gamesR4fun]

sure you can pump more gigawats with a high end pc but the games will always lag to keep up
like the uber computer guy said their only a few games that can use it and those are just upscaled versions of the same game
gta5 will own on the pc but console owners get ta play it now... see what I mean

meh its usless talkin sense to a fanboy and for the record its in no way ironic I'm replying to myself.

[wishingW3L]

oh yes it's very possible!

http://www.gamespot.com/for...

[MRMagoo123]

Its very not possible lol have you seen that junk, plus the pc would last a month before it died from those parts , they didnt have an OS either.

[ZBlacktt]

I lol'd at this ghetto attempt.

[LonChaneyTV]

I say in a year or so you can be 3x the power of consoles for cheap.

PCs are not cheap upfront, but you can save lots of money going with digital services.

[LonChaneyTV]

"Can you build a gaming PC better than the PS4 for $400?"

Add $600 to that and that's how much 10 new games will cost you. PC gaming also has the advantage of backwards compatibility, even after i upgrade my steam games will load up and i don't have to repurchase my games.

consoles are good for Exclusives but other than that PCs have the upper hand. In 2 years time you build a strong PC for cheap.

[AD705]

Not to mention pc has a slew of exclusives as well and usually the better multiplats and better online.

Besides exclusives for the most part are just overhyped crap that gets played once and never again.

[tubers]

PC doesn't have paywalled services from PS+ and XBL

LOL Cloud saves and paying for some apps and paying "again" for internet.

I'm more lenient to PS+ since the multi-platform (PS3/PSV/PS4) freaking meaty enough for me.

[jebabcock]

I think a more reasonable comparison performance wise would be with a ps3 for under 400.

[ZBlacktt]

The PS4 is $340 btw.... The Dual Shock 4 is $60. Hence the $399 price tag.

[PSX04]

no we can't build gaming PC for 400$

[CERN]

They forgot to include operating system, blu ray player, game pad, and even then the performance won't be the same as the operating system has to share the CPU, GPU and RAM. Where as the PS4 is a closed system, games are only going to look better down the line. Compare first generation ps3 games like cod to games like battlefield 4, the last of us, god of war ext. and then you have the exclusives and so on, in the end your spending $550+. Waste of money I say. Ether buy a ps4 and get better value or build a better pc.

[sigfredod]

This article failed big, bussines rule: never assume that a customer already have something, he didn't include the value of the cables, power, hdmi, micro usb, you should have a controller somewhere? maybe but if not? and if i have it will not have sixaxis function or a touchpad, all that have value, no optical drive? the ps4 have a very fast BD and that have a value, big fail, and where is the secondary processor with the 2 Gb? really crappy article

[deecee33]

The article is correct that you can build a roughly PS4 equivalent machine, but it'll cost slightly more, like $500-600. I built one when my PS3 went up in smoke, so I'm not just guessing. The hardware in my machine could probably be gotten for even less than $500 now because my machine is a year old which is ages in the PC space.

Also, the GDDR not being available isn't an issue. I have a GPU with 2GB GDDR5 and it runs every current game on ultra at 60fps, which is higher detail than the console versions of BF4 are pushing (If I recall, DICE said the next-gen consoles run BF4 on the equivalent of "medium" settings on the PC). It always amuses me how every console generation it's implied that consoles will outperform a same-spec PC, but somehow tons of corners are cut to make console games run flawlessly on the hardware- BF4 at 900p/720p on lesser detail, several other games just barely clearing the bar for framerate performance at true HD resolution, etc. They need to stop kidding people about all that.

People here are correct about one thing- you buy a console for exclusives and to play with your friends, so the comparison isn't really worth all the chest-puffing. In a year I'll have a PS4 just like most of you, and so will my friends. So, does it matter what you're playing on? Nope.

[solidt12]

PC = No Uncharted, No Infamous, No The Last of Us, No Playstation Exclusives period.

[webeblazing]

don't pc have exclusives? y do yall say this everytime

[mabreu]

Well said zeal0us

[awi5951]

The cpu is a fail spend 100 bucks and get a quad core.

[SonyPS360]

It wasn't about running the same games, and the PC has plenty of its own exclusives as well.

You couldn't put one together from scratch, but you could upgrade a current rig to be better than a Ps4 for that much money.

[kingduqc]

I think console gamer miss the part where for every exclusive there is on a console there is literally 15 others on pc. PC's library is around 21k games. Ps2 did around 2000 and ps3 still didn't break 1000 games.

To me it's about getting the best experience you can, not about money you spend on hardware, That's why I game on pc. I think you guys also underestimate how much you actually save on games, you gould get a 1500$ pc today and in 7 year you'd save more money then getting the ps4 and the same games + online. But you got a better experience and more options.

[tawak]

its doesnt even have cd drive , let alone a blu ray drive + moouse and keyboard + OS , thats like another $100 to $200

[Yep]

Sigh... This article is asking for trouble.

No, you cannot build a PC for a cheaper price than the PS4 for several key reasons.

1. Free Online + Best Online Structure (PS4 would cost more if you didn't have to pay a subscription fee for PSN)

2. The PS4, while it's games look fine, cannot run current gen games like Crysis 3 on ultra settings and will probably never be able to run a game as well as PC.

3. PC isn't only a media and games device, but that's a whole topic for itself.

4. PS4 can never be portable.

I might as well stop here. Look, PS4 is a technically decent console, but lets not tick off the master race.

[zeal0us]

You can build a PC for cheaper price than the PS4. It just the PC will be utter crap.

[Yep]

What's hilarious is that you just called your beloved PS4 hardware utter crap.

They don't even sell parts as old as the PS4 hardware anymore so no, you can't build a reasonably priced $400 PC. You'd have to ask for the parts to be specifically manufactured.

[zeal0us]

@Ace

Where did I state the PS4 hardware was crap? I was saying the PC you build for under $400 would be utter crap not the PS4.

[2pacalypsenow]

@Acesonnall console games are much more optimized than PC games thats why you can have great looking games with 2013 standards on 2005 technology you can do that on PC

And your right cuz those parts are made exclusively for Ps4

2k14 on Ps4 has better lifelike graphics than any Pc game without Modding i have ever seen

[awi5951]

NO the pc wouldnt be crap if you spend 120 dollars on a cpu that computer would be fine. And newegg has inflated prices and they charge you sales tax thats why i avoid them.

[Holeran]

". The PS4, while it's games look fine, cannot run current gen games like Crysis 3 on ultra settings and will probably never be able to run a game as well as PC."

How would Crysis 3 on ultra settings play like on a $399 custom built computer?

[Ravenor]

Poorly, and that's the thing most people forget when this topic comes up.

Also Crysis 3 built from the ground up for a PS4 or Xbox One would definitely look comparable to Crysis 3 on the PC version. He's clearly delusional or has his head up his backside...maybe both.

[Mac420]

The Vita an Gaikia will be changing that very soon. US would probably be the last place to ever get a feature like that tho. Average internet speed is horrible an free wifi is a joke in this country..

[wsoutlaw87]

"The U.S. now has the ninth-fastest average Internet connection speed in the world, behind South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Sweden." http://www.huffingtonpost.c...
US definitely isnt the fastest but wouldnt be last at all.

[mabreu]

Funny how the "master race" talks about hardware specs, modding, and free online but cry when GTA V doesn't come to there beloved PC until months later, or never.

No matter how you spin it, Crysis 3 is an "OK" game at best, even if you can run it at ultra settings at 4K resolution and 2 billion frames per second.

You may be the "master race" but your vastly becoming extinct by the popular markets of console's and tablets. You need proof, here you go: http://news.bigdownload.com...

[jay2]

My PC cost about £1600 UK money more than PS4, it can do everything and does very well and the Dual shock 4 works on it.......But I don't have the first party games for it.

[JasonKCK]

I'm a PC gamer, I build my own rigs, but I can say "no" you can't build a PC better than a PS4 or X1 for $400. I would say $600 is more realistic for a PC. In about 3 years, but not now. The card alone is half that cost.

[2pacalypsenow]

lol a celeron CPU?? questios is how will games play on that 2005 PC

[PersonMan]

It's not about power... it's about what developers can do with that fixed power.

Developers don't usually optimize their games very well on the PC platform. My PC kicks the pants off of the PS3, but yet I still couldn't get Need for Speed Hot Pursuit to run decently without all kinds of judder. However, it runs like butter on my PS3, because the developers can guarantee that everyone will be playing it on the same hardware, but on PC, there are so many different scenarios that it's hard to plan for every single configuration.

[Holeran]

No. Question answered.

[cactusjack]

so the items they listed do state that they are supperiorly inferior to the ps4's specs, so no you cant, but you can build a crappy pc for $396.

[Ravenor]

This is kinda obvious, you can't build a PC for the same price as a PS4 that will run things just as well as the PS4 for as long as the PS4 is relevant. It's NOT possible, the nature of console development makes it impossible.

[AceBlazer13]

would a $400 pc be handling anything in the next 3-4 years? heck , infamous might tax a $400 rig.

[MadMax]

Nope, cant be done im afraid. PC gamers are getting very frustrated!

[maniacmayhem]

I guess you didn't read the article where it says you CAN build a PC better than a PS4.

[MadMax]

Not for $400 and it just hurts you guys doesnt it! You must be crazy to game on a PC instead of a PS4! That just makes zero sense!!!

[dennett316]

Of course you can, you can have any outlandish configuration you want so long as you pay for it all. But you cannot match PS4 performance at it's $399 price point, you simply cannot do it, it's impossible.
The base hardware was mid-range PC parts, but it's heavily customised and has features that aren't available to PC users yet (soon, but not quite yet).
A single Titan costs more than the PS4 - significantly more - but you can't play a damn thing on just that. PC has a lot of advantages over consoles if you're willing to spend a lot - but let's not pretend that bang for your buck is even a remotely close competition when it comes to gaming performance. The PS4 mops the floor with PC in that regard.
The PC has generally cheaper prices - though not at the AAA level, where PC versions of games on Steam are the same price as console versions - and more exclusives....but not exclusives quite on the same level as stuff like Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Journey, Tokyo Jungle etc.
Meh, I have access to both - and a WiiU besides - so I'm set either way.
But PC gamers really need to admit that the PS4 has their format soundly beaten on performance AND spec at the $400 price point. Form factor as well, much more compact than a desktop tower.

[Hicken]

And I guess you didn't read where they glossed over the difference in their DDR3 and the PS4's GDDR5 by playing on the latency the PS4 does away with by having unified memory. Hell, screw most of the stuff; they forgot that the overhead from a PC's OS will eat into the performance. Guess that slipped your mind, too.

It also lacks software and any way to actually interface with the PC, such as a keyboard and mouse.

But hey, as long as it looks like it'll work at first glance, it's all good, right?

[JasonKCK]

@MadMax most PC gamers have more than $400 to spend so it's not really hurting them. I spent $800+ on mine and it will run circles around both next gen consoles blindfolded. Why is it crazy to game on a PC? PC has more games, more free games, more online games, more indie games, plus more games, and even some more games. PC is completely backwards compatible and the games are cheaper. To top that off "MOD" support, and I can use a controller and headset.

[Bladesfist]

@Hicken Can you link me to proof that there is no latency issues with the PS4s memory. I have no idea how unified memory would decrease CAS latency. Unless the CPU is running so slowly that it is at the same speed as the RAM surely there will be latency?

[consolewarz]

@bladesfist

Hicken has been a bias sony fan for a long time now. Totally brain washed, wasting your time in trying to reason with someone like that.

[Hicken]

@Bladefist: Here you go:

http://www.dualshockers.com...

Might not be completely gone, but it's not the issue this site would have you believe. Cerny can, obviously, explain it better than I can. Though I thought he'd done more than enough of that by now that no one would have made that mistake anymore, least of all a supposed PC site.

@consolewarz: So which fanboy were you, that you're 2 hours in on your new account and think you know me to be brainwashed?

[Bladesfist]

@Hicken

Everybody knows GDDR5 is great for GPUs that has nothing to do with unified memory and that is all he confirms. CPUs however can take a performance hit if they are waiting a load of clock cycles to access memory before they can move on. CPUs generally move a load of small data in and out of memory which benefits more from tighter timings than high frequency.

[Hicken]

So why not just Google the information, as I did? Type in what you want to find out, and there it is. I'm not making this shit up, much as you'd probably like to say or at least IMPLY that I am.

I seem to recall Sony and/or Cerny saying the PS4 could read and write to memory simultaneously. Would that not cut down on the latency or delay for the CPU? Would having the multiple cores not cut down on that?

I'm 100% certain that Cerny has addressed pretty much any question you have numerous times since the PS4 was announced. I'm no tech head, but if you're as much of one as you're coming off as, why haven't you already read up on this? Why are you relying on links from someone else?

I'm not concerned, because I know what I've read, and because the comments from developers say they're quite pleased with the setup. If you want more in-depth answers than that, I'm sure you'll have no problems doing your own damn research.

[maniacmayhem]

@ Hicken

"Cerny can, obviously, explain it better than I can."

This and that other nonsense you typed basically comes down to you not knowing what the hell you're talking about.

Google only works if you actually have an idea of what is going on.

[Bathyj]

You can spend 10 grand on a PC, you still dont get Sonys 1st party games. I challenge the notion that I only game on console because of cost. I would gladly spend whatever it cost for a good PC if I was into it. Cost isnt even the issue.

[Mr Tretton]

"you still dont get Sonys 1st party games."

Believe it or not, the vast majority of gamers do not care about Sony 1st party exclusives, of which most aren't even good. Most exclusives of any platform aren't that good.

I also think you're full of it with the cost argument.

[Bathyj]

I'm gonna choose NOT.

And you can believe what you want but I buy 10 to 20 games a year, usually full price day one, I've collected over 800 Blurays since 2007 and I go to the cinema at least once a weekI

When it comes to entertainment does it sound like I care how much money I spend?

[JasonKCK]

Sony has many games on PC.

[webeblazing]

10-20 games a year most of those aint exclusives his point is people usually buy multiplat and pc has more exclusive its is about preference so why people choose to always bring up exclusive when pc come into play n tout about gfx when it comes to xbone and wiiU

[Mr Tretton]

Ok, cost isn't an issue. You're just that much of a Sony fanboy. Got it.

[aquamala]

Sony doesn't get the exclusives of other platforms either

[Visiblemarc]

I rarely call articles stupid, but this one was really, really off the mark.

I got excited at a direct comparison, thinking it would be a tech nerd good time...meanwhile none of the parts were equivalents and they left out half the stuff you need, like OS and inputs...I know I can compare them myself...but I started out thinking it would be a fun article... It wasn't.

[redtideone11]

build a computer with the same specs as the ps4 so what's the point? buy a dedicated graphics card for the ps4 and you would be looking at another 200 dollars.

[pop-voxuli]

FUCK no.

[CaulkSlap]

The answer is no. Maybe $700 to match settings in multiplats. And a couple years from now when multiplats for PS4/XBO are fully utilizing the systems, you'll need a $700 computer of future mid range spec parts.

Remember how much 360/PS3 games improved over the generation? Even a high end PC from 2006 would struggle to run the current best looking multiplats.

[MidnytRain]

What? Hardware gets better all the time at each price point. A couple years from now you can spend LESS for equal performance. FYI, $700 can outperform consoles...

[CaulkSlap]

I'm saying that once games are fully optimizing for PS4/XBO, the $700 PC you build today is not going to cut it. Even the low end graphics cards from 2008 or so are theoretically more powerful than PS3 or 360's GPUs, yet could never run current games even on low settings. In a few years you'll need an upgrade just to keep up with what the inferior spec'd consoles are putting out. It's just an inherent flaw in PC gaming that hardware power is wasted by inefficiency.

And btw I am primarily a PC gamer. Running and i7 and SLI 570GTX right now. PC is the best platform by any measure except cost. But lets not kid ourselves that the hardware isn't prohibitively expensive and downright inefficient compared to the game consoles.

[ACEMANWISE]

If you include the price of software to run it then no. A Windows OS alone is 200.00. With the PS4 it's not only included but it's more dedicated to the hardware it operates on.

[Shabutie13]

A Windows OS is not $200. You have been misinformed. While you can buy one that costs that much, the home version of Windows 8 is roughly $100 if you buy it retail. Or you could get a legitimate key from an MSDN seller for 15 dollars, like many people do. The OS thing is not an excuse. Also, you could use your OS from any standard computer in your house that you are no longer using. Even the cheapest of laptops come with Windows 8 now.

[consolewarz]

"A Windows OS alone is 200.00"

Um windows OS is $99-120 standard across the board. Or you could get Linux OS for free if you really wanted.

http://www.newegg.com/Produ...

[InTheLab]

$600 is the minimum. A $400 pc without a mouse,keyboard,or Windows is just a brick and the pc in this article is a brick and probably looks terrible.

Id love to see what it looks like assembled.

[Rhythmattic]

I game on PC and consoles....

However, what a lot of the PC crowd forget is the Console ecosystem....
The fact is no one really has an advantage over another because of someone having more advanced hardware....

Albeit lower ping, or maybe peripherals (eagle eye: not that great as its emulating a controller) the playing field is generally equal.

[consolewarz]

Yes don't forget about the ecosystem with mandatory required online yearly fees now with ps4 and xbox one. $50-60 yearly, no ty. Pass.

[Rhythmattic]

Just to be fair, Not all online games require you to pay for online MP on PSN.

eg Warframe, Planatside 2,DCUO...

FWIW, the amount of games Ive downloaded and played for my 12 month membership of PS+ means I only bought one game this year.... TLOU.

Pretty good value if you ask me.

[Caleb_H]

No you cannot. I don't even think you can buy straight up gddr5 ram. I don't know, I'm not really a computer guy, but I know building a ps4 equivalent right now would cost quite a bit more. Up front at least.

[Shabutie13]

You wouldn't want to buy gddr5 RAM for your PC, it doesn't make sense for the architecture. It's shared with the video memory in the PS4, while the PC has it separate. Just because 5 is higher than 3 doesn't make it better for everything.

[Caleb_H]

Hey, I said I don't know much about computers. But now I'm remembering the whole gddr5 latency thing. And yes, I realize that the five is for the number of generations and has nothing to do with the performance, but thanks for not being condescending like a typical IT asshole. Oh wait...

[DomceM]

why would you have to? You dont pay $50 per year for online for PC, nor do you pay M$ and $ony fee for every game bought
.

Over their lifetimes the consoles end up costing more than pc's (if you built smart). Otherwise companies like MS and sony would go bankrupt.

[level 360]

PC = internet, e-mail, order miscellaneous stuff, porn.

PS4 = play games, DLC and updates

[Sarcasm]

This poster "JJ" said it best in the comments section in that website

"Well you've still gone for the dual core, bottom of the range Celeron CPU, which will severely limit your ability to go "far beyond" the consoles. If anything you're crippling the GPU which such a low spec CPU, and are unlikely to reach the full potential of the GPU in games.

The PS4's CPU is superior in every respect to that piece of trash, which would be embarrassed by a lot of laptops. It's only got a 1333Mhz FSB, so the 1600Mhz RAM that you've paired it with will not quite be meeting its potential, not to mention the fact you've selected a single module, so you'll be forced into single-channel mode. You won't really be able to do any overclocking either, since you're stuck with the Intel default HSF and that dog of a motherboard with a chipset from 3 years ago. But hey, this build will at least turn on.

Looking beyond that, you might also want to swap out the shitty "RoseWill" PSU for something a bit quieter and less likely to fail. The PS4s PSU will be considerably more reliable than that piece of crap, and quieter to boot.

That $20 tin box of a case is nothing like as pleasing on the eye as the PS4s plastic beauty, and with its' single 80mm case fan it's going to be getting pretty toasty in there, unlike the PS4 which has excellent bespoke cooling and well-designed airflow.

Never mind, I guess the 2 giant turboprop fans on the GPU will shift enough air around to keep itself running...

Your $10 wifi adapter might *just* about work, albeit be flaky as fuck, but it certainly doesn't have Bluetooth.

Also you haven't quite "matched" the PS4 spec. There's no controller to speak of, no headset, no Blu-ray drive, no HDMI lead either. And in fact, you've not even included a keyboard and mouse, so you're going to have trouble installing any games on to this or indeed playing them. What you've specced up here is in fact a fancy doorstop."

[Omegasyde]

They forgot one vital piece too, add the Pc price to go up.

Need Keyboard and Mouse for input. No Blu-ray drive.
(Being nit picky + a 5$ microphone)

400$ also get's you a 60$ controller and mic.

[cyclindk]

And obviously replicating the functions of the OS would be nearly impossible for any layman. And that OS is as much a part of what makes a PS4 a PS4 as anything else.

[5eriously]

"Can you build a gaming PC better than the PS4 for $400?"

Nope! but Who cares?

Can you run PS4 exclusives without the PS4?

Nope!

[Psychotica]

Can you run PC exclusives without a PC?

[Ulf]

No, you can't. If you think you can, you forgot that the PS4 comes with a free OS, and that Windows isn't free. Also, free case with adequate cooling (well, I hope so), free power supply, free controller, etc. There's a good chance that you also forgot to include a BD drive, instead of a cheap DVD, although I guess you will still be able to get away with DVD for a few years.

I suppose you could make a Linux gaming PC, but it would suck for game selection until SteamOS really gets rolling, and that'll be several years.

[Psychotica]

I love my PS4 but even if you spent $400 more on a PC, the PC still gives more bang for your buck than a PS4 does. You're not going to burn DVD's, sync up your mobile device, make money, do school work, play video games and have the ability to upgrade to the latest tech on a console. Not to mention the continuing value of the PC, I have upgraded twice using the same case. I just swapped all the components out and I got Windows 8 for $39 when it first came out.

[Hassassin]

For $500 + mantle support + steamOS I believe you'll be able to build something more powerful.

[piffyd]

for less than $150, you can get a gpu that is FAR more powerful than the ps4/xbox1

most everyone has a desktop for work, school, browsing, email....etc.

pop in a $150 gpu and watch the ps4 get owned

[Mac420]

Besides Last of Us an Uncharted and a few others, Every first party title is straight poop on both sides of the fence in my eyes. I'm a console player, wish I had the money right now to build 1. Don't want a budget rig, wanna start with a monster just to let
you know where I'm coming from.

But back to my point, half of these people commenting saying PC is garbage use the line " It won't have 1sty party games" blah blah blah. You know the most played online, highest selling an most grossing games on both consoles has been for the last 6 years. Multiplats, MS & Sony still haven't foun a game to compete with those. Halo was close until Bungie stopped making it.

Starting to really wish I had a PC other console gamers just make me sad to be apart of the same community. Halo Series besides Reach an 4, Uncharted series, Last Of Us, Metal Gear series other then that nothing else really stands out as a big game changer.

Infamous is garbage don't know how people like that, God Of War don't get me started , Gears of War, Deadrising, the list for me can go on an on with horrible console exclusives.

Still getting a PS4 an eventually an X1 but you gotta be blind to not see that having a gaming Rig would benefit you. Guild Wars 2, Day Z, Arma 3 I mean common those are experiences you will probably never see on consoles not even this coming gen.

[DomceM]

Star Citizen.

[a411411]

There's multiple problems with this article, not just the case, PSU, and optical disc drive. First off, optimization and overhead cost of the OS are way higher for Windows. Obviously Sony is holding more resources from developers right now until they finalize the OS, so RAM is probably better on Windows than the PS4, but CPU and GPU overhead is almost definitely not. Beyond that, the PS4 provides a low level API for their GPU, while PCs do not. I know people will scream Mantle, but that's a pipe dream for gaming. Mantle will be great for corporate situations where you have a ton of PCs and few hardware profiles. It won't be great for every GPU on the market. The time it would take to optimize for every system would make development time ridiculous without a team so large that the game would lose money. Maybe they can optimize for the most popular GPUs, but that's as far as it goes.

You're looking at about twice as much power from the GPU due to optimization (that percent comes from GPU manufacturers themselves who say about half the power of a GPU is lost due to the wrapper (or graphics API like DirectX and OpenGL). So the 7850 in the PS4 just became a 7970 in PC terms which is considerably more expensive (around $300).

This article is also assuming that sales prices will stay around forever, which is just ridiculous. Not to mention that he's using extremely cheap parts putting this PC together and many of them have much higher failure rates than normal (the PSU for instance that won't even work with this build). PS4 uses a Seagate hard drive. That's one of the best even if it is 500 GB. This guy is using the cheapest hard drive on the market. Basically, Sony built the PS4 to last and this guy built his PC to run temporarily and match the PS4 specs on paper (with some very huge caveats).

This system doesn't match the PS4 in anyway. 1 GB of GDDR5 and 8 GBs of 1600 DDR3 will NOT match 8 GBs of GDDR5 for gaming. His attempt to say they're comparable is hilarious. The PS4 is capable of insanely higher texture quality in games than the RAM he chose. He's looking at missing textures in games (huge black spots over wireframes, they're ugly as hell), while the PS4 is looking at highly detailed textures everywhere and max quality reflections to boot. There's not a comparison. He has no idea what he's talking about.

They aren't equal. Not even close.

[Saryk]

If I want I can play PS2/3 and 4 games on my PC. I can play Wii and Xbox, 360 and X1 games on my PC. This is a thing called emulators. Can your consoles play ARMA 3? You guys talk about exclusives and no where do you talk about the exclusives PC has, which out numbers all consoles combined. Not only that I can buy my games at least 1/3 the cost of your release games at launch.

Don't believe that go to dlcompare.

Now I am not saying PC is better. I am not paying your bills and your gaming habit.
The only thing that consoles have that beats PC is cheaper to get in to at first.

[Hakoom]

you would need 3000$ minimum
to be able to hold up for the upcoming 3~5 years
there is no way any pc in the range of 1000$ also could show what the ps4 can output let alone 400$...

a solid GPU alone would cost 1000 lol

[SonyNGP]

ibayin 3alaik ina int kilish malak 5ibra 3an PC gaming. Please stick with just consoles only.

[Hakoom]

meno galak?
yela rawna sawlee pc ib 400$ ishaghel bf4 60 frames full settings..

[SonyNGP]

Why should I? That's not why I'm calling you out, genius. Are you fully aware of what you just said?

>$3000 minimum
>There's no way a $1000 PC can outperform a PS4
>Solid GPU alone would cost $1000

That is the most ignorant crap I've ever read, and it's obvious that it's coming from someone who doesn't know jack about PC gaming. Oh lain gilt inak int malak 5ibra, I fully stand by it. 5alik wiya consoles a7sanlak oh lat sawey roo7ik 5abeer.

[Odoylerules000]

Keep in mind, this is without an OS, software, and a much weaker set of RAM. HOWEVER, you could pirate everything. Also, the hardware chosen wouldn't work with the power source or fit in the case he chose... So the author should have concluded that no, you can't build a gaming rig close to ps4 power with only $400. What he came up with wouldn't run at all.. I really believe you can build a gaming rig for $400 but not something that's anywhere close to a ps4.

[mochachino]

Agree, OS is a huge expense for anyone not already in PC gaming.

[FRAKISTAN]

their RAM is only DDR3 and they did not include a Blu-Ray drive and no sound card that supports the new 7.1 DTS

[baraka007]

No pc gamer building their own rig would us celeron CPU ever or a case with a 275 watt power supply. If you want good advice on what parts to use go to tomshardware or a site like that. But I guess the point is for console and pc gamers to fight... no ty :D

[mochachino]

Considering I'd have to spend 100 on Windows I doubt I could build a machine with graphics as good as PS3/360 for $400

[Lysander91]

This article is so ridiculous. It's like this guy doesn't even understand that that optimization and the OS overhead matter. He thinks that 1GB of GDDR5 and 8 GB of DDR3 is somehow comparable to a unified pool of 8GB of GDDR5 memory.

Even if this machine could theoretically match the performance of a PS4, it would still lack optimization. The PS4's OS and games are specifically designed and optimized for one set of hardware. Developers can squeeze every bit of power out of the machine.

In contrast, the Windows OS and PC games are designed to run on a wide variety of machines with an unfathomable number of different possible configurations. A PC game might see some optimization for the most popular hardware, but then you are looking at GPUs that cost nearly as much as a PS4. That $200-$300 GPU will probably match the performance of a PS4 is you match it with a decent CPU, 8GB of decently fast RAM, and a power supply that will actually power the damn thing.

Too many PC gamers try to pretend that PC gaming's only downside is that it's more complicated. The reality is that the entry costs are far more expensive. Anyone that thinks that you can run BF4 at near maximum setting and 900p for cheap is living in a pipe dream.

Edit: Another point that I would like to make is that PS4 games will become better optimized over time, while new games on older PC hardware will run worse and worse. In 2-3 years a $600 PC build may surpass a PS4 (which will will probably see a price drop), but today's $800 build will fall further and further behind requiring upgrades to keep up.

[Tzuno]

maybe not right now because of the prices but next year pc parts would be more cheaper as technology rises while ps4 will be sold at 400$ for quite some time.. Ivy bridge is last gen and is cheap now because haswell is out now, ddr4 is coming out this december and ddr3 would be more cheap as for a gpu under 200$ there 2 or 3 choices. Most people need only to change cpu and gpu. I wonder how much impact this new coming ddr4 would do.

[BcozoftheImplication]

Not a Fuckin chance!

[farqy]

That's all fine and dandy that you built something similar in power not exact, for close to the same price. It will however lack certain features the ps4 can do as well as when you buy a pc who's backing it???

Sony backs their ps4 with the playstation network a dedicated source of games from their owned studios that you wont get anywhere else. These few things and I'm sure there is more add value to a system and to me I include in the price when I purchase.

This to me is another person bored and killing time writing an article and getting hits. And throwing a bucket of gas on a trolls fire lol.

[D3athc3ll]

I am sorry, but Uncharted 4 (Called Uncharted?) will look better than Crysis 3 on pc ultra! End of Story.

But pc is the best, end of story. I've got a mediocore pc which plays Dota 2 max! Never played a better game!

Ps4 owns! Pc owns!

Stop the shit with builing a pc for $400. Both platforms are good in their own way!

and to answer the question, NO YOU CANT BUILD A PC FOR UNDER $500 outperforming a ps4! But then again, pc can do a lot more!

I own both! Enjoy both! I hate X1 though lol

[tommygunzII]

Even if you bought everything used on Ebay, you still wouldn't come close to the PS4's power at that price.

I still have a PC and PS3 and use them both almost equally. All you really need is a PC and PlayStation.

[HackedLife]

Good luck finding a PC that can run Last of Us, Uncharted, God Of War, Ratchet and Clank, Infamous, Killzone, The Order 1866, etc, etc, etc

[assdan]

Not a ps4. Ps4 is way stronger than this thing. and I feel that the os should be included. Along with that, every part is slower than a ps4 in this build.

[assdan]

I forgot to add this tid bit.
This is the worst "comparable" Build I've ever seen. The gpu wouldn't even fit in the case, and good luck powering your GPU, when you don't even have a single six pin. You wouldn't be able to install an os, or play blu-rays with out a disk drive, and, unfortunately, you can't power more than one drive with that psu. The GPU wouldn't get hear the same performance as a PS4's because it only has 1GB. The lowest powered CPU I could accept that's equivalent power would be an ivy bridge i3. I'm sorry 2 cores at a barely higher clock doesn't beat 8 cores. No article has made the sony fanboy AND my computer fanboy inside me scream more at once than this article.

[ninjahunter]

Hmmm, Hard to tell. It would be extremely close, and you would be cutting a lot of corners. Im thinking An a10-5800k APU and a motherboard, Crossfired with an ATI 7850, 4gb C11 RAM, A 32gb SSD And a 750gb HDD, with whatever the cheapest PSU you can find.

My logic is this, APU's Synergize very well with ATI cards and low latency ram, You only need 4gb of ram because you can use the SSD as an additional 8gb of Virtual Ram. I believe AMD APU's also have assymetrical Crossfire, So you can use both the GPU build into the apu, as well as the 7850 together.

This build will Come out at $400, not taking into consideration A Disk drive, Or Operating system.
However, in current, next gen multiplats, it benchmarks around the same, if not a bit better than a PS4.

[JessiePinkmanYo]

It's been a year or so since I built a PC, but this article left out a few key items, like I dunno, a keyboard, mouse, OS, speakers, monitor....
If you already have a PC with these things and don't mind using your old peripherals, great, but don't lead some poor schmuck into thinking he's gonna build a gaming PC for $400

EDIT-just looked again...how is this gaming PC supposed to read discs? Add an optical drive to my above mentioned, your choice, DVD or Blu ray, but still, another cost left out

[s45gr32]

So true

[Locknuts]

I did!..........But not for $400.

[Krosis]

Kids really change their tune about "power" when the PS4 is compared to PC. But against the Xbox One? Oh man! All they yap about is "power". But nope, against PC it's all about "teh exclusives" and not "power". lol FYI PC has more exclusives than both Xbox and PS4 combined. Ignorance.

[InTheZoneAC]

and you can have fun with your exclusives...I enjoy mine more...

[mrdeli]

I have PS4 and a decent but older PC (GTX570 ti, 12 gb ram quad core i7).

I have played battlefield on max settings on PC. And I play it on the PS4.

I could not believe how close the look is between the two. It's really close. It's so close I basically say they are the same.

The Dualshock 4 is wicked to use, and the frame rate seems locked at 60 whereas on PC there was ups and downs for my machine,

So for my use case : PS4 is the one.

[InTheZoneAC]

put as much money as you possibly can into whatever pc build. Give it the best looking case, the best cooling system, the best everything...but in the end you still don't have the games to go with it that I enjoy on my playstation...

[s45gr32]

That's pretty objective is the same thing as me saying consoles don't provide the games I get on PC. Now the horror genre has been exclusive to PC gaming from Amnesia franchise, Outlast, Slender, Lucius, retro style horror games like lone survivor, and home. The best of this genre is yet to come exclusively to PC from Among the sleep to Constantine, Asylum, Routine, etc. Two mech games have been released on PC Mech warrior online and Hawken. The entire Moba and strategy genre is also exclusive to PC. Now Sony Playstation platforms do offer phenomenal titles including my favorite franchise Uncharted however the idea of having to pay to play online, no backwards compatibility, and pay $60.00 for games is what keeps me from coming back to a Playstation system.

[InTheZoneAC]

that's why at the end it reads, "that I enjoy"...

if you prefer the games on pc, I'm fine with that....

the article is about making a pc as good as ps4 hardware wise, then pc fanboys come in here and talk about how they can have much more powerful pc's, completely missing the argument, and then some try to bring in games but I'm not enticed at all by pc/xbox exclusives.

And again, that's just me, the reason why I chose playstation.

But if you're all about those pc games that is completely understandable why you don't have a playstation, I'm not bashing anyone for that...

[McDaygo]

That's not the right question I think. It should be: Can you upgrade your existing PC to be better than a PS4? (prolly not).

[s45gr32]

Confused PC gaming rigs are already more powerful than current next generation consoles. Most PC gamers have a gaming rig with 16gb of ddr3 ram, 1TB hard drive, Intel Ivory Bridge Quad core processor or AMD bulldozer or piledriver, etc. Ultra settings is basically 4k resolution or 2000p, 120fps. The average not ultra settings is 1080p 60 frames per second.

[Krosis]

Don't waste your breath. These kids have been disillusioned with the spewings of Mark Cerny and Sony propaganda. Let the kids enjoy their 1.84 teraflops...the 7970 has almost 4 lol And I have 3 in tri-fire. It would take 3 PS4s to compare to a highend PC.

[Jag-T1000]

Yes, but the only game you can play is solitaire.

[Mr Marvel]

I have a high-end PC, but the fact is, Naughty Dog, Polyphony Digital, SuckerPunch and Santa Monica Studios only create games for Playstation systems.

Playstation wins everytime imo.

[s45gr32]

It will be a lot easier to build a $500.00 PC during the holidays or during a sale. Anyhow spending $600.00-$800.00 for a gaming PC that does everything is a better investment than a console. I say wait for the Steam Machines to get the best of both worlds the ease of use of console gaming with the insane customization and freedom of PC gaming. .....