Next-Gen, Right Now: Here’s how to build a PC that’s both better and cheaper than the new consoles

Can you build a gaming PC that matches or exceeds the specs of the Xbox One or the PS4... for cheaper? games.on.net thinks you can.

[KingKelloggTheWH]

Still wont have those exclusives though :"(

[hennessey86]

have plenty of exclusives, at the moment I am playing Assetto Corsa, the stanly parable, outlast(coming to PS4), iracing etc

[mushroomwig]

'PC's have plenty of exclusives'

Well done, you completely missed the point of what he was saying.

[Plagasx]

Yea, games that most of the mainstream don't even know about.... We're talking about the Uncharted and the Halos here..

[JsonHenry]

It is okay Hennessey86. As a PC gamer I know exactly what you are talking about. Those "never heard of" games are typically better than the crap that is force fed to the mainstream.

But with VERY few exceptions most of the best games are multiplat. No you don't get Uncharted or Halo on the PC. But the big secret here? PC gamers usually own a console or two as well. :)

I just can't wait to play Star Citizen. GIMME GIMME GIMME!!!!!!

[Rageanitus]

@mushroomwig,

well the saying goes BOTH ways.

PPL who exclude consoles miss on the console exclusives

PPL who exclude PC gaming miss out on PC exclusives, better graphics, and better control flexibility.

[TheMadHatter]

Sorry but most of those games you've mentioned aren't that good to be honest. Team Fortress 2 is a good PC-exclusive but that can run on the most basic PCs. The only one I can think of is Rome Total War.

Console Quality > PC Quantity

[Gamer1982]

mainstream exclusives? Like Starcraft, WOW(near 8 million active subs still to this day!) and other great mainstream series like Sim City that you can only get on PC. Until recently you could only get battlefield on PC and its still better on PC. Lets not forget the modding community on PC.. That blows away anything consoles can do.. You pay hundreds of pounds/dollars for DLC ill get hundreds of free maps/guns through mods.. Skyrim PC blows console version out the water so much its unfunny and the same can be said for games like fallout.

[Cuzzo63]

True but what about the exclusives exclusive to that company. I enjoy Uncharted, Gran turismo, God of War, Little big planet. What about those games. Sure pc has their own ecosystem and since they are so similar now. More pc exclusives will make their way to consoles. Look at sims. Sure its not as pure as it is on the pc but its there. Sensless article...

[jjb1981]

...yeah but not MY exclusives...

[RVanner_]

Outlast £5.09 on Steam, early mini Christmas treat I reckon ...

[AndrewLB]

Hatter- I think you're forgetting Metro 2033, Metro Last Light, FTL, Arma 3, Amnesia, Elder Scrolls Online, Hawken, Outlast, Starcraft II expansions, TotalWar: Rome II, Warface...

There are 50+ PC Exclusives in 2013 alone. Not to mention on PC you can play pretty much any game from NES, SNES, N64, PSone, PS2, PSP, Turbografx, Dreamcast, NeoGeo, Jaguar, Sega Master, Genesis, Saturn, and very soon PS3 and Vita.

And considering both Xbone and PS4 are built on PC architecture, I have a feeling we'll be seeing someone figure out how to run their games on PC as well. Remember, it doesn't need to emulate some completely foreign method of processing data like with previous consoles.

Oh.. and you can make money with a PC, and if that's your job, you can write off the cost of the PC on your taxes as a business expense. So for many of us, Our PC's don't cost us a single dime.

[malokevi]

They've got exclusives. I've always wanted to try Arma. Not to mention RTS games, which dont work so well on consoles. Starcraft, anyone? Plus all the MMOs. My brother is endlessly playing fantasy MMOs on his PC.

It's just a different experience. I would have them all if I could. But PC upkeep is expensive. So many peripherals, so many components. Always a moving target. I have always loved consoles because they are plug-and-play. No drivers, hardware updates, they are small, portable, they hook up to the TV (not that PCs don't, but you know what I mean). You can buy a console, and have guaranteed support for 6-10 years. Buy a game, pop it in, and play. No graphics settings, none of that jazz. But, it's a matter of preference. If your a stickler for visual finesse, consoles will eventually fall behind.

[0ut1awed]

First off Arma is the shiznip and if you have a PC and are even remotley a fan of fps/milsim style games you owe it to yourself to get it, well yesterday.

I've been a PC gamer only with a pretty nice rig for a while now. I had a 360/PS3 but sold them a few years back. I thougth I was over consoles but I guess it's because they were just so outdated.

I grabbed a Vita a few months back and a PS4 on launch day and freaking love both of them. I realized that I am a GAMER first and formost and it's stupid to limit yourself to one platform.

Although they need to hurry up and make a keyboard and mouse adapter. The controller is killing me in BF4. :(

[JsonHenry]

PC upkeep is not as expensive as you think. And if you get most of your games from Digital downloads the money you save on purchasing games alone more than makes up for any savings you might think you're getting from a console.

[SephirothX21]

Can't wait to play Guild Wars 2 and The Old Republic on PS4. Oh wait...

[-wub-]

You don't even need a gaming PC to play those games.

[SephirothX21]

No but you can play on the same machine as new high end games like Bf4 and old games like Deus Ex. PC is the premium platform. Use keyboard and mouse for strategy games and mmos and then pug in a controller to play Max Payne 3. Of course consoles have their advantages but the future is with open platforms like the Steam Box. Steam Box is in it for the long run. More developers need to switch to Open GL and take advantage of efficiency and speed Linux offers.

[theshredded]

they suck,can't wait to play GTAV & RDR on PC.Ooops.. those aren't even exclusives!
Can't wait to play Flower,Doki-Doki universe,Sunset overdrive,Kingdom Hearts 3,FFXV,Uncharted4,The Witness,Rime,Secret Ponchos,Helldivers,Deep Down,Project Spark,Halo5,Driveclub,Infamous SS,the order,quantum break, only a lifeless human being would cater to pc gaming and those are the ones we know till now!
PC games are rotten and average at best,the best indie games would mostly get ported

[sorane]

Wow what a retarded post shredded. You make is sound like you can play all those games on one console yet I see at least 3 different ones you'd have to buy to play those games. Also Project Spark and GTA5 are coming to PC so do a little research next time before you post. Naming generic shooters and third person action games aren't helping you either since every platform has too many of those to name.

"PC games are rotten and average at best" just shows how much of a bad troll you are

[mkis007]

Sorane not that I dont think it will but gta5 is not confirmed to be on pc. so therefor the research would have come up empty.

[Clunkyd]

Guild Wars, are you kidding me?
Console gamers could care less about that game.

[SaturdayNightBeaver]

Yea exclusives are the biggest problem for me IMO also optimization a little bit, im mainly gaming on PC , but saving for ps4 as well. Those sony exclusives i don't wanna miss..

[ABizzel1]

If you're looking to upgrade it's just easier to buy a Steambox now that they're confirmed to start at $500. However, the PS4 is still the greatest value for now.

[AndrewLB]

The $500 price tag was not the starting price. THat's just the price of the system made by iBuyPower. I guarantee we'll see lower prices if one of the big companies like Asus.

Also, the most basic of Steam Boxes will run any game in the steam library @ 1080p/60 unlike current "next gen" consoles.

[TheMadHatter]

I actually tried to move from console to PC gaming, but to be honest, PC doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. I owned Battlefield 3 on PC and Xbox 360 but I found myself spending way more time on Xbox. I just find gaming on consoles FAR more enjoyable.

[RIP_Cell]

which exclusives? are you combining the exclusives from all the consoles together? can I play Mario on PS4?

[tee_bag242]

I buy all my multiplatform games and PC exclusives on PC. The fact is I've been spoilt by my PC always churning out 60fps at 1080p and I'm not keen going backwards. Both these console should have been able to achieve this standard..sadly they dont. But regardless, once a decent exclusive comes out for PS4 or/and XOne then ill get it and the console. Why not?! But I'm still waiting to be impressed.

[slayorofgods]

exclusives are a dying breed. Yes, still around but not preferred by any developer.

[Murad]

Give it a few years and I bet those exclusives won't be exclusives anymore, especially due to emulating. But then again, i rather have it as exclusives because I rather be able to remember having fun with a console, rather than play a ps1 emulator on a PC along with the data files from them.

[CustardTrout]

£450? That's more than the PS 4 isn't it? And slightly more than the Xbox one

[RIP_Cell]

FREE ONLINE here

[wtopez]

I really don't think that building a PC to match the consoles specs because of pricing alone is a good idea. If you're gonna take the plunge into PC gaming it would be better to invest in a decent CPU and GPU from the start. An i5k CPU paired with a GTX 770 or R9 280X has you covered on 1080p and 60 FPS for years and years to come.

[seanpitt23]

People don't realise consoles and PCs are so different on paper this pc is more powerful but in reality it's probably not. You will see amazing things from the ps4 this generation that you have never seen before let's just wait and see.

[BluP]

Exactly. Higher specs than PS4 =/= better looking/playing games. A PC uses brute force, while console games are highly optimized, since the specs are the same for every owner. I have a PC with higher specs than PS4, but definitely can't play games that look like Killzone. 1080p 60fps comes easy, but once I start adding AA, larger view distance, post-process effects, more detail, etc, my game comes to a crawl.

TL;DR
This BS seriously needs to stop. Equal or slightly higher PC specs to PS4 =/= parity. PCs and consoles are built very differently and there's too many other factors at play here.

[Sarcasm]

They don't understand it's not an apples to apples comparison.

My i7-2600k at 4.4ghz is practically pointless seeing as how no developer will ever ever push this CPU to the max on games. While on the PS4/X1 they can tax that CPU 100%, 100% all times if they want to.

Now before those PC master race guys chime in saying "but but but your i7 is so powerful it doesn't need to be maxed out" while that is true it's a $320 CPU so of course it's no comparison.

But the point is developers can utilize the crap out of the consoles without no OS overhead. "Code to the metal" as they say it.

[Computersaysno]

Consoles can be optimised better.

But at some point, that will not matter either if your PC is more powerful by a decent margin. It can be- because of how slow the new machines are relative to existing PC gear.

These consoles aren't exactly hotrods, 360 was impressively fast for its time in 2005, PS4 is less so for 2013, you have to admit that. Its fast, but already quite a lot slower than higher end Pc hardware.

Even an R9 270 is 30+ percent faster than what is inside PS4, and that's generally enough to mean a PC with one in will at least match or beat PS4 on virtually any game, and batter Xbox One.

An R9 270 OC is TWICE the performance of what is in Xbox One. For the entire life of Xbox One, it'll NEVER touch a PC with that card in it.

R9 270 is a midrange card. Its not actually that quick. In about 6 months it'll seem very slow, because we'll see much faster cards around for the same money.

If you have a system that is so much faster than PS4, then optimisation on the console will never match it.

Brute force always wins in the end, always.

Saying that however, we can expect PC games in the next year or so becoming better and better optimised with APIs designed to be closer to the metal even on PC.

Its a logical advancement of Pc in the near future.

PC then will have huge amounts of brute force to batter console hardware, and sooner rather than later will probably have the finesse of closer to metal coding closer than they ever have enjoyed before.

That's a win win, right there.

[Venoxn4g]

Even IF it is more powerful, after two years I doubt it's gonna run games as good as PS4

[chasegarcia]

A 3-4year old gaming pc can do medium/low settings and look like PS4 graphics.

PC:
AMD Athlon II X
ATI HD4860
12GB DDR 3 1600

[Sarcasm]

Really highly doubt a 3-4 year old gaming pc can do this http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

The best metric to compare Killzone SF to is Crysis 3. If you can build a $400 system to run Crysis 3 at 1080p very high details 30-40fps then I'm all ears.

[chasegarcia]

@Sarcasm

That is my old pc specs and it can play Crysis 1-2(never had the chance to try 3).

To answer your question? Can I build a better pc with $400? Maybe not but, pc games cost less. In a year you will save a lot of cash.Compare console game prices to Steam.

-I own a PS4 and a gaming pc. You do not need to upgrade every year like Venox2008 is trying to say.

[chasegarcia]

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Video of pc running Skyrim.

[Malice-Flare]

meh, it isn't cheaper than the PS4...

[Dante81]

If you're gonna build a PC then build a decent one($700+). Remember, it's something that does a lot more than just gaming.

[OrangePowerz]

Matching specs is one thing, running games the same way is a different thing with PC games not being optimized for any specific configuration but made to run on a wide variety of configurations. Taking the top games ofbthe current gen, they wouldn't run on a PC that matches the PS3 or 360 speccs and the same will be the case once X1 and PS4 games are fully optimized for the hardware in 2-3 years.

[Dante81]

Taking into account the 7870(close to PS4 gpu), it runs Battlefield 4 a lot better. It's not 2005 anymore.

[cyhm3112]

name a game other than crysis 3 which looks better than Killzone shadowfall? none!

[sorane]

Uhh BF4 pc, modded Skyrim, maxxed out Last Light are just a few. The best looking parts of shadowfall are fake pre-rendered cutscene videos.

[I_am_Batman]

Comments like yours are making a discussion about hardware and system aritecture impossible on a platform like n4g. The article itself proves that most people should stop discussing hardware cause it's a very complicated topic most people don't know much about.

[I_am_Batman]

EDIT: Sorry that comment wasn't meant for cyhm3112 but for xenx down below.

[tee_bag242]

Again Killzone is far too overrated. It looks pretty but the physics engine and AI are stuck in last gen. Its a pretty linear shooter with no destruction, all objects are static! The AI doesn't even notice you're shooting at them. Plus the campaign missions only run at 30fps.
Killzone isn't the best PS4 game to be putting on a pedestal you realize..

[xenz]

He choose DDR3 memory to compete with PS4's GDDR5. What a joke. And Ubuntu is NOT viable for gaming. You'll need Windows, and that will cost you a lot. Console gaming will always be cheaper.

[sorane]

"He choose DDR3 memory to compete with PS4's GDDR5. What a joke."

The only joke is that sentence you wrote. www.google.com now go read up on memory before posting again.

[FragMnTagM]

Just in case you are too lazy to check Google, I will try to make it simple for you to understand.

PC's have both DDR3 (system RAM) and GDDR5 (graphics RAM).

Games use both system and graphics RAM. You shouldn't spout idiotic things off if you have no idea what you are talking about.

For example, my PC has 3GB of GDDR5(VRAM) and 16GB of DDR3(system RAM). Most newer games use around 2-4GB of DDR3 and 1GB of DDR5. Some games require a lot higher to run max settings but they are few and far between.

Please stop spreading misinformation.

[wishingW3L]

it might be cheaper alright but that's still weaker than the PS4. PS4's GPU > R927OC-2GD. And not to mention that PC games often need more power to run games because of lack of optimization, so this build is useless.

[Rageanitus]

who says PC games are NOT optimized.... this is another argument that Console only players like to throw around.

Ill give you a good example. I had an Radeon x1900TX long ago, which is the same GPU as the Xbox 360, yet Gears of War ran better, at higher resolution, and higher quality graphics vs the Xbox.

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

What??????

He builds rigs that are more expensive and then says he still wins because the games are cheaper?

[Rodent85]

pc game always cheaper even free ,,,if you know what i mean

[_FantasmA_]

Why do PC gamers always act like. Is it illegal to like consoles? PS4 + PC. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. This whole console vs pc war is stupid. Its unwinnable like the war on drugs.

[Rageanitus]

I am sure many PC gamers own consoles also, but it is the Console only players that tend to make the console seem better than it really is.

[_FantasmA_]

Like I said they both have their strengths and weaknesses. Its the PC guys who think that because consoles can't be upgraded, that this equals better games. I use both, but 95% of my gaming is done on consoles. When I get home from work I'm to tired to sit up straight on the computer. I like playing on big screen and being able to have my family on PSN. I only play PC that are old enough for my crappy PC to run them.

[NobleRed]

Stopped reading after: G Skill 8 GB Single DDR3 1333 PC10600

Common the ps4 has 8gb of GDDR5. Bullshit article.

[sorane]

Ahh yes another console person trying to sound like he has any idea about memory. Is it really that hard to take 5 minutes to read up about memory on google? Would save you a lot of time looking like an idiot. Seriously stay away from tech discussion until you get a clue.

[Rageanitus]

You know most PC gamers do not always put gaming in mind. They build a computer for not just gaming, but for other things.

[GraveLord]

That's just not possible.

[RIP_Cell]

definitely cheaper, nobody has to pay to play online here

[cyclindk]

Adding two years of subscriptions in was ridicous... Has nothing to do with creating an equal capability comparison, the subs are a service that has nothing to do with anything. In fact they should have added some kind of gamefly thing or pc equivalent thats gives u discounts and free content all the time like PSN on top of it all... Add that into the build price if you are going to do anything.

[Mr_Luke]

Besides MMORPGs, i've never liked gaming on PC. I'm not saying is bad, i'm not saying is ugly, i'm not bashing anything, PC is great, wonderful, whatever. I just prefer playing on my consoles. Put my disk, press the button... done.

[Bladesfist]

Where as for me on PC it is just push button, done

[Mr_Luke]

Yes, you're right. To be honest that could my case too, turn on the PC, double click the icon of the game and done. But i don't know why, i've always preferred playing on my consoles since the past, i guess it's more a "i'm used to, i'm ok with it" thing. Dunno... i know, poor motive, but that's what i feel ;P