Edit: Italicized key points

A ton of people seem to believe that PC gamers are uber rich, and that a gaming PC is impossible to maintain. This may have been true up to the beginning of last gen, but not anymore.

The base price for a good gaming PC will be anywhere from $900-1200. The initial investment seems very high, but you have to consider that it is not just a gaming machine. Most people buy desktops every few years for $350-500 anyway. The gaming part is just building on that. A lot of people buy $400 desktops and $400-500 consoles, and then complain that PCs are too expensive, when you can have a machine that does both (but better) for just a bit more.

But after that initial investment, you will find that gaming is much cheaper overall. You don't have to pay $50-60 per year just to play online. Humble Bundles and Steam sales allow you to get games for a mere fraction of the console cost, and many times you can even get brand new games for less than what the console version costs. Overall, a $200 saving per year isn't out of question.

You also have to upgrade your graphics card every 4 years or so, but with the money that you save from free online and sales that shouldn't be a big deal, seeing as that some of the best high-end graphics cards start at $299.

And after that, you will never have to truly rebuy a new PC. Things like the HDD, case, fan, etc. can be reused for a relatively long time, or at least until they get too worn out. You won't ever have to spend $1000 again after the initial investment.

Now, I'm not trying to be a PC elitist here. Consoles offer exclusive games that PCs can't, and are very easy to maintain overall. I'm just pointing out that PC gaming isn't nearly as cost prohibitive as people tend to make it out to be.

EDIT 2: Also, you don't need to be an electrical engineer to build a PC. There's no solder work or anything, it's mostly just attatching components via pins and screws, almost self-explanatory, really. A lot more streamlined than what most people expect, for sure.

That's true, unless you buy a Wii U which is $300 and free online.

Very true. The Wii U has a vastly different library than the PS4/One/PC though. The latter tend to be very similar in overall games, while the Wii U is full of exclusives. A PC can be a replacement for one of the other consoles, but it doesn't really work as a replacement for the Wii U.

I completely disagree that PC gaming is much cheaper overall. Yes Humble Bundle and Steam Sales have very cheap games listed but that doesn't mean your going to spend less.

You may get 2 games on console for 60 dollars and maybe on PC you get 10 games for 60 maybe even up to 90$. Obviously you get more for less, that doesn't mean you spend less on games.
I'm just describing my situation, I normally would get 1 console game every 2-3 months that game ranges from 20-60$. Since I've been PC gaming I'll get 5 or more games every 2-3 months and end up spending the same.

When it's all said and done it just depends what you want in regards to hardware. My rig costed 400 with integrated graphics, and bought a GT 7750 for 70$ so 470$ for a Rig that can run most games in 1080 with 30-60 FPS.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL441D9BF9F40D0E5E

Here's a playlist of PCs that range from $350 to $1000+. Now, most of these are already outdated so you can get even better performance for the price if you do a little research on the latest version of these parts... Obviously a $350 PC can't play Crysis at Max settings but the performance is good enough to play most games at medium-high (depending on the game obviously).

I do think people vastly over estimates how much PC gaming costs. Back in the beginning of ps3/360 era, PC gaming costed a fortune thing was indeed the case. A PC that had the equivalent power of a ps3 would have costed you more than $1500 but that is not the case anymore for ps4/x1 third party games... If you want ps4/x1 level performance for third party games, you can certainly build a PC for <$1500 but > $700 that will give u equivalent performance/graphics and the best part is, Steam is Free and you can always upgrade ur PC in the future and really, all you really need to upgrade is the GPU since most PC games are GPU intensive

Something like the following (As an example) would definatly give u a higher performance/graphics than the ps4/x1:

But I never said it was much cheaper, just that it wasn't as cost-prohibitive as people make it out to be. For me, I can get 30 games a year on PC through Humble Bundle or Steam sales for a total of $150-200. On console, I generally have to pay full price for each game, which is anywhere from $15-60, and I usually buy two or maybe even three games a month, not to mention the $50 I have to pay to play online. What I'm trying to say is that the high hardware cost of PC is offset by the low software cost.

1. No, most people don't buy desktops at all anymore. Notebooks have take most of the market share with Windows Tablets heavily on the rise. Many people don't care about gaming on a PC at all (like me) instead they want a sleek, tiny, portable PC with a long lasting battery. The market share of Desktops is no more than 17 %. So it is indeed pretty uncommon nowadays to see a consumer buy a desktop. That also kills the argument for new components, as you can't upgrade more than RAM and the HDD on notebooks or tablets. You'll need a new device for a serios power upgrade.

2. The price argument for games is purely speculation. It always depends on your buying habits. There are many people who don't care about online gaming at all but you also could live fine just with the "free" games from PS+. That way, you'll spend no more than 50 $ a year and still get about 24 games. If we're talking about new releases, PC games and console games aren't that far off anymore. At least in germany, you pay 55 € for a new PC game while a console game will cost you around 65 €. It's not that much, if you buy a game every month, that would be 120 € extra every year, so with a Plus subscription 170 € on top compared to PC. It would take years to make up for the cost of the hardware. And that's only true if you're going Next-Gen, if you stick to PS3, new games are now most times even cheaper than on PC at release. 

Anyway, it's just not helpful to compare prices of new releases on consoles with steam deals or anything on PC. Console games also get cheaper and we saw some pretty bad ass deals on both PSN and Xbox Live in the last few years. So the price sensitive user will always find something and I don't think that you will save a gigantiv amount of cash with a PC.

PC gaming is cool and all, with the best graphics, mods and whatnot. But it is still expensive as you'll need a dedicated desktop machine, something not every houshold has these days. It also is impossible to get a machine as fast, smalland efficient as a PS4 or X1, let alone with a controller, Blu-Ray and Bluetooth support. To really see a price advantage on PC, you would have to buy a shitload of games, like there's no tomorrow. But if you buy that many games, you probably don't care about money anyway.

Good luck, OP. Also the issue with PC is the entry cost not the service cost. Generally, speaking their are many instances where the entry cost and the usage cost balance out and are even lower than consoles, but this is not always the case.

E.G. consider the COD bro i.e someone who only plays COD. If he buys the yearly COD series on release day, you can get it for 50-60 on PC and 60 on Console day 1. PC deals will be irrelevant to him and that 10$ he saved will still end up costing him more than if he went the console route. Things become even more hairy if he sells the game to get the new version, since you can't do that on PC, he is buying a new copy on PC versus a trade-in copy on console. The PC ends up costing him more per game in the long run.

1. You say that, but almost every person I know owns a desktop in their house. Yes, tablets and notebooks sell more, but that's because tablets get outdated very fast and notebooks are just essential in the corporate world, period. That doesn't mean that no one buys desktops anymore, since most families still own at least one desktop.

2. You don't get to decide what games you want with PS+. Yes, I love the games and everything, but with Steam Sales literally everything is on sale, anywhere from 33% off to 90% off. You can actually pick what games you want to buy in those cases, with PS+ you have no choice, some months you'll get something decent other months you won't. And if you are paying 55 euros for a PC gaming, you're shopping at the wrong place. You can get almost any PC game you want at a fraction of the price of a console f you wait for one of many sales Steam has all throughout the year.

And your final paragraph is kinda short-sighted, almost like you didn't even read what I wrote. PCs all have controller support (I can use a PS4 or Xbox One controller on my PC), bluetooth support, and you can easily get a blu-ray player drive for very cheap.

True. If he only purchases COD, then he will see a massive difference. For a gamer who has a bunch of different interests, though, you can find almost anything on sale if you wait just a month or two. Even if you occasionally buy games brand-new, you'll still save on the other games you may want.

It really depends on if you're willing to wait for deals and such. If not, console is better, since the initial software cost is the same. But software drops in price much faster on PC and goes much lower, so if you can wait a month or two you'll be saving a lot of money.