Skip to tl;dr if you don't want to read through my experience and just want to see my thoughts on PCs and consoles of the same price

My laptop broke last month and I needed a new computer as I have no desktop. So I figured now was a better time than any to make a PC. I knew nothing about them and researched PCs for a whooping 30 minutes and decided on a build I liked online. From these debates, I always heard that the money you spent for a console you could get a PC for cheaper with better performance. I was willing to test that out since I wanted a mid-range gaming rig that would outperform the current consoles.

So how did my experience go?

First, let me say, after going through the whole hassle of creating a PC, I've gained more respect for console manufacturing. You see, many of the builds shown online typically show these 7 components: 

Motherboard, CPU, GPU (Graphics Card), RAM, Storage, Case and Power Supply. Usually builds are presented this way on reddit forums and message boards:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/g3Q8gs

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/g3Q8gs/by_merchant/

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($70.89 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($52.38 @ Newegg) 

Memory: *Mushkin Essentials 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($18.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($45.89 @ OutletPC) 

Video Card: *PowerColor Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card  ($82.98 @ Newegg) 

Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($24.99 @ NCIX US) 

Total: $335.11

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-17 22:08 EDT-0400

This build was taken from PCMasterRace subreddit and they state that this build will get you a machine that is comparable to PS4/XOne level for $100 cheaper. *(Note: I didn't end up going with this build)

Now here's the first issue; that's a lot of component to buy and a lot of it is gibberish to an everyday consumer. What is up with these branding names and overly compicated model numbers? 

For example, here's the CPU I bought:  Intel Core i3-4170 3M Haswell Dual-Core 3.7 GHz LGA 1150 54W BX80646I34170 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4400 from newegg.

I remember just sitting there at the library's computer room and thinking "What the fuck does ANY of this mean?" What is i3? What are GHz? LGA 1150 watchumacallit?" But only after I constructed my PC and continued reading up on PCs and their component did I start understanding more and more about the meaning of these terms and manage to filter the garble that didn't need to be taken into consideration when building a PC. 

Onto the next point I want to make, this whole argument of making a equal or better performing PC for the same price is... a bit of a stretch. Yes, all the components up there on that list will make a PC that will rival current-gen console, but the issue is that there's a lot of hidden fees and factors that are not taken into account when tallying up the total.

First, shipping. Yes there are plenty of cheap components you can find, and generators like PCPartPicker will net you the best deals from different sources and factor in mail-in rebates, ensuring that you get the best for cheap. However, if you were to buy all of those components from the sites suggested, you would have to pay for different shipping fees. Then comes the reality of mail-in rebates. They don't actually lower the immediate cost of your device so much as compensate them in the long run as you wait to receive your cheque, coupon or prepaid card. The build listed above had a $40 rebate, but you still have to pay around $380 upfront, almost the price of a PS4 (not counting shipping).

And then there are other hidden fees, things I hadn't thought of. I had all the components I needed to make my build, but then learned that I needed an Operating System (OS). I had nothing to work with so I had to go to a store and get one. Once I had the OS I realized I needed a Disc-Reader (optical drive) to read the OS installation disc, so I bought one of those. And then I remembered that I had no keyboard (I used a laptop for the longest of time) and bought one. And then I realized I had no monitor and bought a small TV (I did not want to use the TV in the living room). And then I realized that my PC had no Wi-Fi Adapter (device used to make your PC able to access the Internet through Wi-Fi without an Ethernet Cable) so I bought one of those considering my router is very far away from my room and getting a 20+ feet cable draggin around the house was out of the question.

It's small things like these that adds up and screws new consumers that can't forsee these issues due to lack of knowledge. Now, there are some workaround to lower the price.  For instance, if you have a desktop you could use some of your previous accessories to put on your new PC. You could also dismantle some parts to add on your new PC, such as an optical drive. You could also use an HD-TV you have as your monitor if you think that would suit you.

Essentially, that's why I've gained more respect for consoles manufacturing. It's all built-ready. They have built-in Wi-Fi, they come with a controller, there's no OS you need to buy and essentially the only thing you need is an HD TV monitor and maybe a router if you want to play online. 

Consoles are cheap and you know a game will run on it if it's published on the platform. Maybe not as great, but roughly the same or a bit lower than a PC of the same price. Also, consoles have no need of being built. For around $30 extra dollars? Yeah I'd save myself the hassle of building a rig that would perform around the same level as the build shown by PCMasterRace subreddit.

Now, I don't want to sound all gloomy and angry about PCs. I have learned a lot from this experience and I am happy with my new PC. There's a feeling of accomplishment for building a rig and I could see why some PC enthusiast take their PCs to heart, considering they made them with their own hands. I also know now that if I want to improve something, it'll be in small increments and based on my needs. Is my CPU being outdated or not up to par? I'll spend maybe $100 on a better one. I get why this feeling of customizing and upgrading is so appealing to PC gamers. 

tl;dr

The whole argument of "you could make a PC for cheaper and better" is flawed as it doesn't factor every component needed for it to be ready to use. Also, the hassle of researching and building isn't worth the savings you could make (which is practically non-existant).

I've never actually built a PC but I've changed out and upgraded pretty much everything except a motherboard. I've done price lists and pored over Newegg many times, though. The last two times I've added everything up, the savings I would get versus ordering a custom built PC during a holiday sale was negligible. I'm sure mileage will vary and the plus/minus is highly variable but I've been pretty happy with made to order machines and there is a good chance I'll go that route next time.

And this is the reason there will always be a market for TV gaming and a market for PC gaming; people accept different kind of approaches to gaming. I personally prefer the console approach but I can see the charm in building you own gaming powerhouse. But those names for components, that's insane :).

I've tried to explain this exact concept so many times. Regardless of how cheap the parts themselves may be, in the end, it will be hard to outperform a game console when compared dollar to dollar with a PC of approximately the same power. Sure, the final price of building your computer when looking at nothing but the price of parts after rebates may be around $350, but that doesn't factor in shipping, a monitor, accessories you may need, the OS, anything like that.

When it comes to the monitor, sure, you can just use a TV, but at the same time, a lot of TVs are pretty shit computer monitors. They may have resolution issues or otherwise that really just make them shit for using an actual computer, whereas game systems work fine. That means that, regardless, most people are probably going to tack on an additional $150 or so grabbing a decent budget monitor. I don't need to buy a new TV for my game system. I already have it for movies and otherwise.

Even then, why in the hell would you build a computer that's simply on par with a PS4 or Xbox One? People complain so much about the systems being too weak, you would think a build like that would be avoided since you wouldn't be able to take advantage of a lot of the perks of PC gaming, like higher resolutions, unlocked FPS, and otherwise.

PC gaming is expensive to start in on. Anybody who says otherwise is a god damn liar. It can be cheaper in the long run when you're simply incrementally updating every few years with a new GPU here, a new CPU there, maybe replacing the mobo at some point, the RAM if you need faster or more, etc., but the cost of entry should not be understated. You have to be ready for a somewhat hefty first investment if you really want to take advantage of PC gaming.

For me, I just use my laptop. It has a discrete GPU, and is strong enough that stuff like New Vegas and Skyrim vanilla run on Ultra High without any tweaking. It fails pretty miserably with 2015 AAA, but that's why I have my PS4. It strikes a nice balance, and I ultimately only paid $850 between the two for the versatile nature of a PC that I needed anyways and the easy to use nature of a game console.

whats the problem with a cable? they are realy slim theese days and can be placed very stealthy

YES! Fantastic contribution to the discussion my friend. I'd add more but you just said everything I wanted to say, and better at that. I guess the reason why I made this post is because of how misleading and untrue the whole "PC for cheaper and better" is, as I've went through the experience just now. But then again those are just elitsts and they should never be taken too seriously (same as console elitsits or any other biased groups). Although I did make a PC that's a little more suited and upgrading it won't be too hard.

So essentially: PC are bigger investments at first, but can become cheaper later on as you make upgrades in small increments.

Just personal preferences and situations. I don't like the idea of tripping on a cord and I'd either have to make a hole in my room or do some crazy wiring around the house due to the locations of both items. Haven't check cables recently so I'll check them out with this in mind and see if maybe they have changed enough so that they might have been viable for me today.

they called slim lan, they are around for some time, but now they are cheap, or use d-lan

Great summarize mate

I've also explained this to different people over the years. And you wouldn't have to upgrade a console for quite some time (until next generation) were as a pc in the same life cycle would probably need some upgrading...

The real savings come from the games, as they always say. Of course not from new releases, but if you're fine waiting for a few months or a year then it can be a lot cheaper to play a lot of games.

It's great you can upgrade PCs yet at some point the motherboard will need to be replaced as well and/or a bigger power supply. The big advantage of consoles is that any game made for it will run. With PC you never know what you'll get until you try it.
Building a PC on par with PS4 is a moving goalpost on its own. It might be on par in raw numbers yet an optimized console game will always outperform a 'made for every configuration' pc version on similar specs. As console games get further optimized for the specific hardware, those pc versions will run worse and worse on that PC.

My old PC pretty much needs a complete overhaul at this point. Even the HDD can't be trusted anymore. (Those things don't last that long, it's full of recovered bad sectors already) I've switched to using a laptop so it hardly gets used anymore. It's still hooked up to a 1280x1024 monitor... it's getting old, laptop is 1080p.

If I'm going back to PC gaming it will be for VR. I'll sample it on ps4 first though as the cost of building a OR compatible PC is a lot higher.