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HappySqurriel on 23 July 2010
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WilliamWatts said:
HappySqurriel said:
WilliamWatts said:


You can do it with $500 with a PC you don't have to build yourself if you start with a reasonably priced $400 HP with a strong dual core processor and an HD 5670. This is about 40% more powerful than my second system my girlfriend uses to play games on which has an Athlon X2 2.5Ghz and an HD 4670.


And how long will that be a viable gaming system before you replace it?

Building a $500 PC that can play games is possible, building a PC that has a similar viable life to a console is very expensive.

How long will it be viable? Well quite a reasonable length of time. Most new games aren't pushing the envelope and PC requirements have remained fairly static and will likely remain so for a while. I have friends who still game with their 7900GTX GPUs and they are perfectly happy with what they have. They just want to play and they don't care for increased eye candy. They won't upgrade until they are forced to, which will probably be sometime this year. That isn't too bad, 5 years for a GPU upgrade. I would say given the fact that the 5670 is up to date it'll be good for at least 5 years.

I'm in a similar situation with my Geforce 7800 and Athlon X2 3800 , but I didn't spend $500 in 2005 to build that system. There is no argument that you can build a $500 gaming system, and I don't argue that you can build a gaming system that lasts 5 years, but you certainly can not build a $500 gaming PC that lasts 5 years.

The $1,500 gaming system I built in 2005 will need to be replaced by a $1,000 to $1,500 gaming system that will last me until (hopefully) 2015; but that $500 gaming system will need to be replaced by another $500 gaming system in 2012/2013, and that system will need to be replaced a couple years down the line.