How cheap can you really make a fully fuctional computer?

Thomas Creel

Honorable
Oct 21, 2012
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Assuming you want to play todays games of course. I am talking about including operating system, mouse, and keyboard. People say for the cost of a console (IE PS3 $200) is a rip off and for the same price you can build and equal or better computer.

I own a computer capable of high settigs on most games, but I was just wondering about this. The PS3 has depreciated quite a bit since it's release so lets put it at a more reasonable PS4 price point (450-600.)
 
Consoles have games specifically designed for their hardware and are sold at a loss, it's difficult to beat their price. PC gamers tend to play at higher resolutions and quality settings than you can on consoles as well.

If you're playing at 720P, you could just use an A10-5800K and no graphics card.

AMD A10-5800K
2x2GB Crucial Ballistix 1866Mhz 1.5v
ASRock FM2A75M-DGS
500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM
Corsair CX-430 430W
Fractal Design Core 1000

Total is around $360, around $450 with an OS. That would play any game, you would just have to lower the quality settings on the more demanding ones.

For maximum quality settings at 1080P, I'd look at an i3 with something like the HD 7850.

i3-3220
2x2GB G.Skill NS 1333Mhz
ASRock B75M-DGS
Gigabyte HD 7850 1GB
500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM
Corsair CX-430 430W
Fractal Design Core 1000

Total - $540, around $630 with OS