I build gaming computers to fuel my love of hardware and make some money doing it too. However I am constantly getting asked to lower my (what I consider) fair prices because someone saw a "gaming computer" at Best Buy for less but they only see the price and don't understand that the cheaper computer is actually less performance per dollar.
Here's an email I just wrote to a potential customer of mine.
--"No problem, only computer i have under $550 are these
http://nh.craigslist.org/sys/4509517678.html
http://nh.craigslist.org/sys/4500063731.html
They're not the best for gaming because its hard to build a computer that can play modern high end games well for $600 let alone $500, because the core components like power supply, case, motherboard ect. cost around $500 so the money past $500 goes for the actual stuff that is making the computer good for games like the high end graphics cards and a higher end cpu. I see a lot of budget computers from best buy and cyberpower that have all the fancy lights and bold aggressive looking cases but the graphics card is crap and cant actually play the games you want to play on the settings you want to play them at.
I'll prove it to you
Here is a $580 computer from best buy
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/cybertronpc-trooper-desktop-amd-athlon-ii-x3-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black/1625383.p?id=1219058145096&skuId=1625383&st=pcmcat287600050002_categoryid$abcat0501000&cp=1&lp=12
Here is the graphics score for the graphics card in that system, the GT 620
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GT+620
Here is my $580 gaming computer
https://post.craigslist.org/manage/4499771628
Here is the graphics score to the HD 7790 graphics card in my computer
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+7790
There's scores not even 500, mine is over 3000. These scores are relative too.
Here are the game benchmarks for the HD 7790 in my system
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/776"--
So the graphics card in my system is more than 6 times faster than Best Buy's PC. And the card in my system is able to play modern games on good (Medium-Ultra) settings with good frames rates (30-60 FPS). It's not even that high end of a card. Best Buys card is 6X slower so you can play games at either 5-10 FPS on the same settings, or turn the quality down and hope that the game scales well so that you might be able to get 30 FPS on the lowest settings. Either way its a crappy way to play games. These "gaming computers' from these big companies that are in the sub $600 market cant even run modern games. It's like building a mustang that has less than 100 horsepower, whats the point? It's just as fast as the entry level choice, but it looks cool.
I just feel like company's aren't building budget gaming computers that have actually been designed to be gamed on.
Let me know your thoughts and/or if you'd ever bought or considered one of these sub $600 gaming builds from retailers and your experience with them.
Here's an email I just wrote to a potential customer of mine.
--"No problem, only computer i have under $550 are these
http://nh.craigslist.org/sys/4509517678.html
http://nh.craigslist.org/sys/4500063731.html
They're not the best for gaming because its hard to build a computer that can play modern high end games well for $600 let alone $500, because the core components like power supply, case, motherboard ect. cost around $500 so the money past $500 goes for the actual stuff that is making the computer good for games like the high end graphics cards and a higher end cpu. I see a lot of budget computers from best buy and cyberpower that have all the fancy lights and bold aggressive looking cases but the graphics card is crap and cant actually play the games you want to play on the settings you want to play them at.
I'll prove it to you
Here is a $580 computer from best buy
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/cybertronpc-trooper-desktop-amd-athlon-ii-x3-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black/1625383.p?id=1219058145096&skuId=1625383&st=pcmcat287600050002_categoryid$abcat0501000&cp=1&lp=12
Here is the graphics score for the graphics card in that system, the GT 620
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GT+620
Here is my $580 gaming computer
https://post.craigslist.org/manage/4499771628
Here is the graphics score to the HD 7790 graphics card in my computer
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+7790
There's scores not even 500, mine is over 3000. These scores are relative too.
Here are the game benchmarks for the HD 7790 in my system
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/776"--
So the graphics card in my system is more than 6 times faster than Best Buy's PC. And the card in my system is able to play modern games on good (Medium-Ultra) settings with good frames rates (30-60 FPS). It's not even that high end of a card. Best Buys card is 6X slower so you can play games at either 5-10 FPS on the same settings, or turn the quality down and hope that the game scales well so that you might be able to get 30 FPS on the lowest settings. Either way its a crappy way to play games. These "gaming computers' from these big companies that are in the sub $600 market cant even run modern games. It's like building a mustang that has less than 100 horsepower, whats the point? It's just as fast as the entry level choice, but it looks cool.
I just feel like company's aren't building budget gaming computers that have actually been designed to be gamed on.
Let me know your thoughts and/or if you'd ever bought or considered one of these sub $600 gaming builds from retailers and your experience with them.