How much performance are you sacrificing, when you're not building the PC yourself?
In my last blog post, it was established that you can build a pretty decent gaming PC, rivaling PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X - for a similar price of around 499-539€ / 2400-2600 PLN.
https://steemit.com/budget/@hwtrendsetter/can-desktops-compete-against-consoles-in-early-2023
But what if you don't want to build it yourself (or think that paying someone 40-50€ or 150-200 PLN to build it is 'too expensive')?
The price hierarchy of gaming computers has remained unchanged for years.
The most expensive are pre-build PCs from well-known brands such as Alienware, Omen, Origin PC, etc. For 499-539€ / 2400-2600 PLN, the best you can get is something along the lines of MSI Pro with Ryzen and integrated Vega graphics.
https://www.mediaexpert.pl/komputery-i-tablety/komputery-pc/komputery-stacjonarne/komputer-msi-pro-dp20za-5m-066eu-r5-5600g-8gb-ram-256gb-ssd-windows-11-home
https://www.alza.de/msi-pro-dp20za-5m-049eu-d7137267.htm
It will run most games. It does come with Windows 11 pre-installed. You do get a 'premium' customer experience, and you can expect the best from warranty and support.
But it is painfully slow. Comes with a tiny 256 GB SSD. Modern games will run only on the lowest settings and resolutions. And it is significantly outperformed even by Xbox Series S which often costs 200€ / 949 PLN (Xbox results are even 2-3 times higher).
Pre-build desktops from electronic outlets such as X-Kom.de or HardPC.pl are cheaper.
You can expect something along the lines of Ryzen 3-3100 or Intel Core i3-10100F paired with GTX 1650 OC
https://www.x-kom.de/x-kom-element-plus-i3-10100f-16gb-1tb-ssd-gtx1650-epi3f10n1650-s-a-home-office-pc-1072434
.https://sklep.hard-pc.pl/p14546,zestaw-ryzen-5-3600-pro-gtx-1650-4gb-16gb-ddr4-500gb-ssd-astral-450w.html
Those are a much better deal than 'premium' brands and will allow you to play most games in reasonable settings. But GTX 1650 can still barely hold up against that cheap Xbox Series S.
Components bought together and then assembled by an electronic outlet are even cheaper. You can expect for example Intel Core i3-11100F paired with RX 6500 XT (which is not that much more powerful than GTX 1650 OC and can turn out to be even more expensive as the promotions with 'free' assembly fees are not always available).
https://www.mifcom.de/pc-konfigurator-cid41
https://www.x-kom.pl/montaz
It's an improvement over the 'cheap' pre-builds, but it's not a massive improvement. 30-40% better performance is always welcomed, but it's still nowhere near the better Xbox (Series X).
And (as expected) the cheapest option are parts purchased separately from different stores. You can easily get Ryzen 5-4500 paired with RX 6600 (and all other components will also be decent - check out the previous article below).
https://steemit.com/budget/@hwtrendsetter/can-desktops-compete-against-consoles-in-early-2023
But how is that even possible?
Prices in different stores don't look that differently. Usually 10-15€ or 50-70 PLN here and there.
Well, if you overspend "only" 12€ or 60 PLN on 9 components, you are spending well over 100€/500 PLN more.
The last two solutions raise a problem with the warranty - after all, you are buying individual components, not a single computer. What if you can't figure out what's broken?
Electronic outlets don't like that and if we send the whole computer to X-Kom for warranty, they will say 'hold on, we don't diagnose it for free'.
But if we send everything separately, there is no problem. There will be answers from every manufacturer's service - the motherboard is fully functional, the processor is fully functional, etc. And oh look - a new RAM stick came from the RAM manufacturer's warranty service, alongside an apology note. Jackpot - the RAM was faulty, but everything else was fine.
So it turns out that even if you don't know how to build a PC it's still a good idea to order everything from different stores. And paying someone 40-50€ or 150-200 PLN to assemble your PC isn't that expensive after all.