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When it comes time to upgrade your gaming rig, you might be wondering whether it’s a better deal to gear up a gaming PC or just to get a home console like a PS5 or Xbox Series X. There’s no easy answer–each option has its pros and cons. Let’s break them down to help you make the best decision for your gaming setup.
When you talk about PC gaming, the elephant in the room you need to address is the price. You can build a gaming PC with a massive GPU and state-of-the-art technology, but you’ll pay a pretty penny for the privilege. Just the graphics card for such a high-end gaming rig can run you over $1,000, and that’s before you get into things like storage devices, peripherals, gaming monitors, and other PC components.
A home console, on the other hand, requires you to purchase the console and find a TV to plug it into, and that’s about it. As a result, the up-front buy-in for a home console is usually orders of magnitude lower than gearing up a full-scale gaming PC.
There are still valid reasons to own a gaming PC, though, despite the high price point. If you build your own PC, you have a lot of customization options. You can set it up to look the way you want, to take up a certain amount of space, or to sit in a custom housing that you like the look of. Moreover, you can decide how much power you want it to have.
If you want a cutting-edge PC, you can pay top dollar and get a machine capable of putting out 120 frames per second on modern 4K games. With the right setup, you can even use a gaming PC as a console by hooking it up to your living room TV.
For those who just want to “plug and play,” though, it’s hard to beat the ease of use of a console. You just need to plug it into your TV, go through some basic setup, and you’re ready to play a PlayStation or Xbox game. With a PC, even a pre-built one, there are a few more steps involved with getting everything ready to go.
So, the bottom line is that both gaming PCs and consoles are great ways to enjoy the hobby of playing video games. The one that is right for you depends on your living situation and budget, but you really can’t go wrong with either.
