If you ask fans of PC gaming, you’ll be told a very simple truth: there’s never a bad time to buy a PC.
Those people are wrong. In some ways it’s a dreadful time to buy a PC. Parts are expensive, the world is going to hell in a handbasket – sensible and frugal minds will tell you to wait until things even out.
But those sensible and frugal minds are only looking at the very top end of the market. Yeah, you’d have to be a pretty hardcore PC gamer to spend thousands of pounds on a brand new graphics card. Especially when the graphical leap isn’t quite as huge as it could’ve been.
But you don’t need to be one of those people. A little time and research means you can find a fantastic PC that’ll run everything you throw at it for significantly cheaper than you might have heard computers can cost. This is amazing news for the millions of people who don’t need 4K or 120FPS or any of the other headline things PCs knock out the part where consoles fail.
If you want to play primarily older or lower spec video games, you can do so at a relatively little cost. You can save even more money if you’re willing to build the computer yourself. If you can manage that, and source the parts individually, you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.
Buying the Perfect PC
But even if you’re not all that fussed with building it yourself, you can find a whole host of amazing computer parts on the internet that’ll cost you hundreds instead of thousands of dollars. If you’re really trying to save, and I wouldn’t blame you in this economy, you can look at used parts. Although, if that’s the way you choose to go, look for vendors that offer a warranty. CEX in the UK, for instance, offers two years on everything you buy. It can be a great way to stay safe.
The key is to be realistic. Don’t get caught into all the PC Master Race hype if all you’re doing is spending a few hundred on ten-year-old parts. But, equally, don’t undersell what you might be building. The highest end stuff of the past can and still will be usable, so long as you scale back the graphical demands sensibly.
And with that comes a billion games, all playable at a few clicks. If you’ve ever used Steam before, your collection will still be waiting for you, along with whatever deals you can still find as you shop around. And on top of that, there’s an endless collection of emulated games that your not-so-new device will still be able to knock out of the park. Just because you’re not playing Hogwarts Legacy doesn’t mean your gaming time can’t be long and rewarding.
This will give you enough games to play for the rest of you life. But even if you’re waiting until the market evens out and you don’t have to sell your firstborn for a graphics card, a lower end build can be a cost effective way of filling the gap in the meantime.