I don't know anything about gaming. The last time I regularly played video games was on my Atari. Yes, a million years ago.

  1. Basic question: I'd like to get into gaming. What's better a console or a gaming PC? My PC is super old so I have to buy a new PC anyway.

  2. I'm considering buying a renewed PC from Amazon. From what little I know - it seems like a good deal. If I buy something like a renewed Dell XPS 8940 for - I dunno up to $1,500 is that good enough for gaming? I'd prefer a boring PC case.

  3. What's the minimum I'd need to spend to get a gaming PC that plays most games?

  4. What are common mistakes people make when buying a gaming PC?

  5. Can most games be torrented?

  6. What's easier to torrent? Games for consoles or PC games? Ideally torrents will be my gaming store.

I'm giving myself until the end of the month to buy a new PC. So it's time for me to decide.

Amazon example...

Dell XPS 8940 Tower Desktop PC)

There are two PC setups on the page. Both are $1,000. Here are the specs for one of them.

[Edit: It's missing a useful graphics cad. I know I'll need the best graphics card possible because without that I'm buying a brand new car with a puny, nearly useless engine.]

  • 10th Gen Octa-core Intel i7-10700 2.9GHz Processor

  • 32GB DDR4 Memory

  • 512GB PCIe M.2 SSD +1TB SATA 7200 RPM HDD

  • DVD-RW Drive

  • Windows 10 w/ Accessories (Renewed)

Edit

I'm not interested in building one. I'd screw something up. It's just the way I am.

  • Goblinmancer [any]
    ·
    1 year ago

    A lot of newer games are practically unplayable on pc (cough jedi survivor). Yes you still have access to indie games but for most indie games you dont need a monster pc. (Its a shame that an increasing number of 2d graphics games are unplayable on potato pc)

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
      ·
      1 year ago

      A lot of newer games are practically unplayable on pc (cough jedi survivor).

      Why? I seriously have no idea why.

      • CanYouFeelItMrKrabs [any, he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Some games have really intense system requirements. And companies focus on making the console version run smoothly, not the PC version as much.

        But I wouldn't worry about it, especially if there isn't a specific new title you had in mind to check out.

      • fox [comrade/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Different systems have different demands. If you're building a game for a console you can put all your optimization efforts into just making it work for one specific hardware/ software configuration. If you're building for PC you need to optimize to a significantly greater degree so the game runs well on any hardware configuration. Most publishers don't care about spending that much labor when most sales come in during the first few weeks.

      • Goblinmancer [any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        bad pc ports mainly and many games are designed around ps5/next gen consoles