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.

  • ElGosso [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    A lot of other people have addressed the nitty-gritty, so I'll just give my opinion on console vs pc - I generally prefer PC gaming. There are some areas where console is better - space, and if you're gonna be moving it around a lot, for example, can be more of a hassle with a desktop, and gaming with laptops tends to have a lot of issues too. But broadly speaking, PC is usually a better experience. Big AAA games tend to be tailored to a console market, and recently there's been a rash of them that don't run well on PC, but outside of those the experience is vastly better on PC. You're not trapped in a single company's ecosystem, you have the freedom to pirate, the indie scene is way bigger than anything you'd expect, and the modding scene is fantastic, especially with Steam workshop which turns most mods into a one-click install.