07 Oct 10, 07:11AM
Well,...this is kind of surprising. I see 550 dollar builds these days with tri-core cpus and mid range cards(mostly 5770s). I didn't realize that the lower sector of gaming could still retain so much power. Most of the problem I see comes from the fact that with HP and Dell pretty much having a stranglehold over the budget PC, people can't find options that are both more powerful as well as cost efficient. Why couldn't there simply be more companies that build reasonably priced budget towers for consumers that capably make use of the superb cost/power output ratio of today's parts. When people think PC gaming they mostly think of the 2000 dollar alienware products. Even if assembly and labor were added in, as well as the OEM OS, I can still foresee a price increase of only maybe 100 dollars at most. Cost is probably in my experience, the single most relevant barrier entry to other gamers. If it was just possible to peel back the misconception of PC gaming as being expensive, the movement as a whole would be so much stronger. Seriously, I did not expect 550 dollars to be able to play games on high settings at 1650x1050 at all. Thoughts?