I agree that PC is better than console and that consoles are basically dead at this point, but I fucking hate the culture behind the "PC Master Race" with a passion.
Why? Because they are the most entitled, spoiled, rotten pieces of shit in the gaming community. They are like those fast-food customers who place the most ridiculous special orders, or the upper middle class to rich people who can only watch movies in a home theater set-up. They won't play a game unless they can play it on max settings with the most perfect frame-rate.
This is also one of the many factors that is preventing the "year of the Linux desktop". Even if they game already has a Linux port that is perfectly playable, I know a lot of people who out-right refuse to play on Linux because "the game runs better on Windows" (and by "better" they mean only a slight framerate increase). Let's see if that attitude still stands when Windows goes full SaaS and requires you to be micro-chipped in order to activate it.
I could go on. I also don't like their obsession with RGB lighting on everything and making their computers look like they were designed by aliens. How are you supposed to sleep at night if you are someone who keeps their computer in their bedroom?
I've been PC gaming since I started gaming, and I have always been perfectly content with a mid-ranged PC or even a toaster if I'm just sticking with indies and emulators. No RGB lights, no fancy keyboards or mice, no curved monitors. I really wouldn't have it any other way outside the inability to emulate 7th gen games.
@BigDawg869789
>which keeps needing new parts to play newer games released in a few years.
Not really, depending on the settings.
@BigDawg869789 It's just as easy as putting together a shelf. You can find some set-ups online that list all the parts they used as well as how to put it together.
If you really can't put together a PC yourself, a lot of companies allow you to specify the parts you want, if you order online. System76 for example sells PCs with base specs, but allows you to customize for more powerful specs, but they only sell computers with Linux on them.
As for used stuff. People are selling their custom-built PCs all the time. Just be sure that it's labeled as a gaming PC and that it's somewhat current gen, otherwise, you might be buying some office PC from 2009 (a lot of schools seems to be dumping their 15+ year old computers these days). You can also visit local college campuses and check for any ads on the bulletin boards to see if any student is selling their old PCs.
@BigDawg869789 Fine. Just get some pre-build from Alienware. Hopefully, ~$1,300 is affordable enough for you.
@BigDawg869789 They are the only pre-builds I know of that are dedicated to gaming, outside of ones from System76, but they only offer Linux PCs and I don't know if you would want that.
@blaaablaaaa @BigDawg869789 The only real problem you run into at this point is if you apply for a job or take a class that requires you to run a Windows program that refuses to run under Wine or Proton. In that case, you will need to dual boot (have two operating systems installed on your PC) or have a Windows VM.
@berkberkman @blaaablaaaa @BigDawg869789 You should always ask any potential employer if they issue laptops to workers, when applying for a job.
@BigDawg869789 @blaaablaaaa Anyway, if you want a Linux PC for gaming, this is the one you should be looking for. They are designed with gaming in mind.
@blaaablaaaa @BigDawg869789 Also, if a game is not on Steam (or if it's just a regular Windows program), there is Wine which is what Proton is based on.
If you are into emulators, pretty much every emulator in existence is on Linux as most emulators are open-source. Though emulators for 6th gen home consoles and beyond are kind of hit or miss on Linux, at least from my experience.
@berkberkman @BigDawg869789 One more thing about System76 is that they are one of the few hardware manufacturers that disables the Intel Management Engine which is a universal hardware backdoor that is present in all Intel CPUs since 2008. Granted, it is ultimately a band-aid solution as you are still giving money to Intel, who are most likely either going to eventually blacklist System76 as a customer or make it harder to disable the backdoor in future processors, but it's better than nothing.