PC gaming is mega expensive. It's one of the most steadfast assumptions amongst gamers, an argument that crops up in almost every forum thread when the letters "P" and "C" are placed alongside one another. Few people stop to question whether PC gaming actually is more expensive than console gaming, and why would they? When you can buy an Xbox for £200, and a top-end graphics card can cost twice that, the question barely seems worth asking.

Rigging+Up

But I've always been sceptical about the presumed price-gap. So I decided to ask my good friend Maths for an answer. Here's the plan. We're going to examine the cost of running both a new PC rig and a new console set-up over a period of three years, looking at all the accumulated costs during that time, and see how they stack up. If you've avoided taking the PC plunge because of cost, you might find something here to change your mindset...Ideally, we want a PC that can run all the latest games on their highest settings to maximise the benefits the PC can offer, but without breaking the bank. The most graphically demanding game right now is Battlefield 3, and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. For the record, here are BF3's. Challenge accepted.I get most of my gear from, though some of this rig is from the more popular. They both do good deals that help cut costs. (NB: All prices were correct at the time of writing at the end of November).In terms of performance, the most important (and therefore expensive) components are the processor and the graphics card - Nvidia or ATI, Intel or AMD. Those are personal choices that I'm not going to make for you. This rig is an example of price, not a recommendation of hardware. The system requirements for BF3 stipulate a quad-core and a GTX 560, so we'll go for a six-coreat £111.59 and acosting £173.99. Also, BF3 demands 4GB of RAM. We'll double that, and spend £54.59 on thisNow for the other necessities. First we need a motherboard. Thisboard is compatible with all the aforementioned components and costs £34.74. Arguably the next most important piece is the power supply: we need to ensure it can handle the juice the computer requires. You can get afor £24.96.are cheap these days, so you can easily get one for £13.99. Finally, the case. Many people buy expensive cases because they look pretty: these people are stupid. You can get a case that's perfectly adequate(You may have noticed there's one vital component I've missed – the hard drive. I've left it separate for a reason. HDD's are extremely expensive at the moment. I was reliably informed by a tech journalist that this is due to severe flooding in Thailand, where most drives are made. Last year I bought a 500GB drive for about fifty quid. Now £83.99 is cheap for a. Ouch.)Oh, and unless you're willing to learn Linux, you'll need a copy of Windows 7.will suffice at £69.00.That's reasonable for a rig like this. It will run anything available today and see us a good stretch into the future. But we could almost buy three consoles for this, and worryingly, we haven't even finished. Don't forget, we are including everything required for three years of happy gaming.At the moment we've only got the box, and no matter how good your rig is, you can't play games without a monitor. Additionally, with a rig like this, you want a monitor that can show off the pretties. Mine is 21.5 inches (stop sniggering at the back).the same size for £87.36.Next we need control. No need to overspend on a keyboard.for just over a tenner. As for a mouse, I suppose we should get a gaming mouse for a gaming rig. You can getfor £23.98. A sound device would be handy too: I useheadphones, which are surprisingly good - lightweight and comfortable with excellent sound. Not bad for £29.99.Last but not least, Internet. I suppose we don't need the Internet unless you're hellbent on playing Ubisoft's DRM'd-to-the-nines PC games, but it's definitely a useful thing to have. Over three years, aat £14.50 a month (half price for the first nine months) will cost a meaty £457.