I responded to the author of that awful Motherboard article via email.

Hi there, Emanuel!

I just read your article on Vice about building a PC. It is truly a shame that such a prominent website allows such blatant misinformation to be published. I figured I would email you and try to set the record straight.

First, let's start with your 3 step guide to building a PC:

Step 1: Have an unreasonable amount of disposable income.

Step 2: Have an unreasonable amount of time to research, shop around, and assemble parts for your computer.

Step 3: Get used to the idea that this is something you're going to have to keep investing time and money in as long as you want to stay at the cutting edge or recommended specifications range for new PC games.

Step 1: You can build a perfectly viable gaming PC for a similar price as a console. "The Crusher" build found on the PC Master Race subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/wiki/builds#wiki_the_crusher) is testament to this. For just a little over $400, you get 60fps gaming at 1080p. As a comparison, the Xbox One and PS4 games mostly run at 720-900p at 30fps. This is both a reduction in graphical quality AND framerate, for the same cost! It also seems ironic that you would complain about the expenses involved in building a PC, then recommend Apple products which are by and large some of the most overpriced electronics on the entire market. You chose the most expensive products in the hobby PC market, then complained about it. This isn't PC gaming's fault, it's yours.

Step 2: Most of the research is already done for you. PCPartPicker, PC Master Race, and Logical Increments have plenty of build guides to refer to. I can make a mild concession here simply because there are indeed a multitude of options to choose from when building a PC; I definitely see this as more of a blessing than a curse, but I'm sure opinions vary. Regardless, no matter what product you're buying, any intelligent consumer will be well-pressed to do some research on what they're purchasing, and there are plenty resources available that distill the information into something far more digestible. It sounds like to me that you simply couldn't be assed... again, your problem, not PC Gaming's. But I guess if you want something plug-and-play the console still wins... I dunno, just a tiny bit of effort in order to get something objectively and substantially better for the same price sounds good to me.

Step 3: The nail in the coffin - the aforementioned Crusher build will last as long as the consoles at better-than-console performance (again, for the same price). Though, using the Crusher as an example, I could upgrade that GTX950 to a 970 or beyond for less than the price of upgrading to the next generation of consoles. Have fun buying your Neo/Scorpio for $499 (more than the cost of a GTX1070 which will last years at 1080p/120fps - try that, consoles!) and still be unable to keep up. This point might have had a bit more weight before Microsoft and Sony basically admitted that they can't keep up with PC hardware. Though, again, I can't have much sympathy for you, because you are choosing to remain at the CUTTING EDGE, when that is wholly unnecessary for quality gaming over a long period.

tl;dr: You chose to get the highest-end hardware you can, without doing any research, then complained about the expense while insisting you remain on the cutting edge. Nice move. (God, and then you go on to talk about bang-for-buck? Seriously?)

You spent $2000 on parts you frankly did not need and then complained about the price. i7 is overkill for gaming. i5 would have saved you over $100. You got one of the highest-end motherboards, again, overkill. Water cooled, even. Overkill. Are you even planning on overclocking? You bought an expensive case that you don't even like. Why not buy one that was actually aesthetically pleasing to you? (Oh yeah, because you're too lazy to use Google.)

Then you went to build it. Oh boy, a 160-page manual! Again, have you ever heard of Google? Are you aware of the over 54 million results that show up when you search for "how to build a pc?" There's even Youtube videos that go over every facet of building your PC from start to finish, if you aren't the reading type. BTW, have you ever tried to upgrade anything other than RAM on a Mac? You can't. Good luck (and have fun complaining about the cost of your bad decision making some more).

Now, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt a bit. I understand that the PC market can be intimidating to newcomers. I agree that pre-built gaming PCs are overpriced (that's why we build them ourselves, but with your mentality on spending I'm sure you would have been fine buying an Alienware or something). But it doesn't take much more than, maybe realistically an hour of reading to get a baseline understanding of everything going on under the hood. But I guess that's an hour better spent playing GTAV at 30fps on a console. I guess I understand? Some people just want things handed to them. I guess I can't blame them, and PC gaming just isn't for those people.

Really though, opening your article with such misinformation and then advocating inferior options is pretty irresponsible journalism. I hope next time you actually... do some research.... but by your own admission, that's not gonna happen. (So did I waste my time? Maybe. But at least I enjoyed writing this.)

Enjoy the rest of your day :)

Submitted by arcalyth | #Specialdealer Special Offer Online Shopping Store 2016