I am sitting here and attempting to figure out the most cost-effective way to build a living room PC. Sure, I have the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5, but sometimes I want to play a game I own on PC and instead play it on the comfort of my couch. Instead of sitting upright, I want to relax. Kick my feet up, and simply enjoy my TV. But, upon pricing out this system, I came across what I would call “the reasonable part of my brain.”
See, right now you are dealing with it in your own little way. You look at something like the recently revealed PlayStation 5 Pro and come to the idea that it is a stupid investment. But let’s say we take that and sprinkle a bit of nostalgia on top of it. This is where things change. Our minds went to complete dissatisfaction to complete need of a product that will obviously become obsolete in as little as three or four years; relatively speaking. I’m going through this as we speak.
I don’t play PlayStation games enough to constitute buying the Pro variant. Plus, I have been pretty vocal about not buying something when the full specs have yet to be released; but I digress from that stance. There are more pressing matters at hand.
I play PC games the most. That is what drove me to purchase the Steam Deck, and even though I have been spending less time gaming and more time reading and writing a novel, I still hold PC higher than any console. I play a ton of World of Warcraft, I have been given countless review codes for Steam games, and a handful of these titles that I quite enjoy might premiere on PC and eventually find themselves onto console in time. Plus, I find enjoyment in tinkering with my PC. I love talking about computer parts and figuring out what would best suit the needs of my friends, family, and customers. Plus, I have lost a lot of faith in both Sony and Microsoft when it comes to their gaming vantages. Yet, the same exact situation is happening between NVIDIA and AMD.
Despite all these reasons why I love PC gaming and building, I am still hitting myself in the head because the realization of dumbness has risen from inside my brain. See, I could very well spend the money to build this second system, and it wouldn’t even cost me a lot of money. But the fact remains is that it would cost me more money than just settling the fuck down.
We already discussed why I decided that I want to build a living room PC, but what I haven’t considered was the most obvious solution to my problems- just buying the game. The logistics that fuel the choice to upgrade one system while using the left over parts with a mixture of new parts is the dumbest thing I could possibly fathom. Sure, I could spend $500 to upgrade one system and then another $500 to build the secondary rig; or I can spend $70 for a game.
Sure, for this low, low payment of $1000, I can enjoy gaming anywhere while feeling the most comfortable! Or, I could just… buy the game… twice even… but how will I know they will look their best? Huh? What about technologies like NVIDIA’s DLSS or AMD’s FSR 3.1? How will the games I play on PC that are on console live up to the ridiculous standards that I have set in my mind? The fact is that they most likely won’t and all I am doing is propagating the practice of being ostensibly obtuse and hypocritical. I can claim that PC gaming is where the future is, and I could be right. I could be incredibly wrong (I often am).
The fact of the matter is that I am a person who loves technology and building. I don’t want to build the secondary PC because I want to play games, I want to build it to satiate the inner desire for more power. I want to feel my wallet drain itself of the hard-earned money I gathered. I want to go home, open a box, and start putting stuff together. I want to feel that sense of satisfaction as the system posts and gets me into my games. But sometimes I need to check myself, and realize that sense must come before dollars spent.
Moments like this, I need to reflect on what truly matters. Is my experience going to be great no matter what I game on? Most likely. Will the PlayStation 5 Pro 30th Edition bundle bring me the joy I am searching for as well? Most likely. Will it be cost effective? No.
And this is where I think we all need to look at what we are doing with technology and why we are making the decisions we are making. I believe in spending money on devices you will actually use as opposed to e-waste, which has become a huge problem for decades now.
I know that I need to do better. I need to change my perspective and force different angles like this upon myself. I need to speak my truth into the ether and come to my senses. Perhaps some of us need to do the same. Maybe the PlayStation 5 Pro is actually worth the price tag? Maybe it isn’t. That isn’t up to me or Sony to decide; that is up to you.
