my budget is 350$if you want to get into pc gaming, i recommend building your own pc. you'll get better results in the long run if you go with pretty much any intel set up from 2013 to now, or a amd ryzen build with a decent gpu. I recommend going with a skylake i5 or amd ryzen 5 1500 or 1500X with a gtx 1060, 1070, 1050TI or what ever mid range gpu of your choice. a self built pc will do you so much better than a steam machine.
$350 Is unrealistic.my budget is 350$
I already have an Xbox I'm saving up because its my broes and he taking it to collage with himSteam PCs aren't as good as systems you build yourself, but they can offer peace of mind and good support as a package deal to get into entry level PC gaming. They will generally be perfectly suited to light gaming and may even play some of the older medium weight games (weight meaning how much performance is needed to run at a playable frame rate).
One way to look at it is that Steam PCs are basically consoles for playing games. Their hardware is usually 3-6 years behind at launch, and good enough for playing games at the time, but will need updating a few years down the line to a newer model (ala 360 to Xbox One) to play the newer games.
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/peter6828/saved/KJgxrH some parts are cheaper at microcenter$350 Is unrealistic.
Do you want to build it strong off the bat so it can last for years, possibly over a decade or build to last just enough and keep spending annually.
I guess the types of games you intend to play will determine how strong it needs to be too. But $350 would barely cover the GPU alone.
This is proving my point. I would save the money and shoot for upwards of $800-1000, unless you are ok with playing PC games in mid to low quality.I already have an Xbox I'm saving up because its my broes and he taking it to collage with him
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https://pcpartpicker.com/user/peter6828/saved/KJgxrH some parts are cheaper at microcenter
Over watch, road to baruto franbow outlast 2The main question to ask to judge if it's worth it... is what kind of games do you want to play?
I doubt you'd find a steam machine capable of running outlast 2 at decent framerates at $350. In that case I would say you're better getting it on Xbox. The Steam machines that exist in that budget are designed for playing older games or streaming from a better device (I.e a gaming pc).
You could try building your own, which is what I believe @Memoir was trying to suggest, starting with just the barebones parts, but gaming usually requires a budget of over $500 because the more you spend on the graphics card, the better games you can run on higher settings at higher resolutions at higher framerates. The best graphics card currently available which allows 4K gaming at good framerates is the NVidia GTX 1080 Ti, which is $700 on its own. You won't need quite so high, as even a 1050 Ti will play at 1080p very well, for only $140. Then you'd have $210 to put towards the CPU, motherboard, memory, drive, case and power supply.
But if you don't want to build your own, then steam machines are viable, but you need a bigger budget to play the games you want to play.