and there is a comparably steep commitment required to research CPUs, GPUs, storage, cooling, and RAM, and how their combination will affect performance and longevity
I mean those same things affect consoles too, you just don’t get a choice. Sony prioritized keeping the PS5 quiet so the CPU and GPU run pretty warm. If you add an SSD it’s just hot boxing itself in that awful enclosure. You can always just yolo it like you would when buying a console. Then if it’s bad on a PC you at least have the option to fix it.
Understood, and I concede the benefit of being able to choose and fix on a PC, it’s definitely better. But it’s almost more of a difference in perception. For someone unfamiliar with PC builds, it’s not a matter of not having a choice but not having to choose or having to fix anything. It’s the promise that it will work on its own (notwithstanding the reality of hardware failures in general).
I mean those same things affect consoles too, you just don’t get a choice. Sony prioritized keeping the PS5 quiet so the CPU and GPU run pretty warm. If you add an SSD it’s just hot boxing itself in that awful enclosure. You can always just yolo it like you would when buying a console. Then if it’s bad on a PC you at least have the option to fix it.
Understood, and I concede the benefit of being able to choose and fix on a PC, it’s definitely better. But it’s almost more of a difference in perception. For someone unfamiliar with PC builds, it’s not a matter of not having a choice but not having to choose or having to fix anything. It’s the promise that it will work on its own (notwithstanding the reality of hardware failures in general).