Shopping for a Gaming Computer

Recently, I have been in the market to buy a gaming computer. Millions of Americans have a console (Xbox or Playstation), but they have one major draw back: their hardware quickly falls behind the ever-changing gaming market on the computer. (This part is not about my current point, but it does bring up an interesting question about supporting a product, for another post I suppose).

Back to the narrative, I have been scouring the internet looking for "Gaming Computers" and there is a popular debate surrounding them: pre-built or home built. That is, do I buy a computer that is ready to play or order all the parts and assemble it myself to save some money? Both options require that the consumer know a little something about computers. Lets look at this example (http://www.ibuypower.com/Site/Computer/Desktops). Simply scrolling down the page, you'll see the absolute garbage can of letters and numbers that is "computer specifics." Does the average person know the different between a Radeon R7 GPU or an NVIDIA GTX GPU? What is an Intel i5 CPU? WHAT IS A GPU OR CPU? 

I only cited one example, but it seems all the pre-built pc markets and part retailers expect the user to do the research to figure out what they need or want to play their games. I think these cites should absolutely tell the specifics of each computer or parts, but none of them answer the average buyer's simple question: Does it do games good? (intentionally obtuse). How do we know buyers want simple plug-and-play systems? Look at the console market I have already mentioned. If you buy an Xbox, you know it will play all the Xbox games in the Xbox store to the best of its ability. 

Hunter, how is this about marketing?

Right, yes, marketing. It seems we have two independent solutions to the same market. Gaming computers are the highly customizable yet overly-complex way to play video games. Consoles are the layman's quick fix to having something that can play Call of Duty. And this extends to many markets. You can buy a simple slingshot, or you can buy a slingshot with a laser sight and a telegraphic scope (for some reason). My point is, figure out who your company is in the market. Are you the complicated yet personal solution, or the simple, guaranteed-to-work product? Do you expect people to have knowledge about a certain area before they purchase your product? 

As a closing thought: I guarantee the company that figures out how to keep the premium price of PC's while having the simple marketing message  "This will play your games perfectly" will break into both markets, and may rise as the preferred choice. Dell's line of PC's named Alienware almost had this idea right, but they executed it the wrong way. They released a customizable console (Alpha) that runs on Steam OS (Steam is a online market for games). The problem is the Alpha limits people to only using Steam games that are compatible with it. It is my opinion that having a three standardized computers guaranteed to run games at Medium, High, or Ultra settings would have much better success breaking into the market. Cosmetic customization would help meet the "I am an individual" market of the Computer Gaming community.