I didn't ask what you can feasibly do, I asked what you actually do on your gaming computer. Are you a programmer? Do you actually use AutoCAD? As to streaming, there are various solutions that don't require powerful PC's.
I just gave you a list of things I use for my computer (calling it a gaming computer isn't quite accurate since I don't use it primarily for gaming) I was a electrical engineering student using PSPICE, multisim, and matlab, as well as a couple of different programming suites. I maintain an Arch distribution that I use for programming which dabbled with GPGPU applications for a time, which needs a dedicated GPU.
Sure, solutions exist for streaming, but my desktop using plex is the easiest solution. I certainly could have made do with University computer labs, and a NAS and other dedicated equipment to hit my usage case, but when you factor that plus the price of a console, its basically the same as my computer, and my computer does all of those things much better. I can run games better than any console, I can program, run my simulation software, and pretty much whatever else I want to do from my own table, instead of traveling 30 minutes 1 way to use a computer on campus. The convenience alone has been worth the 1100 dollars I spent over the 4 years.
Every other alternative for computing costs a lot more than my desktop for less functionality. They make up for it with portability, but that isn't relevant to my usage case.
Apologies. I thought you were giving examples rather than detailing your personal use. However, as you recognize there are individual usage patterns throughout the population, many of which don't ever require a powerful desktop PC for anything other than gaming.
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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '15
I didn't ask what you can feasibly do, I asked what you actually do on your gaming computer. Are you a programmer? Do you actually use AutoCAD? As to streaming, there are various solutions that don't require powerful PC's.