Look, I can see their point. If you would be fine with playing multiplatform games at the exact same settings as a PS4, a PC is not actually much more expensive. For me, this is something not actually useful to do in the real world, but ok.
However, if I take it at face value, I would still have some comments though:
Does that PC have wireless, Bluetooth?
Should also have a great gaming input device (and not the cheapest kb&m they could find?)
GDDR5 vs DDR3. But whatever, they seem to get almost the same performance in their tested games?
They omitted the costs of an OS but that they mentioned (and that's kinda fine because you can also do much more stuff with a PC OS)
However, can it play any Blu-rays or at the bare minimum DVDs? (also for physical game releases)
low power mode chips for downloading&Installing in standby?
dedicated hardware for automatic video recording/streaming?
USB 3.0?
Very important, what about audio? Any loss-less 7.1 capabilities or at least some optical 5.1 DD/DTS thingy? Don't make the common mistake and cheap out on having great sound in games/movies etc. It's not only about graphics.
The man-hours needed to built, tweak and overclock all this stuff?
They built it NOW for £320 but the PS4 is already 1.5 years old (was £350 at launch I think?), so could you have built it for 350 in 2013? Would you still be able to play the same games at the same settings with their machine in 5 years from now?
Oh and btw I'm in the camp that misses the PS3 days when I paid at launch a price far cheaper than even the raw production costs for Sony. I also wish the PS4 was a tad more powerful but oh well. The mass market doesn't think much about the actual value of the product vs. the profit margin of the company. (See also Apple)
The build in OP doesnt have wifi or blutooth. Again its just a build with the bare basics to play games. A wifi card is about $15 and maybe $10 for a USB blutooth dongle. Options is the key, some may not need these items. Similarly with DVDs, a drive would set you back about $15, a blu ray reader about $40. Again most PC users have dropped optical media altogethor. PCs make for horrible Blu Ray movie players, just very inconvenient.
Nobody really buys games physically on PC, so it wasnt included, but like i said, basics and the options are available.
GDD5-DDR3 no point discussing.
Can pick up Windows 7 for $15 if you look for it.
There is no dedicated HW for updates in standby, all updates have to be done when the PC is on. Steam downloads updates when you are not playing. A PC like this would idle at about 30-40W.
Recording software is now built into GPU Control Centers, there is no need for dedicated HW since its not very intensive on modern hardware.
Audio - There is 7.1 PCM. PC games are not in Dolby Digital/DTS/DD-HD/DTS HD since they are just in PCM. You can use a sound card to encode the PCM to Dolby Digital if your TV/Receiver only supports that. HDMI from the GPU can transmit 2.0 PCM to 7.1 PCM.
Well the first PC may take 1-2hours, but after your first build it may only take 30 minutes. Overclocking can take as long as you like, the more on the edge your overclock, the more time it will take to stabilise. Generally a modest overclock can be setup in an hour.
Future is hard to tell, but since you will be saving a lot of money on games and online subs, that can be put towards better parts for the PC. Selling the CPU and GPU and upgrading is easily possible.
