Matching the $800 console will be costly with new parts, but you can save if you buy used.

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When the Xbox Series X launched in November 2020 at what today sounds like a bargain price of $499.99, claims made the rounds online that $800 is all it'd take to build a PC to match it.

PCWorld put that to the test and came out at a total cost of $1,559, more than three times the original price of the console. Six years later, the Series X costs $799.99, and a matching PC still can't be built for that with new parts. Once you've added Windows and a controller, you're looking at a ballpark figure of $1,200. Even if you're only buying the main components used, you can expect to shell out roughly $730.

Xbox prices rose again on August 1 in the third US increase since the start of last year. To nobody's surprise, Microsoft pointed the finger at "the current components crisis," stating that memory and storage prices had risen by more than 2.5 times.…