It is a monitor, okay?

My dad upgraded from an old iMac to a MacMini. He decided that two 4k Dell monitors I had in storage were perfect for him. This left me without a monitor if I ever need one for servers or to connect other random stuff, which happens more often than you would think. So during Prime Day I bought a BenQ GW2491 for 80 Euro. This monitor could not be more unremarkable.

Usually when talking about hardware it is either something exciting, something very practical or something that is outright broken. Not this monitor. It exists. You connect a cable and a picture shows up. It has some menu options which actually do things but are ultimately irrelevant. It has buttons matching the onscreen menu which is a bit odd but funny to use. That is basically all you need to know and that is to say about it.

A 1080, 100Hz monitor for 80 Euro. These days you can build an okay gaming system for 100 to 200 Euro. (Obviously that includes leveraging the used market and searching for good deals.) If you are looking at 200 to 300 Euro things become a little easier. You will probably not play the latest AAA games. Although - actually, on low settings aiming for 60 fps, you might have a chance considering most games are optimised for PlayStation 4 hardware. You will likely be lucky with many esport titles, as a bunch of them can run on a toaster. Looking at you, League of Legends.

There are many YouTube videos showing how to scout hardware, repurpose an old business system and end up with an okay gaming PC. And that’s excellent. However, what many do not mention is that you still need a screen, a keyboard and a mouse. Maybe a headset. You do not need to spend a stupid amount of money on keyboards. You can, but if we are honest that is more of a hobby than a necessity. The same goes for mice. Headsets are tricky, really cheap ones are horrible and nearly unusable if you value your hearing even a little bit. But if you aim for a 20 to 30 Euro range they are good enough for gaming. Nothing will be a pleasure to use, but good enough. And it can be upgraded.

What cost a lot more in the past were monitors. 60 Hz is kind of... it sucks when you are close. I tried more than once. Around the 100 Hz range things become good enough, which is what you should aim for when on a tight budget. If you are lucky or if you can spend a few bucks more you might even be able to hit 120 to 140 Hz panels. Above that it starts becoming a bit questionable how much you gain when gaming, even though you will likely notice it moving Notepad around on a blank screen.

And this is why an 80 Euro 100 Hz screen kind of excites me, especially because it is good enough. Spending more on peripherals than on your gaming PC just to get into gaming never really sounded appealing to me. Now with about a 50:50 split between computer and accessories things become a bit more reasonable. And you are still cheaper than getting a console and use your TV.

And the best part? Steam sales. You are already on a budget. 90 Euro for a game is a lot. Basically one fifth of your equipment cost. Steam sale? Take a few decent to great games for 5 Euro and enjoy a year of gaming. Not the most recent AAA titles, but also not outdated indie games. (Which are actually sometimes better than some more recent AAA releases. cough Bloodlines 2 cough )

On top of everything this ignores the other things you can do with a PC. By hitting the 400 Euro price tag, PC gaming actually becomes more accessible and more attractive compared to consoles. There is still a bit of a convenience factor with a PlayStation or an Xbox. But the TCO of a PC will likely be lower, which can matter a lot.

I have an Alienware OLED monitor for gaming and two Pro Display XDR for work in my office. Unboxing and testing the BenQ was the first time in a long time I was actually excited about a monitor. Well, not the monitor specifically. The image is obviously not as good as the alternatives at my disposal. The plastic is okay, but feels cheap. Barely any tilt. But it is a sign PC gaming is becoming accessible again for beginners. And that I love very much.