"Isn't PC gaming more expensive than console gaming?"

Whoever told you that is either misinformed or intentionally lying. So no, absolutely not. Especially if you only plan to target console performance! There are already graphics cards available on the market for $120 that surpass the PS4 and XBox One in terms of framerate, resolution, detail, value, and power draw. Console gaming isn't exactly cheap, either. A lot of people incorrectly believe that you have to spend upwards of $750-$1000 to get a PC fully capable of handling games. This simply isn't true! These inaccuracies can be attributed partially to the highly vocal and misinformed masses, and to the availability (and mainstream hype) of the expensive PC hardware we see advertised a lot. You see it more because it's advertised more. Why is it advertised more? Because the companies make more money from selling it as opposed to their mainstream and value offerings. The mainstream/budget parts are the ones you should be looking at; not the $2000+ enthusiast gear. We're not living the 90's any more. PC hardware is cheaper today than it has ever been! When taking a look at the measly selection of replaceable and upgradable hardware that some consoles offer, you'll always find a cheaper and better alternative for your PC. In fact, you can build a PC right now that will outperform "next-gen" consoles for pretty much the exact same price. After all, the "next-gen" consoles are really just watered-down PCs with crippled operating systems. Plus, if you only want to target 30 frames-per-second and only 720p, you're going to save a lot of money. In fact, it's actually hard to find a minimum-range graphics card that can even perform that badly these days. If you only want to match console performance, you essentially cut your GPU budget in half. See TekSyndicate's own explanation and build and this rough explanation for more information. If you're looking to get parts even cheaper than in the example videos,PCPartPicker and /r/BuildaPCSales are great places to get discount hardware for your PC. The next time someone reminds you that 'It's not all about graphics', remind them that they're in luck, because that means they'll be spending almost nothing on their graphics card to achieve the performance they deemed adequate.

Here's a simplified example of a modern mid-range computer with new parts that match or exceed every aspect of the PS4 or XBox One:

Item	Price
CPU - Athlon X4 or Core i3	$80-$100
GPU - AMD R9 270 or NVidia GeForce 750Ti	$100-$120
Motherboard - Same socket as CPU	$50-$80
RAM - 4GB or 8GB highest-end DDR3	$20-$60
Storage - 1TB HDD or 128GB SSD	$40-$60
Case - Whatever you want	$10-$80
PSU - 420W or more	$20-$40
Total	$340-$510

It also has immediate benefits: No online fees, tons of free-to-play games, free emulators, free abandonware games, much cheaper games thanks to Steam and GOG, re-use old hardware (controller, mouse, keyboard), won't need to upgrade until games start to struggle like they do on consoles (30FPS, low, 900p).