If you’re passionate about a hobby and have plenty of cash to spare, you probably have no problem spending eye-watering amounts of cash on big-ticket items.

Gaming, in particular, is a pastime that engenders not only passion but obsession in many, and the costs of paraphernalia associated with video games can easily run into thousands of dollars.

Some video game nuts take their passion to the next level and hand over cash for a collectable that the average person wouldn’t even spend on a house or a car.

Grid 2, for example, holds the Guinness world record for the most expensive video game ever sold: The game itself retailed for a standard price, but only a single special edition version of the PlayStation 3 game was ever produced. The special edition included an actual race car, which brought the total price of the package (game and car) up to a staggering $189,000.

When it comes to collecting vintage games, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is the console of choice for retro enthusiasts. Nintendo’s first North American home console is readily available online or at garage sales for a reasonable price, but some of the cartridges fetch exorbitant prices at online auctions because of their rarity.

The rare Bandai game Stadium Events can reach prices as high as $41,000. Nintendo bought the rights to the game and released it under a different title. Gaming certainly isn’t a hobby for the stingy, but a standard new console or the latest game probably won’t break the bank.

In fact, perhaps surprisingly, PC gaming tends to be quite a bit more expensive than console gaming due to the plethora of accoutrements available to give gamers a costly but significant edge on their competitors.

Hobbyists who want the fastest and most powerful setup will hand over thousands for top of the line gaming PCs and tools, but some of the prices are beyond even the most extravagant gamers’ regular spending: How much is it really possible to spend on a simple PC gaming setup? The following are five of the most extreme examples.

5. Yoyotech’s $13,000 gaming PC

The custom XDNA Aurum 24K is an extremely impressive 4k gaming PC that sells for 7979 GBP – which is fitting, because 79 is the atomic number for gold.

The powerful machine can play all 3D games on the market with perfect 4k resolution. With a total core count of 12, it’s 50% more powerful than the Xbox One. It includes two titan graphics card and the computer ran Battlefield 4 at a minimum of 26 frames per second in 4k.

4. Youtuber shows off $30,000 PC gaming room

In 2012, a YouTube user by the name of maxishine posted a video highlighting his extremely impressive – and super expensive – gaming room.

The room was small, but it featured a wall to wall desk filled with multiple computers and monitors. He also showed off a racing simulator set up with three monitors to create an immersive driving simulation. The core of his set up included a massive synology network attached storage device with 10 three terabyte hard drives inside; this means 30,000gb of storage space. His main monitor is an LG 42 inch TV. The setup also includes a full water cooled sr-2 dual xeon 6 core cpu.

3. $191,000 Cruden Hexatech racing simulator

This immersive racing simulator costs as much, and maybe more, as a lot of supercars on the market today. The high end machine can replicate Formula One and NASCAR racing to a tee, without any of the danger. The system’s hydraulic tripod chassis setup is meant to recreate the feeling of how g-force would affect you if you were actually turning a corner in a real high-end race car, and it can be customized to the player’s car of choice.

2. Sonic the Hedgehog super fan creates $500,000 classic game room

Video game fanatic Barry Evans built a shrine to retro video games in a barn in his backyard. His massive collection is worth a staggering $500,000 – luckily the gaming devotee has a wife who’s understanding of his extreme obsession. His personal arcade is filled with numerous vintage video game arcade cabinets, hundreds of video game consoles, and ten of thousands of piece of gaming memorabilia.

1. $750,000 diamond encrusted Zeus Jupiter PC with platinum casing

The Jupiter, which is made by Japanese computer manufacturer Zeus, is a perfect example of bling hardware. The solid platinum case of the PC is decked out with diamonds, which are meant to recreate the look of an astrological constellation.

The computer is nothing to sneer at, but it’s not super powerful. It boasts an Intel 3GHz E6850 Core 2 Duo CPU and features 2gb of DDR2 memory and a 1 terabyte hard drive. If the 3 quarter million dollar price tag is too much, Zeus sells a gold version which is a mere half million dollars.

(source:therichest.com)