Hey guys, So my family has decided to get back into The PC market, but we don't really know where to start. We're probably looking to spend between 1000 to 1500 dollars (Canadian). Do you guys have any advice on getting the most bang for our buck? Much appreciated

you should check out http://www.newegg.com/ and put your own parts together

I've been looking at newegg, but it's difficult for me to really tell what parts are better than others, more specifically, video cards.

I would suggest using a tech site that has entire forums dedicated to this stuff. I have seen some good threads and articles on tested.com but am having trouble finding exact links. Google will do you wonders, good luck

@FeelTheFunkness: Tom's Hardware has regular articles about most bang for your buck.

Best gaming graphics card for the money.

Best gaming CPU for the money.

Both of those links are from this month.

And the last system builder's marathon they did can also be helpful. Dating from March but prices and parts won't have changed to much since then. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-a-pc-budget-overclock,3160.html

You should read the entire articles, its long but pretty informative on what to look for and will often mention alternative parts to those they ultimately picked.

@Pr1mus: Thanks, I'll check these out

http://www.tested.com/forums/pc-and-mac/44371-building-a-gaming-pc-advice-appreciated/

Read the first reply by stenchlord and modify the build as you see fit. I'll expand a bit on it here to help you out. For the processor mentioned the equivalent for Ivy Bridge is the i5 3570k. They talk about it in the thread. The cooler he mentioned is the best in terms of performance/price and I can vouch for it personally. Asrock make good motherboards and I am also using one currently, but other good brands you can choose from are ASUS (most popular choice), Gigabyte, and MSI. Anandtech did a roundup of Z77 boards here. RAM choice is great. Remove the SSD from your build if you don't want one. I actually have two Samsung Spinpoint F4 2TB HDD's, but I got them before the floods and be wary that they are 5400 RPM drives. They are reliable, but not the fastest. If you do want an SSD or 7200 RPM HDD then you might have to research a bit more on that. GTX 670 is a great card (Anandtech review here), fits in your budget, and is what I would get if I was currently building a PC.

There are so many cases to choose from I'll just let you do your research on that one. If you have a decent case lying around that is even better. PSU choice is good, but I usually go with Corsair. I have a Corsair HX750, but it isn't fully modular like the one recommended and is more expensive. The Corsair does have more reviews and a higher rating on Newegg though, so take that for what you will. If you don't need an optical drive or have a spare lying around then remove that from your build. If you need an optical drive without a Blu-ray reader you can go with something like the ASUS DRW-24B1ST. If you already have a keyboard, mouse, and monitor then you should be good to go with that build. If you do need advice on peripherals then, again, don't ask me as I don't follow that stuff. Sorry for making this reply a wall of text, but I hope I was of help. With this build you won't have to worry about your PC for quite some time.

EDIT: OK I split it into two paragraphs to make it more palatable.