I'm already pretty much set on purchasing this desktop from Newegg.ca, but a few comments on it wouldn't hurt. Is it a good price for what I would be getting with it? Specs are: 
 
Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 
Graphic Card: Radeon HD 5570 
Memory: 4GB DDR3 
Hard Drive: 1TB 
Price: ~$500 (including shipping)
 
Second thing: I'd also need a wireless adapter for it as an Ethernet cable is not an option so is this one (again from Newegg.ca) a good one? I'm extremely ignorant when it comes to all of this... Here are a few points just for context: 
 

• I've never owned a PC of my own.
• Those I've used have never been good for gaming at all.
• I've mostly ignored the option of buying separate parts and assembling a DIY desktop as I've never done so before and I didn't even know what CPU or RAM were before today.
• My budget's around $500.
• I'd like to play most of the games on the market.
• I also just found out what "Overclocking" meant. Um, not sure if I'll be doing any of that (if I could, that is).

Aw, no one's got any advice or anything? Oh well, I think I'll do fine with buying that PC anyways. Given its specs, it should be able to run most games well.

I don't know about iBuyPower, but NEVER buy from CyberPowerPC. Their PCs are shoddily put together and their costumer "service" is the worst I've ever seen. They will straight-up rip you off if they can.

My experience has been that if the price is too good to be true, it probably is.

Hi ! Since i bought my new computer from newegg.ca today (!! for real !!), I wanted to share my thoughts about the build you're currently considering :) That said, that build offers good value. Windows 7 64 bits is a must have, 1tb Hard drive offers plenty of space for all of your files and the processor and the amount of ram will be enough to run today's and past games on the market. 4gb of ram is in my opinion more than enough to run all your applications at once and this quad-core processor can easily handle it. For the graphics card, it really depends on what games your planning to run and on what resolution. How big is your screen ? Is it full HD ? This card will run most games on medium settings, and some more carnivorus games at a bit lower settings. You wont be able to max out Crysis for sure, but for that price range you wont find a really better card for gaming. In the case that, in the future, you find yourself more into gaming than you expected, there is alway's the option to buy better graphics card from time to time and to upgrade your system. Since your not really in DIYs, I'd say this computer is a pretty good bang for your buck. Talking about the wireless adapter that youre interested in, it is indeed a really good one, from a trusty brand. The only thing I could say is that you can find cheaper ones in stores ( bought one for friends for 17$ in a small clearance store near were I live). So you do as you wish, but again, you should have no problem wathsoever with this adapter from linksys ! If you want more informations, explanations or if you have other questions that remain unanswered, feel free to ask !

You aren't going to find anything better at that budget, but that is barely a gaming computer; you'd be much better served waiting until you can manage a bit more for your budget. Another $200 will make a huge difference in the quality of games you will be able to run, and how long the system will last you.

@Kidavenger Agreed !

well that means your resolution is likely to be 1920x1080, wich is full hd 1080p. You wont be able to run games at that resolution with decent fps, but you'll be able to run them at 1360x768, at medium settings with AA off, so you'll get a decent gaming experience ! I just want to warn that you'll have less and less chances to run new games as they come out, but you're surely aware of that, since it is the fate of every pc build ;)

You've been around here for a while, so I'm sure you know about Tested. The forum users there were helpful when I was in the market and the Will & Norm PC-building videos gave me a little more confidence before I assembled mine. It's really not hard to build. Everything has been made standardized and simplified. It's still very unnerving during the process though. The worst part was the CPU fan, but once I got past that it was a breeze.

Should be fine for most games. 
 
You wont be able to max high end games out like the witcher 2 but you should be able to play allot of the newer games at high settings on 1280x720 and even some at 1080p.
 
My pc is a few years old now and I am getting ready to build a new one at the end of the year. 
 
My current PC i built a couple of years ago still plays most games on max settings at 1080p, some games i have to either go down to 1360x768 or 720p and games like the witcher 2 i have to tone down several settings to get a good frame rate. 
 
Intel quad core at 3gGHz 
2x 8800GT OC 
4GB gskill DDR3, recent upgrade as my mobo died so i went from ddr2 to ddr3. 
asus mobo P5QL,  
2x 500gb seagate barracuda 
 coolermaster haf 
hiper type r psu
My high end mobo died and i had to replace it with a cheaper on as i was short on cash but it allowed me to upgrade to ddr3, i built  the intial desktop 2-3 years ago and it has served me well and did not cost very much, the gpu was £180 at launch but i got a 2nd one for £80, i forget what i paid for the cpu but i recently bought a new chassis and I love the coolermaster HAF, I shall be keeping it for my next build later this year. 
  
i have recently been playing deus ex on max at 1080p getting between 45-60fps, mass effect 2 maxed out at 1080p getting 40fps, dirt 3 mainly maxed getting 60fps i turn 1-2 things down to get 60fps, the only games i really have to turn down is crysis to high but that game is not very well optimized, I get better performance from crysis warhead and crysis 2 on high, the withcer I have to tone down and numerous settings but mainly high getting 30fps. 
 
So i would assume you should do ok as the set up is not a million miles away from mine, quad core with 4gb of ram, 1gb gpu memory so do you well if your not looking to run everything at max on very high resolution, and $500 seems like a good price.

 it's convinced me to up my budget from $500 to $1k and to build it myself.

Build:

Accessories

Maybe you'll want to consider a more gaming-oriented mouse ? Take a look at the Gigabyte M6800, its 17$ ;) I went with crosair for the memory but G-Skill has good reviews too so go for it ! I'm dont really know Rosewill, but I know it's cheap and I suspect that it is owned by newegg. I bought an external Dvd burner for my girlfriend and never had problems. I think it should be good. For the keyboard, my only advice would be to continue looking around, there are lots of cheap keyboards out there, each one with it's own pluses and flaws. Last thing I would add is that you might want to consider the Radeon HD 6950 from XFX since it offers (double, I think) lifetime warranty and has a 30$ mail-in rebate. Also, yo could look on the Nvidia's side and explore all the possibilities. Even if it's less cheap (30-40$ more if I'm right), it offers good value. For equal performance than the 6950, you should take a look at the Gtx 560 ti, or eben the 570 if you wanna spend the extra. The Gtx 580 is the best, but the high cost makes it less accessible. Good luck !

So. Are you happy with your new build ?

Mine is awesome !

@aveonx said:

So. Are you happy with your new build ?

Mine is awesome !

I'm very happy with it. I made a couple of final modifications to my parts:

I'm not perfectly satisfied with the keyboard I ended up getting (a Microsoft Chiclet keyboard), but I'm happy with how everything turned out. It took me 7.5 hours to build the PC (because I deliberately took my time and read every single document that came with my components), but it booted on my first try and that was awesome. Nice experience overall.

AMD is set to possibly release their 35nm "Bulldozer" CPU (with no integrated graphics) next month (Q4,2011 officially), they will cost around 200 bucks and compete with core i7.So it is a very exciting time and I wouldn't jump the gun on your purchase just yet.

Also an SSD will dramatically increase boot up and loading times. It's worth looking into, (These things increase random access times 100x fold).

If you decide to roll with an intel CPU, SSD caching is a nice solution if you don't want the hassle of having two drives, but this feature is only available on Z68 chipset mainboards, it also requires a small SSD to go along.