I don't know nothing about constructing a PC and I'm not too confortable with specs. My PC can't run high-end game at more than 15fps anymore so I think it's time to shop for a new PC. I want a computer under a 1000$ if I can. I don't need a monitor, but I'll need the mouse and the keyboard. I live in Canada, so it would need to be shippable there.

I searched from manufacturer and I think that thing (http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dax51_f_2e&model_id=alienware-x51&c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1) is probably the best thing I can get.

I know that I'll get a better one if I make it myself. I just don't know where to get the parts (is newegg.ca an ok place ?) and I don't know where to start.

Any help would be great ! Thanks !

I built a pretty okay PC last year at about ~$500. It plays Battlefield 3 and Far Cry 3 on not-maximum settings, but it plays them seamlessly on medium. It's probably even cheaper than that now.

I'd definitely suggest to check out articles like this that go over really cheap but competent builds (I wouldn't follow this particular one since it's like more than a year old but I used it as guide when I built one last year)

Easily mate easily....

Use this website, it makes making a PC a breeze.

http://pcpartpicker.com/

Basically it will tell you as you are selecting parts which aren't compatible, and it will also tell you where you can get the parts the cheapest, also newegg is a good website, tigerdirect is also a great website, basically my advice is build your new computer around a good CPU socket that has a decent future(I like amd so I I'd go with AM3+ personally)

Not sure how good Newegg is in Canada, but it's great in the US. I heard NCIX is great in Canada.

Best bet is to obviously build one yourself. Just watch the Tested video where Will and Norm build Jeff's PC and you will have a good idea on what to do. Use PCPartPicker to choose your parts and then post your build here for people to fix/critique.

I built a PC a good deal better than the one you linked for significantly less money. Pre-built is for suckers, and building a PC is about the easiest thing ever.

Fixed.

I don't have any good device that differs from what others above me have said, but I will say this: take your time building it. It was one of the most zen-like activities I have ever involved myself in, and I was bummed when it was all over (too soon).

my bro made a pc that was somewhere between great and amazing for about $750 I think

Whatever you do don't buy one from Dell or any of the other big OEMs. They will almost always have terrible parts for an inflated price. The only exception is if you can get a ridiculous discount through work or something. Newegg is a good online source. Since you put .ca I'll assume you're in Canada, in which case I'd recommend looking at Canada Computers if you are in Ontario or Quebec. They tend to have similar prices to Newegg but you can save the shipping costs by picking your parts up in store. They also have pretty good sales every weekend, so if you can wait a few months and piece this thing together you could probably save a bunch.

I'd say start by looking at a Core i5 3570k and either an Nvidia GTX 660 or an ATI 6850 or 6870. Get a 600-750w 80 Plus Bronze power supply, a decent $100ish motherboard, and a 1TB storage drive (probably a Seagate Barracuda). For a case I'd suggest looking at the Fractal Design R4 or the NZXT Phantom 410. That should put you around $1000 taxes included and get you really good performance. If you have some money left over go for a 128GB or 256GB SSD to use as a boot drive, or a better graphics card. You can of course change a lot of this stuff, but I think that's a good list of stuff to start with and then you can tweak to suit your preferences.

look at these guides there awesome the mid range system would work great but I would reccomend an nvdia card though http://www.pcper.com/hwlb

and prob 8gb of ram instead of 4gb but it would be a beast the 3570k is amazing and as long as you play at 1080p or less with that range of gfx card you should be able to max out almost all games

Was bored... specced out a rig >$1000 USD. Check out the Canadian prices on these parts and see if they still fall into your budget.

PCPartPicker part list

Price breakdown by merchant:http://pcpartpicker.com/p/T5qX/by_merchant/

Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/T5qX/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($94.99 @ Amazon)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.98 @ Outlet PC)

Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($299.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($65.49 @ Newegg)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($93.98 @ Outlet PC)

Total: $925.40

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-25 22:42 EDT-0400)

since your in canada, check out memoryexpress.com.

if you buy all your parts from them. they will assemble it for free.

my friend ordered his whole computer from them and they assembled it and packaged it in the Computer case box, and shipped that and all the other empty boxes.

I've bought a motherboard, ram and processor combo. and they assembled that so i only had to put it in the case and attach the graphics card.

Yeah, it's easy as other people have pointed out. And everything is plug n' play nowadays so you really don't need to know anything to DIY a PC.

@andorski thats awesome! lets not forget an SSD though. after building 3 computers with one i couldn't imagine one without it.

@6n00bkilla9: WIth OP's budget I decided to just go with an HDD. Going SSD would force me to go down a tier on the GPU, which is way more important for a gaming rig.

@andorski you have $75 left which almost gets you a 128 gb samsung ssd which is completly worth the money. plus i don't think you can get a 189 microcenter 3570k in canda

@6n00bkilla9: The discrepancy between US and Canada PC part prices is why I gave a little buffer on the budget, just in case Canadian prices are higher. If there is extra room in the budget the next upgrade should definitely be an SSD.

I never quite got this line of thinking. I have no SSD yet my load times are pretty damn quick; the few seconds I would shave off of those times really isn't worth the value difference.

On topic, the total amount of money in my computer right now is about $900 or so. It isn't running things with all the fancy stuff up at a constant 60 frames and 1080p, but it's pretty good.

@believer258 ist not just about loading games i don;t reaaly put my games on my ssd only skyrim its for general computing which is so much faster! it just makes your computer in general fly. also teh shutdown and boot times are like 6 secs. I just put an ssd into a 2006 computer and now its as fast at generalized computer as my 6 core new computer with an ssd. they make a HUGE difference and I wouldn't advise anyone to build a computer without one esspelly because of how crazy cheap they are.

Very possible, I would go futher and say you can have entry level for less than 500 nowadays.

AMD APUs are pretty good. Or a Phenom with a discreet vid card still works pretty OK.

@andorski: Thank you man that's awesome. I'll look it up, maybe change a few things but that's super helpful. Is there a reason why you go to Radeon over a Geforce. Also, do you recommend windows 8 over 7, or you just took that one by default ?

Thanks everybody.

@fear_the_booboo: AMD tends to be cheaper than nvidia, but does just fine. Windows 8 or 7 is fine, people like 7's interface more than 8s. Built my computer for 1000 and it runs crysis3 on highest settings with pretty high antiailiasing.

@fear_the_booboo: I went with AMD because the 7950 has similar performance to the nVidia counterpart (GTX 670) at a signficantly cheaper price. AMD also has the Never Settle bundle going on right now in the US (not sure if they have that going on in Canada too), so buying an AMD card gets you some free games. I initially tried to make the build with the GTX 670 since nVidia cards tend to have less driver problems and is better suited for multi-GPU setup upgrades down the road, but the price increase on that card made me go overbudget. If you price out your build and see that you have $50USD more to spend, then I would go with the GTX 670.

I went with Windows 8 because its a better OS than 7. If you don't like the Metro Start Screen, then download Classic Shell so you get all the upgrades of Windows 8 but with the interface of Windows 7.

Actually you just made it a cluster-fuck, but thanks anyway.

Hey, questions again, I don't know anything and I just want to make sure.

I'll go for the build that @andorski made, using a geforce GTX 670 instead of the ATI card.

I just wanna make sure, in the compatibility notes I get that problem : "ASRock Z77 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard has an onboard USB 3.0 header, but the Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case does not have front panel USB 3.0 ports." Is that a real problem ? Or is it just that I won't be able to use USB 3.0 and I should not really care.

Also, I just have a regular hdmi cord for my monitor. Will it work fine ? Also, no cooler ? No optical drive ? Are those necessary ?

I know. Stupid questions, but still, I don't want to put 1000+$ for something that won't work.

Thanks.

@fear_the_booboo: Since the case I recommended does not have USB 3.0, you will just connect the USB 2.0 that the case has to the motherboard. If you plan on transferring large files frequently, then plug your USB drive/external HDD to one of the back USB 3.0 inputs. USB 2.0 is perfectly fine though. You can plug in your smartphone, keyboard, mice, etc. to USB 2.0 and it will work just as intended. USB 3.0's benefit comes from file transfer speeds.

All CPU's need a cooler, but all intel CPU's come with a stock cooler. You won't be overclocking with a stock cooler, but it works perfectly for CPU's being run at stock speeds. I've even heard people doing extremely modest overclocking with stock coolers, but I neither have tried it nor would recommend it.

Having a DVD drive is unnecessary for some while essential for others. I personally have not used by DVD drive on my current rig at all, other than the time I used it to install WIndows. WIndows installation can be done with a USB stick though (just go online with another computer and make an USB installation drive from Microsoft's website), so even in that situation is a DVD drive not necessary. Just ask yourself the last time you used your current PC's DVD drive and you will figure out if you need one at all.

Lastly, if you are going with the GTX 670, I would recommend spending a few bucks more than it's reference card's MSRP and get the EVGA GTX 670. It uses the GTX 680's PCB and is on average just ~5% slower than the GTX 680.

@andorski: Thanks again, you're the best.

Entirely possible, the computer I'm currently on cost $800-$900 and it can almost all modern games on their highest settings, you just have to remember the video card is the absolutely most important part if your using it as a mainly gaming PC, don't cheap out on it.

OP, it's possible to have a great PC with $500

Check it and wreck it, duder! A <$467 dollar PC from June 2012.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/df-hardware-introducing-the-digital-foundry-pc

This should be taken as a guide, and 6 months is a long time in PC terms and you could definitely upgrade some of the stuff in it. Notably the CPU (get a good Intel Ivy Bridge i5) and a GPU (the Nvidia GTX 650 Ti Boost is excellent value for money).

G'luck, dude!

@fear_the_booboo:

It is VERY easy to get a good gaming-PC for way under $1000.

I came up with a build that will cost me about 591 dollars and I'll defiantly be able to keep a steady FPS in newer games. I remember about the time the original Crysis was a big comparison game, someone managed to make a $400 build that got 60FPS.

~$500 is the minimum investment for a PC capable of playing games. Depending on how much you love antialiasing, you might consider some games not worth playing on that sort of hardware budget.

http://www.tested.com/tech/pcs/454052-small-quiet-fast-building-modern-gaming-pc/

This is a pretty cool rig. The one they built is 2000, but they offer a really nice alternative for about 1000.

bro, I have a laptop i payed 599 for and I play all the games at mid to high settings. if you are willing to spend upto 1000$, you will be fine, in my opinion, people who change out their cards every year are not right in the head bc they are usually the ones to buy the mid to high tier cards and there are no games that constantly push graphics cards in today's world.

Don't know if anyone's mentioned this site yet, but it's a great starting point.

very very nice. I never heard of this before.

Fixed 4chan.org/g version.

That Dellianware computer you picked out has a gimped version of that CPU. The GPU is also pretty weak and would only be good for lighter gaming like league of legends. It doesn't look very upgradable and the power supply is very weak. Be careful when a computer is advertised for gaming. It have some exciting sounding CPU name and a cool looking case, but they skimp on the GPU making it bad for games. Looking through neweggs desktops I saw a "gamer ultra" with a GPU that would struggle on Half Life 2.

edit: Does this count as a necro? Darn forums move so slowly.