Hi,

I've never built my own pc before and am hoping for some advice...

I use my computer mainly for work, and media, editing, DVDs ETc. And am not a hardcore gamer, but wouldn't mind building something that is adaqute to play some games..

So far I have two Viewsonic 2235 Widescreen displays.

But could use advice for all other parts....

My budget is around 1200$ give or take a couple hundred...
Thanks for your help!!!!

What is your budget? Need that to start. Give a dollar amount and be sure to say it's in Canadian dollars. Likely you'll get a lot prices that would be converted to Canadian from US and I believe prices are generally higher up there.

generally? an 8800GTX costs 569.99 in the US, up here in Canada it costs 669.99; a full one hundred dollar difference. some stuff like processors are even more expensive, too bad newegg doesn't ship to us;i guess they cant get to the igloos

l8er

After taxes & shipping, it'll be over $1200 CAD. The only areas you can skimp on are cpu & video. i.e. e6300 & X1650PRO or 7600GT. I don't know what kinds of games you would play & whether you'll overclock.

I have found that Canada Computers generally has the lowest prices online in Canada.

Actually, Direct Canada beats them on most items except RAM.

Rookie7, if you live OUTSIDE of B.C., then look at Direct Canada. They're based out of B.C so you'll only need to pay GST, not PST. Add the fact that they're generally better pricing than anyone in Canada, and you'll save yourself quite a bit of money. PLUS, with orders over $300 you get free shipping. That's a helluva deal.

Akhilles list is very good. I would go with the 6300 though. And order from Direct Canada, and you'll hit your budget no problem.


And NO I don't work for them. I've used NCIX, Direct Canada, Canada Computers, and TigerDirect. They just have the best prices, plus no PST for us Ontarians, and free shipping. Can't beat that.

Much thanks for the info about Direct Canada Skyguy, some of the prices for my upcoming build are cheaper there, and no PST will definatly make a huge difference. Mind you I would need to wait for a couple more days for shipping. And I'm still going to have to drive to Toronto to Canada Computers to get stuff I can't order online though. (the little hick town I live in has nothing)

Anyone know any cheap Quebec stores that we can get away without PST?

I've checked some Quebec stores, but nothing that's really cheap that I can find.

Canada Computers has other outlets, you don't necessary need to head downtown to T-Dot. You're in Central Ontario......how Hicktown? You coming from Gravenhurst or something worse? LOL

I'm coming from Kawartha Lakes, the closest Canada Computers to me is the one in Richmond Hill, but I like the one on Yonge St between Finch & Steeles.

Do you know any good stores in TO that sell a lot of OEM parts over the counter, kinda like Memory Express in Calgary, no displays or anything, just ask for what you want over the counter. one problem with Canada Computers is a lot of stuff is retail.

PS. It's pretty hick here, when I built this PC last year I broke the stock hsf clip for a P4 and went to the local PC shops to try to get one. Not one shop in my town could supply me with any type of P4 hsf, even though they apparantly build custom Intel PC's, LOL. Even had trouble finding a standard 3.5" floppy drive, had to go to many shops before I found one.

I've got a Futureshop about 1/2 hour away, but they suck too, not much selection and way too expensive.

OUCH. Yeah, your best bet is probably stopping into Toronto and getting everything you need there. Dunno about OEM places......Canada Computers does well for some things. Their RAM prices are good right now.

You should check out Logic Computer House. They are very good - I have been dealing with them for years. Selection not quite as good as Tigerdirect, but on the same items, Logic tends to have better prices. You don't actually need to go into Toronto toi get to the stores. Most of these guys are actually located in Markaham judst north of Hwy 7. near Woodbine.

Nice

Never heard of them before, good selection, good prices, cash discount. How I've never seen it before is beyond me since I drive within a block of that location at least once a week. The Canada Computers location I mentioned is only 10 minutes down Steeles as well. Convenience may turn out to be a more important factor to me than price in the end.

To the OP, sorry I've hijacked your thread. Back to your original post, you said you don't do anything special with the PC, are you sure you wouldn't be happer with an MDG OEM PC? They do make some nice cheap mid-range PC's.

I don't want this to sound bad or anything, but I think it's a bad idea to build your own PC unless you are an enthusiast and like to tinker with things. If you want to put it together and forget about it, OEM is the way to go.

That's true, if you're looking for a no-fuss midrange system, MDG has some great deals on their systems right now if you get one with Windows XP on it. They're clearing those out for ones with Vista.

And the Logic Computers....I'll take a look at them too. Thx.

Thanks for the suggestions...

I've heard of NCIX, but not of DirectCanada, bonus that you don't have to pay PST and free shipping over 300! There's a site called PriceCanada.com, that i found today that compares all prices from all Canadian dealers such as NCIX and canadacomputers etc... good for pricematching...

I'm really excited about putting this thing together, even though it's my first time, there's alot of info on this site that I've taken in today.....

I've taken your suggestions into account and here's what I have in mind right now, I won't be overclocking...

Case: Antec P180b (I want a really quiet PC and like the looks of this case)
PSU: Enermax or Seasonic 500W
CPU: Intel E6300 or 6400
Motherboard: Not sure yet
Videocard: ??
HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB
RAM: ??
LG GSA-H22N DVD+RW 18X8X16 DVD-RW 18X6X16 Dual Layer 8X DVD-RAM 12X DVD Writer 2MB Black OEM W/ SW
Windows Vista Home

I won't be building this till at least march, Should I wait to buy the parts or do prices generally stay the same?

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Socket 775 Intel 965 Express

or if you want to futureproof a bit you can go with a 680i based motherboard.

RAM:
OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 2GB (2x1024MB) Platinum Revision 2 XTC Dual Channel Kit

Since you aren't building right away you might want to wait for the 8600 to be released, so you will be DX10 capable. Otherwise a 7600 or 7900, depends how much performance you want here.

Vista Premium is a better value than Vista Basic, Doesn't cost much more and you get most of the nice features.

Just FYI, NCIX and Directcanada.com are one and the same, that's why generally their stuff will be priced the same, or directcanada slightly lower as it's direct from the warehouse.

Don't every buy from tigerdirect, they are terrible and their prices generally are way - and I mean WAY - higher than they should be.

Your best bet is to check NCIX on sale days - Wednesdays at around 5pm - their sale prices are good, otherwise, directcanada has the best prices and sometimes canadacomputers will come close on certain items (like Motherboards, for example)

Good specs there. The OCZ Platinum will work great, and the DS3 mobo too. Both of those will let you overclock very well, even if you're not into that right now.......you have the option later.

If you're totally set on NEVER overclocking, then get the 6400, along with the cheapest DDR2-667 RAM and motherboard you can find. In which case, then just go with Value RAM and a 945 chipset mobo or any other cheap one.

However, with the prices here in Canuckland the way they are, you might as well spend the extra $60 and get the OCZ RAM and the Gigabyte mobo. But get the Gigabyte 965P-S3......it's cheaper than the DS3 and it's the SAME board, but without solid-state capacitors. That'll save you a bit of money there and you'll still have a system that'll kick A$$.

Graphics card depends entirely on your budget and how badA$$ you want your gaming. Figure out how much you have left to spend and we can suggest a card for you.

mythos wrote:

Well, that is not necessarily true. And dubious advice.

I've dealt with TigerDirect and found them to be fairly reasonable. As far as pricing goes, I'd say they are generally in the middle of the ball-park. Some of their prices are unreasonable, but some are very good. So what? I don't have to buy any particular product from TigerDirect if I can get it somewhere else for less.

Mind you, TigerDirect has a very wide range of products, some of which are hard to find elsewhere. And if they, or any other source, are the only ones carrying a particular item that you need or want, price becomes, at best, a secondary issue. Newegg and the other US online stores don't ship to Canada. And after currency exchange, taxes and duties are factored in, the "amazing" prices on Newegg et al aren't so great. This before we factor in price differences due to market size differences.

Re your choice of Vista: NO NO NO.

If you can still get it, buy a copy of XP Pro.

Vista is already showing teething troubles, and it is historically known to be a good idea to wait untill the first service pack is released before diving in to a new MS OS.

Both ATI and nVidea video drivers for Vista are problematic. Vista doesn't properly support OpenGL, which is a problem for any number of popular games. The built-in DRM code has been shown to trash the performance of sound systems.

The advice is not dubious in the least. I've been following prices for over a year, and Tigerdirect is virtually always significantly more expensive than places such as ncix/directcanada, or smaller stores such as Anitec.

In fact, lets do a little comparison of top sellers right now.

Seagate 320GB

Tigerdirect: 113 after $20 mail-in rebate
NCIX: 107
Directacanada.com: 99
Anitec: 99

EVGA 680SLi

Tigerdirect: 333
NCIX: 289
Directacanada.com: 292
Anitec: 296

E6600

Tigerdirect: 439
NCIX: 380
Directacanada.com: 373
Anitec: 386

Need I go on? These were just random samples, and aren't even the most egregious examples.

If you want to throw away your money, by all means, shop at tigerdirect. I challenge you though to come up with a single (non-marginal) product that I can't find significantly cheaper elsewhere (in Canada) in under 5 minutes.

As for VISTA - if you need to buy an OS right now, go buy XP MCE with the Vista upgrade coupon. Yes, it's a small pain in the rear, and they will charge (er, EXTORT) $28 from you for a supposedly free upgrade, but at least you will get the best of both worlds. Use XP (which is a good OS, and stable, and the media centre is quite good also) until Vista is ironed out and then simply install VISTA when you feel it's ready.