Heya folks, so I haven't had a desktop computer for about half a decade now, opting to go with a laptop for my college years and such, but now that I've finally graduated, and am making good money at a stable job, I've come to the realization that I need to get a desktop.

With more time on my hands now, I want to explore the world of PC gaming (which I can't do on this laptop's integrated graphics card), and be able to have a good higher-end PC that will last me a couple of years. (I've had my current laptop for a little over 2 years now, but it's always overheating which seems to cause it to slow down so heavily.) Game-wise, I mainly play Heroes of Newerth (runs on this laptop but the overheating causes the game to lag which makes it nearly unplayable) and I have recently purchased StarCraft II which I hope I can enjoy on this new rig on somewhat decent settings.

Anyway, so yeah, I'm looking to buy a computer online since I live in rural New Brunswick, Canada where there are hardly any electronic stores in the first place.

I'm looking to spend at max $2000 CAD.

Here's what I've initially picked out. Tell me if you think it's bad, alright, what not, etc. I appreciate it!

 (only talking about the computer)Well all in all not too bad deal. good side is it comes with the new windows 7, the Motherboard seems fairly decent and it can play games of the now at high with no sweat . But looking at the Processor Speed I'm guessing it's a low end I7 and a blind guess.... the ram is not high performance.

BTW you only payed 200 dollars more then my build but that because I don't have a legal version of windows 7.

I only use AMD for many personal reasons. but mine is a high end 4 core.

You'd probably save money building it on your own. That case is lame as hell too, do you need the inside illuminated with blue LEDs and a window to look in and say hi? I wouldn't want that thing in my apartment. Go for something a little less "gamer-chic"(gaudy as hell) like a windowless Lian-li case. You should probably stay away from liquid cooling if you don't plan on regularly overclocking your CPU really high because it's really not necessary at all and just another thing that can break. I'd also stay away from cheap no-name monitors; spend an extra 50-100 bucks for a Samsung or NEC, also check out Dell's monitors because they consistently get pretty good reviews.

If you're using it primarily for gaming stick with intel i7, a good upper-mid range gigabyte or asus motherboard, name-brand RAM like OCZ or Corsair, and a WD or Hitachi hard drive. The video card really depends on what you want to spend but I don't think you'll notice any difference between a high end Nvidia and ATI card.

You'd probably save money building it on your own. That case is lame as hell too, do you need the inside illuminated with blue LEDs and a window to look in and say hi? I wouldn't want that thing in my apartment. Go for something a little less "gamer-chic"(gaudy as hell) like a windowless Lian-li case. You should probably stay away from liquid cooling if you don't plan on regularly overclocking your CPU really high because it's really not necessary at all and just another thing that can break. I'd also stay away from cheap no-name monitors; spend an extra 50-100 bucks for a Samsung or NEC, also check out Dell's monitors because they consistently get pretty good reviews.

If you're using it primarily for gaming stick with intel i7, a good upper-mid range gigabyte or asus motherboard, name-brand RAM like OCZ or Corsair, and a WD or Hitachi hard drive. The video card really depends on what you want to spend but I don't think you'll notice any difference between a high end Nvidia and ATI card.

I heard about 3 or 4 months ago Nvidia had some problems with there new stuff (I know they probably fixed it also I can't really recall what it was) and right now his ATI card isn't really high end as there is now about 16 Ati card PCI X16 with 2 GB of Memory storage rangeing to 450 -580 dollars and 1  PCI X16 card with 4 GB for about 1000 dollars.   ​ (They may have more but this is what Newegg has up.) Maybe for last gen technology it was high end but now not so much.

Also found a computer with almost the same specification at newegg for about 200 dollars cheaper other then the PSU 600W and a lot mixed reviews about it too.

i am pretty sure intel is the one that is sort of the upend of the processor market right now... could be wrong though. I think on that front though is a good reason to go with intel unless AMD happens to be significantly cheaper or something.  Anyways, I dunno shit about desktops anymore.  The last time I used a desktop we had single core processors, and whatever didn't matter to me because I was pretty much stuck in the dark ages until I got my laptop anyways.

   
This is true when we are talking about a high end intel 4 core but I can get a high end AMD 4 core witch beats it's speed matches L2 catch with only 1 draw back and that's the L3 catch by 2 MB all for 140$ cheaper. I don't know about you other me... but AMD sounds like a better replacement for a low end intel 4 core.

You'd probably save money building it on your own. That case is lame as hell too, do you need the inside illuminated with blue LEDs and a window to look in and say hi? I wouldn't want that thing in my apartment. Go for something a little less "gamer-chic"(gaudy as hell) like a windowless Lian-li case. You should probably stay away from liquid cooling if you don't plan on regularly overclocking your CPU really high because it's really not necessary at all and just another thing that can break. I'd also stay away from cheap no-name monitors; spend an extra 50-100 bucks for a Samsung or NEC, also check out Dell's monitors because they consistently get pretty good reviews.

If you're using it primarily for gaming stick with intel i7, a good upper-mid range gigabyte or asus motherboard, name-brand RAM like OCZ or Corsair, and a WD or Hitachi hard drive. The video card really depends on what you want to spend but I don't think you'll notice any difference between a high end Nvidia and ATI card.

I've never built a pc before, but I am willing to give it a try if its not too hard to do. Of course, if I go that route I'd need help picking out the individual components (so if anyone wants to guide me in the right direction I'd really appreciate it).

I've never built a pc before, but I am willing to give it a try if its not too hard to do. Of course, if I go that route I'd need help picking out the individual components (so if anyone wants to guide me in the right direction I'd really appreciate it).

If you can go through pharmacy school, you can build a PC Mateui there's lots of step-by-step tutorials online with pictures and stuff.
Everything basically plugs in to where it's supposed to go, the biggest issue is on the software end(drivers and whatnot). In the end it's a bit more rewarding because you end up knowing a bit more about exactly what's inside the computer and how to troubleshoot it. You also end up with a completely clean install of windows without all the unnecessary crap that builders load on to computers so things generally run a whole heck of a lot smoother.

stick to the basics with reputable brands and parts that you can find a lot of feedback/reviews for. No need for water cooling, lights, and windows.

Ok, so I'm going to seriously consider just buying all the components and building my first PC. Sounds like fun actually. (And yeah, I hate the random preloaded programs on new commercial pcs.. so having control over that is very appealing). I'm going to go through the TigerDirect website and pick some components out and then post them here for your review to make sure they're all suitable/compatible, etc.

I really think the wiring part is a pain in the ass. to make things easier on you I would recommended a full case because it got a lot of room for errors.

Putting in the motherbored  is easy it's just take some diligence since you do not want to touch the board too much in fact try not to touch it at all or to a bare minimum. from there mostly everything snaps in or slides in to place. Also when putting in ram don't push to hard I heard some stories of people snapping there bored lol. Also don't skimp out on the Power supply. I heard cheep no name brands frying the system. 

When picking a processor witch is the first thing you should do when doing a build. is look at the socket number.

What do you think of me purchasing a barebone kit like the following:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6370888&Sku=B69-1221

and then adding in the rest of the components?

I tried going all custom components but it ended up going above $2000 pretty fast.. and I thought building it myself would save me money!

What do you think of me purchasing a barebone kit like the following:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6370888&Sku=B69-1221

and then adding in the rest of the components?

I tried going all custom components but it ended up going above $2000 pretty fast.. and I thought building it myself would save me money!

Not bad but the ram is a rip I could get 3 at new egg for 159.99$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227424&cm_re=OCZ-_-20-227-424-_-Product

Edit: Also it doesn't have GFX card. I would like to say New Egg has better deals on products.

Ok, so I took some time at work right now ( its a slow night) to put together a list of components. How does this look? (excuse the images.. only have paint on this computer.)





Ends up being slightly cheaper than $2000 which is what I want. Am I missing any crucial components? Should I switch certain items?

Without looking anything up to see if anything is compatible. Most Motherboards come with some decent on board sound cards so it can be 87.99 bucks less but to each there own.

Without looking anything up to see if anything is compatible. Most Motherboards come with some decent on board sound cards so it can be 87.99 bucks less but to each there own.

Oh, ok. Well yeah, then there's no need to get another soundcard then. I'm all for cutting corners. Is there any site where I can check compatibility between all these parts?

Oh, ok. Well yeah, then there's no need to get another soundcard then. I'm all for cutting corners. Is there any site where I can check compatibility between all these parts?

Really I need to look up your ram (ram because I'm not sure that's the right port type I think yours takes DDR 3 and that's it) and power supply for the right connectors. Most motherboards of the now use 24 pin and then GFX card can use a few different pins

I just need to make sure everything works.

Yeah, looks like it supports DDR3 only.. and the memory I picked out looks to be DDR2. Gonna have to change that. Oops.

EDIT: So, I'll switch to something like this:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4837614&sku=C13-8220

That should work. I think.

Here's the direct link to the power supply for info about its connections:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276573&sku=ULT-LSP650

This has made me realize that I hardly know anything about computers. And here I thought DDR was just a dance game. lol. Anyway, hopefully this whole process will teach me more about computers. Thanks for the help everyone so far, and especially you DDay. <3

Everthing should work if you got your wattage usage right. I checked your GFX with power supply 6 pin it had and luckily it was 6 pin.

Mine GFX card was an 12 pin lol witch would look like this 2 x 6 Pin Techbicly it's just 2-6 pins


Edit:Warning Just thought about the case you have 5-4 pin's 3 will go to on board fans and 1 to the CPU fan but I see you have 2 CD drives so can you deal without the other CD drive