I haven't even put this together because I want to build shelves for a while. But here it is (all prices in Canadian dollars):
Thermaltake Versa H21 case $67.63 (Amazon.ca)
Corsair CX 450M PSU $69.99 (Amazon.ca)
Crucial Ballistix 16GB 3200 MHz RAM $111.99 (Amazon.ca)
AsRock B560M-HDV motherboard $119.99 (Newegg.ca)
WD Blue 1TB SSD $129.99 (Newegg.ca)
Intel i5-11500 CPU $269.00 (Canadacomputers.com)
Asus DVD-RW $21.00 (ShopRBC)
Windows 10 OEM $134.94 (ShopRBC)
Thermalright AXP-90i heatsink $43.40 (Aliexpress, I think it was Cloudfanstore)
Total not counting shipping and tax without the OS is $832.99. The total counting the OS but still without shipping and tax is $967.93 CAD which is about $799.41 USD. (Note the Canadian dollar has fluctuated wildly lately.)
If I want to criticize this build I bought the Thermaltake H21 case thinking I wanted to experiment with another brand. I almost panicked when I saw you can't install a 120mm fan at the front but it's a mesh front so the machine should survive. (I bought an Antec GX 202 I want to use for a future Meteor Lake build in 2023 but I bought Coolermaster RGB fans for it.) I like the fact that the H21 still has space for an optical drive and has USB 3.0 and 2.0.
The PSU was bought before I even realized there was a small difference between the CX 450 and CX 450M. Had I known ahead of time, I would have bought the CX 450 but I know the CX 450M is superior to other cheaper choices.
I usually like to buy the Coolermaster Gemini S5 but it was out of stock when I was shopping. So I decided to try the Thermalright AXP-90i. The reviews were OK.
As for the RAM, I got really confused reading about the state of modern CPUs, motherboards and RAM. From the research I did, the RAM I bought might run at 2933MHz or maybe even 3200MHz but I'll see. (That would be with the B560 chipset but I wanted PCIe4.) But then there's the whole thing about Gear 1 and Gear 2. I guess I can get into that once I build the machine.
The AsRock B560M-HDV has a DVI and VGA port. I wanted to use this as a gaming machine then later use it in a couple of years to watch films/TV shows. So eventually even if I want to use my GTX 1050 Ti for a while (then maybe an RTX 3050 Ti) I want to take out the vid card eventually.
I got the i5-11500 partly because once I take out a video card I still want to be able to play the last version of Unreal Tournament with the onboard video as a backup for my main machine.
I got the OS on a disc even though later on I figured maybe it would have been a tiny bit more convenient to get the flash drive next time.
Overall the improvements over my current main machine: Win10 instead of Win8, a 6 core CPU instead of 4 core (i5-4570), 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB and a 2400MB/s SSD instead of 500MB/s SSD.
As for the power limit on the motherboard, I may not raise the power limits even if it limits gaming performance somewhat. I'd rather play it safe and also consume less power.
Thermaltake Versa H21 case $67.63 (Amazon.ca)
Corsair CX 450M PSU $69.99 (Amazon.ca)
Crucial Ballistix 16GB 3200 MHz RAM $111.99 (Amazon.ca)
AsRock B560M-HDV motherboard $119.99 (Newegg.ca)
WD Blue 1TB SSD $129.99 (Newegg.ca)
Intel i5-11500 CPU $269.00 (Canadacomputers.com)
Asus DVD-RW $21.00 (ShopRBC)
Windows 10 OEM $134.94 (ShopRBC)
Thermalright AXP-90i heatsink $43.40 (Aliexpress, I think it was Cloudfanstore)
Total not counting shipping and tax without the OS is $832.99. The total counting the OS but still without shipping and tax is $967.93 CAD which is about $799.41 USD. (Note the Canadian dollar has fluctuated wildly lately.)
If I want to criticize this build I bought the Thermaltake H21 case thinking I wanted to experiment with another brand. I almost panicked when I saw you can't install a 120mm fan at the front but it's a mesh front so the machine should survive. (I bought an Antec GX 202 I want to use for a future Meteor Lake build in 2023 but I bought Coolermaster RGB fans for it.) I like the fact that the H21 still has space for an optical drive and has USB 3.0 and 2.0.
The PSU was bought before I even realized there was a small difference between the CX 450 and CX 450M. Had I known ahead of time, I would have bought the CX 450 but I know the CX 450M is superior to other cheaper choices.
I usually like to buy the Coolermaster Gemini S5 but it was out of stock when I was shopping. So I decided to try the Thermalright AXP-90i. The reviews were OK.
As for the RAM, I got really confused reading about the state of modern CPUs, motherboards and RAM. From the research I did, the RAM I bought might run at 2933MHz or maybe even 3200MHz but I'll see. (That would be with the B560 chipset but I wanted PCIe4.) But then there's the whole thing about Gear 1 and Gear 2. I guess I can get into that once I build the machine.
The AsRock B560M-HDV has a DVI and VGA port. I wanted to use this as a gaming machine then later use it in a couple of years to watch films/TV shows. So eventually even if I want to use my GTX 1050 Ti for a while (then maybe an RTX 3050 Ti) I want to take out the vid card eventually.
I got the i5-11500 partly because once I take out a video card I still want to be able to play the last version of Unreal Tournament with the onboard video as a backup for my main machine.
I got the OS on a disc even though later on I figured maybe it would have been a tiny bit more convenient to get the flash drive next time.
Overall the improvements over my current main machine: Win10 instead of Win8, a 6 core CPU instead of 4 core (i5-4570), 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB and a 2400MB/s SSD instead of 500MB/s SSD.
As for the power limit on the motherboard, I may not raise the power limits even if it limits gaming performance somewhat. I'd rather play it safe and also consume less power.