Looking for build suggestions

McRackin

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
284
Hi all - I'm looking for some build suggestions... I haven't built a computer in over 10 years. The laptop I am using is from university - over 8 years ago! Any help is greatly appreciated as I've been out of the game for some time.

Anyways, I've got a budget of about $2,000 CAD and I'm from the Edmonton area so preferably would like to use Memory Express (https://www.memoryexpress.com/) to purchase. I don't need any monitors, and I'll be running dual boot Windows & Ubuntu on it. I'm looking for good gaming performance but other than that everything is up in the air.

Cheers!
Matt
 
Hi all - I'm looking for some build suggestions... I haven't built a computer in over 10 years. The laptop I am using is from university - over 8 years ago! Any help is greatly appreciated as I've been out of the game for some time.

Anyways, I've got a budget of about $2,000 CAD and I'm from the Edmonton area so preferably would like to use Memory Express (https://www.memoryexpress.com/) to purchase. I don't need any monitors, and I'll be running dual boot Windows & Ubuntu on it. I'm looking for good gaming performance but other than that everything is up in the air.

Cheers!
Matt
use memex's system configurator, get a 3700/3800, its pretty slim pickins right now. getting a gpu might be tough though, might need to go amazon or a used card off kijiji.
 
5800x in stock at amd.com msrp, been available for a couple days now.
 
Yes welcome to the world of everyone scalping. I would suggest looking at HP.com or one of the big vendors if available for shipping to Canada, for example the omen 25L as it can be configured with a 3070 or 3080 rtx and can be equipped with a decedent processor for moderate pricing above msrp. Otherwise if looking for components it will be a struggle from online retailers to find the parts in stock.
 
It's really just video cards that are a problem. You pretty much have to catch them in stock or camp in front of a retailer on delivery day unless you want to pay a scalper.

Some AMD CPUs are hard to get. 5900X and 5950X are kinda rough, but probably not going into a 2000CAD build. 5600X and 5800X have been getting more common lately though. My local Microcenter has had plenty in stock for the last several days. Looks like MemoryExpress is out of the 5600X but does have the 5800X. Even if you couldn't get any of those AMD chips supplies of Intel chips have been fine the whole time and Zen3 (AMD 5xxx) is only a wee bit faster than Comet Lake (Intel 10xxx) in games.

Given that you're on a $2000 CAD or so budget you should consider Intel anyway. They've been doing some price cuts lately, and almost as quick for less $ leaves more for the much more important vid card and everything else. i7-10700k $439 vs Ryzen 7 5800X $639 or i5-10600k $289 vs Ryzen 5 5600X $429 (but out of stock)... it's hard to recommend the AMD procs at those prices when they are only a little faster in games. The i5-10600k will run current games almost as well as the others. I'm not much of a fan of "future proofing", but one notch up seems reasonable. In other words maybe get an 8 core instead of a 6 core... but don't skimp on the vid card to do it.

Personally I'd get your hands on a vid card first unless you need the machine for something other than gaming. Then once you have the vid card order everything else. Before you order anything get a rough build plan in place so you know how much you can spend on each part. Leave a little slop in the budget for swapping out parts. The specific mainboard, case, PSU, ram, etc. you picked out might go OOS but you can generally find a substitute for anything other than a vid card without much trouble unless you're hung up on a particular case.

Now a few questions:
OC or no? If overclocking, how seriously? Like hit the auto OC button? Full custom loop and tweak everything?
What kind of games do you want to play?
Monitor specs? Particularly resolution and refresh rate. Any interest in upgrading?
What else are you going to do with it other than game?
What do you need for storage?
Any additional requirements? USB-C, WiFi, etc.?
If you want case suggestions... want a built-in optical drive?
 
Back
Top