Recommended Posts

Hey,

I'm looking to buy a new computer. I need a gaming computer, but I don't have a lot of money at the moment (around $650). So, I need somewhere that had some decent deals on gaming computers. I've looked at newegg.ca, Future shop, Best buy, Staples, but was wondering if anyone knew anywhere else to check out.

The site does need to ship to Canada though.

I'm of course not looking for anything top of the line. Just something that will play games like Star Trek Online, Sims 4, Diablo III.

I don't have anymore keys for Windows, so I kinda prefer something pre-built, though I'm not against building it myself.

Thanks for any help!

Google "Best priced computer parts in <your_city>" and get passed the first few obvious crap results of stores claiming to be "the best". Find a forum where everyone in your area has already discussed it and you'll get your consensus.

 

Go to said store/website, purchase parts, build computer.

 

My recommendation is to get an AMD R7 card, nice and affordable and has zero issues running those games you mentioned at max everything.

Hey,

I'm looking to buy a new computer. I need a gaming computer, but I don't have a lot of money at the moment (around $650). So, I need somewhere that had some decent deals on gaming computers. I've looked at newegg.ca, Future shop, Best buy, Staples, but was wondering if anyone knew anywhere else to check out.

The site does need to ship to Canada though.

I'm of course not looking for anything top of the line. Just something that will play games like Star Trek Online, Sims 4, Diablo III.

I don't have anymore keys for Windows, so I kinda prefer something pre-built, though I'm not against building it myself.

Thanks for any help!

 

 

What parts do you already have?   A monitor?  A case maybe or some other parts? do you need new keyboard or mouse?  do you want to keep using your hard drive or do you need a new one?

etc...

 

 

i like this site for canada

 

ncix.com

 

but $650 is probably bare minimum...

I would suggest building your own.

 

I've thought of that..But wasn't sure it would be much cheaper

 

Google "Best priced computer parts in <your_city>" and get passed the first few obvious crap results of stores claiming to be "the best". Find a forum where everyone in your area has already discussed it and you'll get your consensus.

 

Go to said store/website, purchase parts, build computer.

 

My recommendation is to get an AMD R7 card, nice and affordable and has zero issues running those games you mentioned at max everything.

I live in a small city, so there is nothing in terms of computer stores here, besides Staples..

But that's a good idea, thanks :) And I'll keep that recommendation in mind

 

 

What parts do you already have?   A monitor?  A case maybe or some other parts? do you need new keyboard or mouse?  do you want to keep using your hard drive or do you need a new one?

etc...

 

 

i like this site for canada

 

ncix.com

 

but $650 is probably bare minimum...

I have a dvd-rom, hard drive, case, keyboard, mouse, monitor. And thanks for that site, I'll check it out :) And I know it is..Just need something to last another two years or so..Even if barely.

Alright, looks like we will be building one, it's more fun to make your own lol

Anyways, was wondering if anyone could take a quick look at these, and tell us if we're doing it right? (Computer is for the wife)

 

3x - Bitfenix Spectre LED 120mm Fan, Blue http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX38324

2x - HyperX FURY Blue 4GB DDR3-1333MHz CL9 DIMM http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX51488

1x - Cooler Master CM Storm Scout 2 Gaming Case, Gunmetal Grey http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX43722

1x - GeForce GT 440 1GB GDDR3 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, mini-HDMI http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX32320

1x - Core? i5-4440 Processor w/ Asus B85-PLUS Motherboard Bundle http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/BDL_4440_B85PLUS

1x - Wireless N 300 PCI Express Desktop Adapter Card http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX43261

1x - Antec Basiq VP-450 450W Power Supply http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34935

 

Notes: We aren't sure on power supply..Is 450W enough?

We already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, dvd-rom, hard drive

Why choose a 440? That's like old, dude.

 

And with the PSU, just get a 650W, can live a long time.

  • Like 3

Try looking at tigerdirect.com, at the bare bones kits.

 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=31&srkey=bare%20bones

Get the must have parts first -- you can always add more goodies later. ;)

  • Like 2

Why choose a 440? That's like old, dude.

 

And with the PSU, just get a 650W, can live a long time.

 

At least get the GT 640!  even money wise, you should be able to get a decent deal.

 

seriously.   440 is ancient tech.  gt 640 is not new either, but it is at least something. gt 440 is just out of date by too much of a margin, to make it a worth while purchase at ANY price!

in all honesty if you're building an even half decent gaming rig there's no reason to get less than a GTX740ti or GTX750ti. the gtx750ti for around $130 in most places

 

besides yes also switching the PSU for at least 650W everything else looks good

  • Like 3

Why choose a 440? That's like old, dude.

 

And with the PSU, just get a 650W, can live a long time.

I use to keep up with hardware, but not so much anymore..Didn't know the card was that old..lol

And I kinda figured the Power Supply was a little low..But hoped wouldn't be too much

 

Try looking at tigerdirect.com, at the bare bones kits.

Get the must have parts first -- you can always add more goodies later. ;)

I'll take a look there, thanks :) And ya, I thought of that too..That's why not upgrading the hard drive at the moment lol Can upgrade that after..Might only get 4 gigs of ram, and upgrade that after too

 

At least get the GT 640!  even money wise, you should be able to get a decent deal.

 

seriously.   440 is ancient tech.  gt 640 is not new either, but it is at least something. gt 440 is just out of date by too much of a margin, to make it a worth while purchase at ANY price!

Read a 2014 review about the 440 that said it was good, so figured it was kinda newer..But guess not..I'll take a look at the 640, thanks!

 

in all honesty if you're building an even half decent gaming rig there's no reason to get less than a GTX740ti or GTX750ti. the gtx750ti for around $130 in most places

 

besides yes also switching the PSU for at least 650W everything else looks good

I'll take a look at those, thanks :) Haven't kept up with video cards, so many names and numbers to remember, that it gets confusing if you're not on top of it..lol

And had been hoping to save a few bucks, which was why we were hoping the 450W would work, guess not lol

 

Thank you all for the help so far :)

Use NCIX, if you see a better deal somewhere else, they can price check that.

Didn't know they price checked, thanks, I'll be keeping that in mind!

I picked MemoryExpress since shopped there before, and they had the bundles on CPU/Motherboard (I had to make sure that they were compatible). Planned on shopping around once we had the specs down to see who had the best deals.

like others said build it yourself & newegg.ca is good

I do like newegg, seen some great deals there :)

If you want a good gaming PC on a budget, try and keep a price ratio of 2/3 between CPU/GPU. Those Nvidia x40 cards are useless unless you only play facebook games or enjoy very low FPS. If you're not planing to change the GPU in one year or so, I'd stick to that radio and get a cheaper CPU with a much more powerful GPU.

 

You can use this for reference for the best GPUs at various price points. Once you make up your mind, we can help with more precise advice.

If you want a good gaming PC on a budget, try and keep a price ratio of 2/3 between CPU/GPU. Those Nvidia x40 cards are useless unless you only play facebook games or enjoy very low FPS. If you're not planing to change the GPU in one year or so, I'd stick to that radio and get a cheaper CPU with a much more powerful GPU.

 

You can use this for reference for the best GPUs at various price points. Once you make up your mind, we can help with more precise advice.

Thanks for that tip! And for the site, I'll make sure to look it over :)

 

That's a nice site, thanks!

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Screamer is 50% off on Steam, making it £24.99 here in the UK: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2814990/Screamer/ You might remember the series from the mid 90s / early 2000s, this new game is also by Milestone who created the older games.
    • U.S. partially reverses Anthropic AI ban for Mythos but keeps Fable 5 off the market by Karthik Mudaliar Anthropic says that the U.S. government has finally allowed it to restore Claude Mythos 5. But of course, there's a catch. The rollout is again for a limited set of U.S. organizations that operate and defend critical infrastructure. The company announced this in a post on X (formerly Twitter). This does not mean that Anthropic's latest frontier models are back to normal availability. Fable 5, which was a tuned version of Mythos 5 for public release, remains unavailable. Anthropic said that it is still working with the government to expand Mythos 5 access and make Fable 5 available again, but there's no timeline. Reports from Bloomberg and Reuters say that this decision actually came through a letter from the U.S. Commerce Department. According to Reuters, this would allow more than 100 companies and institutions access to Mythos 5. Reuters also reported that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s letter removes the need for export licenses for approved companies’ non-US citizen employees, as well as Anthropic’s own non-US citizen employees, while restrictions remain for organizations outside the approved list. Anthropic isn't alone with this kind of controlled rollout. OpenAI's newest model family, GPT 5.6, was announced just yesterday, but isn't available for everyone yet. In its announcement, OpenAI also said that access to these models is initially limited to a select group of trusted partners and organizations, with broader access planned later this year. Both of these cases show that frontier AI launches are no longer just ordinary product releases and more like slow and vetted deployments shaped heavily by the U.S. government.
    • Sol, Terra, Luna - aren't those the names of failed crypto coins? 🤣🤣🤣
    • Microsoft Weekly: 5 years of Windows 11, more support for Windows 10, and expensive Xbox by Taras Buria This week's news recap is here, with Microsoft giving Windows 10 one more year of support, Windows 11 getting new taskbar settings in preview updates, Steam Machine prices, higher XBOX prices, and many more. Quick links: Windows 10 and 11 Windows Insider Program Updates are available Reviews are in Gaming news Great deals to check Windows 11 and Windows 10 Here, we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And, of course, you may find a word or two about older versions. On June 24, 2026, Windows 11 turned five. The controversial operating system was released half a decade ago, and during these years, it received a fair share of criticism (such as poor Windows Search and its web results), which Microsoft is now actively addressing with regular preview updates that deliver missing, long-requested features. With Windows 12 nowhere to be seen on the horizon, it will be interesting to see if Windows 11 can stay on the market for as long as Windows 10 did. Speaking of Windows 10 and staying on the market, this week, Microsoft quietly prolonged the Extended Security Updates program for Windows 10, allowing users to get one more year of security updates if they do not want or cannot upgrade to Windows 11. Finally, Microsoft released this month's non-security update for Windows 11. KB5095093 arrived with a traditionally long list of new features, including point-in-time restore, new Windows Update settings, quieter Windows Widgets, new accessibility features, File Explorer updates and performance improvements, and more. Windows Insider Program Here is what Microsoft released for Windows Insiders this week: Builds Canary Channel Build 29617.1000 and build 28120.2374 These builds bring new accessibility features, new Windows Update controls, audio improvements, and more. Dev Channel Build 26300.8758 This build includes redesigned taskbar settings, File Explorer improvements, and more. Beta Channel Build 26220.8754 and build 28020.2366 This small update fixes the OneDrive bug in File Explorer, tweaks system sounds in dark mode, and more. Updates are available This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties. If you use AI-powered browsing history search in Microsoft Edge, the company has bad news. A new update on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap revealed that Microsoft is discontinuing the feature. Despite using on-device models for natural search, some users found it creepy, claiming that Microsoft lacks trust in features like this. While the ability to find pages without using 100% precise words may sound cool, customers argued that it was nothing but another feature to bloat the browser with more AI. Good riddance? PowerToys received several updates this week. For one, Microsoft released version 0.100.1 with several improvements and bug fixes for the recently arrived version 0.100. A couple of days later, Microsoft dropped another update, this time fixing memory leaks in Command Palette Dock. In addition, the company is working on a new module that will make it easier to switch between windows within one application using the Alt + ` shortcut. The new module should make it to the stable release somewhere soon. Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting: New Ventoy update adds Windows 11's mandatory update support and more Microsoft updates Visual Studio Code with chat cost tracking and multi-agent chats Microsoft is building an AI datacenter that "uses less water than a fast food restaurant" Microsoft adds new AI study and teaching tools for free to Microsoft 365 Education Researchers claim Microsoft's quantum breakthrough is flawed by basic Python errors Microsoft is bringing a much-needed Recap app to Teams Microsoft's fast coding model, MAI-Code-1-Flash, comes to Copilot Business and Enterprise Here are the latest drivers and firmware updates released this week: AMD Radeon Software 26.6.2 with FSR 4.1 support for RDNA 3 graphics card. However, the driver contained a bug, which prevented installations on Windows 10 PCs. AMD fixed that with a quick hotfix update. Reviews are in Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week This week, Steven Parker published several reviews. He shared his experience with the Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe, a high-quality sound card with a headphone amp, low-latency communications, great build quality, and DSD256. However, it is on the pricier side of the spectrum, and it lacks EMI shielding. Check out the full review here. The second review is about the TerraMaster F4-425 Pro, an octa-core Intel NAS with a stand-out feature: built-in AI (OpenClaw). We also published a few Hands On reviews, which you can view below: We check out the SKG PS700 Neck Massager SKG Hand Massager with Heat OS500 hands on Hands-on with BOOX Tappy: cute little reading accessory Hands on with the ProtoArc EM25 affordable ergonomic mouse On the gaming side Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts, and more. If you plan to purchase a new Xbox, it's time to act now. This week, Microsoft announced yet another Xbox price increase. Starting August 1, 2026, all Xbox Series X|S models with 512 GB of storage will cost $100 more. As for the 1TB models, they are going up in price by a whopping $150. Finally, Microsoft is discontinuing the 2TB Xbox Series X. To make up for that, Microsoft announced a few programs to make its consoles more accessible. Those include BNPL, interest-free financing, pre-owned consoles, certified refurbished consoles, and more. Valve also shared some not-so-welcome news. The company has finally announced prices of the upcoming Steam Machine console, and if you plan to buy one, get ready to spend a whopping $1,049 on the 512GB configuration. The Steam Machine is now available for preorder, with shipments scheduled for June 29, 2026. Grand Theft Auto VI also received its official price tag. Rockstar Games announced that the long-anticipated game will launch at $79.99 for the base edition and $99.99 for the ultimate edition. The latter includes an exclusive collection of premium vehicles, weapons, apparel, and action threaded across all aspects of Jason and Lucia’s story." Those who preorder the game will get extra bonuses, including a Vintage Vice City Pack of cosmetic items as well as a free month of GTA+. NVIDIA announced new games for its GeForce NOW streaming service. Those include Dark Scrolls, SAND: Raiders of Sophie, Deer & Boy, EMPULSE, and more. Steam is running its annual Summer Sale, during which you can purchase plenty of various games with big discounts. It runs until July 9, so in case you missed it, you can still get some games at a lower price. Also, you can get two games for free in the Epic Games Store, plus more deals are available in this week's Weekend PC Game Deals issue. This link will take you to other issues of the Microsoft Weekly series. You can also support Neowin by registering for a free member account or subscribing for extra member benefits, along with an ad-free tier option.
    • Text extractor hasn't been working great on 0.99.1 but I am now updating to this version, hopefully it's better!
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Woland13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Woland13 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      bernmeister earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      502
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      226
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      156
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      75
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      71
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!