Right. Building a PC thread.

[Wolfram23]

Pff all stock coolers I've seen are crap. A Hyper 212 is perfect - cheap, and easy to install. Also fits most cases and for the money it has extremely good performance.

 

[Wolfram23]

Funny how the OP disappeared. This thread is taking a life of it's own.

 

[Westaway]

Funny how the OP disappeared. This thread is taking a life of it's own.

I'm here. I made an edit to the OP, too.

 

[loc978]

Went over a few things with my roommate, and if you want to build something a bit faster and more expandable with an FM1 board/processor (which is what AMD is still developing for), he recommends these:
-Proc: AMD A8-3870K Unlocked Llano 3.0GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with onboard AMD Radeon HD 6550D [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106001]. The on-chip video here will apparently disable itself in the presence of a dedicated GPU.
$129.99

-Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-A75-UD4H FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128515]
$117.99

He also scoffed at my hard drive choice (with good reason). Recommendation:
-HDD: Seagate Constellation ES ST500NM0011 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148756]. Half the space, a bit more expensive, much better speed... a bit noisy, but also less likely to be dead on arrival. As an enterprise drive, it's designed more for business systems, with access speed and longevity in mind. If you need more storage space later, you can always add drives. No need to worry about space now.
$104.49

Everything else would remain the same. This would improve the build quite a lot at a cost of $72.50.

The APUs use athlon II cores, if you are going to be using a discrete card then the APU is useless as phenom cores are better per clock and have a higher clock speed.

the whole point of that was to make the system more upgradable, "future-proof" as my roommate puts it. They don't make FM1 Phenoms, and they're not developing anything new for AM3/AM3+ boards.

 

[Wolfram23]

The 2500K will still be very productive and if you want responsiveness I think a SSD is what you should be looking at, rather than hyperthreading.

Sounds like good advice. But I'll go for the 2550K, because that's only a little more expensive and if budget cuts are particularly bad, I could be playing on the integrated HD 3000 iGPU until Christmas.

Why not Ivy Bridge? 3570 or 3770 (2500/2700 replacements) with HD4000. Just need a 7x mobo. The CPUs are a little more expensive, but they're worth it if you'll be using integrated for a while.

 

[loc978]

the whole point of that was to make the system more upgradable, "future-proof" as my roommate puts it. They don't make FM1 Phenoms, and they're not developing anything new for AM3/AM3+ boards.

FM1 is going to be replaced by FM2 this year as Trinity will be on it instead.

Sorry to say it but your friend is dead wrong. AM3+ will be used for piledriver and likely steamroller.

Well, I certainly don't want to be the spreader of misinformation. My experience stops at AM3 builds... so I guess I should remake that posted build. Damn thing is a bit of a disaster of compromises, looking back.

...it used to be so easy to piece together a budget system.

*big edit*
Consider my previous wall'o'text [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.378476-Right-Building-a-PC-thread?page=2#14801143] a misinformed rough draft with all of my work written out. Here's a summary final draft:

-Proc: AMD Phenom II X4 955, 3.2Ghz, Socket AM3, quad-core, 95W [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113007]
$109.99
-Faster alternative build: AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996]
$114.99

-Mobo: ASUS M4A88T-V EVO AM3 880G [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131827]
$89.99
-Faster alternative build: GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128519]
$109.99

-RAM: Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148457]
$51.99
-Faster alternative build: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231476]
$72.99

-Vid card: GIGABYTE GV-N460OC-1GI V3 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125412]
$139.99

-Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233]
$69.99

-Power Supply: COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M600 RS-600-AMBA-D3 600W ATX12V Modular [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171036]
$109.99

-HDD: Seagate Constellation ES ST500NM0011 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148756]
$104.49

-Optical Drive: ASUS 24X DVD Burner [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204].
+$20.99
=$697.42
-Faster alternative build: $743.42

also, if you must:
-OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986]
+$109.99
=$807.41
-Faster alternative build: $853.41

There's a dead-end AM3 build that will do much more than you ask of it for now, but when it becomes completely outdated, it will need replacing. Considering my gaming PC from 2007 is still running every new AAA game at medium settings, I'd say that won't be for quite awhile.
The faster alternative AM3+ build will last about the same (though with a hair better performance), but be much more upgradable when the time comes, stretching more life out of it.

For mouse, keyboard, speakers and monitor... use what you have left over to buy locally. I've never been to Edmonton or Toronto (the only places I've been in Canada are Vancouver and parts of rural BC), so I don't know what sort of electronics shops you've got there... but I think it's better to test out your input devices and display in person before you commit to 'em.
Honestly, also look into getting your software locally. Not sure if there's a better price on Windows 7 elsewhere, I refuse to run the damn thing (my gaming PC dual-boots Windows XP SP3 and Linux - Kubuntu 11.1)

 

[omega 616]

All these threads about building your own computer are making me want to upgrade mine ... shame the only thing I know about it is hard drive space, quad core and it has a HD 5750 in it so I have no idea where I would start.

Shucks!

I do know that if the OP follows Matthew94's build it will be bad ass and will put mine to so shame!