Resources for building a gaming computer in Canada

August 6, 2020 10:27 AM

My 14 year old would like to build his own gaming computer. The deal is we will split the cost 50/50. That's about all we've decided on so far.

I know nothing about building a computer and I'm not really interested. He knows only a little more than me but he's good at basic programming and mechanical stuff. He pointed me to kits on newegg.ca but a quick check of reviews for that website shows dismal ratings and reviews. I would like to direct him to some reputable websites where he can learn about what he needs to buy and how to put it together but I have no idea where to start. We are in Canada and would like to avoid shipping across the US border (or any border) if possible, so businesses that are based in Canada and items that are available for purchase in Canada are best. Suggestions and advice on where to start are welcome.

posted by Cuke to Computers & Internet (17 answers total)

I found this Logical Increments very useful in my research, both for general articles about the process, as well as specific product/config recommendations.

Also pcpartpicker is great.
posted by Perplexity at 10:30 AM on August 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

I’m unclear why Newegg.ca would have dismal reviews. The US Newegg is my go-to vendor. I’m not saying you’re wrong but I’m skeptical.

Strong agree that pcpartpicker is a good way to comparison shop and logicalincrements will provide useful recommendations at a variety of price tranches.
posted by Alterscape at 10:40 AM on August 6, 2020

MemoryExpress and CanadaComputers are still around.
posted by Poldo at 10:52 AM on August 6, 2020

I’m unclear why Newegg.ca would have dismal reviews. The US Newegg is my go-to vendor. I’m not saying you’re wrong but I’m skeptical.

Can't speak for newegg.ca specifically but at least US Newegg got bought by a PRC company and by all accounts their customer support and return support is markedly worse for it.

Where to shop: if all else fails, amazon.ca will have all the parts. There's no need to order a "kit" or to order all the parts from the same place. Pcpartpicker will do a good job of telling you where's the cheapest place to get each part right now, and you can look at their list of sellers to eliminate ones that seem shady to you.

What to get: figure out a budget and either come back here with that budget and his preferred games or go to r/buildapc with it. For a gaming rig, expect to spend 40-50% of your budget on the video card, which will seem excessive. Your kid might want to skimp on the power supply; don't let him do that. Remind him that while it's his rig, money he spends on RGB lights is money he won't have for performance.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:05 AM on August 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

I might suggest waiting a few months, both AMD and Nvidia have next gen video cards coming out this fall to replace the current models.

If you use pc part picker, make sure its a relatively recent build, ive seen some people relying on it trying to buy obsolete parts that are way overpriced. You will want to research the parts you decide on to see if there are newer versions.
posted by TheAdamist at 11:10 AM on August 6, 2020

I live in western Canada. Fourth-ing pcpartpicker, both for finding parts at good prices, and also for seeing other people's completed builds to make sure you're getting everything you need.

MemoryExpress and Newegg.ca are my go-to places to order parts from, and Amazon in a pinch when a component is hard to find. Earlier in the quarantine, MemoryExpress was pretty slammed with business - about 2 months in, staff said it was still like a nonstop Christmas rush, and it was hard to keep things in stock. Hopefully that's calmed down a bit now.

I've been building my gaming computers from parts since I was around 16 - it's fun, and a great experience for starting to demystify what's going on inside the box. No doubt that that experience put me on my career path. Some of the steps can be fiddly at the best of times, and will be frustrating for first-time builders (what order do I do this in? Where do the standoff screws go? Where do all these cables plug in? Oh shit I dropped a screw and it's stuck in the case, how do I retrieve it?). It can be worth it, though.
posted by Fully Completely at 11:22 AM on August 6, 2020

Linus Tech Tips is a Canadian YouTube company, they would be a good resource to learn from. Gaming rig on a budget video.
posted by freethefeet at 11:50 AM on August 6, 2020

Second Linus, he's pretty good.

I just helped a friend do this for his son a few weeks ago. For ~$800 USD (PC only, not counting Windows license or accessories) we built a box that crushes mine performance-wise -- and I didn't skimp on much when I built mine four years ago.

A few takeaways:

• The CW that Intel is better than AMD is slipping, fast. AMD Ryzen is much more affordable and plenty powerful. Watch out though, installing the stock AMD cooler is a bit tricky.
• Nvidia GTX 1660 Super is a pretty dang good value for a GPU. Runs Control great (Control is my new "GPU crusher" benchmark game). Considering getting one myself to upgrade my aging GTX 970.
• Computer cases are as ridiculous as ever. If you're new to PC building it's worthwhile to not get a cheap one -- the bigger case brands (Corsair, Cooler Master, Thermaltake, Fractal Design) are much easier to work with. My last couple of PCs (and the one for the friend) are all Corsair cases.
• Don't skimp on the power supply, this is where a lot of newbies go wrong. Don't use the PSU that came with the case (this is a dying practice, most cases worth using don't come with a PSU anymore). Don't get some no-name PSU just because it promises 800 watts or whatever. Check for the 80 Plus certification -- any worthwhile PSU will be at least 80 Plus Bronze certified. The fancier PSUs (again, I recommend Corsair) have power monitoring and stuff.
• If you're getting a bunch of stuff with flashy lights (hard not to these days, lol) you might want to ensure they're the same brand, so you can control the lighting using the same app.

posted by neckro23 at 1:01 PM on August 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

I heartily endorse Logical Increments as a site for specing out a computer.

Memory Express is an excellent store; the prices are competitive and the people in the store (here in Calgary at least) actually know what they are doing. If you can go to one in person, they will (or at least have in the past for me - for free) mount the CPU on the motherboard and mount the cooler on the CPU; these are two of the fiddliest steps in putting together a computer. The rest of the steps are easier and harder to mess up; most cables only plug in one way. Don't force things.
posted by Superilla at 1:04 PM on August 6, 2020

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers so far. Some of them feel like they are in a foreign language but no doubt they will start making sense as we begin looking (at least to him). I am sending him this thread so he can continue his homework.

As to the questions he says he plans to play mostly on Steam (he mentioned Satisfactory as a game that is laggy on the desktop he's using now) and hopes to get a VR headset later. He is willing to spend $800 of his own money, so around $1600CDN altogether. I guess he will have to start saving up for the VR headset next.
posted by Cuke at 1:45 PM on August 6, 2020

I built a new gaming computer last month - it's my 2nd build ever (and both booted on the first attempt, so hooray!).

It's true that there are quite a few confusing considerations and no real guides that are both detailed enough for a beginner and current (plenty of outdated advice out there).

Good advice above, and any of those resources discussing the broad strokes of building are a good place to start. In my experience though, my thought process in a build is:

• How much do I have to spend?
• Within that budget, what's my preferred combination of processor and video card (most people are building gaming machines with AMD processors these days due to cost/performance ratio. RTX model NVIDIA video cards are very cool, but also very costly. AMD cards are the other major competitor to NVIDIA - buy within your budget).
• Your processor choice will determine what type of motherboard you purchase (motherboards must be matched to the chip's "socket" shape and format). Choose your motherboard on price and other features like ports.
• The motherboard/chip combination will also determine the type of ram you'll use. Again, choose on price here.
• At a minimum you'll also need a processor cooler, hard drive or SSD, case, and power supply.

PCPartPicker has been mentioned above. If you plug in your parts it will spot whether they'll all play nicely together, and will show you a list of options for remaining pieces (and link to where to buy them). Youtube has plenty of building tutorials.

I've shopped at the US Newegg for years. They're still good, but have definitely changed since the purchase. No idea if the CA version is different. Amazon is pretty reliable for parts (though watch for 3rd party sellers). If you know exactly what you're looking for and have the patience there are some deals to be had on Ebay or your local equivalent of Craigslist.

Have fun - I feel like you and your son will learn a lot in the process.
posted by owls at 2:35 PM on August 6, 2020

Just a note, a friend who builds machines for a living is pretty adamant that getting a SSD vs. "spinning rust" (conventional hard drive) is by far the biggest performance bang for the buck on just about any type of machine.
posted by maxwelton at 3:01 PM on August 6, 2020

Newegg.ca, while often good, will sometimes quietly ship something from the US, causing delays and potential import duties.
posted by scruss at 3:52 PM on August 6, 2020

If the planned VR Headset is an Oculus Quest, you'll want to make sure you have easily accessible USB 3.1 ports, so that's a new requirement on the mainboard or a small cost for a dedicated PCI-E card. (Recent software allowed downgrading the USB port for less quality, but it's a small thing to check.) If planning to use wirelessly via sideloaded Virtual Desktop, an ethernet cable into a nearby 5ghz router is sufficient.

Other headsets like the VIVE / Valve Index should just need USB 3.0 and a video card with a DisplayPort output. I'm not aware of anything intended for gaming that *won't* meet these requirements but something to check before checkout.

Don't skimp on the memory, Half-Life Alyx complained about 8 GB and I had to bump to 16 GB. (That's the must-play game for VR right now. If your son plans to play VR, he's going to be playing Half-Life Alyx sooner or later. Sooner is good, it's a great game.)
posted by Anonymous Function at 10:00 PM on August 6, 2020

PC Part Picker is essential - you can register and select Canada as your country and get only Canadian stores/prices. The Build a PC Sales Canada subreddit is a good source for Canadian deals. The associated /r/buildapc is good too - there's a "Beginner's Guide" and other helpful things in the sidebar. If you put together a build on PCPartPicker you can post a link and get it reviewed before you buy things that might not be compatible. *(Standard Reddit disclaimers apply but these communities are pretty decent.)

My top tip from building my first gaming PC a few years ago - don't skimp on the CPU cooler and fans. I had to upgrade my cooler after the build and ended up having to disassemble a lot of the PC to get it in place correctly.

Also, even if he's not gaming now, sign up for an Epic account and grab the free games they're giving out weekly - you don't have to install them, just 'purchase' the free games and they'll be added to your library. The XBox Game Pass for PC is also an incredible deal ($6 a month) and has some high-quality games, good for showing off your system without spending $$$.
posted by Gortuk at 7:19 AM on August 9, 2020

Response by poster: Thank you all so much. This was incredibly helpful, and will continue to be helpful as we start to build. I really appreciate all the little hints, things to avoid, where not to scrimp etc.

With your advice he used PCPartPicker to figure out what he was looking for and then spent a couple of days pricing components and looking to see what was in stock where. He had to juggle a little bit because some things were sold out, not available, or out of his budget. In the end he ordered from Newegg.ca after all (hard to beat the selection) and amazon.ca. He also had to up his budget slightly but it is doable.

Two items from newegg.ca were indeed "quietly shipped from the US". They are still in California according to tracking. I'm sure we will see them eventually, with extra customs duties unfortunately. Everything else has already arrived so once those last two boxes get here we will start on the next phase.
posted by Cuke at 3:23 PM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: One final update - it worked and he's sitting playing on it right now. I'm kind of amazed.

Putting the physical pieces together was not much harder than Lego. The most difficult part was the cabling but a little trial and error fixed things up. He hadn't realized the motherboard he bought didn't come with built in wifi, and he wanted it, so he added a wifi card today and the build is complete.

Thank you all so much for the advice. It is really fun knowing all the component parts and how they fit together, very different from the other computers in the house. I feel like I gained a new skill at 49 years old and he learned a lot about researching.
posted by Cuke at 7:49 PM on August 23, 2020 [2 favorites]