Hey everyone! I'm excited to dive into building my first gaming PC, but I'm feeling a bit lost on where to start. My budget is around $1500 CAD, but I could stretch it to $2000 if there's a good reason. This PC will primarily be used for gaming, no streaming or rendering for me, and VR capability isn't necessary. I really want to ensure it runs titles like Counter Strike smoothly, along with games like Total War and Baldur's Gate 3 at high settings—4K isn't a priority for me.
I need it to connect to Wi-Fi, and I'd prefer not to use Intel parts, which I think means I'll be looking at AMD options. I'm also in the market for a gaming monitor, but I won't include that in my budget. Any recommendations that provide great value for what I'm looking for would be super helpful! Aesthetics aren't really important to me, so I'm all about performance. Thanks for any assistance!
2 Answers
I found a solid build that might be a little over your budget at $2074.05 CAD, but it's a great option that can handle 1440p gaming. It includes an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X processor, 32GB of RAM, and an RTX 5060 Ti graphics card, providing a ton of upgrade potential for the future. If you're serious about gaming, this could be worth the extra cash! Check out this [PCPartPicker list](https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/WFh3bp) for the details. Just keep an eye on the prices; they can change pretty quickly!
I heard AMD is better for gaming right now, but what’s your take on that?
As a fellow Canadian, I recommend checking out local stores like Memory Express and Canada Computers for parts—just be careful with Canada Computers' online deals; they're not always reliable. If you're going the online route, Newegg and Amazon often have good bundle deals, especially for CPU, motherboard, and RAM combo packages. For a build under $2000, consider this setup with an AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and an RX 9060 XT. You can find all the parts in my [PCPartPicker list](https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/N6gBbp). Total cost comes to about $1939.82 CAD. Plus, I included a great monitor recommendation for nice 1440p gaming!
Thanks for the advice! Is it worth the trip to those stores, or will the prices be similar to online?
Thanks for the links! I'll definitely check those out.
Sounds good, but what features make this build future-proof?