Gaming PCs, consoles and gear chosen at a Canadian budget, priced at Canadian stores

The hardware guide for players in Canada: builds, parts, peripherals, consoles and setups chosen at a Canadian-dollar budget and priced where you can buy them. The Build Sheet turns a budget into a priced parts list.

See the parts Read the Bulletin

The one to build this month

A compact mesh-front gaming PC tower with a glass side panel showing one graphics card inside, cut out on white.

The $2,000 sheet

Parts total

$1,960

$40 under budget

Seven parts · before tax · October 2026

Plays: 1440p at high settings in most current games, 1080p at high refresh rates, and the heaviest releases at 1440p with FSR upscaling.

See the parts

Picture for illustration.

$1,500 sheet1080p at high settings in most current gamesParts total$1,420$80 underSeven parts, before tax, October 2026See the parts →$2,500 sheet1440p at high refresh rates in most games, 4K with FSR upscalingParts total$2,430$70 underSeven parts, before tax, October 2026See the parts →Free printableThe upgrade trackerPrint this table and fill in one row per part of the PC you have now.Print it →
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The Bulletin

Newest first. Each piece says what the money buys at your budget, what you give up for it, and when the right move is to wait for the sale.

Every article
Centre spread · The Build Sheet

Free · October 2026 edition · prices before tax

Three gaming PCs at $1,500, $2,000 and $2,500, every part priced at a Canadian store

Pick the budget you can spend. Each sheet lists every part, the store it was priced at and the month, why it’s there, the swap for when it’s sold out, and what the finished PC plays.

How a sheet is made

  1. Start from the budget

    Each sheet starts from a number in Canadian dollars before tax, not from a part we like. Everything on it has to fit under that number, today.

  2. Pick for the games

    The graphics card comes first, because that’s where frames come from at every budget. The rest is chosen so nothing holds it back and nothing is paid for twice.

  3. Price it where you’d buy it

    Every part is priced at a Canadian store that ships here, with the store and the month next to it. No converted US prices, no US-only stock.

  4. Write the swap

    Parts sell out. Each one has a swap that fits the same build, so a missing part doesn’t send you back to the start.

  5. Check again next month

    The editors reprice every sheet each month and change a part when a better one fits the budget. The edition date at the top tells you when.

See the parts

The $2,000 sheet, part by part

What the budget gave up: a newer processor and 32GB of memory. This is the $1,500 sheet with a much faster graphics card, and this month it’s where the money goes furthest.

  • Graphics cardASRock Radeon RX 9070 Challenger 16GB$1,046Amazon.ca
  • ProcessorAMD Ryzen 5 5600$215Newegg.ca
  • MotherboardMSI B550M PRO-VDH WiFi$130Best Buy
  • MemoryKingston FURY Beast 16GB (2×8GB) DDR4-3200 CL16$184Canada Computers
  • StorageKingston NV3 1TB NVMe SSD$199Walmart.ca
  • Power supplyMSI MAG A650BN 650W 80 Plus Bronze$86Computer Orbit
  • CaseLian Li Lancool 207$100Amazon.ca
  • Total, before taxOctober 2026$1,960Seven parts, seven swaps
  • $1,500 sheetPlays: 1080p at high settings in most current games, and competitive games such as Fortnite, Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 at high refresh rates. The heaviest new releases want medium settings or XeSS upscaling.$1,420
  • $2,500 sheetPlays: 1440p at high refresh rates in most games, 4K with FSR upscaling, and ray tracing with less of a cost than on the cheaper sheets.$2,430
Departments

Sections

Building or upgrading? Start with PC Builds and Components. Playing on a console? Consoles & Handhelds. About to buy anything at all? Deals & Buying.

All sections

Toolkit

The members’ toolkit

A tool earns a place here when a player in Canada can use it today, it is free or clearly priced, and its maker keeps it up to date.

  • Build planning and compatibility
  • Price tracking and Canadian deals
  • Monitoring and benchmarks
  • Peripheral software and settings
  • Streaming and recording
  • Setup and ergonomics
Back page

Who writes the Bulletin

A PC builder who priced parts behind a local shop counter, and a player who streams and has worked through dozens of mice, controllers and chairs.

About the association

Gear writer

Jenna Okafor

Streams most evenings and has worked through dozens of mice, keyboards, controllers and chairs to find the ones worth the money.

Jenna’s articles