PC expertise needed...

[Snowzaa]

I'm looking at buying a proper gaming rig that runs good, but isn't too pricey. Anyone have any ideas on what I could get? 

[CheMiCal]

build it part by part, don't buy from a store most of them have locked bios and you can't upgrade parts with it  lol.

[Snowzaa]

Yea I knew that. (The stores here in NZ are overpriced and they don't know what they're talking about) I was thinking about building a custom PC, but where should I get the components from? I hear newegg is good.

[Cameron]

Yea I knew that. (The stores here in NZ are overpriced and they don't know what they're talking about) I was thinking about building a custom PC, but where should I get the components from? I hear newegg is good.

Depending where you live in NZ, try looking for a local dealer and pick the parts up.  I use PCCaseGear in Melbourne, about a 20-30 minute drive and pick the stuff up.  First machine I bought from them I got posted and cost about $40-50 to do so, and it didn't have to come all that far, so you can imagine the cost to go elsewhere.   I'll agree in some cases the components are cheaper to source elsewhere online, but factoring in international postage I've never found it worth the hassle.

[Mission]

I bought RAM, graphics card and keyboard used. Kind of risky but I saved a lot of money that way and it works perfectly. My power supply came dead on arrival so make sure you have a mate who can diagnose a problem if it doesn't turn on when you press the power button (vast majority of the time first time builders go fine).

[supermonkey]

Pcpartpicker is a great site to help you get started in the right direction as far as premade builds in various price ranges.  /r/buildapc on reddit is also a great place to get information and help with picking parts and figuring out what would work for you.  Sourcing stuff in NZ might be a little rough as far as shipping costs go.  Do what Cameron suggested and see if you can find a pc parts store locally.  It's also easier to return parts that might be DOA if you buy from a local place rather than online.

[Snowzaa]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Depending where you live in NZ, try looking for a local dealer and pick the parts up.

Our local stores sell windows xp home edition for $100 and 1 gig of used ram for $150. So I think local stores are out of the question.

[Cameron]

Our local stores sell windows xp home edition for $100 and 1 gig of used ram for $150. So I think local stores are out of the question.

I don't mean the local PC shop that is part of some chain, I mean a hardware dealer somewhere in NZ.  Just looking at Google there are sites like this, this, this and this that you possibly source from.

For some comparisons, take for example an i7-6700K.  I got mine for $519AUD, which converts to about $550NZD, and on the alphacity site you can get it for about $570NZD including GST.  Or you could look at memory like you suggested.  I can't find the exact model of memory I have, but this one is similar, so a pair of DDR4 Ripjaws 2400Mhz from the pbtech site goes for $194.35NZD which includes GST.  I'd be spending $189AUD from the store I get my parts from, so $200NZD on those, so you're getting a better deal than me there.

I know the parts can be sourced elsewhere overseas cheaper, but like sm said, if something goes wrong, easier to deal with someone in your own country than half way across the world.  Better still if you get the components from the same place, they come together, not days/weeks apart.  And then also, I personally like to support the local stores than the overseas markets putting everyone out of jobs.

[Snowzaa]

Thanks for the links Cameron  
Alphacity looks like it has some good prices.
Since I don't have much money would an i5 suffice?
Would it be outdated in a year or so? I can always upgrade when needed

[Snowzaa]

I might buy things like periphials from trademe.co.nz, it's a local eBay type website but I'll buy a case from overses.

[supermonkey]

Since I don't have much money would an i5 suffice?
Would it be outdated in a year or so? I can always upgrade when needed

Depending what you want your rig for an i5 should be just fine.  Gaming will be most dependent on your gpu and ram so having a top of the line cpu is not absolutely important.  However, a lower end one could bottle neck your system as well.  Do some research to find a good middle ground for yourself to meet what you want to do with your rig.  Looking at preset builds on pcpartpicker and youtube could give you an idea of what you should be looking for within your price range.

As long as you get a fairly new generation cpu/hardware it should be fine for many years to come.  Computer hardware is constantly being updated so you might not have the latest and greatest in a year or two but it'll still run everything perfectly fine.  For instance, I built my gaming rig about 5 years ago at this point and am probably 2-3 generations of CPU behind the latest generation but I have zero issues running anything the "new" generation can run and really don't feel much of a performance hit either.  Just be sure to do your research and not make hasty decisions.

[Cameron]

Thanks for the links Cameron 
Alphacity looks like it has some good prices.
Since I don't have much money would an i5 suffice?
Would it be outdated in a year or so? I can always upgrade when needed

No worries.  I'm pretty much going to repeat what sm said, but here goes.  My other PC has an i5-2500k in it bought back in 2011 I think, and it's still going fine.  Only reason I upgraded to an i7 was for video encoding.  If you don't have much money and are looking at getting something to game on, an i5 is perfectly fine.  Graphics card will be where you fork out the cash, and it all depends on what you want to be playing.  I'm still running my GTX770, and its borderline good enough to play Black Ops 3, and that's not even maxed out settings.  It set me back $440 or so when I bought it a couple of years back, so you can imagine how much a card to play it on high settings would cost.

Check this thread out as an example of some other builds as well.  Feel free to post possible builds you come up with here and we can give opinions on them as well.

[Ace]

http://www.logicalincrements.com/#!/

Great place to start out looking at. Gives multiple tiers of computers and pieces to go with them.