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UPDATE: 20-Dec-2019 – For our first poll, you identified the graphics card as the weak point of our $800 1080p PC gaming build.

With just $800 to play around with it, it doesn’t leave us much wiggle room in terms of switching out the graphics hardware. Our current graphics card, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super Asus Dual Evo 6GB, currently retails for $229.99. With our total PC build cost coming to $799.78, this means we’ve either stick with this GPU or opt for a cheaper graphics card and use the extra funds to upgrade another component.

Based on this, we’ve provided a sample of three different graphics cards which we could use for our Ultimate 1080p PC Gaming Build for Under $800. This includes the original Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super Asus Dual Evo 6GB variant, a lower-end non-Super Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Asus Phoenix 6GB, or AMD’s current budget GPU of choice, the AMD Radeon RX 590 Gigabyte Gaming 8GB.

Please vote in the poll below for which gaming graphics card you think we should switch in for out Ultimate 1080p build.

Original: We’ve already built the Ultimate PC at the $1200 sweet spot, but what about something for the more frugal PC gamer? For $800 you can get a 1080p PC gaming build which absolutely blows away console performance the same resolution. Proof that you don’t need to break the bank to have a top-tier gaming experience.

Build a fast gaming PC for less than $800

For 800 bucks you can build yourself a fantastic gaming rig including all the necessary hardware components such as graphics card, CPU, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and even a headset. All of this for under $800 and you’re not going to have any troubles reaching that all-important 1080p/60 frames per second.

To top it off, this build isn’t going to be useful for gaming. You can use it for everything. It’s great value and its versatile, both for work and gaming use.

So how do you go about building a gaming rig on a tighter budget? It’s all about identifying where the priorities are in a build, putting your money into the components which are going to be most beneficial to your gaming performance.

With huge games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Dying Light 2 on the horizon, we figure it’s the perfect time to be thinking about a new PC build to enjoy these AAA games looking and running at their finest.

Ultimate 1080p PC Gaming Build for Under $800

So we’ve set ourselves the target of $800 for everything you’ll need for a PC build from scratch. This includes a decent gaming graphics, a CPU which won’t bottleneck performance, plenty of RAM, both HDD & SSD storage, a monitor, mouse, keyboard, and headset. This is everything you need to console-beating performance in a PC package which well set you back less than $800.

Compared to our $1200 build, our budget is quite a bit tighter. We’re building a system for 66% of the price and so we need to identify what’s important and what isn’t. The cheaper you go with a build, the more compromises you will have to make, but at $800 you can still treat yourself to a fantastic and capable PC build.

So during this PC build guide for 2019 we will be aiming at a more entry level rig. You won’t have to hand over the eye-watering amounts of cash which enthusiast builds can cost you but you’ll still be able to pick any game you want on Steam and know you can run it just fine.

	Component	Current Price	Why this component?
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 2600	**$119.99	AMD’s Ryzen range is proving a top choice these days for its affordability versus Intel’s chips. The new Ryzen 3000 series means the previous gen CPUs can be picked up dirt cheap. The 6-core Ryzen 5 2600 is an absolute bargain right now at $118. This is the same CPU we used in our more expensive $1200 build and it maintains great value even with a smaller budget.
Graphics Card	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super Asus Dual Evo 6GB	**$229.99	The GPU is going to be doing the grunt work in terms of FPS. The Asus GeForce GTX 1660 Super Overclocked is around 30% of our total budget but it’s absolutely worth it rock-solid 1080p performance which is neck-and-neck with a GTX 1660 Ti.
Memory	G.Skill 16GB (2 x 8GB) Aegis DDR4 3000MHz	**$52.99	Within our budget, quantity is a higher priority than speed for RAM. 16GB is a must for a PC build in 2019/2020 and provided it’s DDR4 it’ll be plenty fast enough. RAM is a lot cheaper these days and a pair of G.Skill 8GB 3000MHz can be had for close to $50.
Motherboard	ASRock B450M Pro4-F	$69.99	Here we have a Micro-ATX motherboard design from ASRock wihch isn’t flashy but it’ll do the trick. It comes with the AMD4 socket for Ryzen and has room for future storage upgrades with its M.2 support.
Case	Cougar MX330	$41.99	$42 is cheap for a gaming case but that doesn’t mean it can’t look good. Cougar’s MX330 is elegant and functional with decent air flow. You’re not going to want to put SLI RTX 2080 Ti’s here but based on the rest of our components this will fit the bill.
PSU	EVGA 500 BQ	$66.99	With your power supply you should always one eye on future upgrades but, with a 500W unit, you should be prepared for pretty much all mid-range solutions.
SSD	Crucial BX500 240GB	$31.99	SSD storage can quickly become expensive but a small 240GB driver should be enough to get you up and running. Install your OS on this SSD for much faster boot times, and prioritise your most used game installs to this drive.
HDD	Seagate BarraCuda 2TB	$49.99	While far slower, traditional hard drivers are still much cheaper than SSDs for mass storage. A 2TB drive can be picked up for just $55 and it has room for around 40 or so 50GB games.
CPU Cooler	Wraith Stealth Cooler	$0.00	AMD’s Ryzen 5 2600 comes with a Wraith Stealth Cooler bundled in. If you’re just running at stock clocks this will do the job.
Display	Sceptre E225W-1920	**$76.99	A tight budget means a big hit on the monitor. At 22-inches this is compromise. For your money you do get 75Hz 1080p display though, with built-in speakers and 1 fairly quick 5ms response time.
Keyboard	Rii RK100+	**$16.99	The Rii RK100+ is a full-sized keyboard that comes with mechanical feeling keys. It’s not a mechanical keyboard, but it should still do the job while not feeling completely terrible.
Mouse	Redragon M711 Cobra	$19.89	The Redragon M711 Cobra is an entry-level gaming mouse with 10,000 DPI, 7 reprogrammable buttons and heavily customisable RGB lighting for those who want to pimp out their setup a bit.
Headset	Sades SA920	**$21.99	A gaming headset is important for communicating in online games with your buddies or for more immersive audio. The Sades SA920 is a plug and play solution with decent sound quality and the all-important gaming mic.
Total Price		$799.78

** Special Offers – These items, marked with the ** in our build are currently on special offer. These are usually timed special offers, so it might be that we have to switch them out when their prices return to “normal”.

So that’s what we’ve got so far but nothing’s ever perfect. This is an ongoing project and this build will adapt and change based on newly released hardware and you. Yes, you.

We’ll be running regular polls in which you can have your say and help identify the components which you believe are the weakest link. Got an opinion on what would be a better CPU? Let us know, and we’ll switch them out for something even better. Week by week, we’ll be building the ultimate gaming PC to be found at this price point.

So this is everything you need for a gaming PC setup for less than $800. This build can play every game in the world today and includes a tower itself along with all the key components such as gaming monitor, mouse, keyboard, and headset.

But this is just the start. It’s time for you all to get your heads together in order to identify the weakest point of Ultimate PC Gaming Build for Under $800.

Which of these components would you like to switch out for something else? Get voting for the component which you’d like to change and we’ll then run a further poll to decide what we’re going to replace it with.

We want your recommended hardware suggestions for this build so pop them in the comments section below and the hardware suggestions with the most up-votes will be considered for inclusion in the build!