PC building guide: a $800 gaming PC

Sacrifices must be made for such an inexpensive gaming rig. With a $1,000 price point, you could do a lot more. But picking a price point that is easy, that requires no tough decisions, isn't the point. The point is to show that large-scale OEMs, the guys who do the most volume at these prices, could certainly sell you a good gaming PC for this price if they wanted to. For the most part, they don't, and that's the power of building your own computer—you can get what you wouldn't buy elsewhere.

So read on for our component picks and performance measurements on our $800 gaming PC.