I5 cpu, and "60" series NVidia graphics (ie. 660-960 etc) minimum (or ATI equivalent) ?
A fast hard drive, if you don't buy an SSD, get a 7200rpm at least.
$800 isn't really enough for a decent rig, you'll be chopping something off somewhere.
The "K" model I5 / I7's cpu's are best, they will overclock themselves by default if they
need extra power to run your games, providing you have a good motherboard.
You don't need the best and latest, but a good motherboard, power supply, cpu, gpu, ram,
hdd storage, 27" monitor (2ms) etc. will cost more than the junk you get with a pre-built.
You tend to get what you pay for, and a little extra cash up front saves a lot of frustrations later.
Look, some people wouldn't even notice the difference. It depends on your expectations
and how much time you are going to use the thing. I never buy top of the range or latest gear,
I pick the market for the most powerful and best quality gear for the money, there is always a
cheap way to do that, but $800 is pushing it.
A bundle like this is a good start:
http://cart.microcenter.com/cart.aspx?RedirectUrl=http://www.microcenter.comAlso, I would never try to push anyone into a laptop, that was not my intent, but if you were considering a laptop,
well, that's why I mentioned MSI, the others are a trap. My recommendations are based on almost 20 years experience
building and designing gaming rigs for people all over the world. I don't do this any more because I don't have the
time, but if you need guidance, I don't mind helping out if I can.
If you want to save money, save it on the case, because any old junk from the dump would be fine, get good
components and worry about the case last :p
If you design and buy this new rig, beware of traps, there are always traps, research EVERYTHING.
To do it properly, you need a good understanding of chipsets and what they are capable of. Everything starts
with the chipset, in other words, the cpu and motherboard and what that means for you. The task is probably easier
than it was a few years ago, quality has improved a lot across the board.
SSD's and HDD's can be a mine field, the best is probably Gen3 m.2 spec., but that's fairly pricy. The m.2 HDD's are
like RAM sticks that fit into slots on the motherboard, this is the future as I see it, but the technology moves on pretty
fast, and the motherboards only support what the chipset provides at the time.
I'm still old school and use large and fast 7200rpm drives in a RAID-0 array, which is ridiculous, but my gaming data is
massive, so I have little choice on my budget.
If you don't want a headache, then a pre-built might be for you.