PC build under $800

Hey everyone,

A friend of mine who isn't really active on these forums reached out to me for some advice on finding the absolute best bang-for-your-buck configuration. He’s managed to scrape together a decent little nest egg and is looking to treat himself to a solid
desktop setup. He already owns all the peripherals, and I made sure to warn him against those pre-built machines you see everywhere—they almost always cut corners on the power supply and slap in a subpar graphics card just to pad the margins.
I offered to put a custom build together for him myself, but he was pretty insistent about polling the experts here first so he can weigh all his options before pulling the trigger.

He mentioned he's leaning toward a Ryzen build, so if anyone feels like putting a list together, I'd really appreciate the help. 👍 As for his display, I think he's currently using some old 23-inch General Electric monitor, so he'll likely be looking for something new online or at a local Best Buy.

Thanks a million! 🙂

Finding a decent GPU right now is a nightmare.

I think this setup looks alright
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?N=4294967288&D=all&Ntt=gaming+pc

Regarding the Core i7, you really need to consider if there's an upgrade path in mind. If there is, you could aim for something like a 1600AF or maybe that 3350G you can find at Intel.
Honestly, though, sticking with the Core i3-10100F is probably the better value since it $283 comes with a cooler.
Either way, you can build a solid config with a GPU around $600.