Best Prebuilt Gaming…
These sub-$800 gaming desktops are solid for 1080P gaming.
Striking the balance between having a capable gaming PC and not spending a fortune can be a tricky endeavor. If you’re looking to play old school retro games, then a basic PC with a budget graphics card can work.
But when you want to play modern, competitive titles, you want something with a little more “oomph” to it, both to get nice visuals and great frame rates.
With an $800 budget, you can get a pretty capable gaming machine.
But if you’d rather buy a prebuilt gaming rig, you can still find solid options. In this guide, we’ll take a look at a handful of the best prebuilt gaming PCs under $800.
ZOTAC MEK AI-Enhanced
The best prebuilt gaming PC under $800 right now.
PC Specs
- CPU: Ryzen 5 5500
- COOL: Single tower air
- GPU: RTX 5050
- RAM: 16GB DDR4
- SSD: 1TB NVME
Pros & Cons
- Comes with next-gen NVIDIA GPU
- Solid performance at 1080P resolution
- DLSS will help in more demanding games
- Can upgrade to the 5700X3D in the future
- Weak CPU performance out-of-the-box
Read Overview »
ZOTAC MEK AI-Enhanced Overview
We like this configuration of ZOTAC’s MEK AI-Enhanced lineup of gaming PCs as the current best prebuilt gaming PC option under $800.
For starters, it comes in at ~$750, making it an even better value option. And it comes with a decent array of hardware for this price configuration as well…
It offers an AMD Ryzen 5 5500 CPU, NVIDIA’s RTX 5050 GPU, 16GB of 3200MHz DDR4 memory, and a 1TB NVME SSD.
The combination of the Ryzen 5 5500 and RTX 5050 aren’t going to have you maxing games out at 1440P or 4K resolution, but it should do the trick to get you solid performance on a 1080P display. You’ll probably have to turn the settings down a bit and rely on DLSS some to help you get good performance in more demanding titles.
We’d highly recommend that you consider building your own $800 PC in this price range as the performance gain will be significant.
But, if you don’t want to go through the building process and you’re looking for a decent 1080P gaming PC that will run your favorite games, this ZOTAC desktop should do the trick.
Skytech Nebula
Desktop with the best CPU on this list.
PC Specs
- CPU: Ryzen 5 5600
- COOL: Single tower air
- GPU: RTX 3050
- RAM: 16GB DDR4
- SSD: 1TB NVME
Pros & Cons
- Solid performance at 1080P resolution
- DLSS will help in more demanding games
- Better CPU performance than other options
- Can upgrade to the 5700X3D in the future
- Comes with older gen NVIDIA GPU
Read Overview »
Skytech Nebula Overview
Another option that you might want to consider is this configuration of Skytech’s Nebula lineup.
It comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600 processor, NVIDIA’s RTX 3050 GPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 1TB NVME SSD.
This setup does offer the better CPU compared to the ZOTAC desktop listed above, but it has a weaker GPU. The RTX 3050 is still okay and with DLSS you should still be able to play any game at 1080P resolution. Just note that, just like with the ZOTAC desktop above, you’ll likely have to turn settings down and rely on upscaling to play more demanding titles. And even moreso with the weaker GPU.
The other downside of this Skytech gaming PC is that it currently costs ~$40 more than the ZOTAC desktop so not only do you get the weaker GPU, but you also have to pay more for it.
So, unless you really need that slight boost in CPU performance, for now we’d recommend with going with ZOTAC’s MEK AI-Enhanced.
Skytech Archangel
Would be better with a price drop.
PC Specs
- CPU: Ryzen 5 5500
- COOL: Single tower air
- GPU: RTX 3050
- RAM: 16GB DDR4
- SSD: 500GB NVME
Pros & Cons
- Comes with white-themed design
- Solid performance at 1080P resolution
- Can upgrade to the 5700X3D in the future
- Weaker CPU performance out-of-the-box
- Less storage out-of-the-box
Read Overview »
Skytech Archangel Overview
Another option that you might want to put on your watch list is this configuration of Skytech’s Archangel lineup.
At $750—the same current price as ZOTAC’s MEK AI-Enhanced—it’s currently priced too high to recommend since it has a weaker hardware array.
It comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 5500 CPU, NVIDIA’s RTX 3050 GPU, 16GB of DDR4 memory. So, it has a weaker CPU than the Nebula and a weaker GPU than the ZOTAC desktop.
But, if the price were to drop ~$30-$40 it may be worth considering.
And if you’re looking for a white-themed gaming PC it is one of the few white options available in this price range.
MXZ Desktop
This wild card option might be the best of the bunch.
PC Specs
- CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F
- COOL: Single tower air
- GPU: RX 7650 GRE
- RAM: 16GB DDR4
- SSD: 500GB NVME
Pros & Cons
- Comes with best GPU option on list
- Great performance at 1080P resolution
- Lesser-known prebuilt company
- Weaker CPU upgrade options
- Only 500GB of storage out-of-the-box
Read Overview »
MXZ Desktop Overview
If you’re feeling like taking on a bit of risk, you could always opt for this desktop from MXZ.
MXZ isn’t as well known as ZOTAC or Skytech, but this desktop that they are currently selling for just under $800 offers the best GPU, an RX 7650 GRE out of all of the options in this price range.
However, the RX 7650 GRE was only released in China and so it’s tough to say if the graphics card in this desktop was built by a reputable manufacturer or not.
That being said, the RX 7650 GRE benchmarks well above all of the other GPUs that typically come in prebuilt desktops in the sub-$800 price range. So, if you’re willing to risk it to potentially get a lot more GPU performance, this desktop might be the right choice for you.
To round out the hardware, it comes with Intel Core’s i5-12400F processor, 16GB of DDR4 memory, and a 500GB NVME SSD.
Ultimately, not the perfect hardware configuration and it comes with some risk… but it has the potential to offer the most in-game performance out-of-the-box.
Finding The Sweet Spot Between Price and Performance
While we recommend building your own PC in this price range (you’ll get a lot more performance), there are still some decent prebuilt desktops available for under $800. Right now we like ZOTAC’s MEK AI-Enhanced configuration the best, but if you don’t mind taking on some risk, MXZ’s desktop could offer you even better performance.
