$800 affordable PC Build Deep Dive: A Personal Take on Today's Hardware Market
My personal take on building an $800 PC in November 2025. Why Intel Arc B580 changed everything, the best hardware value right now, and honest opinion
$800 affordable PC Build Deep Dive: A Personal Take on Today's Hardware Market
I've been building PCs for over a decade, and I have to say—November 2025 is one of the most interesting times I've witnessed for budget builders. After watching the hardware market evolve through GPU shortages, cryptocurrency mining booms, pandemic-era price insanity, and the AI hardware rush, we've finally reached a point where $800 can build something genuinely impressive. Let me walk you through my personal perspective on what's available right now, why I think this particular configuration makes the most sense, and share some hard-learned lessons from years of budget building. The Current State of the Market: My Observations The PC gaming hardware market has exploded to $44.5 billion in 2025, representing a massive 35% growth from last year. But here's what really interests me: this growth isn't coming from people buying flagship RTX 5090s or Ryzen 9 9950X processors. It's driven by Windows 11's hardware requirements forcing over 100 million gamers t…