Totally get the info overload, I was in that same rabbit hole not long ago! One thing I wish I’d known: don’t cheap out on the power supply (PSU)-a sketchy one can fry your whole build, no joke. For actual gaming performance at 1080p, GPU is king, then CPU, but honestly 16GB RAM is that sweet spot these days.
A “gotcha” for me was case airflow and cooling. I thought I could toss everything in the cheapest case, but temps matter! Also, check that your motherboard has enough USB ports and slots-you’ll be shocked how fast you’ll use ‘em. SSD (even a cheap SATA one) is a game changer over HDD for speed; save HDDs for bulk storage if you need it.
You can save a bit on things like cases and (to an extent) motherboards, but GPU, PSU, and at least an SSD are must-haves for smooth, problem-free gaming. Hope that helps!