About ScoutSpecs
ScoutSpecs is for people who want a good PC without taking up hardware as a hobby. You say what you have and what you want; the site does the reading, the compatibility checking and the arithmetic, and hands back a list you can buy.
The four tools
- Build a PC: a budget and a purpose in, a complete compatible parts list out, with the reasoning next to every part.
- Complete my build: you already own or have chosen some parts; the site fills the gaps with parts that fit, by the preference you pick for each.
- Compare parts: two parts of one kind, side by side, with the differences in numbers and in plain words.
- Check my PC: load the processor and the graphics card in the page and learn whether each computes correctly, holds its speed and sits where its model should, then which of the two sets the frame rate at your resolution. The check-up by the parts list reads the memory, the drive, the power supply and the cooler from a description alone.
The Spec score
Every part carries a Spec score from 0 to 100, relative to the best part of its kind in the catalogue. For processors and graphics cards it is built from published review aggregates: the 2026 CPU and GPU hierarchies at Tom's Hardware (1080p gaming and single-threaded results for processors; 1080p, 1440p and 4K results for cards), cross-checked against TechPowerUp's relative-performance data. Multi-core, rendering and encoding indices come from the same reviews' all-core and creator workloads.
For boards, memory, drives, power supplies, cases and coolers, where speed differences are small and quality differences are large, the score blends what teardown and thermal reviews report: power delivery, connectivity, sustained speed, efficiency and ripple, airflow and noise, cooling per decibel.
The catalogue holds 394 parts: 68 processors, 67 graphics cards, 45 motherboards, 45 memory kits, 34 drives, 38 power supplies, 57 cases, 33 cpu coolers and 7 case fans. Older parts that many people still own stay in for comparisons and check-ups, and are left out of new builds.
What the score cannot tell you
It is an index, not a measurement of your PC. Two identical parts run differently with different memory, cooling and settings. The check-up scores the parts you name, not the box on your desk; if the fan is clogged or the memory profile is off, the site cannot see it, though it will tell you where to look.
Every part carries a typical US price, rounded. Builds, matches and value rankings are worked on those, so a budget can be split sensibly and a build names the same parts on every visit. Beside a buy button, where ScoutPrices has read the exact Amazon US listing that button opens within the past week, the page shows that reading with the day it was read, and says so; otherwise it shows the typical figure, marked typical. The Amazon page you land on has the price that counts, in your store's currency; for the same part across seven countries, ScoutPrices does that comparison.
How the site pays for itself
Every Amazon link carries an affiliate tag. When you buy something after following one, Amazon pays ScoutSpecs a small commission; the price you pay is the same. No part is ranked higher for paying more, because no part pays anything: the catalogue is written from reviews, and the links are generated from the same list for every part. Full details are in the affiliate disclosure.
Contact
Found a wrong number, a missing part or a build that makes no sense? Write to hello@scoutspecs.com with the page link, and it gets fixed.