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ScoutSpecs

Build a PC

A budget and a purpose. Every part is chosen for the job, checked against every other part for fit, and explained. Prices are Amazon US readings from ScoutPrices where one exists, typical where not: the Amazon page decides.

Budget, in US dollars

Steps of $500. $1,500 is the least that buys every part a light gaming PC needs in full rgb; past $7,500 the catalogue has nothing faster to add. A screen, keyboard and mouse come on top.

What the PC is for
How it should look

Every part that can light up does, in whatever colour it comes. The case, the cooler, the board, the card, the supply and the memory follow the colour; the case's fans, the cooler, the board and the memory follow the lighting. A drive has no colour and a supply does not glow, so neither is asked to match. A look costs money, so the budget rail moves with it.

Checked for fit before it reaches you.

Start from a build people pick

Live from the catalogue
  1. Office & everyday for $1,000Intel Core i3-14100FASRock Intel Arc B580 Challenger 12GB OC$1,000 all in, 8 parts, fit 56 of 10056fitOpen this build
  2. Gaming for $1,500Intel Core i3-14100FSapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB$1,497 all in, 8 parts, fit 62 of 10062fitOpen this build
  3. Content creation for $3,000Intel Core Ultra 7 270K PlusGeForce RTX 5070 Ti$2,979 all in, 8 parts, fit 82 of 10082fitOpen this build

Every row is worked out from today's catalogue. Open one, then change anything.

59Fit for the job

Capable

$1,500 for light gaming

Tuned for 1080p frame rates per dollar.

Esports and indie titles at 1080p, high settings, well past 60 FPS. Judged by the card's 1080p index, floor 30, at the job's own resolution.

This build

$1,453

Budget

$1,500

Under budget

$47

Parts

8

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X has headroom to spare. The ASRock Intel Arc B580 Steel Legend 12GB OC White sets the frame rate at 1080p, so a faster card is the upgrade that shows.

A part marked Amazon US shows ScoutPrices' reading of the listing its button opens, with the day it was read; a part with no reading shows its typical price. The parts were chosen on typical prices, so a total can land a little over the budget when the shops move. Not a checkout total: an operating system, shipping and tax are not in it, and neither are a screen, a keyboard and a mouse.

PartScore for the jobPriceBuy
ProcessorAMD Ryzen 5 9600X

Highest light gaming score the budget allows next to this card: 6 cores, boosts to 5.4 GHz.

4 swaps that still fit
75
$178Amazon US, Oct 25
Buy on Amazon
MotherboardASUS ROG Strix B650-A Gaming WiFi

B650 board for the AM5 socket, DDR5, 3 M.2 slots, Wi-Fi.

74
$140Amazon US, Oct 25
Buy on Amazon
MemoryTeamGroup T-Force Delta RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6000 CL30

32 GB DDR5 at 6000 MT/s CL30; 16 GB or more is the floor for light gaming.

80
$495Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
Graphics cardASRock Intel Arc B580 Steel Legend 12GB OC White

12 GB of video memory, index 35 at 1080p; tuned for 1080p frame rates per dollar.

35
$270typical price
Buy on Amazon
CPU coolerThermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB

Rated 250 W for a chip that turbos to 88 W, with lit fans.

3 swaps that still fit
84
$33Amazon US, Oct 25
Buy on Amazon
Power supplybe quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750W

750 W, 80 Plus gold; this build draws about 450 W at full tilt, native 12V-2x6 cable.

4 swaps that still fit
82
$80Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
CaseNZXT H7 Flow RGB (2024) White

3 fans in the box, 3 of them lit, 3 is the least 278 W of parts needs behind a mesh front. Takes EATX/ATX/MATX/ITX boards and cards up to 410 mm.

3 swaps that still fit
87
$100Amazon US, Oct 25
Buy on Amazon
StorageKingston NV3 1TB

1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe, 6,000 MB/s reads.

58
$157Amazon US, Oct 24
Buy on Amazon
Total8 parts, 7 read on Amazon US and 1 typical$1,453

Is another $500 worth it?

Same job, same brand choices, only the budget moves one step. These are the parts that change.

+$500$1,998 all in, fit 76 +17
  • ProcessorIntel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus instead of AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
  • MotherboardGigabyte B860 Aorus Elite WiFi7 instead of ASUS ROG Strix B650-A Gaming WiFi
  • Graphics cardPowerColor Hellhound Spectral White Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB instead of ASRock Intel Arc B580 Steel Legend 12GB OC White
  • Power supplyCorsair CX750 instead of be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750W
See what the step up buys
Already own some of these?Take this build's processor and board into the matcher and fill only the gaps.Upgrading instead of starting over?Check the PC you have first; the one part holding it back may be the only one worth buying.

Every ready build

The list this page works out, at every step of every job, each on a page of its own. Nothing here is a suggestion from a magazine: the parts are checked against each other and priced.

Office PC

Browsing, documents, video calls, streaming films.

PC for programming

IDEs, compilers, containers, a few virtual machines.

Budget gaming PC

Esports and indie titles at 1080p, high frame rates.

Gaming PC

Big titles at 1440p, high settings.

4K gaming PC

4K, ray tracing, or 240 Hz at 1440p.

Video editing PC

Video editing, photo work, motion graphics.

PC for 3D and rendering

Blender, CAD, simulation, long renders.

Streaming PC

Playing at 1440p while encoding a live stream.

PC for local AI models

Running language and image models on your own card.